Two heads swivel

Muir on PCDaily

When Germany’s Bettina Welker and Scotland’s Melanie Muir realized that they’d hit upon the same solution to a polymer connection problem, they got in touch with each other and had a good laugh.

No one would confuse Bettina’s latest Swiveling Neckpiece with this new Standing Stones piece by Melanie but if you deconstructed them, you’d see that the engineering is remarkably similar. They independently worked the connection conundrum out in the same way at the same time.

Swivels and rivets have been around for a long time, of course. This particular solution was a technique whose time had come.

Two takeaways here: you’re part of a community that can solve differences in a frank and cordial way, and sometimes a solution arises in several places at the same time. No harm, no foul.

We can also agree that flawless execution makes everyone take notice. We’ve been searching for ways to hide the distraction of hardware and both these artworks feature polymer beautifully all by itself.

Riveting art

Welker on PCDaily

Germany’s Bettina Welker will show how she swivels in an April class in Barcelona. Her full-day class is all about playing with shape, color, texture, pattern, dimension and movement.

Bettina has a background in graphics that shines through her work. She’s also got an engineer’s brain and enjoys devising new ways of riveting, hinging and connecting in polymer.

Here’s her newest moving art and she explains that, “All the parts are connected in a hinge-like manner so that every little piece can move freely.”

Classes fill fast so you’ll want to check Bettina’s schedule to see where she’s teaching next. (She’s in the US this fall.) See more of her art on her Ipernity site and on Facebook.

Riveting polymer

Riveted bracelet

Calgary’s Susan White has been a jewellery maker for 15 years, transitioning from lampwork and metals to polymer and metals. Her etched copper links are accented with gilders paste.

Riveted earrings

The squares of pearlized polymer are riveted on. Below you can see her earrings with silver tubes riveted in the middle of lentil beads. More links here and here. Have a riveting weekend!