Obsession with Curls and Swirls
April 8, 2013
Inspirational Art
One of the ways I manage to keep up with blogging daily is to keep a list of links to interesting art I find in my many forays down the internet highway as well as those sent by staff and readers. I noticed today as I looked over some options that my list consisted heavily of pieces with curls and swirls and spiraling things. We even had a couple curly things last week. It got me to thinking … what is it about the curly swirlies that we like so much? Okay, yes, I may have a penchant for them but the links that I have include work sent from others and come from what I run across just randomly. So what is it?
Well, from a design standpoint, curls, swirls and things that spiral to a center make for very strong focal points. These elements are made up of directional lines that take you from an outside point into a center or a more tightly wound end point of the line. Your eye can’t help but follow these lines from outside to inside or to the end point. Even when grouped in multiples where they may make up a pattern rather than draw your eye to a primary focal position, the feeling that each curl is trying to draw your attention makes for a very dynamic visual.
I’m thinking I’ll take the next few days to ponder several variations of this element from what I have on my list. Today let’s take a look at the spiral lentil … haven’t we all made one or a hundred (or at least contemplated making them?) And have you ever meet a skillfully made swirl lentil you didn’t like? It would be hard to speak of swirl lentils and not bring up our community’s master swirler, Laura Timmins. I’ll let her provide the example of a wonderfully dynamic grouping of swirls in this very organic necklace.
That brings to mind another reason we may be so drawn to the encircling elements … they are so very common in nature. From curling vines to swirling tornadoes to winding tentacles to nautilus shells to the whorls of our fingerprints … these lines are familiar and present all around us. And we will always be drawn to the comfort of the things we recognize as familiar.
But back to polymer … if you’ve not attempted a swirl lentil before or have had limited success, you may want to check out this very clear tutorial by Desiree McCrorey. Her instruction and tips could have you making any number of these beauties below in no time.
Fun with Leftovers
February 6, 2013
Technique tutorials, Tips and Tricks
I don’t know how many pieces I’ve made resulted from looking over at my scattered scraps and suddenly seeing a new texture, form or design in the randomness. Its kind of like finding animals in the shapes of clouds … you look over and you see shape for a pendant, the texture for necklace or a form that could make an interesting bead.
So when perusing some collected online tutorials, I stopped at this very pretty bit of modified mokume which is pictured in a tutorial titled “How to make faux snake skin or honeycomb veneers” by Desiree McCrorey and really wished I could grab, not a slice from the revealed slab but rather those first holey layers off the top. Wouldn’t they look just so striking pressed onto a sheet of pearl clay, those thin little edges of purple around the circles framing the background color?
I wonder how many other people out there automatically do that as well? I know Helen Breil does … that is how she came up with the curling and frame type shapes which are the basis of her new book Shapes (which we review in the upcoming Spring 2013 issue of The Polymer Arts.) That kind of eye is hard to teach. But I would recommend that before balling up your scraps and tossing them in the scrap bin you look at what you have and see if anything jumps out at you. Just that could send you on a whole new journey and invigorate your line if you are looking for something new. You just never know and all it takes is keeping your eyes wide open.
Inspiration Infusion for Caning
January 19, 2013
Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
Looking for a new challenge in caning? Well, here are a couple ideas.
One, try some new cane patterns. I was mesmerized by the complexity of this monochromatic cane created by Israel’s Marcia Tzigelnik. You can get the tutorials for these and other beautiful canes in her Etsy shop.
Second, do something new with your cane slices. Here is what Kristie Foss created with Marcia’s canes.
Don’t you admire the way she uses the lines in the canes to give definitive direction and sense of movement to the forms? Just lovely.
Feeling inspired? What can you do differently to get your mojo going this weekend?
Playing with Shapes and Sheets
January 15, 2013
Technique tutorials
Here is a simple idea that could quickly create a series of beads with a clean, contemporary look and lots of variation, not just between the beads themselves but between different sets you create.
This quick technique is posted on the Spanish retail craft site Manos Maravillosas (Wonderful Hands). It just requires a few sheets of clay of different colors. You punch shapes out all but one of the sheets, lay the shapes out on the uncut sheet, roll over it with a brayer or rod to smooth the surface, and now you have a sheet to punch flat beads from (punch two of the same shapes and layer them back to back) or to use portions from the sheet to cover bead forms.
