Orbiting Frames
December 10, 2014
Inspirational Art
Strangely, this week has become all about frames, which, of course, fits with the theme of the new issue, but my thoughts and the pieces I am being drawn to are these multilayer frames. So, here is one other option for playing with multiple frames in one piece.
I love this idea of creating windows and multiples of them layered on top of one another, but not lining them up. The tiered windows still bring focus to the center image as frames will do, but the off-kilter layering of them creates such vibrant, yet contained movement. These are a beautiful bit of genius created by Vee (Veesuel), who has several versions of these; primarily with more solid colored surface treatments. I am rather fond of the cane work versions, as it adds to the energy of the pieces; an energy matched by the movement the varied placement of the frames create.
Vee does some beautifully finished work in a variety of styles. And her site is quite pretty and easy to navigate. So, why not grab a cup of something yummy and warm and go visit her for a while?
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Framed Opportunity
December 9, 2014
Inspirational Art
I think we are all rather familiar with the idea of a decorative frame. We’ve seen them on old paintings, antique mirrors and even around windows and doors. Frames can be a work of art unto themselves. So when framing your own work, why not go ahead and consider pushing the decorative aspect just as you might with your bails, clasps, spacer beads or any other element added to your work? Just how far can you take it?
Well, one possible answer as to how far you can take decorative framing can be found in the work of Julie Eakes, who is the featured artist in Maggie Maggio’s “Color Spotlight” section of our winter issue. These highly-detailed and deeply, layered frames may not fit a lot of work since the business of the frames would compete with the image it is surrounding, but in a case like this, it rather matches. Julie is best know for her face cane and pointillism, so the images she frames are the strongest types of images we are drawn to (we gravitate to faces before any other easily, recognized imagery), and her canes are quite complex, so the frames work with these images rather than drown them out.
How far could you take your frames so that they work with what you are framing? Or could fun with complex frames push you to create more complex images? You can read more about why and how Julie creates these canes and frames in the article and read more about her work on her blog.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Color Randomness Extruded
February 9, 2014
Technique tutorials
I know this artist, Anna Kokareva (aka Annie Bimur), intended this to be a mini-tutorial for open beads but this would, rather obviously, be a great way to make interesting frames for polymer cabochons, image transfers and resin (backing the open frame with polymer before pouring the resin). I know I am harkening back to last week’s theme but put the last two weeks together and you get wonderfully random colored frames!
This type of frame would be relatively easy to make with an extruder. Select the colors of clays, extrude the strips, press into molds or form by hand, and layer as desired to make your frames. It would be fun to experiment with this process and see what you can come up with.
This same Russian artist has a cute polymer picture frame and a framed lid to a box on her live journal website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Bold and Deep (And our 10% off Everything Sale!)
January 30, 2014
Inspirational Art
So yes, we’re having our once a year sale off everything in The Polymer Arts magazine store! See the information at the end of the post here.
But first, let’s talk art …
The type of frames we put photos or artwork in tend to be shallow affairs made to sit out of the way on a shelf or wall. But that tradition shouldn’t determine the depth of frames you make for your adornment, decor, or even wall art for that matter. Your frame can be as deep as makes sense for your piece.
For instance, Tanja of Flickr’s Fantastisch-Plastischcan created a pendant with a deeply concave form to show off layers in a stack of polymer sheets. With this kind of form, leaving it frame-less would have been okay but instead of leaving it there she created a deep silver frame for it. This makes the depression feel more like the a reveal of an underground or celestial space rather than just being a concave form. It also brings in contrast–bright silver against muted greens–and allows her more real estate to expand on the red ball motif.
It seems that all our artists this week, the ones pushing the idea of what a frame might be, are all explorers and experimenters. Tanja has played with a wide variety of forms as well as textures, both visual and tactile. She just seems to be having too much fun to settle down with a particular style or set of techniques. You can see what I’m talking about when you go through her array of work in her Flickr pages.
Show Your Dedication to your Craft–Subscribe, Renew, or buy Single issues and right now … Get 10% Off!
Through February 3rd …. get 10% off your renewal, a new subscription or back issues purchases.
Use Discount code: TPA114 in your shopping cart.
Get your Subscriptions here– http://www.thepolymerarts.com/Subscription_ordering.html
If you need to Renew, go here– http://thepolymerarts.com/Subscription_ordering.html#renewals (And yes, we’ll get you caught up with the Winter issue if your subscription lapsed.
Single issues can be purchased here– http://www.thepolymerarts.com/Single_issues.html
Thank you for supporting The Polymer Arts projects! Your purchases support the magazine, this blog and our upcoming “Best of” and “Workshop” books. To get even more out of our projects, subscribe, get our newsletter (see form on the left side of our home page), and follow us on Facebook.
