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.
Hot colors help Oxana Volkova (Oksoon) warm up the winter in Moscow (check out the pictures from pancake weekend). This brooch is a mix of bright felt colors with a multicolored organic growth of polymer at its center.
A similar oval brooch (below) looks like it has a bit of Stroppel cane next to felt. But the felt is faux, a texture achieved by attacking the polymer surface with a toothbrush!
Oxana includes an intriguing hollow bead experiment in her Flickr pictures. And this star is one of my favorites too. So much to look at!
If you had any tired or timid thoughts this Monday, prepare to lose them. This shot of exhuberant, exotic polymer beads, called Same Same But Different, comes from Thailand’s Aow Dusdee.
Her beads are made into simple necklaces here. Her more elaborate works mix beads and fibers and polymer in constructions that drape the body.
Aow has added new images of “my crafty home” to her Flickr site. Crochet and polymer and color surround her in an inviting tropical home. Polymer beads hang in the doorways, pair up with tassels and embellish sculptures. Colors that might seem garish in other settings fit perfectly here.
It’s a big world out there and there are many, many ways to express yourself with polymer. A page from her sketchbook reads, “Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.” Happy Monday!
by Cynthia Tinapple on February 29, 2012 · 3 comments
Some polymer artists aren’t content to just wear polymer, they have to live with it. New York’s Joan Israel and Germany’s Mareike Scharmer are two who surround themselves with color. They revel in bright patterns in quirky flavors.
Joan is partial to bottles and paintings. Give her a shapely bottle and she’ll give you back a masterpiece. This encrusted small ceramic pot is a current example.
Recently Mareike Scharmer has been adding polymer slices to vessels too. She’s added wildly colored canes to a mailbox, her toilet seat, a lampshade and a bunch of ceramic vessels. And she jumped into the granny square craze! Mareike designs interiors aimed at sparking children’s imaginations.
Hang on to your hat as you cruise through Joan and Mareika’s Flickr sites. These artists embrace color and believe that more is better.
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.
