Expect flowers this week. We’re in bloom and they’re popping up online too!
These earrings from Czech Republic’s Pavla Cepelikova (SaffronAddict) use her subtle stripe tricks from a recent tutorial. (Full disclosure, I bought the tutorial and am hooked.)
Thin slices of striped cane are backed by companion colors which are repeated in the center balls. Springy, trendy, blooming studs to start your week.
Emily Squires Levine’s dense and colorful Magical Copse bowl will be among the artworks for sale at the Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington DC April 26-29.
She joins a select group of polymer artists in this premier crafts show. From over 1000 applicants,120 are chosen to participate. We’ve come a long way from hippie beads to welcomed participants in fine crafts. See more of Emily’s works on Flickr.
At StudioMojo, the weekend behind-the-scenes newsletter, we marvel at where artists are showing and where we may end up next. If your art needs a shot of inspiration and a push toward new possibilities, join us!
California’s Meisha Barbee took Carol Simmons flower class when Carol came to San Diego in early April. You can spot Carol’s refined kaleidoscopic methods in a heartbeat.
Meisha carried out the project in her own distinctive palette and with a quirky stripe here and a peppy dot there.
Her palette of colors mixed with Carol’s instructions look perfect on PCD on a colorful spring day.
See Meisha’s interesting history on PCDaily.
Paris’ Cécile Bos (11prunes) worked as a biology researcher before she happened on polymer. Her approach to caning is small, as you might expect, and resembles textile design. You can catch the drift of her thinking from this photo collage on her website.
Blocks of small designs on a matching background are created and then combined into a repeating design.
The finished patterns are quite delicate and small, just the right size for her delicate pendants and long thin tubes. She’s on Instagram and Facebook.
Mid-week is the right time to think about changing directions. Cecile has opted for smaller and more delicate works.
Minnesota’s Jan Geisen considers herself an improv artist. The scraps interest her much more than neat and tidy patterns.
Here she jumps on the wire trend and a wire ring comes to the front and then the back of this unusual layered necklace with circles and rough edges. See all of her improvisations on Flickr.
The layers of Prague’s Jana Honnerova’s Wavy Ball fold over each other in a languid motion that pulls us into the week.
Look at the designs that she’s been trying. Which is your favorite? Her prototypes are mostly on IG and haven’t made it to her Etsy shop yet.
There’s a brooch or earring version on Flickr. Perhaps there’s a tutorial in the works.
Chicago’s Marina Rios (Fanciful Devices) ran out of good rocks to wrap. She’s been trying Japanese basketry ornamentation over smooth river rocks. She weaves cane reed over the center and then subtly inks it for dimension.
With no more suitable smooth rocks to work on, Marina had no choice but to make her own art pods. She covers a foil form with polymer and then goes to town with silk screened, inked, crackled, faceted and gold leafed veneers. The pod hangs on a hammered and oxidized steel ring.
On Etsy and Instagram, Marina’s mix of media has a wonderfully calming effect.
Need more calming effects? Join the StudioMojo crowd on Saturday mornings where we dig below the surface to explore the behind-the-scenes discoveries that don’t fit on the daily menu at PCD. The odd, the new, the questions and the trends we’re dealing with. Fun stuff.
Something cheery has moved Germany’s Jana Lehmann in a new meandering direction.
Jana extrudes strands of marvelous color and builds modern designs by carefully laying them next to each other.
She adds extremely small dots of color as accents and surrounds the piece with a black and white frame.
The heart is made similarly with flat, graduated ribbons of polymer. These require dexterity and a love of small detail but they exude a joyousness that’s infectious and ready for spring. More on Facebook and Flickr.
My polymer radar did a little shiver when Silvia Ortiz De La Torre’s Mandala earrings popped up on Etsy.
Near the edges, the black shows up and frames the designs. The colors bounce off each other playfully. The hole in the middle offers a reprieve from the intensity of pattern. What a great use of all those bits of extruded (or handmade if you prefer) bits of cane.
The brains that Bordeaux’ Marina Sabio (TinySparks) sculpts in polymer appeal. I find myself trying to think up clever words to justify why her art tickles me.
No reason, no words. Sometimes we just like what we like. Maybe it’s because my extrusions often end up a ball looking suspiciously like one of these without the personality. She offers her brains in bloody and galactic.
If you need to give yourself a smile, explore further on her site, Etsy and IG.