Strangely, this week has become all about frames, which, of course, fits with the theme of the new issue, but my thoughts and the pieces I am being drawn to are these multilayer frames. So, here is one other option for playing with multiple frames in one piece.
I love this idea of creating windows and multiples of them layered on top of one another, but not lining them up. The tiered windows still bring focus to the center image as frames will do, but the off-kilter layering of them creates such vibrant, yet contained movement. These are a beautiful bit of genius created by Vee (Veesuel), who has several versions of these; primarily with more solid colored surface treatments. I am rather fond of the cane work versions, as it adds to the energy of the pieces; an energy matched by the movement the varied placement of the frames create.
Vee does some beautifully finished work in a variety of styles. And her site is quite pretty and easy to navigate. So, why not grab a cup of something yummy and warm and go visit her for a while?
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
I think we are all rather familiar with the idea of a decorative frame. We’ve seen them on old paintings, antique mirrors and even around windows and doors. Frames can be a work of art unto themselves. So when framing your own work, why not go ahead and consider pushing the decorative aspect just as you might with your bails, clasps, spacer beads or any other element added to your work? Just how far can you take it?
Well, one possible answer as to how far you can take decorative framing can be found in the work of Julie Eakes, who is the featured artist in Maggie Maggio’s “Color Spotlight” section of our winter issue. These highly-detailed and deeply, layered frames may not fit a lot of work since the business of the frames would compete with the image it is surrounding, but in a case like this, it rather matches. Julie is best know for her face cane and pointillism, so the images she frames are the strongest types of images we are drawn to (we gravitate to faces before any other easily, recognized imagery), and her canes are quite complex, so the frames work with these images rather than drown them out.
How far could you take your frames so that they work with what you are framing? Or could fun with complex frames push you to create more complex images? You can read more about why and how Julie creates these canes and frames in the article and read more about her work on her blog.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
I know this artist, Anna Kokareva (aka Annie Bimur), intended this to be a mini-tutorial for open beads but this would, rather obviously, be a great way to make interesting frames for polymer cabochons, image transfers and resin (backing the open frame with polymer before pouring the resin). I know I am harkening back to last week’s theme but put the last two weeks together and you get wonderfully random colored frames!
This type of frame would be relatively easy to make with an extruder. Select the colors of clays, extrude the strips, press into molds or form by hand, and layer as desired to make your frames. It would be fun to experiment with this process and see what you can come up with.
This same Russian artist has a cute polymer picture frame and a framed lid to a box on her live journal website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
So yes, we’re having our once a year sale off everything in The Polymer Arts magazine store! See the information at the end of the post here.
But first, let’s talk art …
The type of frames we put photos or artwork in tend to be shallow affairs made to sit out of the way on a shelf or wall. But that tradition shouldn’t determine the depth of frames you make for your adornment, decor, or even wall art for that matter. Your frame can be as deep as makes sense for your piece.
For instance, Tanja of Flickr’s Fantastisch-Plastischcan created a pendant with a deeply concave form to show off layers in a stack of polymer sheets. With this kind of form, leaving it frame-less would have been okay but instead of leaving it there she created a deep silver frame for it. This makes the depression feel more like the a reveal of an underground or celestial space rather than just being a concave form. It also brings in contrast–bright silver against muted greens–and allows her more real estate to expand on the red ball motif.
It seems that all our artists this week, the ones pushing the idea of what a frame might be, are all explorers and experimenters. Tanja has played with a wide variety of forms as well as textures, both visual and tactile. She just seems to be having too much fun to settle down with a particular style or set of techniques. You can see what I’m talking about when you go through her array of work in her Flickr pages.
Show Your Dedication to your Craft–Subscribe, Renew, or buy Single issues and right now … Get 10% Off!
Through February 3rd …. get 10% off your renewal, a new subscription or back issues purchases.
Use Discount code: TPA114 in your shopping cart.
Get your Subscriptions here– http://www.thepolymerarts.com/Subscription_ordering.html
If you need to Renew, go here– http://thepolymerarts.com/Subscription_ordering.html#renewals (And yes, we’ll get you caught up with the Winter issue if your subscription lapsed.
Single issues can be purchased here– http://www.thepolymerarts.com/Single_issues.html
Thank you for supporting The Polymer Arts projects! Your purchases support the magazine, this blog and our upcoming “Best of” and “Workshop” books. To get even more out of our projects, subscribe, get our newsletter (see form on the left side of our home page), and follow us on Facebook.
