by Cynthia Tinapple on March 28, 2012 · 9 comments
Dayle Doroshow’s Rounds are playful accumulations of layers and cane slices and they remind me of the playtimes that Dayle and I have had together. These pieces began as companion pins for her fabric collages.
She added center pieces but abandoned that idea when someone said they resembled breasts. She set the work aside.
Over time the designs were revived with more slices and fiddling. They seemed to play nicely with each other. Notice the stamped scrap beads she uses as spacers in the resulting necklace.
Dayle practices what she preaches in our Creative Sparks book (now available as a download). She shares many tricks for stalking your muse and for teasing each project to a happy conclusion.
by Sage Bray and Maggie Maggio on March 22, 2012 · 49 comments
Measuring Thickness on Pasta Machines
You can help create a Standard Thickness Guide for the polymer community by reading the measuring instructions and filling out an easy survey form by March 31, 2012. All participants will be entered in a drawing for two prizes.
Let’s do it
Don’t you think it’s time we establish a standard way to refer to the thickness of sheets of clay? A few months ago Sage published an article in The Polymer Arts magazine that suggested a playing card method. Then independently on her blog Maggie proposed a metric stacking method that makes it easier to get metric measurements by stacking sheets to be measured by a ruler. Both methods generated many comments. The common theme was “let’s do it!”
Two methods
Developing a standard is not an easy task. We aren’t working with precision tools or a precision material. Thicknesses produced on pasta machines aren’t consistent even between the same models. Polymer itself can increase in thickness after being rolled, bouncing back a small percentage when left to rest.
However, we’ve found in the variety of machines we tested that they can all produce sheet thicknesses that measure between 1 mm to 2.5 mm. We’d like to recommend that teachers and writers keep references to sheet thickness in this common range. That way students and readers will be able to duplicate their instructions on whatever pasta machine they own.
Measuring sheet thickness in mm is fairly precise, but requires access to calipers or time to go through Maggie’s stacking method. Knowing there isn’t usually time and rarely a caliper in a classroom, we tested the fast and easy playing card system and found the common range to be 3-8 cards.
To confirm our findings, we would love to get results from polymer artists from all over the world. You can help us finalize a Standard Thickness Guide by taking a few minutes to measure your machine and fill out an online poll.
As a thank you to those who pitch in, we will put you in a drawing for one of two items–A $20 gift certificate towards copies or a subscription to The Polymer Arts magazine or a copy of Maggie and Lindly Haunani’s book Color Inspirations.
PCDaily will publish the results of the poll and share the final version of our Pasta Machine Thickness Guide in an upcoming guest post. Thank you for helping.
by Cynthia Tinapple on January 2, 2012 · 7 comments
“Paciorky means necklace or beads in Ukrainian,” says Christine Bondar (dzjunka online). Christine’s extruded and carved Amazon River polymer beads offer variations on techniques spread by Vera Kleist and Margit Böhmer.
You’ll see developments in that part of the world on Maria Petkova’s Bulgarian blog that features artists mostly from Eastern Europe as polymer continues to gain popularity.
I’ll be writing a book on global polymer this year and I’m interested in hearing your ideas on what the story should be about. And I’d love to learn about new artists you’ve run into. We’re off and running into 2012!
by Cynthia Tinapple on December 27, 2011 · 9 comments
The “mocha” gallery on Maine artist Suzanne Anderson’s YIKES! gallery drew me in as I lazily cruised the web today. You may be tempted by any one of Suzanne’s color pages. These bangles look like a good way to use up bits of pattern and color as you clean out your studio for the new year.
Fretting about what lies ahead? Tory Hughes offers some words of inspiration for 2012 on her site.
Christine Damm is busy using up the orphans and odd bits in her studio. I’m partial to these Carpathia earrings and wonder if there could be anything that magical among my scraps.
If you’re ready for a master class to catapult you into the new year, look no further than the new online book and master class offered by Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes. The layout of the book is inspired, the lessons detailed and engaging, and the concept is spot-on.
Die-forming is an important trend for polymer art in 2012. Dan and Tracy are offering a package deal on the book and must-have tools for the rest of this week!
Dayle Doroshow’s Rounds are playful accumulations of layers and cane slices and they remind me of the playtimes that Dayle and I have had together. These pieces began as companion pins for her fabric collages.
