Challenge with a twist

Janet Bouey gives her challenge a twist on PolymerClayDaily.com

Vancouver Island’s Janet Bouey finishes her 100-day challenge with this hollow twisted tube.

Looking at her recap on Instagram you get a sense of how muscles loosen and fear is diminished by the commitment to a daily studio exercise.

There’s no wrong or right, there’s just moving forward. I’m guessing that Janet will want to explore this new tangent from Day 95.

We’ll look at the challenges (polymer and otherwise) of the last 100 days on StudioMojo this Saturday. What have we learned? What’s next? Join us for an inside look.

Challenge home run

Dayle Jones finishes her 100-day challenge with a winner on PolymerClayDaily.com

UK’s Dayl Jones (Planet Isis) slides into the end of her 100-day challenge with this collaged veneer two-sided home run.

The soft watery colors of the oval pendant are impressive but she tops it off by repeating the colors in the polymer tubes and thin-sliced beads on the cord. Now it all hangs together with panache.

It’s those little touches that bump Dayle’s pendant up a notch.

Garden inspirations

Pavla Cepelikova creates Columbines on PolymerClayDaily.com

Czech Republic’s Pavla Cepelikova (SaffronAddict) has taken liberties with her version of the Columbine flowers (at the top right of the photo).

The long tubes drape down and flare to reveal secret colors as they open at the bottom. Pavla likes these bell shapes in her garden and polymer will allow her to wear them on her ears.

What inspiration is blooming in your garden?

From the berry patch

Germany’s Monika Busch (Efmoni) consistently creates stunning colors in her striped polymer beads and buttons. “The luminosity of the colors and strong contrasts fascinate me,” she says.

The raspberry colors on these big-hole (7mm) beads are combined with reds, greens, pinks, and deep browns.

Monika makes what she calls dread jewelry for beards and hair and dreadlocks.

Don’t you want to try her juicy palette?

Dots with a twist

Gail Garbe takes dotted tube steps forward on PolymerClayDaily.com

I flinched when this necklace from Ontario’s Gail Garbe popped up on my screen. “That looks remarkably familiar,” I thought.

Then I had to laugh at myself when I realized that Gail took my Saturday Craftcast class and stayed up late coming up with her own twist on the concept. I must have done something right! Gail extruded the tubes and added the dots perfectly.

Then she added her own off-kilter gaily colored spacer beads. It all works!

This is what teachers hope to see – students who take their concepts to the next level. Gail has taught me a thing or two!

Going dotty

Cynthia Tinapple's all-polymer dot necklace on PolymerClayDaily.com

My dotted necklaces are all-polymer and fun to make. They’re so simple that I felt I needed to “up my game” for my Craftcast class this Saturday so I quickly (last night) made a Rex Ray, mid-century modern inspired version with colors I had on hand.

The design had been rolling around in my head. Do you have a design that needs to be brought to life?

Join us on Craftcast to learn my tricks and create your own look. For 30% off use the code: summer2020

You’ll note that I’m claiming a new hair color thanks to quarantine and mother nature. And I’ve adjusted cynthiatinapple.com to reflect my mentoring and class projects.

For more behind-the-scenes chatter, join us at StudioMojo for a weekly update each Saturday.

Buzzing with color

Angela Barenholtz grows her collections of masterpieces on PolymerClayDaily.com

Israel’s Angela Barenholtz shows a large and growing collection of interpretations of famous paintings rendered in polymer on Flickr.

She’s refined and changed and expanded her painting techniques. Angela chops her clay into a terrazzo-like mix that buzzes with energy and color.

This latest is her rendition of a Paul Klee work and it popped up on her sparse Instagram site. You may want to follow along. Let’s hope she keeps moving in this direction. It’s the bomb!

Toying with polymer

Belinda Ashton makes easy, cheery links on PolymerClayDaily.com

UK’s Belinda Ashton appeals to the toddler in us with this necklace of multi-colored circles.

The tag should probably include a warning about not chewing on the luscious links. The big links are certainly something a wearer would twirl and play with.

What surprised me was how Belinda created this. My brain went directly to extruded clay. But I was wrong. Its construction was super simple.

In these complicated times, innocent, straightforward, cheery designs are important.

Desert visions in progress

John and Corliss Rose are grateful for their quarantine creating on PolymerClayDaily.com

John and Corliss Rose are grateful to be creating in their quarantine corral, otherwise called their California studio.

This Mojave Bouquet was a product of an “In Progress” box of odds and sods that they’re giving new life.

The brooch is 3″ x 2.25″ with a fabricated sterling silver back and mechanism which you can see in these front and back photos.

Do you have odds and sods waiting to be turned into something remarkable? What better time than now to use what you have?

Monday head scratcher

Melanie West joins fabric and polymer in new ways on PolymerClayDaily.com

Maine’s Melanie West posts daily on Facebook about an astonishing array of artists that she’s discovered.

She rarely reveals what she’s working on. But in a July feature, she shows a new series brooches that she calls Fabric Rocks. Polymer is involved but she’s done a sleight of hand so that it’s difficult to tell what’s fabric, what’s textured polymer, and how the pattern is created.

She’s probably proudly smirking at having stumped us with her new tricks on a Monday. What’s your guess?

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