You could use any combination or number of colors as well as different shapes. Go Mondrian like using square cutters and primary colors, or retro with ovals and subdued tones. You could also use strips of clay instead of cut shapes to adhere on your base sheet using your straight or crinkle tissue blades. There’s no real limitations here. Just lots of potential play time!
A Nomadic Moment
January 3, 2013
Inspirational Art
We’re taking a moment today to admire the work of Renata Jansen, sculptor of highly detailed dolls and figurines. Her subject matter touches on the fantastic as well as portraiture and interpretations of story and myth.
Damia here is a creature of the city. It took me a few times through the many images Renata posted (as she does for most of her dolls … you really get a detailed view of each one on her website) to realize that she’s winged. A great juxtaposition between fantasy and gritty street life in our own realm.
Renata has a serious dedication to realism (even in her fantastical creatures). She has an interesting set of tutorials on making tiny doll eyes from polymer and resin. They aren’t difficult, but as it is with her sculptures, its all about the details.
Double down on Extruder Discs
November 29, 2012
Tips and Tricks
Today … just a simple but clever idea for all you extruding fiends out there. Marie Segal has an extensive set of pages on her website on creating African trade beads and within those pages, on Part 5 she talks about making new shapes for the extruder by doubling up the discs. Genuis!
Of course you could put more than one disc in if it continues to pleasantly change the shape. Just need a little something to hold them in position as she demonstrates in her post. But how fun. This would certainly multiply your extruder shape options for the low low cost of … well, nothing. Who doesn’t like that?
Sparkling SkyScrapers
November 27, 2012
Inspirational Art
Last winter the cover of The Polymer Arts was graced with beautiful brocade polymer purses by Iris Mishly of PolyPediaOnline. Iris is quite the innovator and her library of tutorials as well as her blog is a treasure box of fantastic ideas. One of her more recent tutorials is on a technique she refers to as ‘SkyScraper” in reference to the sparkling effect of tall city buidlings in the sun.
The necklace here is an example of what the technique can create. She emphasizes that the process requires baking before creating so we can surmise that there will be some very different ideas and tricks to be gleaned from this class in particular.
Iris’ tutorials follow a growing trend of artists that combine lengthy videos and printed materials into a very in-depth and intensive class you can take at your own pace and at a significantly lower cost than traveling and attending workshops. Not that technology will ever begin to replace that hands-on, in-person experience but with the wealth of information out there from generous artists all over the world, this technology and approach is a great way to get a wonderfully broad and diverse polymer education.
See all of Iris’ tutorial classes here. She also offers quite a number of free tuts and free videos with additional tips and ideas.
Outside Influence: Sugar Sheet Flowers
November 16, 2012
Inspirational Art
As you might know, there is a lot of cross over between cake decorating and pastry art and polymer art. We use many of the same tools. In fact the D.R.E.A.M. machine you find at Polymer Clay Express is being used by fondant artists along with those great big extruders PCE sells. We form and shape in simliar manners when it comes to sheets of our chosen material. But there are restrictions in cake decorating that we don’t have. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Limitations make one creative in other ways.
Like knowing when to keep things simple.
This simple flower of black sugar sheets and white wafer (edible) paper by cake artist Deborah Stauch is just such an example. Here you get drama and sophistication without using any visual texture or surface treatments. Just the white accenting the black, repeated to bring on a sense of texture and richness of form. Nice.
If you are so inclined, you can even learn to make one of these on Deborah Stauch’s blog here.
One thing I am thankful for … no one is likely to eat your creation. I can’t imagine making something so pretty knowing it will be consumed. How depressing to think of that. I think I should go have some cake now to keep me from getting any sadder.
Pastels and Polymer
November 6, 2012
Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
One of the coolest things about polymer is that you can use virtually any art material with it in some fashion. On some trips to art and craft stores, I will wander every aisle and think of ways to use what I find.
So it really is no surprise to see someone using pastels on polymer. In a way it’s just a matte version of mica powders but unlike the standard matte powder option I have in my studio–cosmetic grade iron oxides–pastels come in dozens of colors. Hélène Jeanclaude shows just how to prepare and use pastels on her blog here in order to make items like this beautiful rust and patina look necklace.
Another cool thing about pastels is that they are not created equal … the pigment saturation from one brand to the next can be drastically different but that just means you have more options. If you want lighter more diffused color, the inexpensive kid’s sets should work just fine. The more expensive pastels sold by the stick at fine art supply stores can be so wonderfully saturated that the colors just glow. And there is everything in between. Just more color to play with!
