Polymer Clay Daily

Elevating polymer art

Amy Hucks elevates her art to a new level on PolymerClayDaily.com

Ohio’s Amy Hucks’ sculptures had much more gravitas or importance or significance (same clever weirdness) when she elevated them on wooden stands.

Are you elevating your work with stunning packaging or thoughtful stands or fabulous findings?

I admit that I may have been affected by the first debates playing on the tv in the background as I composed this post. We in the US will have lots more of this strange and important process to sort out in the coming months.

This weekend on StudioMojo we’ll take a look at the new leather, liquid, and other polymers that are cropping up. What’s ahead for you as a polymer artist? We may not have all the answers but we’ll point you in the right direction. Join us!

Trendy stud with dangle

Scrutinize the design of this Konooz9 stud with dangle earring on PolymerClayDaily.com

Full disclosure – sometimes I choose a design to feature just because I want to remember it for my own work. That’s how I came to pick out this earring from Konooz9 on Instagram. I know very little about this artist who seems to be UK-based. I’m hoping someone can help me out.

What I do know is that this hinged earring is fashionable and cleverly assembled. The construction makes it both a stud and a drop earring.

The polymer pattern is a stamped texture highlighted with gold. I’m assuming there’s a wire that lets the bottom circle swing from the top square. You can hear echoes of tribal and ancient rendered in a totally contemporary design.

Here’s the artist on Facebook.

Faceted and striped

Alessia Bodini treats us to both facets and strips on her beads on PolymerClayDaily.com

Italy’s Allesia Bodini keeps her options open. When confronting the decision of whether her beads should be faceted or striped, she merely says “Yes.”

Are they cut from solid blocks of stripes? Or created as faceted beads and covered with slices of stripes? Is it too early in the week for this brain teaser?

Inquiring minds want to know. Take another look on Facebook.

 

 

Virtual polymer

Fabi Perez Ajates makes you daydream about exotic classes on PolymerClayDaily.com

If you could take any class, what would it be? You can hop around the globe virtually and find some marvelous adventures in polymer.

Just for kicks, I scrutinize my dream classes and try to imagine how I’d make these beauties. My current favorite is Spain’s Fabi Perez Ajates who’s teaching at Polymer Clay Carnival Australia in August this year.

What a roster of polymer luminaries! It doesn’t cost anything to daydream and look! It could happen!

But then I’m already hosting a fab class with Bonnie Bishoff right here in the heart of very affordable Ohio! Your dream class could be closer than you think!

The freedom of polymer

Ohio women inmates' collaborative wall piece and Ohio classes

This 28″ x 34″ wood panel is decorated with 118 polymer triangles shaped over bead scoop forms and covered with scraps of patterns made by students in the polymer program at the Ohio Reformatory for Women (ORW). The piece was created for a Columbus gallery exhibit this fall.

Visiting polymer teachers have stressed the importance of balancing lights, darks and middle values for a successful piece. Still, it surprises me when this big range of colors and styles add up to one cohesive and happy image. I must also credit my husband who checks my math and mounted their works on a custom panel.

Even though they are imprisoned their art travels, communicates, and frees their spirits. The inmates send thanks to our polymer community for their support.

There are a few seats available for the September Ohio class! Maine’s Bonnie Bishoff will teach “Capturing Wire with Polymer.” Her approach to polymer is unusual and her class has received rave reviews. Sign up!

Tied up polymer

Kseniya (SolarBird) ties up the week with a series of earring knots on PolymerClayDaily

Belarus’ Kseniya (SolarBird) ties up the week with these pale tidy knots of extruded ribbons of clay. She makes them into both stud and drop earrings that you can see on her Instagram.

The twists look simple but you know that getting them just right requires dexterity and more than a few tries to get the hang of it. Lovely summer accents.

The folder of finds for StudioMojo is bulging with links tracking artists delivering works and setting up shows plus a tutorial or two. I’ll sort it all out for Saturday’s newsletter. We’d love to have you in on our weekend conversations!

Polymer that echoes

Jumin Bae makes us reexamine what we know on PolymerClayDaily.com

South Korea’s Junmin Bae makes our heads spin with her scrutiny of beauty and bizarreness in the movements of micro-objects. Her polymer shapes fluidly increase and decrease as if under a microscope.

We don’t know whether we should fondle these shapes or be repulsed by them. We sense echoes of insect eggs, tumors, and cells.

This puts our craft in an exciting predicament. Do we love it? Do we hate it?  Nevermind, her polymer work puts us directly in the midst of contemporary questions. Exciting works with a fresh approach!

 

Summer blooms

Karen Pasieka hangs nosegays of flowers everywhere on PolymerClayDaily

I pulled aside this tile of a field of flowers from Ontario’s Karen Pasieka (SubtleDetails). Later I discovered that she wasn’t finished and was soliciting advice about stems and leaves.

Karen Pasieka hangs nosegays of flowers everywhere on PolymerClayDaily

The dreamy colors on the cloud-like background were enough for me.

Her display of polymer flower necklaces “on” vases rather than “in” vases made a visual pun that I admired too. Go to her Instagram to see lots more summer blooms and display ideas.

Finding new friends

Two sisters tickle our fancy with their quirky colors and designs on PolymerClayDaily.com

I went out looking for new friends. Not that you’re all not just lovely but who couldn’t use a few more friends?

What I found was a mystery. Two sisters, one from Texas and one from Nebraska, teamed up 12 years ago to exercise some creative muscle under the Crone Art label. They make and market buttons and pendants and earrings and whatever suits their fancy in polymer.

The sisters keep their identities on the down-low but someone out there probably knows this duo.

What words would you use to describe their Instagram? Oddball? Seriously mischevious? Minimalists? Modern?

In this pendant, they stack their round buttons in oval cups to form a pendant on a thick cord. Wearable and whimsical.