{"id":15332,"date":"2018-08-22T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/?p=15332"},"modified":"2018-08-17T14:25:07","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T21:25:07","slug":"mix-and-match-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/mix-and-match-stone\/","title":{"rendered":"Mix and Match Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As I’ve said many times, you can have all types of contrast as long as there is some commonality in some aspect that will create a relationship between the disparate parts. Olga Ledneva<\/a> is quite adept at this as you\u2019re certain to see in this piece here.<\/p>\n

What Olga had done to bring all these disparate pieces together was\u00a0create a variety of faux stone and other natural and inherently solid-looking faux materials, all finished with a smooth surface and in relatively geometric shapes. That tied most of the bead elements together. But then there\u2019s this flower, a delicate object with an uneven shape and a rippling surface. It\u2019s completely different from everything else but it works, doesn\u2019t it? Why would that be?<\/p>\n

For one, she\u2019s made this flower element the focal point by making it so completely different. Just its hugely different look actually ties it to the rest with its high contrast. But she sneaks in one subtle characteristic that makes it work with the other beads\u2014 she makes it approximately the same size as all the center stone beads. Similarly sized objects will seem to belong together when they are surrounded by a variety of other sized objects. This can be a tricky thing to pull off well but I think Olga did it wonderfully here.<\/p>\n

Olga\u2019s work has grown in leaps and bounds since I last posted her work in early 2015, a post that caused little bit of a stir because she was combining elements, forms, and techniques learned in classes from master polymer artists, which I pointed out while noting the original, completely valid and successful way she applied them. Not everyone was comfortable with comments that might be perceived as anything less than glowingly positive but, as I replied in the comments then, I feel that I am a funnel for the community and our thoughts and concerns. So, I wanted to present the piece as a great example of taking what you learn and making it your own.<\/p>\n

Some people were actually mad about what I wrote but Olga, to her credit, saw this as supportive and positive. That kind of openness to constructive commentary on one\u2019s work is an important element in an artist\u2019s growth. It shows a sincere desire to better one\u2019s skills and designs and I think we really see that in Olga\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

You can watch her growth over time and see more of her beautiful work by looking through her photos on her Facebook page<\/a> and\u00a0Flickr photostream<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polymer flower and faux stone necklace by Olga Ledneva, using focal points and sizing to create a relationship between the elements, as seen on the The Polymer Arts blog, www.ThePolymerArts.com<\/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":[1058,268,2052,1083,796,1811,922,29,3225,640,1494,1198,1343,1158],"class_list":["post-15332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirational-art","tag-bead","tag-contrast","tag-faux-stone","tag-flower","tag-focal-point","tag-geometric","tag-natural","tag-necklace","tag-olga-ledneva","tag-polymer","tag-relationship","tag-shape","tag-size","tag-surface"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2O0Lm-3Zi","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15332","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=15332"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15349,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15332\/revisions\/15349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}