Here is a relatively odd question but give me a moment and I will explain… Do you think of a hole as an empty space or an object unto itself? Or do you just find the idea of a hole being a thing of its own strange? I mean, it’s empty space, isn’t it? Well, it is empty space but when it comes to design a hole can be a focal point, added as accents or used to create patterns, so it is a thing of its own – it’s a design element.
I myself love having holes in things. Holes can lighten up the visual as well as the physical weight of a piece. They also leave space for seeing through to what is behind it which can be symbolic or help integrate the piece into its surroundings. This can be especially useful when it comes to jewelry as you can see the skin, hair, or clothing of the wearer through those holes and so the wearer becomes more inclusively part of the design and what the viewer is observing.
Let’s look at some examples of how holes are used as integral parts of design in jewelry.
Hole-y Jewelry
First of all, holes will always be, on some level, a focal point. It will draw our eye almost immediately, both because we note the missing material and also because we have an inclination to peek through wherever a hole has been made. Holes are a narrowed point of empty space and we can’t help but look through to whatever it might be framing.
Here, Eva Haskova uses rolled up strips of clay to create holes that become strong focal points in the pendant and brooch shown at the start of this post. They are balanced by the tall, dimensional elements breaking out of the frame of the background which calls attention to them, and yet the eye continues to go back to the holes, doesn’t it?
Eva seems quite enamored of holes and negative space in her work. Just take a look at her Flickr photostream or her Facebook page to find more examples and inspiration of how she uses holes.
Even though our eyes will tend to focus on holes, they can be balanced out fairly equally. This necklace by Cecilia Button is a great example. She uses a lot of pattern and movement throughout the necklace to create a balance between her various design elements so that the holes don’t overly dominate.
Holes can also be functional while being integral to the design as seen here in Janet Pitcher’s lariat style “Petal Pusher” necklace. This is also an example of how holes can be constructed – by an arrangement of canes slices here – not just punched through the clay. Janet has been making these for years in a myriad of colors and arrangements. You can see more of them on her website and her Facebook page here.
Holes are also excellent for creating texture and pattern. When the holes are many and placed close together they visually mesh as they do in this pendant by Еnkhtsetseg Tserenbadam, who first created the pendant based on instructions in Helen Breil’s book, Shapes: 25 Inspirational Jewellery Designs in Polymer Clay. Her random pattern of holes become a texture surrounding an elongated hole formed by the folded clay. So, it is holes around a hole, making for a particularly open and airy pendant.
Here is an example of using holes for nearly all of the above purposes. One hole is a focal point, another is the functional connection point for the cording while the many others – some complete holes and some not quite all the way through but acting the same visually – are placed over the pendant as accents but ones that create a pattern that adds energy through their rhythmic placement. The accent type holes are also end points for the strong energy of the lines radiating from the center, giving that energy anchor points to contain it. The artist, Sandra Plavšić , also includes layers of color that show themselves in the sides of the holes, taking full advantage of this type of revealing element.
Punching Your Own Holes
Are you feeling the itch to put some of your own holes into clay? It wouldn’t be hard to get started on a little hole-centric project today. You really could just roll out some clay and pull out some round cutters and start playing.
- Just punch holes randomly around a thick sheet of clay – it could be a sheet that you’ve treated with some technique or maybe marbled or otherwise mixed the clay.) Then, using a large cutter as a frame, place the large cutter at different points in your sheet to find a pattern of holes you like, and just punch it out. You can further color or treat it however you like and/or place it on a form to give it dimension. You could also take a cutter that is larger than the other small holes you punched into the sheet and make a large focal point hole in the chosen section.
- If you don’t like the sharp cuts of a cutter, soften them by laying a sheet of plastic wrap across the top of the clay – make sure it is smooth with no wrinkles to start – then punch them out and it will add a bevel to the edges of the holes.
- For a more organic look, hand tool it. Press a ball stylus, knitting needle or other round tipped hand tool straight down into the clay and then move it around in a circular motion until you have created a hole. Do this over and over again, randomly and close together to create a texture, or place them purposefully in a pattern or judiciously as focal points.
- If you prefer a bit of direction as you start your hole-y crusade, here is a fun and easy tutorial that creates a simple but energetic and contemporary looking jewelry piece:
- Or you may want to grab your copy (or buy a copy) of the Polymer Art Projects – Organic book, in which holes play a role in several of the pieces in the book including a similarly styled pendant and brooch by Eva Haskova to what I showed you above but with her lovely take on a brain cane.
