{"id":16312,"date":"2019-05-12T02:00:30","date_gmt":"2019-05-12T09:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/?p=16312"},"modified":"2019-06-01T19:23:13","modified_gmt":"2019-06-02T02:23:13","slug":"tile-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/tile-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Tile Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Do you ever stop to ask yourself if what you create makes you happy? It seems like a silly question since creating is usually passion driven so being able to feed that passion should make you happy, right? But have you ever found yourself creating something because you believe it is the kind of thing other people would like but later realize that you don\u2019t enjoying making it?<\/p>\n

I found that happened a lot when I was a selling artist. You get wrapped up in what you think the market would want, what you think will sell best at the next show, and you\u2019d be just making things for the money and not because it\u2019s what you want to make. Other times we think that in a particular material, like polymer clay, it is best used for certain forms such as jewelry and home decor. But as we all know, polymer can do almost anything and yet 85% of it being created and shared online is jewelry. Jewelry is pretty fun stuff to make, sure, but if you enjoy polymer, just keep in mind you don\u2019t have to make jewelry.<\/p>\n

I myself have been moving away from jewelry. A pendant or pair of earrings are oftentimes still the best items to create to show off a polymer technique for a magazine article or tutorial but more and more, I create objects without an end goal in mind and am really enjoying just making little objects and samples of techniques. Last year, I started to see patterns and connections between them and eventually started putting them in shadow boxes. You can see an example of one of my \u201cspecimen\u201d boxes in the latest Polymer Journeys book<\/a>, if you\u2019re curious. I\u2019m also trying to devise a class for doing it. It’s so much fun!<\/p>\n

But when I have to create jewelry because I am vetting an article for the magazine or want to make a gift, I have lately found that I don\u2019t look forward to the engineering of it \u2013 figuring out how it is going to hang, what stringing material will work best, what findings I need, as well as worrying about comfort and durability. I find I don\u2019t want to think about those things when I create and it’s not out of some kind of laziness, it\u2019s just not what I want to spend my mental and creative energy on, and I\u2019m good with that. I just really want to follow creative paths that make me happy right now.<\/p>\n

To that end (and because I\u2019ve spent so much time in tile stores lately), I\u2019ve decided I might just focus on tiles for a while. They are a very freeing form. A tile is just a canvas for 3D materials. You can do whatever you want on them. You can make them any size, any shape, and can attach whatever you want or attack it however you want. I think we really should all give ourselves the freedom to play with this form, to let ourselves be free to create from the heart with a material we love. At the end of a session of tile making, you may find you are really looking forward to creating necklaces or making beads or covering vases. But I am going to suggest you give a tile a try here and there to just let yourself create freely. Doing this can help with your designs in other forms.<\/p>\n

To that end, of course, I\u2019m going to share some tiles this weekend. I am going to share a lot of non-polymer ones because I think, if you\u2019ve spent any time online, you\u2019ve probably seen your share of polymer tiles these last few years, especially with the Fimo 50 year challenge a couple of years back and with the common inches exchanges (inches are just tiny tiles). So, I\u2019ve got a quite a mix for you but it is all art that can translate to polymer even if it is in another material.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Laying it All Out<\/strong><\/p>\n

The opening image of this post is a photo from a class conducted by Laurie Mika<\/a>. She is well-known for her colorful and intricate collage\/mosaic pieces which, by the way, she teaches at various events. This collection of student work was from a polymer clay tapestry class she taught at the SAMA (Society of American Mosaic Artists)<\/a> conference in Nashville just a few of weeks ago. They are all just lovely. There is no high-end technical skill needed to put these types of things together which makes them ideal for exploring color and texture and just letting yourself go. (You can check Laurie\u2019s workshop schedule<\/a> on her website.)<\/p>\n

Jael Thorp<\/a> caught my eye some years back with her \u201cclay doodles\u201d, including the one below. I thought they looked like zentangles for clayers. Can you imagine the flow state she must\u2019ve been in to create this? You can just get so completely lost in this kind of work and that is a big part of why people find tiles such a wonderful creative outlet.<\/p>\n

