Late-onset creativity

I’ve suffered a curious case of late-onset creativity so you’ll hear from me only intermittently during October. Sometimes my fingers itch to do what I spend so much time talking about.

This 14-year online safari has taken me to all kinds of unlikely destinations and for the next month, I’ll be out West playing with friends and meeting new people.

The car is packed, we’ll get up early and head out on the open road feeling giddy.

No thank you, Monday morning. Nothing, including daily delivery, is assured. I am very grateful for your support of PCD and hope that you’ll check in here and on my Instagram from time to time.

Nurturing curiosity

Katie Way gets curious about cut-and-replace on PolymerClayDaily.com

This work-in-progress shot from Alaska’s Katie Way makes my heart sing.

Spot-on colors, straightforward technique. Cut and replace meets updated quilt pattern meets polymer.

It’s an updated of several old ways of working.

That’s what we’ll be talking about on StudioMojo this Saturday. As we become more expert at what we do, we tend to lose our curiosity. We start coloring within the lines of what we know.

The Bonnie Bishoff class I hosted last weekend put a bunch of us back in touch with something new and made us feel full of possibility again. Come on over and learn how to stay curious.

Fall faux

Carol Beal reinterprets a fall palette in polymer on PolymerClayDaily.com

Kansas’ Carol Beal (BeadUnsupervised) gives us this week’s interpretation of Fall.

No two leaves are alike. Some are blended, some bargello or stripes, gradations, mottled. They have sculpted edges and contain a wild palette of unexpected colors.

Her polymer brooches are remarkably real.

They make you want to go outside and take a closer look at what you may have missed.

Mismatched polymer

Lyne Tilt mixes and matches her patterns and her media on PolymerClayDaily

Mismatched earrings like these from Australia’s Lyne Tilt are all the rage.

Lyne’s designs travel across polymer, metalwork, and paintings without changing. She works in several media, sometimes combining them into a single piece.

It warms our hearts to see her list the late Tory Hughes as a strong influence.

Lyne offers a little show of her veneer process on Instagram.

Feeling loopy

After years of white, Angela Schwer adds color to her wall sculptures on PolymerClayDaily.com

Oregon’s Angela Schwer swerved off her usual path and ventured into color for this loopy wall sculpture.

Don’t you wonder why after years of making wall art in white only, she was compelled to add pale pinks and yellows with a splash of black?

And she usually sticks to very natural and organic shapes, not mod loops. She says she doesn’t know what came over her.

We’ll have to follow along.

Whirlwind post

After a whirlwind weekend class with Bonnie Bishoff, we’re off to an early morning class at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.

To keep you amused until we can catch up properly, enjoy this lively story from Seattle’s Sarah Wilbanks whose lovely earrings are here on Debra Rapoport.

I haven’t had time to explore her story but you can tell it’s a good one.

Layl McDill digs in

Layl McDill follows her own path to polymer success on PolymerClayDaily.com

Minnesota’s Layl McDill makes large canes that she reduces from the middle, making the two halves look like large Hershey’s kisses.

It works and she ends up with very little waste. Here it is in a time-lapse video.

Layl works in unorthodox ways with off-brand clays and homegrown techniques. She teaches without a pasta machine and doesn’t feel the need for many tools.

The stories on her blog and her dream-come-true studio will make you a believer in the value of persisting and marching to the beat of your own drummer.

So put down your tools and check in on StudioMojo for the rest of this story about the class Layl taught in Ohio this week. It’s refreshing and a little disorienting to forego our tool addictions and let our hands dig in.

Alluring or menacing

We recoil but can't dismiss the beauty of this brooch from Anna Nel on PolymerClayDaily.com

Your reflexes may make you flinch but the colors will make you look twice at this brooch from Poland’s Anna Nel.

The snake is covered with slices of a mosaic-like cane in stunning blues, rusts, gold, and white. Its head is covered with a slice that’s matched in a Natasha bead style.

It’s menacing in the most beautifully alluring way.

Bullseye hits the spot

Kate Lee Foley's bullseye earrings hit the spot on PolymerClayDaily.com

Some days, the trusty bullseye cane really hits the spot. Take these earrings from Australia’s Kate Lee Foley.

Nothing pretentious or complicated about these swingy cutouts. The yellow background picks up one of the cane colors. Kate calls her earrings “…a little Gustave Klimt.”

Stuck for an idea? Try a bullseye.

The fashion of Fall

Christine Pecaut's necklace mimics falling leaves on PolymerClayDaily

This necklace from France’s Christine Pecaut (Chifonie) reminds us that falling leaves will quickly be back in fashion.

Christine’s leaves are a combination of shapes, textures, and stripes bisected by thin spines of twisted clay rolls or sharply cut slivers.

The angles mimic the way leaves fall from the trees and a few random dark beads break up the symmetry. Is it fall in your studio?

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