Melbourne’s Michelle Sansonetti (Zedembee) can’t predict what polymer creatures will take shape in her fingers.
Here it’s a bemused cat with a bird on its head.
It made me smile and that’s the main criteria for a Monday post. The cat’s stripes are comfortably rumpled and the expression is satisfyingly silly (Felix and Philomena). It’s a good way to start the week.
Simple designs contain great charm at this time of year.
Ohio’s Jan Montarsi gives dimension to the snowmen pins he made for a swap by shadowing their rounded edges. To give them personality he splurges on scarves, hats, and earmuffs.
Anita Kennerley builds her angel earrings by wrapping a circle and using hearts for wings. Using only a red circle, white belt, and black belt buckle, her earrings say that Santa is coming.
It’s the merry attitude in these designs that captures the spirit of the season.
Slip over to StudioMojo if you want a weekend helping of festive polymer ideas and insider news. StudioMojo comes right to your inbox each Saturday.
Croatia’s Nikolina Otrzan (Orsons World) tempts us with a new downloadable tutorial coming out at the end of the month. On her slim collaged tube pendants, dots join stripes along with distressed solids.
Her tutorials are full of surprising methods, copious photos, and sophisticated designs. This could be an end of the year gift to yourself that will properly launch your skills into 2020.
Here she is on Facebook and Etsy.
Florida’s Lynn (WhimsyAtWork) offers us Love and Peace with this outstanding mixed media wall piece.
Layers of handmade papers and fibers become the background for the central polymer face which looks like it’s sewn on.
Big lips, sultry mismatched eyes, tattooed nose. Love the loops on the left
She says of her work, “I breathe art. I didn’t always. I held my breath for a long time waiting for life to smack me. And when it did… WOW what JOY!! I hope you can see what I feel.” On Facebook here.
How did Texas’ Joey Barnes happen to have a spare Lucy clay roller that she donated to the women at the Ohio Reformatory? She explains that “When these machines came out several years ago, lots of customers were having difficulty understanding the machine’s roughly translated Czech/English instructions.”
Joey offered to improve them. That led to her translating their teachers’ contracts and operators’ manuals. When she refused payment, Lucy Tools sent Joey their biggest “Elephant.”
But the Elephant was too big for Joey’s workspace so she set it aside waiting for the right use.
When she saw that the ORW students needed a second Lucy Elephant, she thought, “Beshert!” That’s the Yiddish word for “meant to be.” The funds raised on PCD will go to other needs of the prison program.
Ever the collaborator, Joey credits Carol Simmons, Ivy Niles and Corrie Beth Hogg for giving her inspiration for her flower box (shown here) and garden series.
UK’s Pete Simpson’s Imps and Things can make you a believer in all kinds of fantastical spirits.
Each imp relaxes in a 10cm diameter frosted bauble that’s ready to hang. “He’s completely guaranteed not to misbehave or cause chaos on your tree when you are not looking!” says Pete.
Watch Pete build his faerie folk on Instagram.
PCD viewers have made me a believer in helpful elves. We quickly met our goal of raising funds to purchase an industrial rolling machine for the polymer students at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
Even better, the exact machine we were looking for appeared on my porch this weekend from a special secret sprite. Get the whole story tomorrow on PCD.
UK’s Karen Walker (ClaygroundUK) knows how to snuggle her characters for winter.
Whether it’s snowmen, bears, rabbits, or people, she wraps them in sweaters, hats, and scarves with fun buttons and patch pockets.
Karen makes it look like fun to go out in winter’s cold. They’re made of polymer, of course. Look on Facebook here and here.
Germany’s Eva Thissen has moved to tone-on-tone flowers and birds for her latest series of pendants and earrings.
Eva finds that in stark white, the flowers and bird relief looks flat so she settled on this cream color. You have to move in close to see the exquisite detail on her small monochrome jewelry.
Eva calls herself an illustrator and considers these polymer illustrations. More illustrated goods on Etsy.
The earrings from Australia’s Melvellous (Mel) are cheeky and fun.
She features everything from gingerbread houses to avocados to boobs for people who are comfortable making statements or wearing jokes on their ears.
Melvellous is part of EarringLover.com that has gathered together over 400 artists in AU and New Zealand to market them online.
What are we looking at here from Moscow’s Juliya Laukhina? The translation isn’t helping much so let’s go with what our eyes tell us.
Juliya has loved repetition and detail in her round beads for years. But these pods take her obsessions in new and organic directions. She adds a variety of curvy forms, spikey balls, and lacey layers. What prompted this great change?
Go to her Instagram to examine each of these pods up close.
