You can rely on Nicole Johnson for some almost-cute, not-so-scary polymer monsters. Flip through her site for your virtual haunted house experience.
Nicole describes her MealyMonsters issues when she puts them up for sale on Etsy. Her characters have been mistreated and misunderstood and now they’re a bit cranky or mischevious. Now they’re ready to party. Happy Halloween.
Polymer caning keeps changing and improving as these two recent examples show. The first is clear, bright and very complex kaleidoscope patterning from Anastasia Arinovich of Belarus.
Her colors remain remarkably clear even at such a tiny size. Anatasia offers a master class on her blog. Here’s her Facebook presence.
The second example is this dove cane from Maine’s Jayne Dwyer. She controls the flowing lines of a bird in flight with remarkable control and precision. Here’s her Facebook location.
Caners like these are raising the bar for caning in polymer.
Massachusetts’ Bonnie Bishoff has tapped into a new creative vein with her latest works for the Minimal to Bling exhibition at The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston. This cuff of flattened pebble shapes and these brooches that have a 3D tab-and-slot construction represent a couple of new directions.
On the furniture front (Bonnie and her husband are best known for their polymer inlaid furniture), you can catch their work at the Fuller Craft Museum in the Made in Massachusetts: Studio Furniture of the Bay State show.
It’s easiest to keep up with Bonnie on Facebook where she dashes up pictures of her newest works.
Pennsylvania’s Beth Petricoin has created a polymer acorn with a surprise inside.
This little beauty (formerly a small plain glass jar with a screw-on lid) contains a battery-operated tea light. A thin layer of tinted translucent clay over the jar gives the light a warm glow.
Wouldn’t these look great on your holiday table? Beth shows more on her Flickr page. Don’t miss her polymer quilling experiment.
Mary Anne Loveless has been working on conical bead designs for a while and they keep getting better and better. This Tribal Elegance set is alluring in its rythmically repeated stripes interspersed with graduated strips of color. A textured gold strip adds a highlight. Her colors lean toward autumn and you can scan through her work on Flickr.
Mariona Salvadó wins the Flower Academy giveaway from Iris Mishly described in Monday’s post. Congratulations and thanks to Iris for her generous prize.
France’s Isa Maria Noella Castellano combines a couple of flat, subtly textured polymer feathers with a bead and a metal charm, suspends them on a ball chain and comes up with a very trendy pendant.
The translation software calls them Giraffe Feathers…does that sound right? She used this soothing photo as her header on Facebook.
If you missed last week’s online I love tools, you can read the recap, follow the tool links and get in on the door prizes. (Alison’s new Craftcast site was loading and the raffle had to be delayed until all the pixels were in place.) A $10 raffle ticket helps the Samunnat project and gets you in the pool for some great prizes. Winners announced on October 27.
Speaking of prizes, the cutoff for Iris Mishly’s Flower Academy drawing is Thursday night. Make a comment on Monday’s post to enter. Good luck!
These art deco polymer earrings from Germany’s Bettina Welker make me want to run and build graduated canes. These beauties are samples from a class that Bettina teaches on CraftArtEdu (which happens to be available on a 25% off sale until Thursday night).
Bettina’s website, Etsy shop, FB page, Flickr and Ipernity sites are classes in themselves and lately she’s been percolating with loads of new ideas.
Country connections
I have to walk down the lane to the small adobe wifi hut this month while I’m vacationing out west. I have to carefully schedule (and limit) my online time. Which is my way of saying, don’t be surprised if my email responses are slow or posts show up late.
I find that my head is full of polymer ideas and my hands are itching (in a good way) to get to work. But I haven’t forgotten my faithful readers.
If you’re feeling bored with your round polymer beads see what Dimitra Chiamanta (DemiArti) is doing with hers. This Greek artist who now lives in the Netherlands, bisects her brightly patterned circles and inserts felt disks in the middle.
She also combines leather, silver, wool and other materials with polymer. When the skies are gray and the winter long, Dimitra uses polymer’s colors to remind her of sunshine and spring. She knows how to breathe new life into common shapes.
This exhuberant design approach shows up again and again in the New Label Project store photos in Amsterdam (it’s considered one of the city’s cool shops) that you can track on Facebook. Here’s Dimitria’s own FB page too.
Iris Mishly and her collaborator, cake decorating artist Sharon Peled, have teamed up to address an overlooked artform. Though lifelike flowers made from sugar and synthetic clays are popular in many area of the world, they’re just catching on in the US and Europe.
Iris and Sharon call their tutorial set The Flower Academy. Their course covers 20 types of polymer flowers that end up in 40 final projects including bouquets, boutonnieres, headbands, and jewelry.
To give you a taste of the content, watch the academy’s free video on how to make lifelike mistletoe (in time for the holiday season).
Iris and Sharon are offering one FREE online version (Silver Set) of the academy to one lucky PCD reader. Leave a comment and you’re entered. Comments will close on Thursday night with the winner announced Friday.
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Virginia’s Angie Wiggins mixes handmade paper, felt, beads and polymer with colorful abandon and an embroiderer’s precision.
Following her on Facebook will give you the latest news about her creations. The pattern and texture pictures posted on her Pinterest boards show what catches her eye and influences her choices.
After she embroiders beads and polymer slices onto the bowls, Angie often elevates her vessels with a tripod of whimsical polymer legs.
When she tires of bowls, she moves to platters or switchplates or buttons or jewelry – all with her signature mix of sewn-on delights.
