![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/daveonline.net\/thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Alina-deer-floral-350x341.jpg?resize=350%2C341\")
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The anticipation of this event has put me in the mood for forest-inspired work. Of course. So I rooted around the internet and found some amazing stuff to share with you this week. Here you see a very curious and delicately beautiful pendant inspired by both the flora and the fauna of the forest. The artist,\u00a0Alina Sanina<\/a>, started working in clay eight years ago as a curious teen but now, with a degree in art education behind her, she continues to sculpt and create a wide range of fantastical but rather realistic pieces.<\/p>\n I found this piece to be an eye-catcher at first glance because of its contrast between a skull, representing death, and the green and floral details of Spring foliage that top it off. But if you examine it for a minute, you’ll notice that the skull is not all a skull. The deer has live-looking eyes and fully fleshed-out ears. The contrast of life and death is within the deer head, not just the skull and vegetation here. It looks to me like a little representation of the cycle of life in a forest setting.<\/p>\n I have long been interested in societal views of life and death and how different cultures and even individuals work out how to handle the fact that these complete opposite states co-exist and are an understood, if not readily accepted, part of the cycle of life. I don’t know if that is what Alina had in mind when creating this but there are definitely metaphors on those subjects that one can discuss in regards to this little piece.<\/p>\n Whether you turn away or are intrigued by such difficult subject matter, I think you will want to see more of the beautiful work Alina creates. You can do so in her\u00a0<\/a>Etsy shop<\/a> and on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n _________________________________________<\/p>\n Like this blog? Lend your support with a\u00a0purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine<\/a>\u00a0and visit our partners.<\/span><\/p>\n _________________________________________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am heading Into the Forest in November! The huge installation project put together by Laura Tabakman, Julie Eakes and Emily Squires Levine will be a monumental event for the polymer art community and I, for one, can’t imagine missing this. It is being installed into a gallery in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania with a gallery opening…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5634,4649,4852,103,1716,25,13,1324,4827,4849,5635,4699,4847,157,5640,5638,5636,17,1519,5633,5537,5632,5631,381,5044,5629,166,578,3458,922,58,29,269,640,12,5630,1687,4698,11,5628,3661,4688,703,5637,5639,5532,3730,3816,16],"class_list":["post-14003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirational-art","tag-alina-sanina","tag-art-blog","tag-art-magazine","tag-artist","tag-artist-inspiration","tag-artistic-influence","tag-artistic-inspiration","tag-clay","tag-clay-blog","tag-clay-magazine","tag-clay-skull","tag-craft-blog","tag-craft-magazine","tag-creativity","tag-cycle-of-life","tag-death-and-life-in-art","tag-deer-skull","tag-design","tag-emily-squires-levine","tag-flora-and-fauna","tag-floral-polymer","tag-forest-polymer","tag-forest-inspired-art","tag-inspiration","tag-into-the-forest","tag-into-the-forest-polymer","tag-jewelry","tag-julie-eakes","tag-laura-tabakman","tag-natural","tag-nature","tag-necklace","tag-pendant","tag-polymer","tag-polymer-art","tag-polymer-art-community","tag-polymer-arts","tag-polymer-blog","tag-polymer-clay","tag-polymer-installation","tag-polymer-jewelry","tag-polymer-magazine","tag-polymer-pendant","tag-polymer-skull","tag-spring-foliage","tag-spring-jewelry","tag-the-polymer-arts","tag-the-polymer-arts-blog","tag-the-polymer-arts-magazine"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2O0Lm-3DR","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14003\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/daveonline.net\/thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/tpa-125x125-sept2017.jpg?resize=125%2C125\")
\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0![\"The](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/daveonline.net\/thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/The-Great-Create-Sept-15-blog.jpg?resize=125%2C125\")
<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0![\"businesscard-3.5inx2in-h-front\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/daveonline.net\/thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/TPA-PCDaily-Web-Ad_2014-R1.jpg?resize=125%2C125\")
<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0![\"Shades](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/daveonline.net\/thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Shades-of-Clay-Sept-15-Blog.jpg?resize=125%2C125\")
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