Gifts outside the box

Angie Wiggins wanted to think ouside the box as she considered making gift items this season.

Her business card holders are sure to be a hit and on Facebook she shared a photo of the wood block she drapes decorated clay sheets over to form her cheery desktop artworks. The bright bulbous feet give the card holders height and add to the party.

Starting out as a weaver, Angie has become well known for her paper bowls onto which she adds bright beads and small bits of polymer. She considers herself a mixed media artist, a chicken farmer and a garden grower.

You can see what inspires Angie on Pinterest and catch more of her work on Facebook. Angie has a strong and fearless sense of color that infuses all her designs with excitement.

How do you roll

Did you make paper beads from magazines and glue when you were a kid? Do you have a soft spot in your heart for these easy beads in polymer?

Margit Boehmer recently rolled these lovely chalked and textured versions. You can see her latest ones here and buy them on Etsy.

I dug out Dayle Doroshow’s versions from 2011 for you to examine too. Dayle used her scraps, flattening the rolls with stamps as a last step and then adding a contrasting color wash.

All that you need are tall triangles of flattened polymer. Wind each triangle up from wide to narrow around a rod.

Paper beads in polymer are easy and great for holiday projects, no matter how you roll.

Polymer Liahona

These Liahona pendants from MaryAnne Loveless intrigued and confused me. They’re very ornment-like, carefully layered and textured in but too small to hang on a tree.

If you google Liahona, you’ll find that in the Book of Mormon, a round brass ball of curious workmanship with two spindles was left on the doorstep indicating which way the leader’s party should travel.

MaryAnne scores on all counts with her polymer brand of curious workmanship and decorated spindles. She’s prepared a whole series of Liahona pendants built over striped beads with carefully applied embellishments that you can see on Flickr,her blog, Pinterest, and Etsy.

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