New Homes

June 4, 2018

At the end of this week, Creative Journey Studios, the ultimate polymer-related destination and a must-have on every polymer enthusiast’s bucket list, is having a grand reopening celebration at their new digs in Milton, Georgia, just north of Atlanta. The move from Buford was a monumental project for our dear Ellen Prophater and Sue Sutherland who are at the core of this fabulous concept and place. I’m sure they are thrilled as well as relieved to finally have a home set up again for the workshops and collection of polymer arts. Creative Journey Studios houses one of the largest collections of historically relevant polymer art in the world. The collection has recently expanded as well, taking up 18 cases just stuffed with amazing artwork.

One of the newest pieces in the collection is this mosaic by Ponsawan Sila, who recently relocated herself and her daughter to Thailand from Indiana, and had to shed many of their belongings in the process. But lucky us, this beautiful piece is permanently housed with our ladies in Milton.

For this coming weekend’s grand opening, held June 5th to the 8th, there will be demos all weekend along with a trunk show for Lindly Haunani on Friday night. The gallery will be showing off new work by quite a number of artists working in both polymer and mixed media. I’ll spend this week and maybe some of next week highlighting recent work by a number of these great artists that the studio supports.

If you’re interested in attending the grand reopening, go to the Creative Journey Studios’ website for further details. If you will have to visit on another day, you may want to look at the workshop schedule and plan to attend one of the amazing workshops they have coming up, conducted by the likes of Donna Greenberg, Jana Roberts Benzon, Julie Picarello and more. Go to this page for the workshop schedule.

Bubbles, Dots and Cupped Flowers

August 16, 2014

After a week of studying dense and mostly random repetition of elements, I thought some of you might be looking for some ideas to play with using this design concept, so today I brought you a few ideas.

bubblehowto0207 018

 

Ponsawan Sila has an easy mokume gane tutorial using bubble-like elements to create a dense surface texture. She flattens hers, but I was thinking, just keep the raised spots, and maybe create a denser bubble pattern then indent the middle of each bubble for additional dimension. I think that would look interesting.

http://polymerclaybeads.blogspot.fr/2007/02/blog-post.html

 

 

IMG_7633

 

 

If you want just some simple, fun repetition that could get you in the zen mode dot after dot, try this tutorial from Marina, known as Paper World Mary on Blogspot.

http://bond-mary.blogspot.com/2010/04/blog-post.html

4c7938a0ae3022b3936c3b454ad264da

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you were admiring some of the cupped shapes and flowers we saw, how about this cupped flower tutorial by Olga Fufygin.

(Click on the image for a larger view. There seems to be a problem with the image coming up on the blog page it’s from.)

 

Here’s to hoping you get some time for clay play! Have a great weekend.

 

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.

14-P2 CoverFnl-blog   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-1   marble cane ad

A Ring-a-Day Designs

April 10, 2014

There is definitely something to be said for being forced to come up with a piece in a limited amount of time. You can’t spend too much time deliberating and you tend to kick your inner critique to the curb because you just don’t have time to care that much. Also, the simple rule … “Practice, practice, practice,” is one of the best adages to live by when trying to perfect a skill or even develop your own style. Challenges like “Ring-a-Day” or any ‘design on a regular schedule’ challenge will get you into constant practice as well as force you to leave that nagging and often debilitating inner critic behind.

The discipline and constant need to create something on a deadline in the “Ring-a-Day” challenges has led to some really creative designs in a variety of mediums but I think the outcome in polymer is just fascinating. Most of the people I’ve seen do the daily rings or a ring a week challenges in recent years end up going way outside the breadth of design and form commonly seen in polymer. As with most of the rings we’ve seen this week, this ring by Ponsawan Sila pushes the boundary of the space we are used to seeing rings confined in. She did a ring challenge in 2010 with a large majority being simply a compilation of more common polymer elements but if you look through what she posted on Flickr at that time, you can see where she just let go and really pushed both the idea of a ring and what polymer rings might be.

4972164415_3511a646b3_o

To see Ponsawan’s variety in her ring challenge go to her Flickr pages a few years back. Go take a look at her most recent work on Flickr as well. Just eat first or when you get to the food photos you’re going to get seriously distracted! She also shares her work and her thoughts on her blog and in her Etsy shop.

 

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.

Blog2 -2014-02Feb-5   Millefiori eggs   14P1 cover Fnl      

Cane, Cut, Repeat

August 23, 2012

If you read the in-depth design articles in this latest issue, here is an opportunity to practice your new analytical skills for identifying types of repetition and rhythm. And to see just how much beauty these design concepts can add to a piece.

Look at the piece below. Draws you in immediatly doesn’t it? But why? Seems straight-forward, maybe even rather basic at first glance. However, this is anything but simple and is a sterling example of what makes good art great — it makes you keep looking at it. After a minute or two of surveying this mosaic wall piece — and especially if you have an appreciation for the roles that repetition and rhythm play in art — you’ll really begin to appreciate the complexity of the design choices.

Ponsawan Sila created this piece with mosaic polymer pieces 1cmx1cm — nothing more representative of repetition than a shape repeated over and over but … the visual textures in each shape are all different or rarely repeated, incorporating random (textures) and regular (shape) repetition. She uses progressive rhythm in the color changes that occur in each waving layer as it moves horizontially across. There is also repetition of line in the waves, which consistently create the space for each color palette, creating  soft slow rhythm established in the reserved undulations of those lines.

All on a 6″x12″ tile. That’s pretty impressive.

