Imitating agate

Wallis on PCDaily

The UK’s Claire Wallis intrigues us with another smoothly blended cane. This time her cane layers imitate a blue lace agate geode. Made into a small brooch, it cradles a small pocket of crystals in its heart.

Claire’s recent Water and Lightning canes were recently explained in a tutorial offered on CraftArtEdu. She shares her inspirations on Pinterest and more photos on Flickr.

Rocky Tuesday

You may stop to admire the jewelry on Jan Geisen’s site. She mixes muted, organic surfaced polymer with geometric shapes to make her her signature work.

What stops me are Jan’s rocks. The surfaces and colors are almost superreal. They make me want to know what beach in Minnesota she’s been walking.

This series is all black and white and their rounded edges and muted colors have a soothing effect. Jan is able to achieve the same trick in many color ways as well as on her jewelry.

There’s more to see on Etsy, on Flickr and on her blog. Perhaps it’s Jan’s early jobs in photography and printmaking that gave her a sharp eye for detail.

Don’t be shy

Show us what you’ve extruded lately. Our Spring Push winners will be announced on Friday. You still have time to snap a photo of your work and send it in.

Birthstone polymer

October’s gemstone is opal, right? So why not continue our quest for a convincing fauxpal recipe? This one from Camille Young has me itching for a little exploration time in the studio. Her instructions are in the photo caption.

The number of Stroppel cane experiments appearing daily tells me that I’m not the only one who can’t resist trying a new technique.

If opals aren’t your thing, browse through Camille’s art folder. She’s one multi-talented sculptor, gamer and all-round artist.

How to beachcomb

Holland’s north coast has inspired Linda Ezerman to translate her beachcombing with polymer and felt. Smooth links, faceted chunks and flat pebbles are joined with felted wool into a wild wearable beach.

The carving and felting and lost wax techniques
that Linda shows on her exciting Flickr pages promise to take us polymer rock hounds in new directions.

Chandler’s out of this world polymer

Gera Scott Chandler has taken polymer rock making to the next level – inter-planetary. Her Martian rocks reveal colors and images from another planet. Click here to see one of her finished necklaces.

As a rock hound myself, it was gratifying when several artists attended our “Rockettes” session. They shared their secrets and compared their faux river rocks, beach stones and exotic pebbles. Gera’s were the most outlandish.

Gera was also the first one to spot a magical moose this week. Have a magical weekend.