{"id":3199,"date":"2013-04-22T14:00:48","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T20:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daveonline.net\/thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/?p=3199"},"modified":"2013-04-22T12:09:05","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T18:09:05","slug":"mapping-translucents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/mapping-translucents\/","title":{"rendered":"Mapping Translucents"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week I thought I’d focus on translucent clay. Why? Well, maybe because I was in my studio looking at the as yet unopened bars of Pardo translucent I ordered a while ago that I still haven’t had a chance to play with. I do love writing about polymer art but, sheesh, it’s keeping me out of the studio far too much lately!<\/p>\n

So since it will be a couple more weeks before I can play with the translucent ideas in my own head, let’s talk about it. What is it about translucent clay that make it so special? Well, I would say it’s probably because unlike all our opaque clays, translucents are about playing with light. Whether it has been sculpted, colored or layered, translucent clay allows light to pass through it (in varying degrees) which can give forms interior shadows and dimension, make colors glow, and give a layered surface depth and added detail–all unique and beautiful effects.<\/p>\n

Here is a pair of earrings by\u00a0Agn\u00e8s<\/a> (aka Primatoide <\/a>on Flickr) where the use of the translucent clay allows light to filter through the image transfers of a tiny map colored by oil paints. The images absolutely glow, making the earring look like small lamps.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Although the image of the earrings here is quite beautiful, there is one issue. Would these be able to catch the light when worn? If the wearer had short hair or hair pulled back it might. It’s hard to say. Light needs space to play through and around. Without the play of light what do these look like? My guess would be that there would still be a patterning of white and blue and the clever, stylish wire work the polymer hangs from make for an interesting overall form. But when working with translucents, it helps to consider whether light will be available to show off your design if its very much dependent on the viewer seeing the transparency.<\/p>\n

We’ll touch on more ways to use translucents throughout the week as I work madly on getting the next issue of The Polymer Arts magazine together. I suppose I should warn you that I might be a little tired and my blogging might get a little silly but bear with me. I promise we’ll have lots of beautiful work to\u00a0ogle so we don’t need to depend on my ramblings for entertainment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week I thought I’d focus on translucent clay. Why? Well, maybe because I was in my studio looking at the as yet unopened bars of Pardo translucent I ordered a while ago that I still haven’t had a chance to play with. I do love writing about polymer art but, sheesh, it’s keeping me…<\/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":[948,17,92,166,931,949,950,12,11,16,399,829],"class_list":["post-3199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirational-art","tag-agnes","tag-design","tag-earrings","tag-jewelry","tag-jewelry-art","tag-light","tag-lighting","tag-polymer-art","tag-polymer-clay","tag-the-polymer-arts-magazine","tag-translucent","tag-translucents"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2O0Lm-PB","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3199","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=3199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}