Swapping with style

Joan Tayler's ball chain idea makes swapping fun again on PolymerClayDaily

Ohio neighbor, Nancy Nearing, traveled to Vancouver to visit her daughter and to meet up with Joan Tayler who has a thriving polymer business at the Granville Island Public Market (and on Etsy).

Joan sent PCD readers a super new idea for small art to trade and collect. If inchies and totems and bowls have lost their swap thrill in your group, consider her new method.

She recommends baking beads directly on short lengths of ball chain (1 1/2″ or so). Sandwich the chain between two slices of cane or devise your own style. Join the individual pieces together with connectors and make them into necklaces, bracelets, keychains, whatever.

Joan made all these beads on this sample. Beads coming from far and wide might look very different.

Once your group agrees on a color and size of ball chain, you have an easy swap. Brilliant, eh? Thanks, Joan and Nancy!

StudioMojo heads west! Travel along and see who we run into. Join us!

Polymer transformations

Sona Gregoryan transforms textures on PolymerClayDaily.com

These new hoop earrings from Sona Grigorian transform into a pendant. She’s not sharing the process yet but this queen of deep, layered textures has a YouTube channel full of her tricks and tutorials.

Sonya is inspired by Gaudi’s organic Spanish architectural forms. She mixes those shapes with memories of her Armenian roots and religious traditions to create her own mysterious and distinctive style.

You can quickly keep up with her evolving aesthetic on Instagram and Facebook.

How has your style evolved and transformed?

What goes ’round

Patricia Roberts-Thompson reinvents the wheel on PolymerClayDaily.com

This pendant by Patricia Roberts-Thompson is the result of her playing with Samantha Burroughs’ Oyster Watercolor tutorial. Its loose circles and watery colors make your eyes dive right in.

Patricia added distressing powders to her color combinations and enlarged the design adding a bail fabricated from the same batch.

Samantha admits that she developed her clever tutorial by studying Maggie Maggio’s Watercolor Torn Paper instructions from some years back.

No criticism here! I enjoy the resonances from years back and smile at the progression. Ideas get updated, rejuvenated and taken in new directions that keep our craft healthy and vibrant. It’s also great to see each artist credit her source. Thank you for playing nicely and showing such good manners.

Polymer that wears well

Wearing Klara Borbas' minimalistic designs on PolymerClayDaily.com

After many years of creating functional ceramics, Pennsylvania’s Klara Borbas transferred her activity and aesthetics into the smaller scale of polymer jewelry.

She also has a background in architecture which influences her minimalistic designs and preference for lightweight patterns that work well on the body.

Klara is one of a growing number of polymer artists who sell through the Artful Home online gallery. Browse through Artful Home’s polymer collections for great examples of fashionable wearable designs.

Monster polymer

Leah Lester's monsters migrated from cakes to PolymerClayDaily.com

Washington’s Leah Lester started out as a cake decorator. In 2010 she decided to put the monsters she loves on the top of a cake.

Her friends went wild and asked her to make them out of something more durable.

Since then Leah’s created thousands of Little Lazies and sold them to her Etsy fans. Her most recent batch will be for sale on Big Cartel on Sept 28 with others on Facebook and Instagram.

Her time-lapse videos will kick off your week at high speed.

Brainiac polymer

Qixuan Lim's art keeps you guessing and learning on PolymerClayDaily.com

Polymer brainiac Qixuan Lim (QimmyShimmy) is not your average polymer artist. She calls herself an accidental sculptor. Her subject matter may make you squirm. Here she is on Instagram.

She’s an art school grad and designer-by-day from Singapore, currently based in the Netherlands.

I don’t understand but I can’t stay away. I pore over her works to figure out how the brain of this 25-year-old talent works. I happily add her to PCD’s mixed bag of artists.

We’ll be look at more oddities on StudioMojo tomorrow. Plus I’m moving studios so I’m knee-deep in organizing and learning how other artists pare down their supplies to make room for new ideas. Join us!

Buzzing polymer

Annie Laurie's colors buzz on PolymerClayDaily.com

These polymer dragonfly links from California’s Annie Laura buzz with intense colors that are true to the season and the insect.

The torn, rough edges make them seem spontaneously caught and fossilized.

Annie Laura makes her own imprint molds. There’s something compelling about art that captures what you love. You can see the finished piece on her Instagram.

What do you love? Does your art capture it?

Criminal polymer

Jen Parrish-Hill's relics on television's Criminal Minds on PolymerClayDaily.com

Jen Parrish-Hill (Parrish Relics) posted another entry to her Relics Get Around board on Pinterest. This time one of her Stained Glass Amulets made an appearance on season one/episode 5 of the television series Criminal Minds (find it on Netflix).

Jen’s friends and customers keep sharp eyes on television wardrobes for her distinctive amulets and relics.

“I enjoy creating designs that tell visual stories and start conversations, that are more than simple adornment. I like to think of them as charms and talismans that also bring a bit of magic and beauty to a wardrobe.” Over the years Jen has created a number of pieces for the entertainment industry that she catalogs on her Pinterest board and shows on Instagram. Nice way to advertise, eh?

Sage polymer

Sage from Julia Tarasenkova on PolymerClayDaily.com

Julia Tarasenkova has studied and drawn yarrow, cornflower, wild onion and other vegetation in her Russian landscape. She reproduces them in polymer and turns them into jewelry as with this Sage necklace.

Julia shares a step-by-step of one of her wildflower necklaces and more on Facebook.

What beauties are blooming or drying in your landscape as the seasons change?

Back to bowls

Silvana Bates turns salvaged cane bits into charming soap dishes on PolymerClayDaily.com

You may have thought you’d seen enough polymer bowls. Ireland’s Silvana Bates’ soap dishes pulls us out of bowl overload.

For her jewelry designs, Silvana creates batches of canes in her favorite palettes that lean toward faded colors and homey patterns.

By joining the tail ends of canes and shaping random bits into bowls, she accentuates their charm in a way that hints of soft old quilts in cozy cottages. She made these to hold her daughter’s collection of soaps.

Browse through her photos on Facebook and don’t miss the video of her woodsy creations that will be part of November’s Into The Forest exhibit.

Can you salvage bits of your favorite pieces and create a signature bowl?

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