We also have a beautiful and easy to make boho-esque pendant project, created in the more organic hole making style, in the first issue of The Polymer Studio that the artist, Anna Malnaya calls “Martian Footprints”. So if you have that issue and haven’t tried it, go grab your copy and try that out. If you don’t have a copy, get it on the website – the digital edition is available for immediate download in most countries or order the print edition and we will ship it off to you.
Need Supplies or Inspiration?
Poly Clay Play is having a Spring Fling Sale! Get 10% off your whole cart (some exceptions apply.) Use coupon code Spring Fling, March 9 – 16, 2019. Shipping is closed at the shop that week (hence the sale) but you can take advantage of the discounts now and your goodies will be off to you the following week.
Discount pricing is available now on Christi Friesen’s new Nudge Cards. Get $4 off the set on her website here. No promo code needed!
On our Tenth Muse Arts site, discount packages for books and backorder magazines are available now. Buy One Get One Half off on Print + digital packages of the beautiful new Polymer Journeys 2019 book, or on packages including BOTH editions of Polymer Journeys – 2016 + 2019. There is also a package with all available copies of The Polymer Arts for basically half off the cover. See the website here.
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Are you familiar with something known as the flow state? This is that space you get in where you are lost in your own little world because you are so wrapped up in what you are doing. It happens quite commonly when people are working on creative projects and it’s a really good thing for you, both because it dissipates stress and because it increases your level of “feel-good” chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. It’s also defined as an “optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best.” Now, who wouldn’t want that?
I bring this up because I want to talk about mosaics. I think a lot of people look at all those tiny pieces and think, “That looks like a ton of work!” And, yeah, there might be a lot of steps to putting a mosaic together, but the technique is also one that really gets you deep into a flow state. It can be kind of like doodling but with little pieces.
It would not be a hard thing to start on. Most of us have access to tons of tiny pieces, either through leftover canes, unused polymer sheets, or failed projects we haven’t had the heart to toss out. Just slice up those canes, cut up those sheets, and/or start chopping up those cured elements and you have all you need to start creating mosaics. Of course, you can make pieces specifically for mosaics from fresh clay, too!
Mosaics have been on my mind these last couple weeks because, while working on the latest book, Polymer Journeys 2019, it became quite apparent that one of the bigger trends making a splash right now is polymer mosaics and so I thought we ought to take a closer look at this not so new but definitely interesting and flexible technique. (By the way, today is the last day to get the Pre-order Sale pricing on Polymer Journeys 2019! Go to the website to get it at 30% off the cover!)
Mind you, being the insanely creative and exploratory artisans and crafters that they are, polymer enthusiasts aren’t just slapping together any old standard expectation of a mosaic. They are mixing mediums, trying out every shape in the book, using three-dimensional forms, and generally just pushing the boundaries of what the mosaic technique is. Gotta love polymer crafters!
So, let’s take a look at what some people are doing as of late and we’ll end with suggestions for getting into the mosaic flow yourself.
Different Kinds of Bits & Pieces
One of the folks who, at least initially, takes a classic approach to the art form of mosaics but certainly adds her own flavor to it, is Christi Friesen. She cuts out squares of polymer, lays a base to adhere them to and then arranges the pieces in pleasing and energetic patterns. But of course, Christi can’t leave well enough alone — she has to add bling and embellishments of all kinds! She’s been mixing in glass, wire, charms, beads, and probably a bunch of other things I will never be able to identify, to create her whimsical tiles, vessels and jewelry. Can’t you just sense the depth of the flow state she must have been in creating this beautiful maelstrom?
You could say that Claire Fairweather is classically inspired too, but her work has a twist to it. That twist is a commitment to circles used to create these wonderful images of graduated color and varied texture. Using round elements instead of squares and straight-sided shapes that join neatly together, leaves more open space but it’s one that has a fairly regular rhythm that flows in and out of the carefully placed circles. This gives the imagery more orderliness and a softer look as you can see in the many sides of her mosaic globe below. (Be sure to jump over to her blog to get the rundown on what each side is showing.)
