Monday lessons from Uliczny and Campbell

Michigan’s Christi Uliczny (RiverValleyDesign) combines pearlex powders, alcohol inks and gold leaf with two different clays to create these shimmering Rocky Path earrings.

When I saw that her tutorial detailing the process is available I jumped on it. I’m a klutz with powders and inks and need all the help I can get. Her method is straightforward and clearly explained. I’ll start my week with a lesson.

Sculpture lessons

Heather Campbell shows her work step-by-step in a recent post. Starting with two candlesticks, toe shoes and hat boxes, Heather builds an amazing polymer-covered sculpture for Utah Ballet West’s annual “Shoe In”. This small photo doesn’t do the piece justice. It’s the kind of art that’s best appreciated up close.

Friday love letter

We haven’t done any polymer hearts this week and there are plenty to share. The bracelet is copper and clay cold-connected by Sharon Solly. The flower-embellished versions are from Randee Ketzel. Angeli Sobrepena‘s have wings. And one of Meredith Dittmar’s newest My Guys looks poised for romance and mischief.

A Friday love letter comes from Irene Hoiles in the UK by way of Helen Cox. Irene made the polymer covered letters for her youngest granddaughter.

Irene said, “I have been confined to bed for most of December following two lots of spinal surgery which is very frustrating with the craft room next door, but web sites like polymer clay daily saved my sanity.” What a nice valentine! Have a lovely weekend.

Miniature polymer abstracts

In these new beads from Berkeley’s Selena Anne Wells the color comes from small surprise vintage glass cabochons embedded in black or faux ivory polymer, stained and buffed to look aged. Her mastery of simple and intricate sculptural and texturing techniques is impressive.

Digging deeper into her Flickr history gives you a peek at her other interests – masks, faces, kaleidoscopes. Though she doesn’t reveal much in words, her art tells an engaging story.

She calls her small pieces miniature abstract wearable art.

Kimle’s perfect pairings

I stumbled into some new works that continue our mixed media theme.

“I created these beads as an exercise in color and pattern,” says Iowa’s Patricia Kimle. “My goal was to skate along the fine line between ugly color combinations and a sophisticated palette that works.”

She used metal clay and hand drawn molds to create the silver feathers that are riveted to the polymer. The feathers create the focus and push the colors and patterns into the background. The beads are in an exhibit at her local art center. See more on her website and her Etsy page.

Kimle's polymer easter egg Iowa statehouse dome

Patricia will be teaching at the Bead and Button show in June and her second book, Perfectly Paired: Designing Jewelry with Polymer and Metal Clays will be released in April.

Taking a trip down memory lane and longing for spring, Patricia shares a picture of a polymer Easter egg of the Iowa Statehouse dome that she prepared for the White House in 2000. I couldn’t resist including it.

Mixing media

Mixed media enthusiast Pam Sanders got an idea from Tish Collins (via PCDaily, yay). As Pam looked at Tish’s work she was, “…very impressed by her use of her artwork in with her polymer clay work. I thought …DUH…why don’t I do that?”

Pam began bringing transfers of her own digital art to her polymer pieces and you can see how the move enriched her style. Pam’s polymer images also show up in her digital work, a nice yin and yang balance that makes a strong personal statement.

There’s been lots of talk about collaboration lately and maybe it’s time we started collaborating with ourselves, integrating other areas of our lives into our polymer art.

Paths to color

Belgium’s Nicole (NiQui) brings us chunks of color to jolt us into a new week.

Germany’s Margit Bohmer starts us off with a graphic polymer necklace dotted in primary colors that she says is an easy one to make.

France’s Céline Charuau (GrisBleu) startles us with a bright polymer and metal poppy.

There’s no escaping color this week even if the snow is all around us. Thumb through these three artists’ sites and you’ll how they share a love of color and take three very different approaches to making it part of their designs.

Polymer dipped fabrics from O’Neill

O'Neill's liquid polymer dipped gauze cuff

Susan O’Neill (11BoldStreet) brings us a Friday smack-your-forehead moment with her bracelet made of liquid-polymer-soaked fabric wrapped around a faux stone.

O’Neill tinted white gauze with alcohol inks, dipped the gauze in liquid polymer clay, shaped it around a form and baked it. Brilliant!

Check her Etsy and Flickr sites for more views of her creations. Thanks to Doreen Willey for tipping us off to this technique that will keep us thinking all weekend.

Ford/Forlano add blog

The Ford/Forlano duo have added a blog to their newly renovated website just in time for their Synergy presentation and the opening of their show at Snyderman-Works Galleries in Philadelphia.

The show features the new jewelry and print/painting collaborations of the Steven Ford and David Forlano who carry on a back and forth dialog between Santa Fe and Philadelphia.

Ford/Forlano Calder-inspired polymer pin

Steve says that he’s, “…excited about what’s happening with our print/painting collaborations. And some of that imagery is coming back into the clay work as well.” Read the story of how the new line of pins began with a mistake.

And leave them a comment to welcome them to blogland.

Hankerin’ for polymer hearts

Brady, Segal, Holden, Unknown, Friesen polymer clay hearts

Need another dose of romance, polymer style? The faux tooled leather is from Marlene Brady. That’s Marie Segal’s “I Heart You” note to husband Howard. A very modern Tina Holden pierces hers.

The flowered heart was so frilly and happy that I scooped it into my heart folder in big hurry and didn’t identify the artist. It’s Dominique Lavigueur’s!

Christi Friesen’s watercolor-meets-punk version showed up on her new Etsy site.

You simply must visit Tejae Floyde’s Flickr site to get the full heart experience. Her encased hearts with hidden messages are full of mystery and surprise.

Following the polymer muse

Lynda Moseley (DivaDesigns) turned to polymer’s faux techniques when her creativity hit the doldrums. “I did some research and discovered there are six colors of natural jade – black, red, green, yellow, white and lavender,” she reports. These softly glowing specimens are the result of her research.

Funny how the right side of the brain (where the muse lives) gets freed up when we revisit the left (where the scientist studies). You can see more of Lynda’s experiments here.

Construction dust

I’ve been tapping into my inner code monkey, creating a new fan page and adding Twitter to smooth our communications and sort my non-polymer family from the art addicts. Forgive the tests and duplicate requests, the result of over-anxious fingers that run ahead of my brain.

Please join the adventure by clicking the appropriate buttons. Let’s try some new stuff. PCDaily will be right here if you get lost in the shuffle.

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