 

 

New Homes

June 4, 2018
Posted in

At the end of this week, Creative Journey Studios, the ultimate polymer-related destination and a must-have on every polymer enthusiast’s bucket list, is having a grand reopening celebration at their new digs in Milton, Georgia, just north of Atlanta. The move from Buford was a monumental project for our dear Ellen Prophater and Sue Sutherland who are at the core of this fabulous concept and place. I’m sure they are thrilled as well as relieved to finally have a home set up again for the workshops and collection of polymer arts. Creative Journey Studios houses one of the largest collections of historically relevant polymer art in the world. The collection has recently expanded as well, taking up 18 cases just stuffed with amazing artwork.

One of the newest pieces in the collection is this mosaic by Ponsawan Sila, who recently relocated herself and her daughter to Thailand from Indiana, and had to shed many of their belongings in the process. But lucky us, this beautiful piece is permanently housed with our ladies in Milton.

For this coming weekend’s grand opening, held June 5th to the 8th, there will be demos all weekend along with a trunk show for Lindly Haunani on Friday night. The gallery will be showing off new work by quite a number of artists working in both polymer and mixed media. I’ll spend this week and maybe some of next week highlighting recent work by a number of these great artists that the studio supports.

If you’re interested in attending the grand reopening, go to the Creative Journey Studios’ website for further details. If you will have to visit on another day, you may want to look at the workshop schedule and plan to attend one of the amazing workshops they have coming up, conducted by the likes of Donna Greenberg, Jana Roberts Benzon, Julie Picarello and more. Go to this page for the workshop schedule.

Read More

Bubbles, Dots and Cupped Flowers

August 16, 2014
Posted in

After a week of studying dense and mostly random repetition of elements, I thought some of you might be looking for some ideas to play with using this design concept, so today I brought you a few ideas.

bubblehowto0207 018

 

Ponsawan Sila has an easy mokume gane tutorial using bubble-like elements to create a dense surface texture. She flattens hers, but I was thinking, just keep the raised spots, and maybe create a denser bubble pattern then indent the middle of each bubble for additional dimension. I think that would look interesting.

http://polymerclaybeads.blogspot.fr/2007/02/blog-post.html

 

 

IMG_7633

 

 

If you want just some simple, fun repetition that could get you in the zen mode dot after dot, try this tutorial from Marina, known as Paper World Mary on Blogspot.

http://bond-mary.blogspot.com/2010/04/blog-post.html

4c7938a0ae3022b3936c3b454ad264da

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you were admiring some of the cupped shapes and flowers we saw, how about this cupped flower tutorial by Olga Fufygin.

(Click on the image for a larger view. There seems to be a problem with the image coming up on the blog page it’s from.)

 

Here’s to hoping you get some time for clay play! Have a great weekend.

 

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.

14-P2 CoverFnl-blog   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-1   marble cane ad

Read More

A Ring-a-Day Designs

April 10, 2014
Posted in

There is definitely something to be said for being forced to come up with a piece in a limited amount of time. You can’t spend too much time deliberating and you tend to kick your inner critique to the curb because you just don’t have time to care that much. Also, the simple rule … “Practice, practice, practice,” is one of the best adages to live by when trying to perfect a skill or even develop your own style. Challenges like “Ring-a-Day” or any ‘design on a regular schedule’ challenge will get you into constant practice as well as force you to leave that nagging and often debilitating inner critic behind.

The discipline and constant need to create something on a deadline in the “Ring-a-Day” challenges has led to some really creative designs in a variety of mediums but I think the outcome in polymer is just fascinating. Most of the people I’ve seen do the daily rings or a ring a week challenges in recent years end up going way outside the breadth of design and form commonly seen in polymer. As with most of the rings we’ve seen this week, this ring by Ponsawan Sila pushes the boundary of the space we are used to seeing rings confined in. She did a ring challenge in 2010 with a large majority being simply a compilation of more common polymer elements but if you look through what she posted on Flickr at that time, you can see where she just let go and really pushed both the idea of a ring and what polymer rings might be.

4972164415_3511a646b3_o

To see Ponsawan’s variety in her ring challenge go to her Flickr pages a few years back. Go take a look at her most recent work on Flickr as well. Just eat first or when you get to the food photos you’re going to get seriously distracted! She also shares her work and her thoughts on her blog and in her Etsy shop.

 

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.

Blog2 -2014-02Feb-5   Millefiori eggs   14P1 cover Fnl      

Read More

Cane, Cut, Repeat

August 23, 2012
Posted in

If you read the in-depth design articles in this latest issue, here is an opportunity to practice your new analytical skills for identifying types of repetition and rhythm. And to see just how much beauty these design concepts can add to a piece.

Look at the piece below. Draws you in immediatly doesn’t it? But why? Seems straight-forward, maybe even rather basic at first glance. However, this is anything but simple and is a sterling example of what makes good art great — it makes you keep looking at it. After a minute or two of surveying this mosaic wall piece — and especially if you have an appreciation for the roles that repetition and rhythm play in art — you’ll really begin to appreciate the complexity of the design choices.

Ponsawan Sila created this piece with mosaic polymer pieces 1cmx1cm — nothing more representative of repetition than a shape repeated over and over but … the visual textures in each shape are all different or rarely repeated, incorporating random (textures) and regular (shape) repetition. She uses progressive rhythm in the color changes that occur in each waving layer as it moves horizontially across. There is also repetition of line in the waves, which consistently create the space for each color palette, creating  soft slow rhythm established in the reserved undulations of those lines.

All on a 6″x12″ tile. That’s pretty impressive.

 

 

Read More
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