Keep in mind that a mosaic piece does not have to be all mosaic. Large swaths can be made up of other types of polymer elements such as textured, silkscreen, impressed, or hand tooled layers or forms. A lot of Susan Crocenzi’s work, especially earlier in this decade, consist of entire halves of her pieces being a kind of polymer landscape, surrounded by glass mosaics or a mix of mosaic mediums. Here is just one example below but you can find more on her website too.
For all of you mad caners out there, here is an example of how beautifully energetic a piece can be just by arranging thick cane slices on a simple form. This bib necklace is a yet-to-be-hung creation by Ivy Niles, who makes some of the most impressive canes. You can see how much more impressive they are when working together in this off-center mandala type pattern.
If you really like the idea of doing mosaics don’t relegate your sources of inspiration to the work of polymer artist’s, as unique as they may be. Take a look at what glass and tile mosaic artists are doing these days as well (just type “mosaic art” into your favorite browser or an image-centric site, like Pinterest or Instagram) if for no other reason than there is some amazing and gorgeous work out there to enjoy. Here is a gorgeous piece by Francis Green in what seems to be a rare piece of wall art. This woman will mosaic anything she can get her hands on! She kinda reminds me of some unbridled polymer artist with their canes. Just take a look at her website.
The How-Tos of Mosaics
So, are you itching to try some mosaics now? Here are a few places you could start:
- If you want to start with something classic, even, and orderly, check out this straight-forward mosaic tile tutorial by Korrina Robinson on her blog.
- Prefer a more open and visually textural approach that is flexible enough to use any type of clay sheets or even canes? Take a look at this mosaic vase by Kathy Koontz on the Sculpey website.
- If you’re ready to really dive in, might I suggest you invest in this great tutorial on micromosaics and faux glass by Pavla Čepelíková. The opening image of this post shows examples of some of the things she’ll teach you to make in this downloadable PDF.
- If you want to use mosaic as a way to diminish your pile of scrap clay and cured bits, take a look at Christi Friesen’s mosaic video tutorial here. You can also have fun creating mosaics Antoni Gaudi style on an unusually formed box with Christi in the Polymer Art Projects – Organic book (go to our website to get your copy!)
- And if that’s not enough, Christi sells mosaic kits on her website where you can also find tons of other embellishments and bobbles to assist in your mosaic flow. Just click here!
- I even have some exciting mosaics for you to look forward to too … We just found out that Staedtler/Fimo is going to sponsor Ann and Karen Mitchell, the Masters of liquid polymer clay, to create a mini mosaic tutorial for the next issue of The Polymer Studio magazine. This is a changeup to Karen’s tiny micromosaic technique published in The Polymer Arts back in the Fall of 2015.
Whew! I got into a flow a bit there myself writing excitedly about all this fun stuff. I hope you’ll give mosaics a try if you have not already, or at least give yourself some time to just get lost in your craft today. It’s good for the brain and the soul and you never know what will come of it later in your creative journey!
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Saturday was a bittersweet day as we released the final issue of The Polymer Arts. It is enjoying a wonderful reception as it is packed full of great ideas, beautiful techniques and lots of food for thought to get those creative wheels spinning.
If you are one of our readers expecting a digital edition but haven’t seen it yet, look in your inbox for a midday email Saturday or check spam/junk mail folders if it’s not there. The print editions headed to the post office on Friday so they should start popping up in mailboxes soon. If you are on the east coast of the United States or overseas, allow up to four weeks for it to arrive.
Here is a collage of some of the first pages of articles if you haven’t seen the issue yet. This issue feels a bit like a transition between what The Polymer Arts has been and what the new magazine, The Polymer Studio, will be. There are a lot of tutorials focused on technique, as always, but with a more accessible range for the novice to the intermediate craftsperson. Rather like The Polymer Studio will be.
I also wrote a couple of short pieces in this issue, talking about the role of publications in our creative lives and how these ideas caused me to make the changes we are making with the magazines. You can read about the development of these magazines in the “Editor’s Worktable.” In this issue’s back page “Muse’s Corner” is my personal story about how circumstances and refocusing on self-care precipitated the decisions to close one magazine and start another.
As always though, we have lots for you to ponder and act on regarding things like your creative vision, the use of color, selling your work, expanding your jewelry forms, and working as an artist in the world of polymer. The fascinating interview with Helen Breil is reason enough to get this issue. She is a very unusual woman who really took a different path. I think you’ll find some surprising details in this and many of the other articles in this issue.
So if you haven’t yet, you can get your own copy of this very special last issue of The Polymer Arts by ordering it online here.
