New connections and directions

Wiwat Kamolpornwijit on PolymerClayDaily.com

Take a look around and you’ll see more polymer artists switching up their connections and experimenting with wires and tailor-made findings. Virginia’s Wiwat Kamolpornwijit makes wire a feature along with his metallic polymer shapes.

Wiwat’s background in environmental research shines through in many of his pieces. Here in an ACC Baltimore piece he flips his focus, highlighting the connectors that hold the curved polymer segments together.

Otrzan's industrial focus on PolymerClayDaily

Croatia’s Nikolina Otrzan stretches out a roughly textured tube and captures it with two polymer findings that hold the bar in place. Just look at how Nik stacks, cuts and connects her jewelry with an urban, industrial edge.

Here’s her new site with lots of tutorials that detail her methods.

These polymer pieces (and yesterday’s) speak more and boldly with an eye on construction and craftsmanship.

Tubular polymer

Two artists have gone tubular for spring. Same thinking with very different outcomes from Austria’s Izabela Nowak and Pennsylvania’s Genevieve Williamson.

Izabela uses slim tubes in graduated purples formed into a 3D necklace. She has been experimenting for months with what she calls her Straw Technique.

Genevieve takes a more minimalist approach with long slender polymer tubes strung into a bright multi-color strand. “Is it too light?” she wonders on Instagram.

PCD will look at several new stringing, assembling, designing developments that have emerged recently. Looks are changing for spring!

Cascading polymer

This Cascade necklace by Russia’s Tatiana Parshikova (seventh-heaven) is a feast of pattern and color. Eight strands of folded polymer beads are sumptuous and naturally eye-catching.

Tatiana has added the right mix of colors and patterns, a dash of sparkling crystal beads and touches of shimmering gold on the surfaces which take the piece to the next level.

I would not have chosen the blue of the model’s sweater but the color accentuates the beads perfectly. Tatiana has a knack for drama.

PCD featured her gold-flecked mokume gane bangle last year and it was one of the year’s most popular posts. You can catch up with her work on Instagram.

Join us on Saturday’s StudioMojo for more sumptuous and delightful behind-the-scenes finds.

Polymer surprises

Even if you won’t be traveling to the Czech Republic for Polymer Week 2017, July 2-8, you’ll want to take a closer look what the 15 teachers will be presenting. (Scroll to the bottom of their page.)

For example, these brooches from Spain’s Fabiola Perez Ajates pull you in with their layers, colors, patterns, textures, cutouts. So neatly and cleverly done!

Just when you think that your eyes have taken in all the details, you find another point of interest. Shapes that look easy and geometric turn out to be slightly askew. These visual surprise packages will be part of Fabi’s classes. She shares glimpses of her patterns and palettes on the group’s Facebook page as well as on her own blog and FB page.

Could your work benefit from another helping of surprise?

Spring breaks

Florida’s Lorraine Vogel (WiredOrchid) brings us a springy look with her combination of layered surface techniques. If lightly layered beach motifs speak to you, Lorraine’s tutorials let you in on her methods

Whether it’s batiks, transfers or a mix of media and methods, Lorraine builds over a light clay, adding and subtracting until she reaches a tropical mix of color and shape.

Here’s her freebie tutorial on StencilGirl to experiment with. Lots of examples of her sun and sand on Etsy, Facebook. Flickr and Instagram.

Mystery polymer mosaic

Does it bug you when you can’t quite figure out how a piece was constructed? I am stumped by this pendant/bar/bead from Jana Honnerova and the Czech translation doesn’t help.

Blended and stamped veneer? Extruded interlocking patterns? Faux mosaic? Silkscreen?

What you can clearly understand is that Jana put a lot of time and skill into developing this brain-teaser pattern. She has a masters in biology/genetics and was a skateboard champion too.

Here’s her work on FB, Flickr and Etsy. Oh look, Jana will teach in Dallas in March!

In the meanwhile, let her design tease your polymer brain.

Off to Baltimore

Maine’s Bonnie Bishoff and JM Syron are off to this week’s ACC show in Baltimore. The wholesale/retail show begins on Wednesday and features more than 500 artists.

This necklace, called The Plenty is one of their new offerings. The smooth pieces are thin and glide over each easily. Though the beads are thin, they feel solid and elegant with a stunning array of colors and shapes. See the couple’s other new designs on Facebook.

Polymer is well represented at the Baltimore show. These are the artists I found. Let me know if you spot others. Let’s wish them a great show!

Dumont’s decollage

Christine Dumont introduces nature’s grunge to high style with her Birch Bark Bangles. “Trees speak to me,” she says.

Her surfaces are smooth but rich with visual texture and minimal muted color. Her processes involve both adding ingredients to the clay and tearing away pieces from the clay.

She’ll be teaching several “Decollage” classes this year. (Think of decollage as the opposite of collage.) See her workshop schedule here and follow along on Facebook

What’s in your forest?

Have you been watching what’s being submitted for the Into the Forest exhibit later this year?

Each leaf, bug and blossom is more intriguing than the last and it’s hard to wrap your head around how Emily Squires Levine, Laura Tabakman and Julie Eakes will combine all the colorful bits they’ve collected for this international collaborative project.

This week’s submission from Eriko Page may make you wistful for spring. Her tight round polymer buds are ready to burst into bloom. But wait, a second batch of Eriko’s flowers have already opened! See more of her hyper-real caned flowers on her sales site and FB.

A preview of Into the Forest will be on view at this summer’s Synergy4 with the whole shebang on view beginning in November, 2017 in Pittsburgh, PA. There’s still time to join and add your work to the project. Pieces must be postmarked April 4, 2017.

Read the guidelines on the FB page where nearly 700 polymer artists hang out, watching every forest fantasy that arrives from around the world.

Mystery scrap

JScreations scrap idea on PolymerClayDaily.com

Johanna S (JS Creations) hits on all cylinders with this bright necklace that she calls Dust to Dawn. In the first place, the flat disks appear to have been cut from scrap clay (and we’re always chasing scrap clay ideas). And further, the colors are bright enough to warm the most wintry day.

So even though we don’t know who or where Johanna is, this simple necklace is a winner. She only shows up on Flickr. If you can unravel more of this mystery, let us know.

Meanwhile appreciate another cool use of leftovers.

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