Californian Dotty McMillan (here’s her latest book) showed me these bobbin beads she developed using a stash of old sewing machine parts from her fabric store manager daughter. Dotty was pleased to see a photo of Cynthia Toops’ bobbin necklace in Polymer Clay Color Inspirations. “We don’t do them the same, but it was good to see someone else had thought about using them and I wasn’t nuts,” says Dottie.
Here are links to four more examples (1, 2, 3, 4). She’s written a how-to article on the beads for a spring edition of Bead and Button magazine.
Dotty reminded me about our original online polymer group on the ancient Prodigy network. What year was that? Does anyone remember?
by Cynthia Tinapple on October 22, 2009 · 4 comments
Thyrza Segal of Vancouver arrived at polymer clay after ten years in set design and costuming. Now she works on much smaller sets. Her plantscapes combine terrariums, vintage glassware and polymer clay sculptures into miniature organic dioramas.
Thyrza gathers glassware and ceramics from local thrift stores and fills them with succulents, minature tropicals, mosses and air plants. What brings the plantscapes to life are the sculptures – alien figurines and fantasy plants sculpted from polymer clay.
This combination of green-conscious, recycled, fantasy and sculpture is one terrific example of the future of crafts that experts envisioned at the conference I attended last week.
by Cynthia Tinapple on October 1, 2009 · 4 comments
If, like me, you overlooked the hands-on classes that have been added to the Synergy2 lineup, be sure to look again. There are some gems being offered before and after the Baltimore conference.
The trick is that you have to contact the instructor directly (or his/her website) to get in on the deal.
Check out these whimisical narrative sculptures from Leslie Blackford’s “Off With Your Head!” class on the Tuesday before the conference. Their heads are built over small lightbulbs and you can change their head/body combinations to suit your mood.
If you’ve never seen Leslie conjure up creatures from a heap of polymer clay scraps, you’re in for a treat. Her spontaneous, direct way of bringing an idea to life will light your imagination. Here’s her Deviant site and here’s her email.
It’s rare to have access to this many top-notch teachers. The rest of the hands-on class roster includes: Seth Savarick, Tracy Holmes, Bettina Welker, Dan Cormier, Robert Dancik. Add to that the Cabin Fever Clay Fest workshops and their long list of experts. Take a class and your head will be spinning like the ones on Leslie’s sculptures!
by Cynthia Tinapple on September 10, 2009 · 7 comments
These party animals from Virginia’s Denise Baldwin (OddImagination) were built over burned out lightbulbs.
We looked at Denise’s bugs three years ago but then I lost track of her until she was prompted by last week’s post about lightbulbs to share some of her own work built over recycled bulbs. Denise’s recent work is large and sophisticated but, true to her name, still odd.
She has a blog and an Etsy gallery as well as a rich pbase site of older work.
Californian Dotty McMillan (here’s her latest book) showed me these bobbin beads she developed using a stash of old sewing machine parts from her fabric store manager daughter. Dotty was pleased to see a photo of Cynthia Toops’ bobbin necklace in Polymer Clay Color Inspirations. “We don’t do them the same, but it was good to see someone else had thought about using them and I wasn’t nuts,” says Dottie.
