Reality in Miniature

March 5, 2018

It’s been a week since the new Spring issue was released. Reports of print editions showing up in the mailboxes of subscribers in the western state are coming in as well as your comments. So it’s about time we squeeze in the last few bits of content that didn’t make it into our always filled-to-the-brim pages.

For instance, in the article on miniature hyper-realistic sculpting, we didn’t have room for Stephanie Kilgast to explain where her journey in tiny sculptures has taken her. If you have a copy of Polymer Journeys, you probably read a little about what she is doing with her honed skills as a miniaturist sculptor, presenting ideas about our food choices in her daily miniature veggie and fruit challenge, ending in 233 different kinds of miniature plant-based food sources. Seeing how she could present her ideas with her skills she has moved on to explore, in her words, ” celebrating the beauty of nature in a dialogue with humanity, questioning the lost balance between human activities and nature.

I love how her work shows that skills in one area can be used and transformed into something else, something more than one might expect. Her keen, observant eye and understanding of how to recreate natural textures is what has allowed her to express these abstract concepts and no-so abstract views of our world.

This has been the most commented-on article so far. Readers seem to be really diving into the exploration of the miniature and, hopefully, considering how to adapt it to their own unique work. To see more of what Stephanie does, go to her website and check out her online classes and YouTube videos.

 

An Open Pod

October 19, 2013

Our last look at pods this week will be the end of a pod’s purpose and life cycle. It’s a bit of an incorrect statement in that a pod is really part of a plant’s life cycle, so could we consider the pod to have  a life cycle of its own? Oh, sure, why not. We’re artists. We can play it a little loose with concepts, right?

In any case, the final act of a pod would be to open up and release its seeds. I think the opening of a pod is not dissimilar from the blooming of a flower in that it opens up and shows the world what it has to offer, self-serving though it may be–but then most beauty is, in essence, self-serving, and there’s nothing wrong with that. These pendants by Judy Dunn are simple but quietly beautiful examples of the revealing stage of a pod.

70025402

The polymer pod shapes peel back to reveal shimmering pearls, a very appropriate option to include as the inside of every pod is a treasure of sorts, even if just to the plant that bore it. I enjoy the way the pearls are both a focal point and partly hidden. The formality that pearls often engender is countered with the unevenness of the open pod, as well as the choice of freshwater pearls, which form unevenly. This gives the open pod an understated elegance and a show of appreciation for a very important natural form.

 

Reality in Miniature

March 5, 2018
Posted in

It’s been a week since the new Spring issue was released. Reports of print editions showing up in the mailboxes of subscribers in the western state are coming in as well as your comments. So it’s about time we squeeze in the last few bits of content that didn’t make it into our always filled-to-the-brim pages.

For instance, in the article on miniature hyper-realistic sculpting, we didn’t have room for Stephanie Kilgast to explain where her journey in tiny sculptures has taken her. If you have a copy of Polymer Journeys, you probably read a little about what she is doing with her honed skills as a miniaturist sculptor, presenting ideas about our food choices in her daily miniature veggie and fruit challenge, ending in 233 different kinds of miniature plant-based food sources. Seeing how she could present her ideas with her skills she has moved on to explore, in her words, ” celebrating the beauty of nature in a dialogue with humanity, questioning the lost balance between human activities and nature.

I love how her work shows that skills in one area can be used and transformed into something else, something more than one might expect. Her keen, observant eye and understanding of how to recreate natural textures is what has allowed her to express these abstract concepts and no-so abstract views of our world.

This has been the most commented-on article so far. Readers seem to be really diving into the exploration of the miniature and, hopefully, considering how to adapt it to their own unique work. To see more of what Stephanie does, go to her website and check out her online classes and YouTube videos.

 

Read More

An Open Pod

October 19, 2013
Posted in

Our last look at pods this week will be the end of a pod’s purpose and life cycle. It’s a bit of an incorrect statement in that a pod is really part of a plant’s life cycle, so could we consider the pod to have  a life cycle of its own? Oh, sure, why not. We’re artists. We can play it a little loose with concepts, right?

In any case, the final act of a pod would be to open up and release its seeds. I think the opening of a pod is not dissimilar from the blooming of a flower in that it opens up and shows the world what it has to offer, self-serving though it may be–but then most beauty is, in essence, self-serving, and there’s nothing wrong with that. These pendants by Judy Dunn are simple but quietly beautiful examples of the revealing stage of a pod.

70025402

The polymer pod shapes peel back to reveal shimmering pearls, a very appropriate option to include as the inside of every pod is a treasure of sorts, even if just to the plant that bore it. I enjoy the way the pearls are both a focal point and partly hidden. The formality that pearls often engender is countered with the unevenness of the open pod, as well as the choice of freshwater pearls, which form unevenly. This gives the open pod an understated elegance and a show of appreciation for a very important natural form.

 

Read More
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