by Cynthia Tinapple on April 18, 2012 · 5 comments
Last time we checked in on Elena Samsonova she was playing with salt and pepper. Now she’s into chips…as in this necklace made from 300 thin polymer chips imprinted with French postage stamp transfers.
Let’s applaud her tenacity. Her story (Moscow to Brooklyn, child psychologist to artist) and her website are full of twists and treats.
My late-night cruise through your websites also netted these story beads from Erin Prais-Hintz. She encircles a tube bead with a familiar saying, favorite lyrics, names or dates stamped into polymer.
Erin incorporates these message beads into wistful Simple Truth pendants, endearing wearable reminders. Erin is part of this month’s Storybook project over at the Vintag blog where they’ll be featuring an interview with her and offering giveaways of some of her pendants.
by Cynthia Tinapple on April 17, 2012 · 6 comments
Serbian artists Milena Babic and Miloš Samardžic teamed up to share their cubist-like vision in polymer in pieces like this Face Up brooch.
Their Tramps and Glams are their interpretation of silent film stars, charming tramps and other surreal characters. You can see the pictures that inspire them on their blog and some additional pictures on Flickr.
Though the duo has been collaborating since 2008, it looks like they’ve just jumped into the digital pool (FB and Twitter) where you’ll want to watch them. Thanks to Alice Stroppel for the link.
by Cynthia Tinapple on April 16, 2012 · 8 comments
Susan Waddington of Polydogz does many things well. What I found myself stuck on as I cruised through her galleries was her ingenious bails for pendants, some from years past, some new.
Integrating polymer bails into pendant design is quite a trick and Susan’s mastered it. She’s fond of using a paper-bead type construction which she camoflages with decorative coverings as in the shield shape with textured folded circle shown here. Layers of patterns form connections that fit seamlessly into her collages of polymer pattern.
You can see more examples on a sister site here and on Etsy here.
How lovely to end the week with Kathleen Dustin’s Layered Fragment brooch. Kathleen explains, almost apologizes, that her focus is changing from narrative and representational to abstract.
“It seems to me that truly abstract work probably most reflects our humanness because it is based on spirit and what we do not see or know. Narrative or representational work is based on what we see and know. It has been a true challenge for me to make work not based on what I see or know,” she says.
Though her focus may change, her reliance on ways of translucent layering that she developed remains. Breath-taking washes of color pull you in as scribbles of metal float in and out of the frame. This new direction forces other changes and she asks for your suggestions here.