While you do that, I am going to go visit family in Colorado and drive through the mountains in all their changing colors but I’ll drop in here Wednesday, as usual, with a peek at a few things that we weren’t able to fit in this issue of The Polymer Arts.
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This week is going to be a series of announcements but I promise, they will all be very exciting, they will all be polymer, and they will all give you something you can look forward to as we move into fall and winter (or spring and summer if you’re down under.)
First up… I can finally announce and show off the cover of the first in an upcoming series of books, Polymer Art Projects. This series arose from your consistent request for more projects and a desire to support and promote our great artists, so, after many conversations, I came up with this cooperative book project. All contributing artists in the book will be part of a promotion and profit sharing team. That means they are highly motivated to provide you with some truly fantastic material on top of looking forward to sharing their love of polymer art.
For less than a couple of dollars each, you get 16 tutorials that will expand your abilities under the guidance of some of the polymer community’s best instructors. The skill level of these tutorials range from the experienced novice to the intermediate artisan, with tips and ideas for polymer crafters of all levels. The tutorials are very detailed, each showing off a variety of techniques, expert construction, and lists of ideas for variation so you can create your own unique pieces from what you learn.
The first in the series, Polymer Art Projects—Organic, includes tutorials by Donna Greenberg, Christi Friesen, Eva Haskova, Anke Humpert, Debbie Crothers, Kim Cavender, Stephanie Kilgast, Chris Kapono, Stacy Louise Smith, Nevenka Sabo, Adriana Allen, Dani Rapinett, Fabiola Ajates, Rebecca Thickbroom, Klavdija Kurent, and little ol’ me. Projects include a variety of jewelry as well as home decor, all inspired by mother nature.
Check out the cover for a sampling of what you can look forward to. The cover price for the print edition of this book will be $23.95 but for the next month, you can preorder for $16.75 – that’s 30% off the cover price. Or maybe you’d like a digital edition which will list for $15.95 – you can preorder the digital edition for just $11.95. These preorder prices are good through October 10th.
Don’t forget the last issue of The Polymer Arts comes out September 22. Preorder this last historic copy on The Polymer Arts website.
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One more little tease before I go off. This is a brand-new Christi Friesen piece she created just for the new book, Polymer Art Projects—Organics, for which we will have discounted pre-sale opportunities when I get back in a couple of weeks.
Christi has been playing around a lot with mosaics and shares her techniques for creating polymer mosaic pieces and then applying them on variously shaped surfaces. This covered tin box is a textural jungle gym for the fingers. She mixes the busy, hard-edged mosaic pieces with the soft, organic flowing shapes and surface variations. This is all done over a tin box. Her tutorial is wonderfully detailed and allows some room for those people who like to change things up a bit as they go along, making their own unique version. Which, I think, is the end goal of working through tutorials—to learn the skills to make your own unique, self-expressive work. All the tutorials in this book will give you that opportunity if that’s what you want.
I thought it was also apropos to share this particular piece because Christi’s inspiration for this is Gaudi, as in Antoni Gaudí whose work can be found all over Barcelona. And that is exactly where I’m heading to tomorrow! For three days I’m going to take in all the Gaudi and fabulous Spanish food I can manage. So with that, I leave you in the hands of my generous artist friends, starting with Christi guest-blogging on Friday. ¡Hasta luego!
See more of Christi’s mosaics on her website and stay tuned here or get our newsletter, which you can sign up for on our website here, to be one of the first to hear when the new books are ready to order.
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I spent a lot of time looking for differently constructed clocks in polymer and couldn’t find much that really illustrated the point I was hoping to make. What I wanted was to show that a clock does not have to be on a flat surface. It can be made of many parts, attached or not, and fully dimensional. As long as you have something that can house or hide the clock mechanism while holding out the hands, the rest is wide open. You can have the hour markers designated by any form and attach them with sticks or wire or be free floating–whatever suits the piece and your inclination.
These two examples are commercial designs rather than polymer art but I think they give you the basics of this idea of moving beyond the flat clock face. Not only do these kinds of clocks make for really interesting wall pieces, they give you the freedom to use pieces you may already have such as large hollow beads, faux stones, unhung pendants, small figurines, flowers, etc.
As a gift, giving a clock that has separate pieces might be best attached to something that can be hung as one piece, like a backing of Plexiglas or painted plywood. Or include instructions for a template to mark on the wall where each piece goes. There is little to no construction to deal with but you will have to make concessions in the design for how the individual pieces will be hung. Alternately, go for a design where the elements are attached like the flowers you see here.
