Emily Squires Levine pushes what a polymer bowl can do with her recent work. Lots of open work and tendrils on this example from the Philadelphia Area Polymer Clay Guild site (there’s an even closer shot here).
Emily uses the extruder to reduce her canes! She taught her method to the PAPCG in February and you can see her basic steps here.
These scrap beads from Virginia’s Rebekah Payne (TreeWingsStudio) may give you new ideas for what to do with cane ends and leftover blends. Rebekah shows you how she chops and then rolls the leftovers in paint.
The free tutorial is part of a post she wrote on ArtJewelryElements. She gathers the painted bits into any pleasing bead shape. Then she facets the shapes, slicing off the top layer of paint to expose mosaic-like beads. See more examples in her Etsy shop.
Her method offers a more satifying use of wonky, useless pieces that would otherwise end up mixed into unexciting bead cores.
Clean up your studio and have mosaic beads to show for your effort!
Russia’s Maria Belkomor finishes our week of textures with her faux knitted polymer in soft colors. She sands the tops of her knitted circles (made from extruded strings) to unearth more colors, a sort of knitted mokume technique. The beads look like scraps salvaged from a faded favorite sweater.
Maria shares how she added bails to the backs of the beads and strung them on a suede cord with a button closure. The rustic closure adds to the easy, laid-back comfort of the piece. Have an easy weekend!
Continuing with textures, we move on to Pennsylvania’s Stacie Louise Smith who mixes lots of media into her jewelry – wire, stone, sea glass, metal clay, and polymer for sculptured pieces and faux fossils..
On the Love My Art group blog, she offers a picture tutorial of how she carves and shapes an original polymer focal piece and then duplicates it in her own silicone mold.
Here’s the best view of her polymer textures and of course you’ll want to stop by her Etsy shop and visit her on Facebook.
These beads are from Mari O’Dell’s Deep Textures workshop that she holds in her treehouse in Annapolis, Maryland. She has a distinctive way with textures. Mari’s a whiz with extrusions and she has a real love of Asian designs.
While you can find some small pictures and lots of descriptions on her website, the place to find her most recent work is on Facebook. Look in on her classes, check out her latest extrusion patterns and see samples of her cake decorating there. Be sure to check out how Mari adds buttons to flipflop sandals to improve their fashion statement.
Julie of Dixie103 combines men’s silk ties and polymer handles into this Indian Wedding Bag. This is her prototype.
Julie describes them, “The handles are quite a bit larger than a bracelet bangle and quite a bit thinner. I wanted them to easily slide over one’s arm. There’s a heavy wire going all the way through each handle and they’re double cured for strength. The seam, where the ends meet, is sewn together with many strands of heavy Nymo thread and covered with seed beads. These handles won’t break. I’ve tried.”
The design is her own after lots of research. Where do we sign up? See more pictures of the prototype on Flickr.
Victoria’s Gera Chandler is never far from west coast water. She’s been incorporating her beach finds into baskets that sometimes include polymer.
Her latest fetish is fish and the most recent version of Gera’s FuSion Bangles shows them in her signature colors swimming around wrists.
Catch up with Gera’s baskets on her Flickr site and on Facebook. Gera’s work is featured in the upcoming book, Polymer Clay Global Perspectives which is available for pre-order (hint, hint).
Photo transfers and polymer make a perfect match when you’re considering making mementos, charms and tokens. Of course transfers can go way beyond that as Tracy Holmes noted about this Polymer Clay Cubed entry for Synergy from Marty McGraw. Marty’s Matriarch Cube shows six women in her family revealed in 54 colors.
“I had not expected anyone to interpret PC3 in such a profoundly personal way, and Marty McGraw’s six-faced photo homage to matriarchs and matrimony was unexpectedly moving,” says Tracy, the project’s creator. “What a generous gift for a mother to give to her son,” she added.
Barb Fajardo’s Curly Cube solved the color problem with a delightfully tactile sculptural puzzle. The color cube project is ongoing (Tracy’s working out the next steps) and you can read more on Tracy and Dan’s Facebook page.
On a personal note, I’ll share this small polymer frame with twelve translucent photo transfers that hangs on the window screen above my sink. It provides a daily reminder of the women in my family. A Wendy Malinow faux birch heart hangs next to the frame and adds a rustic note to my nostalgic view. Enjoy your views this weekend.
California photographer Aurora Rosselli (Eclisse Creazioni) makes the sweetest small portrait tiles that she turns into charms, pendants and magnets by adding silver findings, pearls and crystals. While she skirts the issue of exactly what material the tiles are made of, my eye says polymer.
In her Etsy shop she offers to transfer client’s photos to the clay and make them into wearable mementos. Kids art makes a companion charm to go with the photos. Of course, as a professional photographer, Aurora brings a great eye to her designs.
Just in time for Mother’s Day (May 12) this may make you pull out your transfer materials and give it a try. Or hop on over to her Etsy store to shop and see more on her Flickr site.
We move from yesterday’s minimalist approach to Italy’s Chiara Curreli (Duecentogrammi) who lives on the other end of the scale.
Chiara debuted her exhuberant and colorful polymer line in 2012 and continues to promote it in fashion shows (this model is from the London show) and high profile media.
Much as museum shows help our craft get exposure, the glitz and glamor of the runway offers another big audience. Get caught up in the excitement on Chiara’s Facebook page and on her blog.
