Vessels from the river

Melanie West’s River Rock Vessels glow with other-worldly colors and shapes. Particularly on the yellow one, the circles seem to rise out of the background with
shadows of color.

Melanie gravitates to gentle, graceful shapes that she shares along with her inspirations only on Facebook.

Her readers were stumped when she revealed the recent design at right that looks positively impossible.

Melanie will teach a 3-day class in Asheville, NC in November if you’re itching to understand how she combines Ultralight, epoxy clay, and polymer to achieve her big, strong, organic designs.

Polymer for fall

Loretta Lam brings us fall colors in a pleasing tactile melange of bead shapes and mix of patterns. Some of her Stepping Stones 2 beads are hollow, some belted, all comforting.

The two long gently arced beads at the back vary the shapes and make the necklace easy to wear without introducing chain or cord or other media. The varied elements harmonize nicely with each other.

Loretta’s fiber-like polymer patterns catch the latest trends. Look at her Flickr page, website, and Facebook for more luscious fall offerings. She shows her vibrant dark color inspirations on her Pinterest boards.

Roche’s new clay

Nan Roche is a name you probably know if you’ve been working in polymer very long. Nan was an early force in shaping our community and her book, The New Clay, published in 1991, is widely recognized as the book that launched thousands of artists.

Here are the recent creations that she brought to Colorado. All show a distinctive Asian influence.

Only now after retiring from her career in research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is she able to consider being a full-time artist. She’s spending more time online (though she doesn’t have much of a presence) and approaching her studio with the same trepidation and concerns that most of us feel during periods of change.

What led her to write her successful book and does she have another book in her? I sat down with her in Colorado and you can meet her and hear her answers in a video of our chat in this Saturday’s edition of StudioMojo.

Palette knife polymer

Florida’s Alice Stroppel smeared bits of polymer onto a glass pane placed over her sketch of a woman. She bakes right on the glass then removes it.

I wish I’d paid attention to the finer points of Alice’s palette knife process. The next time the small painting appeared it was dramatically matted and framed and artists were excitedly bidding on it.

Only go to Alice’s blog and Flickr and Etsy sites if you’re willing to be distracted and have time to jump into her world. She uses polymer in unusual and uncomplicated ways that beg to be tried.

Knots and ribbons

Veesuel’s Knots and Ribbons series are created using Sculpey’s Souffle clays which have a distinctive suede-like texture. Because Souffle is not sticky, patterns made with it can be manipulated in unusual ways to make ribbon-covered bracelets, rings and pendants.

“The idea was to simulate the feel and flexibility of fabric,” says Veesuel. She made the black and white curved base of regular Premo that she sanded and polished. Watch out, she’s got lots more ideas that you can find on Facebook and Pinterest.

The red, white and blue (well, purple) looks so festive that we’ll keep it around for the US Labor Day coming up! Thanks to Libby Mills for alerting us.

Floating polymer

Simple layered polymer flower cutouts float on ovals of rippling colors in the same pallete. You may find yourself pondering how Eva Haskova created the graceful spirals on top of the graduated colors.

You can learn her methods if you can get to Eva’s class in Prague in September. The pendants are samples for the class project. Maybe she’ll start writing up her methods for those of us who are far from the Czech Republic.

See more of Eva’s creations on Flickr, Facebook, and in this quick video of her designs.

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