NYTimes: Polymer for anxiety

Rebecca Ackermann cures anxiety on PolymerClayDaily.com

In Thursday’s NYTimes, San Francisco’s Rebecca Ackermann reinforces the joys of polymer in her article called, I Cured My Pandemic Anxiety by Making Tiny Food Out of Clay.

She watched friends extract comfort from cooking and tried that. “It was just another thing I was failing at,” she says. She moved on to tie-dye, yoga, face painting, and more. One day she bought some polymer clay to pass the hours with her daughter.

You know the rest of the story!

“My daughter and I still do clay together when she’s in the mood, but she gets angry if her results don’t look like mine. So I’m working to teach her the word “experiment” and the notion that each time she tries, the trying makes her better. It’s a lesson I’m still learning at the end of every strange, horrible, or hopeful day in quarantine when I sit down with my clay and my little tools and I try again to make one small piece of the world just right.” Rebecca is on Instagram and Twitter.

Thanks to Seth Savarick (still in Chicago, moving to Palm Springs) for pointing PCD to this article. If you’re ready to get more newsy bits in one weekly digest, sign up for Saturday’s StudioMojo.

Polymer publications for your collection

Polymer Week magazine (it's quarterly) gives polymer art cache on PolymerClayDaily.com

No, no, no…that’s not me on the cover of the beautiful Polymer Week magazine! That’s the evocative, delicate polymer sculpture of Israel’s Edith Fischer-Katz.

Lucie

Polymer Week (it's quarterly) gives polymer art cache on PolymerClayDaily.com

S?truncova? did interview me for this issue. I blush at how glamorous she made me look (then I flip through the pages again to make sure it’s me.)

But more to the point, these quarterly magazines are collector’s items because they elevate polymer art to the level of fine art that we have dreamed of. The paper is slick and weighty. The photography is stunning. The quality of the work is breath-taking. The tutorials are first-rate.

I don’t know how Lucie and her crew do it. Snatch up these gems for your collection.

Breezy new designs

Welcoming Ariel with her bright colors and sweet studio to PolymerClayDaily

Ariel (The Clay Edit) from Norfolk, Virginia, is a new face for PCD.

You’ll recognize the shapes she’s fond of and the ways handles the clay. Her earrings are big and bold in the way that’s caught on, especially in Australia.

I can’t quite put my finger on how Ariel gives her earrings an American flavor. Her colors? Design twists? Her presence online is hip and vibrant.

Check out her sweet little studio. Note the “Do Good Work” reminder that sits above her space.

Layered leaves

Sabine Speisser's scrap brings her history to this leaf brooch on PolymerClayDaily.com

Australia’s Sabine Spiesser mixes hot color combinations that make visual vibrations on this 3-layer leaf brooch.

Posting in response to one of those 10-day challenges on Facebook, Sabine didn’t add any explanation. The requirement is only that the art is somehow significant to the artist. Viewers can draw their own conclusions.

The mosaic appearance comes from layered scrap. When you use scrap, you bring to a project the color selections and design decisions from your past. Your way of working, your history is embedded and gives the new piece an extra richness.

The three offset layers ripple pleasantly against each other.

Back in a booth again

Rebecca Thickbroom makes the most of simple earring shapes on PolymerClayDaily.com

There are all sorts of “wowser” weekend posts out there but I’m stuck on the earring explorations from UK’s Rebecca Thickbroom.

She takes the football shape (or is a leaf shape a more accurate description) and combines with squares, circles, rectangles to arrive at a whole collection of earrings.

The finishes are scuffed and scratched. The colors are muted. Rebecca’s playing around makes me realize how I miss doing that.

Those of us stuck in isolation are wistful about how she enjoyed a weekend in-person, socially-distanced show (oldspitalfieldsmarket). It looks almost unreal. Here’s hoping that we can all experience that again soon.

Sometimes I don’t know…

To someone somewhere, polymer earrings that soothe on PolymerClayDaily.com

Sometimes I don’t know who made it or what it’s made of but my alarm bells start chiming and I run to see who’s at the door.

After an exhausting day, I was happy to settle on these earrings from Maria De Oliveira. (to someonesomewhere). Obituaries came up when I googled her. That can’t be right!

Instead of digging up Maria and verifying the material, I’m just going with my gut and the huge exhale I felt when I happened upon these ombre earrings. My shoulders dropped, my neck felt better. They’re what we would call Skinner blends. I’m calling it a polymer post.

There’s a bulging file folder of clickable candies just waiting for me to organize them into this week’s StudioMojo. When I feel everything’s a hot mess, that’s usually when I’m on the right track. Come see if I’m onto somthing good.

Polymer evolution/revolution from India

Radhika Sadhika sketches in polymer and wire on PolymerClayDaily.com

India’s Radhika Sadhika (radicalsbyradhikasadhika) illustrates the flow of line transforming into shapes that are aesthetically different in every piece.

She combines clay and wire in ways that make them look like sketches. Brass wires connect clay designs and turn them into minimalist wearable line drawings.

You’ll only find a cryptic bit about Radhika on Instagram. You have to DM her for sales information on her intriguing pieces. Her links lead you to a Google Photo gallery of her work. The path to her works mirrors the Evolution/Revolution theme of her work.

Read about her on Arts Thread.

Polymer comes alive

Nancy Blindeman sees her dancing in the sand on PolymerClayDaily.com

Belgium’s Nancy Blindeman (Art BeYou) has started making faces in polymer lately.

The illustrations of Patrick Nagel and the music of Duran Duran inspired Nancy to work in a new way and it suits her well. She builds up extruded strings of clay into a portrait.

She says of this character, “Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand.” When an artist can see and hear and her characters, we can sense that aliveness in the work.

The right touch

Ann Dillon's textures from surprising sources on PolymerClayDaily.com

New Hampshire’s Ann Dillon creates textures and shimmer that beg you to touch them.

I asked her how she created the impossibly fine lines on one pair of lovely earrings and she replied, “Corn husks.”

She has an eye for natural textures and slight bends combined with a fall palette that gives her leaf shapes a “just fallen” look.

As you wander through her new website and Instagram, notice the textures.

Captivated by moths

Daria Telegina makes the most of moths on PolymerClayDaily.com

Russia’s Daria Telegina (Balambeshka on IG) is smitten with moths.

Her Facebook and Instagram are filled with these exotic creatures which she refers to as cute things.

Each one is more complex than the last with exquisite details on their polymer wings, cane-slice antennae, and minutely textured bodies.

Don’t you wonder how she became fixated on moths? What do you feel compelled to make and why?

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