Polymer in relief

Annie Laura's garden in relief on PolymerClayDaily.com

Though she often uses polymer as a form for her electroformed copper work, Annie Laura (AnnieLauraHandmade) sometimes features the clay itself, as in this relief of a flower from her garden.

She created a deep mold of the flower. Its depth gives the bead startling dimension. The painted colors are scrumptious and she finished by highlighting each bud with a dab of clear coating.

Have a look at Annie Laura’s lovely electroformed pieces. When she needs a break from metal and glass work, she creates another batch of her polymer ammonites and sea urchins that integrate well with other media. What a pleasure to work with a material that offers such versatility.

Annie Laura’s full name and location weren’t easy to find. Can you help fill in the blanks?

Have a great weekend and join us at Studio Mojo for a look at other wild and wonderful ways to use polymer.

Polymer that protects

Marchal's sharks on PolymerClayDaily.com

It’s summer and you know what that means. Sharks and other sea creatures will be in the news. Like this strange polymer species from Estelle Marchal’s Les Ptitsmobiles.

Estelle moved to Grenoble, France where she’s unpacked and back in the creature business. A scroll through her Facebook collection of stylized octopuses, carnivorous plants, stingrays and other oddities is sure to make you smile. They will soon populate her shop and her Instagram page.

She often turns her creations into mobiles that protect children while they sleep. Estelle is a molecular biologist when she’s not making sharks. The polymer community attracts lots of scientist/artists who enjoy reinterpreting the lifeforms they work with.

Polymer colors speak

Belgium’s Tine Demol shows us how sophisticated long extruded tubes of polymer can become. She suspends the cluster on macrame spirals.

In the second piece Tine gathers seven strands of small round polymer beads in various hues of greens and blues into a rich twist accented with dashes of yellow. Here she is wearing a similar necklace at FIMO50.

When your colors make a statement, simple techniques are all that’s required. Do your colors speak for themselves? Here’s Tine on Facebook and Flickr.

Polymer fireflies

Terlizzi's fireflies on PolymerClayDaily.com

Are there fireflies in your yard this summer? Melissa Terlizzi offers a great class in making your own lightning bugs for beginners to experts with her CraftArtEdu online class. Here’s the rundown of CraftArtEdu’s newest classes.

Melissa turns a simple cane, wire for legs and an LED light into a delightful summer project that becomes a cute zipper pull or decoration.

Terlizzi's fireflies light up on PolymerClayDaily

She loves to reinterpret nature’s creatures in polymer as you will see on Facebook and Flickr. Here’s a good project to engage the nature lovers in your life.

Properly cuffed

Don’t you love the slightly concave curve of these cuffs from Boston’s Betsy Baker? Her silvery polymer veneers are enhanced by the brass forms.

This pile of prototypes is part of a new wholesale line Betsy is building. She offers this early peek on Instagram.

Go to her site to see how she elegantly transforms vintage components and gives them a fresh flair by combining them with polymer.

Woodland wonders from 22 countries

Vigil flowers for Into The Forest on PolymerClayDaily.com

For your weekend enjoyment, take some time wander online to see the splendor that’s been submitted to the international Into the Forest exhibit. Now try to imagine how the curators will assemble it all for the November month-long exhibit in Pittsburgh!

These glorious flowers from San Diego SandyCamper Marni Vigil look like the day lilies blooming in my yard. There are hints of Marni online on Facebook but she keeps a low profile…like many of the other quiet contributors to the exhibit.

Look at all the pods, blooms, berries, bones and more on the exhibit’s Facebook page and Instagram. It’s a stunning array of polymer from hundreds of artists in 32 states and 22 countries.

Put the event on your calendar, contribute to help cover their costs, and be proud of what you and the community are accomplishing!

And join us over at StudioMojo for juicy weekend updates.

Music to my ears

Leonini makes polymer music on PolymerClayDaily.com

Italy’s Cecilia Leonini (ImpastArte) hands us a pun with these long curls of musical score. It’s a clever and chic use of transfers (I’m guessing transfers).

“My background is music and I taught piano for many years,” says Cecilia. “For me the clay is the synthesis of all the arts that I love.” And we love the play on words that these earrings allow us. Where does your love show in your work?

Cecilia usually works in bright hot colors that fit perfectly on the FoltBolt site with lots more on Facebook, Instagram, Etsy, and Flickr.

Czech tide pools

Phamova's anemones on PolymerClayDaily.com

Can there be anemones and tide pools near Dana Phamova’s (fruitensse) in Czech Republic? Must be! How else could she reproduce them in glowing translucent polymer colors so well? Her photo of a pile of these beads on Instagram will make you want to dive in.

Dana will teach these twisty beads during Lucy Clay Academy Polymer Week in July. “We will explore transparency and flexibility of polymer clay and I will show you how create Anemone jewelry,” she says. Here she is on Flickr and Facebook.

Polymer flies high

NadTal's steampunk lady wins the prize on PolymerClayDaily.com

San Diego’s Nadia (NadVal) created her own version of Belted Kingfishers for the art competition at the San Diego County Fair. Her polymer kingfisher flies with a steampunk flock.

The real species is one of only a few whose females have plumage brighter than males. Despite the warlike appearance, this one is female.

And she’s a prize winner. The framed bird took the top prize in the show.

Read more about the bird on Nadia’s site, Flickr and Facebook.

Micro mosaic stories

Though San Francisco’s Velvet da Vinci Gallery has closed after 26 years, the gallery maintains an online presence. Cynthia Toops was an early name on the gallery’s list of artists.

Toops micromosaics on PolymerClayDaily.com

Her polymer micro mosaics still pop up on Velvet da Vinci and on Seattle’s Facere Gallery. This Turtle micro mosaic pendant recently appeared on Velvet da Vinci’s Instagram.

The Divine Archer whose theme is based an an ancient Chinese myth appears on Facere’s recent post.

It’s difficult to show you how exquisitely minuscule her threads of polymer really are. Cynthia bakes the hair-thin strands of polymer before cutting and embedding them in the base layer. Click on the images to see details and remember that the brooch is only 2 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ and the pendant is similarly sized.

“My work, especially the micromosaics, is technically simple but very labor-intensive,” she admits. She succeeds at telling very big stories in exceptionally small spaces.

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