Three years ago I moved to a smaller community with no polymer clay guild. I decided the next best thing was to join the local bead society. I knew nothing about peyote stitch or making wrapped loops but hoped I would learn some new techniques that would enhance my polymer pieces.
Conversely the beaders were unfamiliar with polymer and I felt like I was an ambassador for the medium. 
In the past two years I’ve conducted several beginner workshops to the growing number of beaders and metal clayers interested in trying it out. I love how the exchange has worked both ways.
While those that know my work are aware I’ve had an interest in buttons and incorporate them in my work but now my stash of beads has grown exponentially. These two pieces from my Flickr site show the influence of my beading friends.
guest post by Helen Breil
by Cynthia Tinapple on February 25, 2011 · 9 comments
Big hollow polymer beads with inclusions are the latest creation from Christine Dumont who is also the founder of the popular European Voila Web site.
In the new beads small fluted “ossocopia” are embedded in the clay, with the tips of their horns protruding or with concave saucers recessed into layers of color, the newest twist in her sculptural approach to polymer beads.
Christine has been teaching workshops online and in several countries. Her butterfly beads flutter all over Europe. She’ll be teaching at Polymer Pamper Play in the UK in March. I hope your weekend is filled with lots of pamper and play.
by Cynthia Tinapple on January 19, 2011 · 4 comments
These Ford/Forlano polymer beads were bought by collector Daphne Farago in 1999. She gave her collection to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston in 2006 and the Big Beads appear in the new book, Jewelry by Artists.
The Big Bead series is still ongoing and both Dave and Steve create them, giving each bead character yet working toward a unified design. Steve says, “Dave’s beads play with opaque and translucent cane slices to add depth to the surface, while my beads are always opaque and very graphic, emphasizing a variety of textures contrasting baked and re-baked clay layers.”
These early necklaces were all-polymer. Steve adds, “The clasp is a screw-type brass clasp, covered in clay, with a technique that Pier Voulkos used and taught. The beads are formed over an aluminum foil core, another ingenious Voulkos innovation.”
Ford/Forlano have also posted a stunning picture of their latest Hydro-Top pins in which patterns in the formed metal (by metalsmith Maryanne Petrus) are repeated and expanded in polymer.
by Cynthia Tinapple on December 21, 2010 · 5 comments
After a year of experimenting with hollow polymer tubes, Ford/Forlano are debuting their latest creations with more here.
Steve says, “For months, I’ve been playing with the form, and emailing pics to David in Santa Fe for his reaction. Mostly, we agreed that there was an interesting, if creepy, wormy quality to the early incarnations that we finally overcame with more practice and experimentation.”
Those of us who have followed this duo for a few years may detect a return to the cartoon quality of their early works. The inside out color adds a dash of intrigue.
