Whip up a gift

NinaStudioCaracas stirs up a polymer tableware collection on PolymerClayDaily.com

An interesting sculpture? A grouping of succulents? Nope! This is a Mother’s Day bonanza of wooden utensils with polymer-covered handles. You know how moms love it when you gift something that’s both handmade and utilitarian.

Venezuela’s NinaStudioCaracas specializes in wooden cooking utensils and tableware embellished with polymer. Here they are on Instagram.

We’ve stirred up a delicious bunch of tips, tools, and trends for Saturday’s StudioMojo. And this week you’ll consider what your art has done for you lately. Fun stuff! Join us.

On a roll

Let’s ease into Monday with Oklahoma’s Katie Way (bullseyestudioart) rhythmically rolling polymer veneers for salad servers. At the top of the video, you can gaze at Katie’s supply of extruded circles just waiting to be sliced and applied to the next solid color backing.

Browse quickly through her Instagram and you’ll see how she covers switchplates, kitchen utensils, card cases – most anything that can take the heat. She works from her own distinct palette adding textures and paints to enhance the hand drawn effect.

Katie reminds us that polymer work can be rewarding even during Thanksgiving week. Go have some fun.

Local polymer clay finds

Two Ohio polymer clay artists in my local arts show make this a rich and easy Monday.

Pat Bolgar mixes seed beads, stones, silver and PMC in balanced and complementary ways. No element outweighs the others and the resulting textures hold your interest. Micro glass balls embedded in polymer on some of the beads give them an elegant touch.

Valerie Wright turns ordinary kitchen utensils into much more by covering handles with precise and impeccably finished polymer clay canework. Her counter-intuitive (and easy) method of creating fine stripes is explained in Barbara McGuire’s Creative Canes book.

You can see Valerie’s pieces and more of Pat’s work on the page I composed from pictures I took on my stroll around the show.

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