Squiggles and Swirls

September 21, 2018

Now that we’ve been talking about squiggles all week, are you seeing them everywhere? They are used in artwork of all kinds, commonly inspired by nature, often stylized or reined in to create a more cohesive composition. But they can also run rampant, gaining cohesiveness from the way they echo each other within the same piece.

Take a look at the various squiggles in this journal cover by Gabrielle Pollacco. Gabrielle is primarily a scrapbook artist but has also discovered the joys of combining polymer with pages. The bonsai tree in the center is a polymer clay wall and the rest is paint-applied wood stencils and various mixed-media elements attached over and under painted layers.

The frame-like squiggle piece around the bonsai tree looks to be derived from the stylized squiggle work seen in Art Nouveau. There is a less orderly but still contained series of lines going from squiggles into cracks amongst the rocks at the bottom. Then the vines with leaves throughout the background at the top gently pull the eye upward. There are also a handful of swirls—the buttoned-up cousin of the squiggle—with their terminal end a focal point as it rounds in on itself. All these lines, especially the squiggles, create a riot of energy. But with a strong focal point of the polymer tree in the center, it still feels grounded.

Scrapbooking is such a great marriage of so many materials. A skilled and creative scrapbooker, like Gabrielle, creates works of art that could so readily be framed and placed on a wall for all to adore. But making it part of something that is functional, that is held and touched and itself holds treasured images, makes the idea of putting it on the wall on almost sacrilegious. Even if, like me, you’re one of those people who doesn’t spend much time organizing or even just printing out their photos, it would be hard not to appreciate the creativity of these unique works.

You can take a look at more of Gabrielle’s wonderfully intricate scrapbook covers and pages on her BlogSpot website.

Exploration in the New Year

First of all …. a very happy New Year and all the best to you this coming year! I am very excited to welcome 2018 and see what it has in store for us all. 2017 was a bit rough for so many of us, personally and globally, within our community and without. Every year has its challenges, of course, but I like to greet the new year with optimism and enthusiasm because it does represent so many new possibilities.

New possibilities may be about looking forward but it can be helpful to look back in order to create new and exciting futures. I’ve dug up a few interesting techniques from the past in order to, hopefully, spark some new ideas and encourage you to find new ways to use older techniques.

Let me tie into some of last week’s subjects. If you didn’t see the post about the silkscreen stencils on Friday, do check that company out. That would provide you with new designs, pre-made or custom, to try a new approach with. Then try a little something different, using multiple colors and controlled placement. I believe that is what Kleio Tsaliki was doing with these gorgeous sheets she created back in 2015.  I am thinking she used stencils and pearlescent paints and, in the top two, taped off sections as she applied colors. Or maybe she is using a stencil sponge to control where the color goes, which would work for the more random placement seen in the bottom sheet.

It doesn’t matter that we don’t know how she did this as the ideas we are guessing at are quite worthy of a bit of exploration regardless. I have found some really cool, unintended effects when I have just been guessing at how other people have done the work. It just pushed me to think of new ways to approach familiar techniques.

A quick click on this link to her Flickr pages will show you the variety of sheets she created. And if you are not into guessing how she did it, she also has a tutorial on this stencil technique available in her Etsy shop.

Silkscreens for Days

Here is another great company whose products you’ll want to check out. The silkscreens seen here are from a new partner of ours, EZScreen. This mother-daughter business has been working with silkscreens for years but recently they have been researching the needs of the polymer community and now offer a line of great silkscreen designs—dozens and dozens of them—ready for you to snatch up. But what is unique about them is that the pre-made screens are not their primary product.

The central product for these ladies is actually a DIY silkscreen kit that allows you to make silkscreens of your own design or, if you prefer, they will make the screens for you, from artwork you send to them. Cool right? Now, that is my kind of thing! There is nothing like having your own signature patterns to work with because you absolutely know no one else is going to be popping up with those same patterns on their work.

I have not yet gone through the process of ordering these custom-made stencils or trying their kit but I’ll be ordering some when I get home to California next week. You can get started by going to their web page here for their DIY kits or here for the custom-made stencil information or this page for pre-made designs.

If you get our newsletter, you may already have seen the discount available there but if you missed it, just punch “PA15” into the promo code box in your cart. Go have fun! Keep in mind, they have a customer gallery on their webpage and there’s no polymer work there yet. Let’s get some up there!

