Simmons’ winning pendants

Using a color palette derived from Korean embroideries, Carol Simmons created this series of kaleidoscope pendants. She assembled five graduated-sized beads from the series into a necklace which won first prize in the Bead Dreams polymer clay contest.

What you can’t appreciate from photos is the silky smooth finish of these pieces. They beg to be worn and fondled. And I can attest to the careful research, planning, testing and retesting that has gone into every step of Carol’s long development and refinement of her signature work. Click on each pendant to get a closer look. Have a winning weekend.

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Nervous bead dreams

I’ll have to finish this post later today because the contestants in the Bead Dreams contest in Milwaukee are so nervous that they’ve made me nervous. I’m checking my sources again to make sure I’ve got my facts straight before I go blabbing. Check the 2007 entries while you wait for the judges’ 2008 tally.

The entry pictured here is Barbara Fajardos’ and it wasn’t the one she thought would be accepted. Same story on Julie Picarello’s piece. The moral of the story is do your best polymer clay work then enter, enter, enter and leave the rest to the fates.

Thanks to Jenn Dorion for sending a message from the Bead and Button show floor…she wins the award for Jenn-On-The-Spot.

It’s official. Polymer clay category winners are:

1st Place – Carol Simmons – Korean Embroidery Series
2nd Place – Julie Picarello – Cityscape
3rd Place – Louise Fischer Cozzi – Symmetry Denise Necklace

The overall winners will be named later in the week. Read more here. Thanks to Beadweaver Susan for the official link.

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Ponsard’s sweet polymer

For those of you who have been uncomfortable on the darker side of polymer clay art, I return you to sweetness and fairies in France.

Stephanie Ponsard creates tiny, creatures that rest on cups, lounge on cakes or ride in your pocket. Stephanie definitely delights in her fanciful, fantastic view of life. You can see her works on Dawanda, Flickr, her blog or her site.

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Creativity article

Great article on creativity in Scientific American. Read it here.

Mindmaps

This mindmap link from AmpleSanity helped me organize my projects. Here’s my current mindmap.

Show economics

Amy Crawley details the economics of her recent weekend art show. Hats off to her for her candor.

LoopyBoopy sculptures

It’s time to check back in with LoopyBoopy, the Louisiana artist who sculpts wonderfully creepy polymer clay kids with marbles for eyes. Each is accompanied by a poignant story.

Colleen (no last name) says of her eerie sculptures, "I think people connect to their little tragedies personally and are perhaps drawn to them for this reason."

There’s a great interview with her on Win Crafty. "Most of my kids and their little stories come directly to me from my daughter’s daily wonderment, fears, nightmares and dreams." she says.

You can see more of Colleen’s work on Etsy, Trunkt and Flickr.

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Painterly polymer from Berlin

Monday’s a good time for a fresh perspective and today’s comes from Berlin artist Conni Filip (aka Madooli).

There’s not much info on her flickr site but you can see that she’s taken a painterly approach to polymer.

No canes or stamps here! Her colors are vibrant and her shapes are fun. Holes appear in unexpected places and edges are randomly notched. Nice.

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