Polymer Clay Daily

Fiber/polymer flip-flop

Heidi Helyard circles back to textiles with this pendant on PolymerClayDaily.com

This sewn polymer pendant by Sydney’s Heidi Helyard may make you smile.

The juxtaposition of thread and polymer is refreshing. Did she have matching thread on hand or did she build her palette to match the thread? The neat stitches nearly convince us that this is a new sort of textile.

Quilting meets polymer on many fronts but this one is delightfully different. The interview in FindersKeepers about Heidi reveals that her background is in textiles.

She first started incorporating polymer into her textile work. That flip-flopped into incorporating fiber into her polymer clay pieces!  Here on Instagram.

Dotted Mandalas

Susan Downs Reed's meditative patterns create ancient Greek art on PolymerClayDaily.com

These Triangle Women were created recently at Clayathon. I wish I’d learned more about this graphic artist and ancient history enthusiast Susan Downs Reed and her husband Ken.

From the fans’ comments on Facebook, you’ll see that these are based on ancient Greek figures from 800-500 BCE. Susan clarifies that ” I am inspired by artifacts from ancient Hallstatt culture. Hallstatt culture is believed by many archaeologists and prehistorians to be the oldest Celtic culture.”

I did manage to find out how Susan cuts all the patterns for her sculptures and mandalas. It’s labor-intensive and fascinating as you’ll see in this 1-minute tutorial.  More on Flickr.