Polymer finishing touches

Ponsawan Sila and Lee Ann Armstrong collaborated to make these bold amoeba-like earrings.

Ponsawan gave the drops their blingy pop by using Speedball Caligraphy Ink. She outlined the cane designs and spattered the background with blasts of bright gold. The Facebook crowd erupted in a flurry of comments and questions and Ponsawan shared what she’d done to add the perfect finishing touch.

Here’s Ponsawan’s home site and here’s Lee Ann’s place. Lee Ann has developed her own special tools. Take a look at her Simple Slicer.

Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes end the Back To School sale of their ebooks (and a couple of other juicy promotions) at the end of today.

Don’t you love starting the week with tricks and deals?

Looking forward, looking back

My husband and I need deadlines to motivate us to finish new work. This week we had to hustle to finish some walnut pieces for a woodworkers gallery show. Deadlines help us stop thinking and get it done!

The striped polymer inlay idea has been marinating since I took a class with Carol Blackburn in Santa Fe where she taught us to make big sheets of variegated colors.

If I seemed distracted this week, it’s because I was awash in color. Here’s my husband’s complex turning project.

Gwen Gibson

One of the first bowls I ever inlaid was in a weeklong class on Whidbey Island with Gwen Gibson who passed away this week. She was a marvelous artist and a lovely person with a huge sense of style and a generous heart.

PolymerArtArchive chronicles several periods of Gwen’s works. Read about her early work, her wall pieces and her cuff bracelets. La Cascade, her home in Durfort, France remains a jewel that draws artists from all over the globe. We will miss Gwen and were lucky to have her creative spirit among us.

Fall colors from Russia

More fall colors from Russia’s Anna Krichevskaya. The rough texture matches the rustic pallete which is highlighted by scratches in the layered surface. Zoom in to feel the intensity.

I enjoyed this hip, arty, quick video of the Moscow market where Anna sells her wares. Except for the language, this footage could have been shot at art shows around the globe. Here’s Anna on Flickr.

A break from eggs

Colorado’s Laura Schiller decided to take a break after years of focusing primarily on pairing polymer and eggs. Laura’s known for her elaborately drilled and designed shells. Here she is on Facebook.

After drawing zentangles on polymer-covered eggs, she wondered what would happen if the popular drawn zentangles were white on white. Then she wondered about zentangles that evolved to 3D in black and white. Off she went on her tangent with no thought, no color, all play.

The latest result is this 11″ square tile, a zentangle gone wild. Now that Laura’s got it out of her system, she’s happy to return to the nest. She leaves us to consider what might happen to zentangles next.

Polymer in the woods

The UK’s Pippa Chandler has been spending some time in her woods too. While she likes to try lots of techniques and images, somehow she circles back to leaves.

Nature provides the source material that Pippa enhances with color and texture. Here she’s used winged seed pods and elderberry buds as her starting point, making molds then using the molds to make pendants. She’s painted the results, sanding and buffing them for a distressed and loved look.

You’ll find lots more examples on her Flickr site and on Facebook.

Stamping fall images

Maryland’s Tamara Shea is primarily a stamper and printmaker who uses polymer clay (usually brown) to bring her hand-carved images to life. Acrylic paints bring out the details and a sealer protects the work. Fall is a particularly appropriate time to feature her leaves and finds from the woods.

Tamara opened her successful Etsy shop in 2006. As you flip through her work, note the remarkable consistency even as she expands her themes.

You may enjoy the bug and butterfly pictures she’s been taking of late and posting on Flickr. Her eye is drawn to objects and creatures that eventually crawl into her work.

Easy peasy payback

Polymer artists have helped pediatrician/artist Ron Lehocky reach another milestone – 24,000 hearts sold with all the proceeds going to the Kids Center in Louisville, KY

Ron’s celebrating by donating a Friday Freebee. These hearts were all made using his Easy-peasy Extruder Cane Technique which he offers as payback.

When Ron asked for scrap, artists responded with heaps of unloved canes and designs gone wrong. He figured out ways to turn them into fundraising fashion statements.

You might enjoy his video story here and his past features on PCD here. He’s been a powerhouse behind the Nepali project too. He doesn’t have much time for social media, as you might imagine, but you can reach him by email if you want to buy some hearts or send him your scrap. Heartfelt thanks, Ron!

Painted polymer

“I find beauty in the unbalanced arrangement of elements to create a harmonious mess,” says Singapore’s Cynthia Marizhka. Harmonious, yes. But mess? Not so much.

Marizhka’s asymmetrical compositions are simple and sleek and since her background is in painting, they’re painted!

Look out, her Tumblr is full of a wonderful mix of unusual materials that’s turned into alluring jewelry. Keep your eye on her on Facebook too. The link came to PCD from Cassy Muronaka.

Thrifty polymer

Maine’s Jayne Dwyer took a $5 thrift store plant stand, covered it with her signature polymer canes and turned it into an objet d’art.

Every once in a while she moves away from jewelry to larger pieces – tables, wall pieces and other furniture – to stretch her artistic muscles.

Jayne’s way of working with canes might appear very loose and free form. The results are quite remarkable, dramatic and very distinctive. You can see her canes on her website and on her Facebook page.

Embroidered polymer

Angeli Sobrepena from the Philippines rekindled her childhood interest in cross-stitch by integrating it with polymer! She creates her design, leaves holes for stitching with embroidery floss, and bakes the clay.

It looks like Angeli finishes her pieces with a backing of felt to hide the thread on the back (or the backing could be an oval of polymer that she rebakes).

These make cute crossover projects for our embroidering friends who have a hard time putting down the needle! Find more of Angeli’s work on Flickr.

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