Heart sampler

This sampling of hearts from your friends and online buddies was assembled for you PCD readers as a valentine.

You’ll also see Ron Lehocky’s collection of favorite hearts made in his project’s nearly 10-year history. His total has reached 29,600. Now that’s true love! You can purchase hearts and help the KidsCenter by emailing Ron or contacting him on Facebook.

In case you missed his how-to video, watch here as Ron and his hands tell the story.

A caption is incorrect! The third pair of earrings are Louise Smith’s (Swanwalk), not StaciLouise. Got my Smiths mixed.

Broken hearts

This Broken Heart from Christine Damm has it all – spikes and blood, distressing and piercing, a hole that’s crudely mended. It radiates both pain and excitement. The wires wiggle like new shoots.

The only clue Christine offers is the Kahlil Gibran quote that accompanies the photo on Pinterest, “How shall my heart be unsealed unless it be broken?”

Throughout the season I gather a stash of polymer hearts that I’ll share with you tomorrow. This one, however, deserved a category all its own and a day to think about broken hearts.

Celtic cutout bowl

Vermont’s Mags Bonham has some techno tricks up her sleeve that she’ll be teaching on Friday evening at the Cabin Fever confab in Maryland. The polymer layers for this 4″ green bowl were drawn on her computer and cut with her Silhouette machine.

Here she builds up contrasting layers to boost the thin clay’s strength. The bowl has a Celtic look perfect for St. Patricks Day.

Mags started running polymer through her cutter in order to make the hops charms that she creates for her beer gear. She sells beer-themed items on Etsy and on the artisan beer circuit.

Mags expanded her repertoire to flowers and has taught a Silhouette/polymer how-to lesson on Craftcast. Now she’s adding bowls. What next? Read more on her Facebook page, on Flickr and on Pinterest.

Polymer tropical breezes

Jeff Dever is premiering new pieces that blow in on tropic breezes. These gems are for the BIJOUX! 2015 in West Palm Beach, Florida. It’s the fourth annual exhibition and sale of The Norton Museum of Art. The earrings and bangle shown here are part of Jeff’s offerings.

Forty-four international contemporary jewelry artists were invited to the event which runs from February 25 to March 1.

See the rest of Jeff’s new work on his Facebook page and catch his We Are SNAG: Identity entries on the Society of North American Goldsmiths’ site.

More than one way with polymer

No cane slices were combined to create Barb Fajardo’s latest experiment! For this 4″ diameter bowl she’s using her Mandala Flora technique that includes a clever mix of cut and replace plus texture and paint.

It’s a welcome departure from the usual. (Remember her last bowl experiment?) We sometimes forget that with polymer there’s always more than one way to get the results you want. Start a week full of possiblities.

While her site is undergoing a makeover, you can find Barb on Flickr, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Who’s got the button

Angelika Arendt’s Purple Swan was at the end of a wild goose chase. You can see how her sculptures were a natural progression from her lush, dense drawings. Angelika’s catalog and collections are fascinating and impressive. This juicy purple polymer ends the week on a bright note.

I hesitate to send you on the same wild goose chase I fell into. But it’s Friday and you have the whole weekend to get lost in wonderful, colorful links so here goes. Scotland’s Buttons by McAnaraks Facebook page was where the road to Angelika began.

Fran Harkes and Steve Cormack make resin buttons and they pull inspiration from textiles, fibers, ceramics, polymer and whatever. Their posts lead you to an eclectic mix of styles and media pulled together by a great eye for pattern and color. I was surprised to find my own art there!

I forced myself to stop looking/linking or I’d never get this post written. McAnaraks’ Pinterest boards continue the fun and they sell their buttons on Etsy and on their site. Enjoy a colorful wild ride this weekend.

Evolving bangles

Two flat sculpted bangles caught my eye. Similar designs with very different treatments.

The first is from Pennsylvania’s Staci Smith (stacilouiseoriginals). She’s happy to be back to polymer after nursing a sore shoulder. “This was one of those things I couldn’t stop sketching or thinking about. It’s a practice bracelet.”

She shares some in-process shots on her blog and Facebook. She’s also published articles in the latest issues of Belle Armoire and ClothPaperScissors.

The second was from Czech Republic’s Eva Haskova who wrapped extruded elements into a shape that looks like the structure of a chemical element with random holes and connected particles. You can see more of her stylish discoveries on her site, Flickr and Facebook. Here’s her quick free video too.

These concepts made me want to revisit the extruded flat heart I played with a few years back. The flat bangle evolution continues.

Cloud, rain and trees

This award winning Cloud, Rain and Trees by Virginia’s Wiwat Kamolpornwijit combines both more structured and more organic elements than the necklaces usually created by this environmental researcher turned polymer artist.

Wiwat had been a winner in the 2011 and 2013 Niche awards and a finalist in the Saul Bell Awards in 2011. He took the top 2015 Niche Award in the professional polymer clay category with this neckpiece.

The luscious color on his latest work on Facebook looks like another move from a limited palette to one with more echos of Thailand. Wiwat doesn’t give us many clues but you can sense that 2015 may be his year and there are changes ahead.

Polymer beach finds

Sandra Deyoung Niese’s (DandyBeads) imitative beach finds look appealing on her Etsy site at this time of year. She lives in Michigan but her heart and her polymer designs live in a warmer climate.

This 2″ wire-wrapped pendant is painted with sea blue and sand acrylics and delicately distressed with sea urchin patterns.

If you need some sun and sand to brighten your day, look at Sandra’s beautifully wave-washed polymer pieces on Facebook and Pinterest. This one’s sold. I’m wearing a pretty piece of beach on a cord to ward off snow. It’s not working but I don’t care.

Telltale polymer heart

Christine Damm’s hearts are wild and spontaneous and very much her. She’d like you to throw away all your templates and cutters!

Christine explains to her students that, “Your piece will become truly unique only if you address every single aspect of its design and source or design it yourself. That means devising your own shapes and forms whenever possible.”

She recommends a quick-sketching method to discover your own heart. “The shape itself means something to us culturally and anthropologically on a subconscious level. It’s also a very universal symbol.”

Before you start cutting out polymer hearts this week, doodle a page or two of your own valentines. You may find that your heart is in a different place and has taken on a new shape in 2015. Christine wears her heart on Pinterest, her site and Flickr.

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