Maryland’s Eugena Topina unveiled her Openwork tutorial back in October (here’s the PCD post). Now her cellular-like designs are winning prizes.
Her Openwork Necklace (the white one at right) won top prize in the polymer category at Bead Dreams 2015.
Staci Louise Smith picked up the other two top prizes which you can see on Bead & Button’s page (scroll down to the polymer category).
Lorraine Vogel (WiredOrchid) brings us more breezy summer batiks. You can feel her home’s Florida influence in the leaves and flowers in her designs.
Lorraine’s been perfecting her own methods using inks and stamps in ways that go beyond shabby chic beads which rely on paints. She’s tried other rustic glazes and effects. She’s dabbled with carving polymer and coloring with washes.
After all that Lorraine has come up with a dyed fabric look that combines the techniques in a new way. She hints that she’ll develop a tutorial that will divulge how she uses inks to mimic the wax batik process so convincingly on polymer.
In the meanwhile, you can admire how she’s refined and evolved her methods on Flickr, Facebook and on her Etsy site.
LA’s Caroline McFarlane-Watts is an English girl from the Oxfordshire countryside pursuing her dream in films. She helped build a miniature model of Hogsmeade village for Harry Potter and since then has worked in miniature scale sets for a wide range of projects. Her miniature works are sold in over 40 countries.
Caroline’s first experience was as a polymer miniature crazed 8 year old who wanted to win a scholarship to study art. “It took twenty years for this miniature hobby to become a big career move,” she explains.
Lately she’s been fixated on witches – Good Witches Bad Witches. So far she’s created the witches of Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland and France. Germany’s up next.
There’s so much fine work to look at on Caroline’s sites that you’ll thank me for saving this artist for your weekend reading.
You’ll want to travel through her world and admire works in progress on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and her own site.
Germany’s Eva Thissen tells enchanting stories with the littlest bits of polymer. This Story of a Little Girl series is told on beautifully muted base beads.
Eva uses the same colors for the girl’s dresses with miniscule contrasting bits scattered in the background as raindrops or flowers.
For the process, her only tools are her hands and a needle. When Eva first started, she painted on polymer but found that she preferred the dimension that applique provided.
The charming group of girls makes a great header on her Etsy site where she sells these and her more densely flowered garden compositions. Her gentle touches of color may make you sigh with pleasure. Enjoy them in detail on Flickr.
Debbie Jackson rolled out her new polymer Shibori Workshop in our hometown Columbus, Ohio this month. We in the midwest are used to being a test market and two different weekend groups put Debbie through her paces.
Always a textile artist, she’s been experimenting and developing her ink-to-polymer ideas for years. You can see from the class pictures on Facebook that her students “got it” and a new way of working is about to begin.
Don’t these polymer samples from the class look like flowing summer caftans and seaside afternoons? Keep your eye on this technique. Debbie is easiest to follow on Facebook..
It’s not easy to salvage that sweet bit of polymer veneer and turn it into something wearable and delightfully designed. That’s why these earrings from Minnesota’s Jan Geisen caught my eye.
She has a way of putting geometric shapes together in a way that makes them both simple and remarkable. She leans toward muted imitative stone patterns or watercolor-like washes of color. These earrings measure 1/4″ x 1 3/4″. The black rectangle attaches to the earwire and surrounds the patterned slab.
On Jan’s Flickr pages you’ll see more examples of her mix-and-match stacking style. She’s compiled a great stash of inspirations on Pinterest.
Cecilia Leonini (of Italy’s ImpastArte) channels the spirit of Miro for today’s inspiration. “No transfers,” says Cecilia of this 26″ necklace of her flat drawings joined by copper rings.
She’s become adept at mixing alcohol inks, pens, pastels and other media with polymer to paint her small pieces of design.
Born and raised in the Tuscany area, Cecilia was trained in music and taught piano for many years until she discovered polymer.
“For me the clay is the synthesis of all the arts that I love,” she says.
You can see how her work has evolved on her Flickr site and note her influences on Pinterest. You’ll find more on Facebook and Etsy.
There’s nothing like a deadline to focus attention. These 2 1/2″ diameter bowls are for a conference swap this summer. Thirty are required and the idea of making 30 of anything is daunting to those of us who happily flit from project to project.
By limiting myself to translucent shibori-like blues, I’m concentrating on patterns and shapes. Right now, they’re perched (not glued) on their bases for easy packaging and transporting. I’ll attach the mix-and-match bottoms on site.
These little delights feed my enthusiasm for small decorative items. With their varying pedestal heights and shapes, they create an intriguing grouping.
Repeating a new technique or design 30 times can be very instructive and before you know it, you have a body of work that veers off in a new direction.
You can see how I’ve been mulling over bowls for a while on my Pinterest board.
If you’re interested in learning more about adding touches of personal style to your home join my class at Maureen Carlson’s at the end of July. Have a super weekend!
“If as a child you loved coloring in a coloring book like I did, then this is the class for you.” says Laurie Mika about her Coloring on Clay workshop this September.
These class sample tiles show how acrylic paint on clay expands the range and intensity of Laurie’s colors.
She starts with light polymer clay which is stamped and/or textured then painted. Gold leaf and sparkly bits add finishing touches.
See all the mosaic wonders that Laurie composes with her richly decorated tiles on her site, on Pinterest and on Facebook
Turkey’s Alev Gozonar piled thousands of polymer slices into Garbage, this 4′ x 5′ collage on canvas. Alev’s pointellist style has evolved into larger, more dense, colorful and dimensional images. On her most recent canvas, Alev amassed over 9,000 pieces.
Watching these images grow (see Instagram and Facebook) adds to the fascination. Zoom in close and you’ll see how she paints, building color with precise and varied cane patterns.