Check out this<\/a> post with her various doodles from some years back. She went on to refine her technique, making beautiful beads and home decor with the same type of application. You can find them on her Flickr photostream<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s move from polymer to ceramics now. It is a rare thing in ceramics that can\u2019t be replicated in some fashion in polymer so I find ceramic art quite inspiring. Here is one of my favorite tile makers in ceramics, Chris Gryder<\/a>, who has gone a bit more three-dimensional of late but his tile compositions are timeless.<\/p>\n

In this composition, each tile is its own separate piece but he\u2019s connected them all with these lines that he creates through the grid of tiles. So, really, you can make a whole bunch of tiles without worrying about what they\u2019re going to end up as, and then, if you want to put them together as a composition because they have a similar or complementary set of color palettes, textures, or motifs, you can use lines that flow throughout to visually connect them for a larger composite composition. This approach would allow you to just make tiles as the muse directs and then you can later make them into a larger wall piece.<\/p>\n

If you like this piece, go browse through his website<\/a> or his Instagram page<\/a> for more fantastic inspiring wall compositions in tile.<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

Keep in mind, just because tiles start out flat, they are not two-dimensional and you can create extremely three-dimensional pieces on them. Here\u2019s one example with some very organic forms and textures created by Lauren Blakey<\/a>, another ceramic artist.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

And here\u2019s another three-dimensional example in glass by Shayna Leib<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

As you can see, tile work is open to all types of materials so keep that in mind as you sit down to tile. Mix in anything that your heart and muse desires. Mix and match mediums, embed oddball trinkets you’ve kept for, as yet, unknown reasons, and just keep an open mind.<\/p>\n

After pulling these examples for you, I realized that all the examples are squares here. You don\u2019t have to create square tiles to play with but that is the more common form. However, if you\u2019re not feeling square, try a free form shape or an oblong one or maybe, because today is Mother\u2019s Day, create a big heart for all the mothers out there. Happy Mother\u2019s Day to all you amazing women!<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a heart from Tina Ruppert<\/a> of Wisecrackin\u2019 Mosaics on Etsy. Pick a favorite shape and a bunch of canes or other scraps of clay and you can do something along these lines as well.<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

Getting Squared Away <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to leave you with these thoughts and hopefully some curiosity about playing around with a tile or two, in whatever form and techniques interest you. If you need some jumpstart tutorials, here are a few places you can go:<\/p>\n

Sara Evans has a video about her tile making process here \u2013 https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9FAxYwgJfLo<\/a><\/p>\n

If you want to do something tile like but still want it to be something functional when done, maybe you would like this polymer clay tile box tutorial \u2013<\/p>\n

https:\/\/mermaidsden.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/12\/polymer-clay-tile-box<\/a><\/p>\n

Or have fun with one of our true masters of polymer clay tiles, Chris Kapono, with her very detailed and yet tremendously fun tile project in the Polymer Arts Projects book<\/a> which you can purchase and download digitally<\/a> if you need it immediately or order the print edition from our website.<\/a><\/p>\n

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

I opened with a discussion about doing what makes you happy and hope it gives you some food for thought. If you want to hear a couple of transformative stories in that vein, please be sure to get your copy of The Polymer Studio<\/em> Issue #2<\/a>, recently released, which starts and ends with stories about finding one\u2019s happy place with one about Christine Dumont\u2019s studio complete with a visual tour, and the other about Donna Greenberg\u2019s focus moving from jewelry to large wall art. Check out the Issue #2 Sampler<\/a> if you haven’t seen the new issues yet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We\u2019re daily trying to find are happy place over here as our house has continued to be demolished more and more, beyond what we (or our contractor) expected even. Old plumbing can be a tricky thing! If it would just warm up here, it wouldn\u2019t be so bad. A cold Southern California in May is just weird.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d share progress shots of the house but it\u2019s pretty much just down to studs and busted up concrete floors. Oh\u2026 And a large trench across the whole of the front yard for a new drain line. I\u2019m thinking about making it into a moat. Like a habitrail (if you remember those hamster houses) for our pond fish. They could just swim circles around the house! Okay, probably not but gotta have fun with all this bedlam, even if it\u2019s just dreaming up nonsense like that!<\/p>\n

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and Mother\u2019s Day! I\u2019m off to have mimosas with the family\u2019s fabulous females myself! Enjoy the day and your coming week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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