From wood to polymer

The feel of baked polymer reminds Lindsay Locatelli (wazodesigns) of wood. She carves the hardened clay to give it natural and organic textures.

“I graduated with a BFA in Furniture Design from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and worked mostly in wood/metal. After college, I began working in a smaller scale and I fell in love with the idea of art jewelry because there’s a component of function as well as sculpture. Polymer clay became my new medium of choice because it’s much more satisfying to work with at a smaller scale,” says Lindsay.

“Polymer clay allows me to have much more control than wood did. I’m interested in creating new textures/forms out of the material and working with it in unique and unusual ways.”

Minneapolis has a lively emerging fashion and art community and Lindsay’s active in shaping it. The necklace here, Bleached Bones, is made of polymer, brass with acrylic paint and the ring is polymer, silver and citrine. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook as well.

Lindsay was part of the ACC’s first Hip Pop Showcase at the St. Paul ACC show in April this year.

Variations on a polymer theme

Short summer hair may have you looking for dramatic stud earrings and Croatia’s Nikolina Otrzan presents a whole series of deeply textured compositions. Dots of color lure your eye in for closer inspection.

They’re domed polymer circles of varying sizes sliced in half and set next to each other in various positions with small contrasting balls in the crevices. Her textures and colors are strong and varied.

It’s as if Nikolina is testing herself to see how many interesting variations she can imagine and she’s on a roll. See more of them in her Etsy shop and Pinterest. She shares some of her methods on CraftArtEdu. Does your signature design want to be expanded into a series?

Tie-dyed polymer canes

If you’ve been around polymer for a while you may, like me, think you’ve seen every cane possible. But then a cane brain like Meg Newberg shows her newest ways to make an imitative indigo dye cane and you shake your head in wonder. That soft-edged tie-dye look is challenging in polymer.

Her monthly cane subscription is one of the best deals out there. Each month she emails subscribers cane tutorials that baffle and delight.

I’m off to the studio to try this. Here’s a sampling of my first efforts. It took me several tries to get the hang of it.

You can sign up with Meg or buy back issues on her Etsy site and follow her on Facebook.

Fantasy polymer paintings

San Francisco’s Alberto Toscano creates square polymer paintings with a tactile and pictorial quality. His small formats, mostly 5″ to 9″ squares, contain industrial landscapes, fantastic figures, zoomorphic elements, surreal structures and remote scenarios that resonate with past and present.

Layering over foggy, colorful backgrounds, Alberto makes his scenes out of sharp-edged slivers of black and white canes.

Peggy Carlan and Carolyn Bond sent me the link to Alberto and I remembered having bought similar designs at the Flying Shuttle in Seattle. Turns out those items come from Raw Art which was founded by Laura Blaconá and Alberto in 1994. They have been producing a line of functional art pieces since then.

Meanwhile Alberto’s paintings have appeared in numerous southwest galleries and shows. You can piece together the story from his site, blog and Facebook sites. You’ll find Raw Art on Facebook.

Quick trip to Germany

Today’s the last day to visit Georg Dinkel’s polymer reliquaries and shrines to technology in the Palace of Culture Anwanden. Georg mixes technology, architecture and religion into a delicious ironic stew. His digital devotional pieces ask what we really worship and why. Here’s his latest.

Georg’s carefully crafted, elaborate sculptures are positioned against cracked plaster walls next to a curving staircase in a beautifully aging empty building. The old and new, the serious and the sassy play off each other in this festival of light.

Georg shares his splendid photographs of the event, saving us the airfare. I’m snatching his photos from Facebook for those who’d rather examine them on PCD. Enjoy your free trip to Germany. Here’s the pdf of the program for those who know German.

He shares videos of works in process and other sculptures on his site, YouTube and Facebook.

Polymer palette planning

Pittsburgh’s Rebecca Watkins was inspired by a friend’s Spring in the Smokies photograph. Armed with new color skills from a Carol Simmons’ class, Rebecca mixed matching hues in polymer.

She carved and colored the beads in her signature style and accented them by brushing liquid black polymer into the lines and hollows. Her work-in-progress shots show how well Rebecca learned her color lessons.

She plans to wear her creation on an eggplant colored t-shirt with a black skirt. See more of Rebecca’s beads on Etsy.

If you’re itching to mix and match your own colors, browse through Carol Simmons’ Pinterest color boards (she has 12 of them). It’s overflowing with mouthwatering palettes that she’s unearthed and sorted.

Polymer persistence

France’s Irene Hoiles keeps a low profile online. The snippets and clues she leaves on Facebook and Pinterest point to someone who knows how to persist until she finds a solution.

About the earrings at the left Irene says, “When you’re not Julie Picarello and your mokume gane doesn’t go quite as you planned…dot it.”

Consider how those dots salvage the pattern and take it in a new direction. Sort of aboriginal.

Fine extruded strings wind around to make dramatic caps for Irene’s mokume gane beads at right. They needed another element for drama.

What a good way to start the week. Let’s channel Irene’s no-fail approach to her polymer designs. What’s on your work surface that needs a little TLC to make it sing?

Grab a rope

These bracelets from Ukraine’s Lela Todua (Leland) have an urban tribal vibe.

Big hole tube beads strung on thick rope or multi-strand cording make them a favorite for both men and women.

The beads are polymer stamped with ethnic patterns or graffiti art highlighted with paints.

Catch up with Lela’s rough and ready look on her Etsy store and on Facebook.

Blooming barnacles

Barb Fajardo is from New Mexico, the dry southwest where they don’t have many barnacles but she’s smitten with them anyway and she’s making them bloom in polymer. Her organic clusters sprout into earrings and brooches. She groups and stacks and gathers them into all sorts of colorful formations.

Even if you can’t head to the seashore, you can encrust your neck with some ocean remnants.

See how Barb uses hers (she teaches a barnacle class) on Flickr, Pinterest, her site, and Facebook.

Graffiti trends

Graffiti is all the rage and Petra Nemravova gives us some terrific tips on how she makes these trendy scribbled earrings in a free tutorial. The translation’s a bit wonky but it’s easy enough to figure out from the photos.

Her background rubber stamp (from IOS stamps she says) is very cool and it wouldn’t be too hard to carve one of your own. Need more? Here’s another of her freebies. Check Petra’s Facebook page and website.

And if you’re on Facebook, take a look at what Petra and the Ubersee gang were up to at their June retreat.

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