The story in your work

Thumbing through Elena Kalashnikov’s Flickr photos you’ll see how she’s taken popular techniques and given them her own spin.

She’s interpreted others’ designs with such exuberance and skill that it’s only a matter of time until she discovers something all her own.

These earrings have the luster of a silk kimono with gold and blue mokume gane pieces applied on top. Elena is Russian and lives in Israel. She started out making lace so it’s not surprising that her works have resonances of fabric and embroidery.

Your story is written in your collection of works. You might as well own it, capitalize on it and celebrate it.

Polymer off the beaten path

France’s Sonya Girodon enjoyed departing from her usual path and traveling into the woods.

The result is these polymer thistles, burrs or alien pods created especially for the upcoming Into the Forest exhibit in Valley Forge during Synergy4 and in Pittsburgh next November.

How are you coming with your contribution to this big show? The deadline is April 4.

Sonya’s having a banner year. Just look at all the breakthroughs and game-changers that she’s come up with on her Facebook and Flickr.

As long as we’re looking at our to-do lists, have you registered for Synergy4? Can’t attend? No worries. Even if you can’t go, enter your artwork in the IPCA Awards competition and you’ll be there in spirit. The awards online entry isn’t showing up on the new IPCA site but I’m sure it will be activated soon.

Sonya shows us how to stretch our creative muscles and try out new ideas in 2017.

Charming ladies

There are secrets behind these lovely lady Nambi charms from Serbia’s Nevenka Sabo.

Nevenka tells all in her tutorials and she’s forming a support group for those who are hooked on her methods. The clean, simple portraits pack a punch. I don’t know her secrets. Paints, inks, markers?

See if you can figure out how she achieves her vibrant colors and clean designs by checking out her Instagram and Facebook. Go to her Etsy page for instructions if you get hooked. Have a warm, cozy weekend.

Questionable polymer

Your eyes may have to wander around these Ford/Forlano beads for a while.

What kind of mokume gane monkey business is going on here? How is that grid happening? Why are the colors working so well? No answers, just questions worth asking.

Dave and Steve use this work-in-progress as a header on their Facebook page. They also show up on the Velvet Da Vinci Gallery’s Instagram and show some new works on their own FordForlano site.

Wrong side out is right

Argentina’s Flavia Miranda puts flat cane slices (Cernit) together in an unusual way. As you fly through photos on the web, sometimes a simple, carefree piece stops your eye.

It’s her playful, unselfconscious construction that intrigues. Isn’t that wrong side out? Why is the thread showing? The disks overlap and bunch.

As you can see on Flavia’s Facebook pages here and here, bunching the beads and integrating the stringing materials are all part of her vibe. How great she looks wearing a similar piece in her profile picture.

When your eye yells Whoa!, it pays to stop and investigate.

Polymer mixed media redux

Kim Korringa purchased two great-looking ceramic birds from Etsy artist Natalya Sots. She loved them.

But the space on Kim’s kitchen wall begged for something more. So Kim designed this polymer pot of leaves and flowers for the birds to fly over. Kim posted the entire (now 3-piece) art on Facebook.

Kim started assembling this collection last fall. She had brought real-sized photos of the birds and her design to a retreat. But the mountain winds were blowing when Kim put her first try in the oven. The outside ovens spiked turning Kim’s bright dimensional blossoms a charred brown.

Try, try again! Kim’s kitchen is complete.

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Magic carpet polymer

Madrid’s Elena Fernandez has a wandering eye and she uses polymer to explore and recreate ethnic designs in contemporary jewelry. For this mixed media necklace, she reinterprets an African design adding seed beads on felt that hang from a deeply inscribed and weathered focal bar and dark simulated stones.

Ethnic designs have long appealed to Elena and you can follow along with her collections of tribal works on Flickr and see her collection of inspirations on her Pinterest page.

Polymer’s ability to imitate other materials lets us explore cultures and imagine travels from the comfort of our studios. Where would you like polymer to take you?

Strutting forward

This proud, colorful rooster from illustrator/artist Linda Webb (CreeksideStudio) brings our first week of the year to an energetic end.

With ruffled orange feathers and touches of gold, her wild polymer creature struts forward. Linda’s given him the can-do attitude that we’ll need as we barrel into 2017.

Linda brought a big plastic bag filled with failed projects to a fall show and her rejects became a hit. To her surprise, everyone was fascinated by her mistakes.

“I brought this ragtag bag of duds with a goal of showing the young people at my creation station that the mistakes I made while learning are not complete failures,” she says. “The things that went wrong for me while I perfected my art and the hard work are part of the process.” Good thing to remember.

Here’s her failure blog post. Linda’s been building an Instagram gallery of her mosaics along with her website and Flickr.

The nudge to improve

These mokume gane polymer earrings from Massachusetts’ Liz Hinckley Stefano caught my eye. The colors and patterns come together for a gorgeous mix of retro and modern.

Liz is off to a stellar start making weekly earrings throughout 2017 for the PCClayChallenge organized by Katie Oskin.

It’s not too late to jump on board. Commit to make whatever shape or form strikes your fancy and create as often as you can handle.

Read Cate van Alphen’s post about how she finished 18 of 52 vessels she intended to complete in a 2016 group. She felt she succeeded on a variety of levels. See why.

You’ll find a few more links to Liz on Pinterest and her site. This isn’t the first time she has risen to a challenge! If group activities energize you and commitments nudge you to improve, join one.

2016 favorites – batch 2

The second installment of your favorite posts of 2016 includes wall pieces, acorns, canes, petals.

Mouthwatering colors and lovely execution with a personal twist are the threads that run through the group. Those ingredients leap off the screen and PCD readers are drawn to them.

So give extra care to choosing your colors and put an extra dollop of your own precious, quirky self into your projects for 2017. Click the images to visit these crowd-pleasing pieces.

In case you’re not seeing the photos, here are the post links:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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