 

Squiggles and Swirls

September 21, 2018
Posted in

Now that we’ve been talking about squiggles all week, are you seeing them everywhere? They are used in artwork of all kinds, commonly inspired by nature, often stylized or reined in to create a more cohesive composition. But they can also run rampant, gaining cohesiveness from the way they echo each other within the same piece.

Take a look at the various squiggles in this journal cover by Gabrielle Pollacco. Gabrielle is primarily a scrapbook artist but has also discovered the joys of combining polymer with pages. The bonsai tree in the center is a polymer clay wall and the rest is paint-applied wood stencils and various mixed-media elements attached over and under painted layers.

The frame-like squiggle piece around the bonsai tree looks to be derived from the stylized squiggle work seen in Art Nouveau. There is a less orderly but still contained series of lines going from squiggles into cracks amongst the rocks at the bottom. Then the vines with leaves throughout the background at the top gently pull the eye upward. There are also a handful of swirls—the buttoned-up cousin of the squiggle—with their terminal end a focal point as it rounds in on itself. All these lines, especially the squiggles, create a riot of energy. But with a strong focal point of the polymer tree in the center, it still feels grounded.

Scrapbooking is such a great marriage of so many materials. A skilled and creative scrapbooker, like Gabrielle, creates works of art that could so readily be framed and placed on a wall for all to adore. But making it part of something that is functional, that is held and touched and itself holds treasured images, makes the idea of putting it on the wall on almost sacrilegious. Even if, like me, you’re one of those people who doesn’t spend much time organizing or even just printing out their photos, it would be hard not to appreciate the creativity of these unique works.

You can take a look at more of Gabrielle’s wonderfully intricate scrapbook covers and pages on her BlogSpot website.

Read More

Exploration in the New Year

January 2, 2018
Posted in ,

First of all …. a very happy New Year and all the best to you this coming year! I am very excited to welcome 2018 and see what it has in store for us all. 2017 was a bit rough for so many of us, personally and globally, within our community and without. Every year has its challenges, of course, but I like to greet the new year with optimism and enthusiasm because it does represent so many new possibilities.

New possibilities may be about looking forward but it can be helpful to look back in order to create new and exciting futures. I’ve dug up a few interesting techniques from the past in order to, hopefully, spark some new ideas and encourage you to find new ways to use older techniques.

Let me tie into some of last week’s subjects. If you didn’t see the post about the silkscreen stencils on Friday, do check that company out. That would provide you with new designs, pre-made or custom, to try a new approach with. Then try a little something different, using multiple colors and controlled placement. I believe that is what Kleio Tsaliki was doing with these gorgeous sheets she created back in 2015.  I am thinking she used stencils and pearlescent paints and, in the top two, taped off sections as she applied colors. Or maybe she is using a stencil sponge to control where the color goes, which would work for the more random placement seen in the bottom sheet.

It doesn’t matter that we don’t know how she did this as the ideas we are guessing at are quite worthy of a bit of exploration regardless. I have found some really cool, unintended effects when I have just been guessing at how other people have done the work. It just pushed me to think of new ways to approach familiar techniques.

A quick click on this link to her Flickr pages will show you the variety of sheets she created. And if you are not into guessing how she did it, she also has a tutorial on this stencil technique available in her Etsy shop.

Read More

Silkscreens for Days

December 29, 2017
Posted in ,

Here is another great company whose products you’ll want to check out. The silkscreens seen here are from a new partner of ours, EZScreen. This mother-daughter business has been working with silkscreens for years but recently they have been researching the needs of the polymer community and now offer a line of great silkscreen designs—dozens and dozens of them—ready for you to snatch up. But what is unique about them is that the pre-made screens are not their primary product.

The central product for these ladies is actually a DIY silkscreen kit that allows you to make silkscreens of your own design or, if you prefer, they will make the screens for you, from artwork you send to them. Cool right? Now, that is my kind of thing! There is nothing like having your own signature patterns to work with because you absolutely know no one else is going to be popping up with those same patterns on their work.

I have not yet gone through the process of ordering these custom-made stencils or trying their kit but I’ll be ordering some when I get home to California next week. You can get started by going to their web page here for their DIY kits or here for the custom-made stencil information or this page for pre-made designs.

If you get our newsletter, you may already have seen the discount available there but if you missed it, just punch “PA15” into the promo code box in your cart. Go have fun! Keep in mind, they have a customer gallery on their webpage and there’s no polymer work there yet. Let’s get some up there!

 

Read More
If you love these posts ...