Bonding

While Anne White has plenty of lovely polymer clay eye candy on her Blue Dog Beads and Flickr sites, what intrigues me most is her "cremains" pendant and keepsake beads.

For the keepsake beads, Anne mixes dried flower petals from a customer’s significant event with polymer clay and creates beads from the mix. For this "cremains" pendant, she embedded a few of the cremated ashes of a friend’s pet.

While this is certainly a step beyond mixing spices, dirt, or crayons into clay, it’s a rather nice memento. And I for one like the idea of being forever bonded with polymer clay.

You can blame Kim Cavender for sending this link to start us thinking this week.

Copy Cat

Uh-oh…this always happens. I’m so smitten with a piece of polymer clay art that I must try it myself. Naturally I started looking at doll sculpture tutorials after yesterday’s post.

Deborah McCain offers a step-by-step face sculpting tutorial on her site as well as some full-body lessons. She makes it look so easy.

McCain’s links also took me to a supplier who sells baby body and face push molds. Luckily, reading all this information has rid me of the urge to sculpt and given me a greater appreciation of others’ talents. Have a lovely weekend.

Captivated

I’m skeptical about this post because I know little about doll artists and because I’m simply captivated by these polymer clay babies by Cynthia Malbon.

Malbon sells resin versions of her works to a wider market and her name somehow always appears with Richard Simmons. I learned little about the artist herself and that makes me nervous.

Be that as it may, I am fascinated by the realism achieved by great doll makers like Malbon, Camille Allen, Jodi and Richard Creager, Annie Wahl and others listed on the NAIDA site.

If you can tell us more about this artist, please send your comments along. Thanks to Barbara Fajardo for the link.

Early Works

More history from Hollie’s collection. I wonder if you can identify this artist’s early work.

The pin on the right is an early 3D diorama from a series that the artist continued for several years. And the full-size mask is covered with a delightful variety of face cane and pattern slices.

Click here to go the artist’s current site. Surprised?

Bird Flu

Sandra Diniz’ Portugese site is a bit of a mystery to me. First the name, BigNeck, and the jumbled translation threw me for a loop. But her color sense, her wild abandon, the media mixes and the strange interplay of themes are exciting.

For instance, Sandra’s "Bird Flu" necklace is made with handmade polymer clay beads – roosters, ducks, fried egg, baked chicken, and other wood and paper maché beads as well as crocheted flowers. Check out the unselfconscious playful pieces throughout her site.

Many thanks to Lisa Clarke for leading us to this emerging artist.

Roots

Hollie Mion and I spent the day in her studio taking pictures of the over 400 pieces in her extensive polymer clay collection amassed over the past 20 years. Hollie ended the day with a digital record of her treasures and I came home with a treasure trove of pictures with which to tantalize you.

You’ll enjoy seeing early works like these Pier Voulkos earrings and pin assembled using telephone wire that fuses with the clay. And this tripod sculpture of Pier’s is one of Hollie’s favorite pieces. (Pier has returned to her career in dance.)

An introduction to our old polymer clay friends may help you appreciate the roots of your craft.

Etsy Collaboration

I was cruising Etsy again and came upon the Charm Lady from Saskatchewan, Canada. She takes others’ designs (like Andrew Daniel’s) and transfers them to polymer clay. The charm lady has a great eye and her designs are all hip, colorful and graphic.

I must be late to the party when it comes to charms. Etsy is chock full of great ones. I need to spend some weekend time there to bring my design sensibility up-to-date. Have a sunny, fun weekend.

Wise Owl

I’ll admit, I was drawn in by the polymer clay pop tart pin and earrings on young Mossy Owl’s site. She’s one of those Etsy 20-something girls who delights us with her intriguing mix of talent and silliness.

And while I was looking at her deliciously crafted inedible edibles, I realized that she has compiled a comprehensive list of video tutorials. Most are only snippets of the full videos. The short segments give you a good idea of what’s covered in the session. Mossy Owl has even catalogued the YouTube polymer video tutorials.

While those pop tarts may be empty calories, there’s plenty to nourish you on her blog.

Earth Day

Earth Day is this Sunday. It’s a good time to look at young sculptor, Jessica Swanson, who uses polymer clay with sytrofoam and flocking to create her "Goats on the Summit of Mt. Debris" piece in zero degrees art online gallery based in Los Angeles, CA.

Jessica says of her work, "In the name of convenience, our culture often avoids considering that our own survival as human animals depends on the survival of the entire network of our earth and its life forms."

"Our habits suggest our reluctance to change. I believe our values and actions will shift through a deeper look at our views of the wild."

Thanks to Susan Rose for unearthing this thought-provoking link.

Traveling Companion

Enjoy a bit of Hawaii and Japan today by traveling with Donna Kato. She’s back from her teaching stint (two weeks in Japan and ten days in Hawaii) with some lovely pictures.

The polymer clay creations of Hawaiian artist Lani Chun, one of Donna’s hosts, perfectly mirror the vibrant colors and lush vegetation of Hawaii. Her one-of-a-kind leis and miniature bouquets show terrific attention to detail as well as great color and craftsmanship.

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