The sky is the limit with these kinds of designs. For more ideas, try searching “DIY clocks,” which was the keyword set that brought me to these two pieces. I hope these sparks some ideas and I look forward to seeing inventive clock designs this month!
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This week’s theme will start with one of our more notorious creative instigator, Christi Friesen. On my end it started when my better half came back from an orchid show not with any orchids but rather with a 4 foot tall branch covered in air plants and I thought, “That is far too many air plants for that stick. I should save some from their crowded existence and make planters for them! In polymer. Of course.” However, in my world, the time between the germination of an idea and gaining the free time to implement it can be pretty vast. A few days later, I saw this photo pop up on Facebook. Apparently thoughts of air plants are, well, in the air!
Being a simple rolled cone construction with a ton of possibilities for color, texture, and embellishment, these little wall sconces of Christi’s are sure to get creative sparks flying for those of you looking for something new, easy and fun to play around with. There is plenty of room in this kind of project for your style and voice to come through. Work up something of your own like forming bowls, boxes, or tubes instead of cones and design it with your own signature colors and treatments.
Easy and fun are the signature marks of Christi’s classes and books, not to mention her community site, Christi’s Creative Neighborhood where have access to all sorts of tutorials, videos and creative ideas along with a chance to share with other like-minded clayers. Check out Christi’s happenings there, on her website and on her Facebook page.
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One of my personal favorite articles in the new Summer issue is the “Blended Beauty” article on creating dramatic color and light in canes, written by Meg Newberg. I have been trying to get a really good article for our caning enthusiasts but for some reason, it’s been a struggle getting anything submitted beyond specific cane patterns. Which are cool, yes, but not quite in line with the technique driven and skill building objective of The Polymer Arts.
This article, however, is amazing. Meg gives concise and clear instruction on how to create the type of clay blends that give her canes that beautiful inner glow and dramatic color. But these ingenious Skinner type blends are for more than just caners, as you’ll see when you read it.
Meg’s focus on canes has allowed her deep and intense exploration into what can be done with canes. If you want to work on your caning skills or just want to create more interesting and colorful Skinner blends, read the article but also consider signing up for Meg’s monthly tutorial subscription (the mandala cane you see on the bottom here is this month’s tutorial) or buy one of her tutorials posted in her Etsy shop.
Weekly Inspiration Challenge: Let’s recharge this weekend! Sit back with a favorite beverage and take in your latest copy of The Polymer Arts or another magazine or book and let you mind process the art and ideas you find. Keep a sketchbook nearby to record any “ah-ha!” moments and if you feel charged up when done, go to the studio and have some casual play time, exploring what inspired you.
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Journal covers are very much like blank canvases, which means you can do anything you desire on them. Your medium is probably the only thing that will constrict you, but then you aren’t restricted to one medium, are you? Polymer is amazing and will always be my go to material but I wouldn’t ignore other wonderful options, especially since so many other mediums work so well with polymer.
Here is a journal cover that has no polymer on it but most of the materials used are quite familiar to polymer clayers and could be combined with it to create looks inspired by this texture rich cover. Gabrielle Pollacco uses an insanely wide array of paints, inks, powders, sprays, stencils, stamps and a few other things to create this cover. Sometimes, too many materials is like too many ingredients in a recipe … going overboard can really muck things up. But Gabrielle brings it all together here by limiting her palette and sticking with a weathered look as her thematic motif.
She seriously looks like she is having way too much fun in this video tutorial that she recorded of her full process for creating this cover. I now have a new list of products to find and try so if you watch this, you have been warned that it may result in a bit of frenetic online shopping! Also … the music she uses may get stuck in your head and have you bopping about the rest of the day. It’s not a bad thing. Just wanted to give you a head’s up so you are ready to defend yourself with the mute button if bopping is not appropriate at the time.
Weekly Inspiration Challenge: Create a journal cover for your goals and plans book. Try some new materials to really make it interesting. If you’ve not covered a journal or sketchbook before and find covering a pristine new book on your first try to be a bit too much pressure, create on a separate sheet of clay that can be glued to the journal later or, if you like it as is, can be a bit of inspiration to frame. A sheet of raw clay, cured between two tiles to keep it perfectly flat can be a great ‘canvas’ to work on.
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Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
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Read More