Feel good Friday polymer

My new polymer alter ego from Erica Sturla may skip around the pages of PCD to dress up the place and brighten some nooks and crannies. (What a fun business expense!)

Today she’s waiting for you on the “How to get noticed” page.

A roof over our heads

Give yourself a feel good moment and take pride in the lives you helped improve as you watch this 3-minute video of progress on the Samunnat Raise the Roof campaign that you funded last year in Nepal.

The Samunnat Etsy shop is back online now that Wendy Moore has returned home to Australia with fresh inventory. Catch up with her and the ladies from Nepal on the blog, in the store and at KazuriWest.com. Thank you for your continuing support.

Guess who polymer

Recognize this artist? You won’t find this polymer Baby Groot on the Etsy or Ipernity or CraftArtEdu pages of Bettina Welker.

This Guardian of the Galaxy character (it’s the highest-grossing superhero film of 2014) was tucked into Bettina’s Facebook sculpture album. Her superhero sculpts are a guilty pleasure and I’m guessing they’re collaborations or commissions from her young son.

Sometimes it’s fun to stretch a different art muscle. Sculpting obviously tugs at Bettina’s creative heart and she’s good at it. Have you ventured out of your comfort zone lately?

Queen of Hearts polymer

Virginia’s Melissa Terlizzi reminds us that Valentines Day is around the corner with her Queen of Hearts sculpture. Melissa set out to make something dark and creepy with Tim Burton edginess but ended up with a wide-eyed innocent.

“I decided to go with it, and completely lost myself in the project. Even the Queen of Hearts must have been sweet once, right? Before she had her heart broken a few times, and started lopping off people’s heads,” she explains. See Melissa’s sculptures on Flickr and Facebook. It’s time to start considering hearts of all varieties.

Hypnotic polymer

You may need coffee to steady your nerves before you start on this optically challenging polymer cane from Helene Jeanclaude (Les ethiopiques).

Her free video tutorial makes this Checkered Hypnotic (Damier hypnotique) cane pattern deceptively simple and her step-by-step photos are clear enough that you do not need to speak French to follow along. (I know because I tried it.) She gathers soft edged hollow pillow beads made from the patterns into the necklace and ring shown below.

You’ll find much more on her blog (she offers a whole library of tutorials), Facebook, Pinterest, and on Flickr. Helene offers this new instruction as a bright spot in the dark days they’re experiencing in France. Merci!

Yesterday’s lucky earrings are available for anyone who needs them. Go Bucks!

Go bucks polymer

Never in ten years has your editor whipped up earrings for a PCD post but I live in Ohio. That means that I must post something in support of OSU’s big national championship football game tonight. My apologies to Oregon polymer fans.

The Ohio State University is relentless in quashing all copyright and design violations. They can’t own stripes, can they? While these are not great art, let’s hope this scarlet and gray interpretation contains some luck. (Quick and easy gifts are one of the reasons you got started in polymer too, right?)

My lunch companions will appreciate the free game day jewelry and I have fulfilled my obligation as a citizen of Ohio. Go Bucks!

Complex geometry

Simple geometry like Bonnie Bishoff’s can quickly move off course, take a turn and end up in the woods of Kentucky with Leslie Blackford.

Leslie loves snakes and she doesn’t see this necklace of polymer links as alarming at all. Her idea of geometry and nature may differ from yours and mine. (I snapped this picture of a piece that Leslie wasn’t sure others would appreciate.) Check out her King Snake necklaces at the bottom of this page.

Snakes pile up in the winter for warmth and mating and their patterns combine in a delightfully wearable way. She sees only the beauty of nature here.

This week of simple ideas ends on a profound and intriguing story. We see life in delightfully different ways, don’t we?

Photos to polymer

Syndee Holt took a favorite family snapshot, converted it to a sketch, printed it and transferred the image to polymer. (There are lots of sketch apps that can help those who don’t draw.) She added color with oil based pencils.

Cotton balls added behind the clay under the cheeks and the palm of the hand gave her son’s portrait soft dimension. “I wish you could see it in person, you can literally pinch those cheeks,” Syndee says. The sculpted photo was then layered onto a backing of torn-edged clay and displayed on a stand.

Is your phone full holiday photos begging to be turned into fine art?

We can all thank Donna Greenberg for masterminding the Artchain that has grown like wildfire on Facebook (#PolymerArtChallenge). Each artist posts five works and nominates five others to do the same. The exercise has started our 2015 with a big bump in the number of formerly unseen polymer works from around the globe. Like this one!

See more of Syndee on the Sculpey site, her blog, and Pinterest.

Simple geometry

Bonnie Bishoff keeps expanding her polymer jewelry line (she and her husband, J.M. Syron, are also known for their furniture and functional art). Her designs have gotten both more simple and more complex.

These recent pieces are comprised of wonky polymer-covered circles that are linked and stacked. The striped patterns vary in size and change directions with dashes of color playing against the black and white. Bonnie says that these black and white designs take her back to her woodcut days.

The new designs on her gallery page were sold at holiday shows in Boston and Washington. This one with half-filled circles is my favorite but it was too complex to silhouette for PCDaily (I’m not that crazy). The gallery is full of geometry that draws you in for a closer look.

Here’s Bonnie on Facebook and her line of shawl pins.

Fashionable geometry

Sydney’s Jayne Flanagan (nellsdottir) shows us another simple approach for 2015.

Jayne combines chunky, smooth, matte-finished shapes balanced by long tube beads. She paints repeating dots, stripes and checks on some of the beads using color and texture in spare and thoughtful ways.

Her bracelet designs mix a sturdy flat bangle shape with fat beads that look meant for teething.

No fancy tools or techniques are required for this fresh and trendy blend of color and geometry. You can see the whole range of Jayne’s designs on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Picbi and study some stunning larger pictures on her photographer’s portfolio site.

White wallflowers

Starting 2015 with a limited palette may appeal to those artists who want to approach the new year with calm and care.

California’s Angela Schwer rarely ventures beyond the white polymer she uses for her organic wall art.

Made to resemble the rare Corton Olympic dahlia, this 7″ bloom was arranged petal by petal on a base and created to hang on the wall. She also makes a 12″ version.

Angela explains her process and her choice of subject matter in this interview.

A stay-at-home mom, she sells on Etsy. In the past couple of years she’s moved into larger commissioned installations. You can see more in-process shots and new monogrammed letters on her Facebook page.

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