UK’s Karen Walker (Clayground) perfectly captures Halloween 2020 with her rendition of Edvard Munch’s Scream in Cernit. No gore necessary! We get the picture from this sleek, simple, wide-eyed character. Here on Facebook.
If you’re feeling ready for a cheery diversion, stop by tomorrow’s StudioMojo where we’ll be encouraging you to pat yourselves on the back for accomplishments great and small during these scream-worthy times. BYO Halloween candy.
High fives to the dance parties and parades and celebrations at the polls. In the midst of terrible news, it felt good to be standing in line being proactive with lots of fellow voters.
I took apart a very old necklace to bring you today’s graphic. Isn’t it amazing how stars and stripes can be combined and recombined? Even the tail ends can be made into what looks like fireworks. There’s joy at the polls. Join the party.
Before the leaves fall and the lawn turns white with frost, let’s breathe in some autumn colors from Ireland’s Liga Valge. Sometimes scraps tell a story of their own.
Halloween will collide with voting this week. A real mishmash. It’s hard to focus. Let me know if you create something inspired.
Extruding is my studio warm-up exercise. Polymer hoop earrings are selling like hotcakes and look easy enough. Since I’ve been peddling red, white, and blue all week, the palette was settled. I was off to try out hoops.
Lynda Gilcher’s repeat angle wedge extruder disks are perfect for striped canes. She does the math and each disk indicates how many you’ll need to make a complete circle. I assembled my 12 extruded wedge strips of color into a circle.
Insert the resulting cane back into the extruder to produce any shape you want. For the hoops, I extruded the cane through Lynda’s Arches #3 disk. Voila! Hoops!
The messy scrap is the beginning of a brooch (see Jana Roberts Benzon’s idea here). Something about this textured mess seems apropos of our current red, white, and blue. It needs an element that says 2020.
Did you notice that I slid right into tutorial mode? Friday is my day to scoop up the ideas and products that have floated by and turn them into juicy stuff for StudioMojo. Sometimes it’s a how-to, sometimes it’s a looky-looky. Come on over and see what’s in this week’s grab bag.
You might think that Shulamit Raanan creates her most exuberant stars and stripes in a small town in a midwestern American flag-waving state. You’d be wrong. “The magic takes place in a little studio, on the second floor of a house standing at the top of a hill overlooking the Yzrael Valley in the north of Israel,” she admits. She’s a prolific maker of buttons, beads, and jewelry as you’ll see on her FB page.
If you need a soothing, meditative polymer technique, try bicones like Shulamit’s. Carissa Nichols shows you how to rock and roll bicone beads from scrap in this video. It’s like learning to ride a bike (without the skinned knees). Once you get your balance you’ll be hooked.
Fill out your ballot, check it twice. You’re all set to vote!
Illinois’ Ann Duncan-Hlavach brings red, white, and blue to her polymer roses. She swirls thin cane slices around each other and hides a pearl in their centers.
So here’s hoping that we swirl around each other and find the pearl we want in the middle.
You’ve voted already, right? That’s the best way to keep your garden growing!
North Carolina’s Ginnie Parrish (BlueFrogClay) gets her patriotism on with a pinwheel version of stars and stripes earrings along with simple mismatched stars. Now doesn’t that make you want to go out and vote?
I was so inspired that I zipped into my studio to see what I could come up with. But that’s for later in the week. Send PCD photos of what you’ll be wearing to the polls. Here’s Ginny on Etsy.
Let’s get voting! California’s Karen Lewis (Klewie911) starts us off with stars and stripes. Her Americana hearts are draped with a thin curled layer of translucent striped bunting. They’re busy and festive and just right for your Monday. Have you voted yet?
My brain’s all mushy and there’s nothing better than this cane reveal from Australia’s Robyn at Kaori Studio to capture a tired mind. That first slice is the equivalent of a cat toy for caners.
Robyn has pumped out one big batch of extruded dots! She has a baby so she works at night which accounts for the lighting. Doesn’t it make you want to try it? This is what we extruder types dream about. Watch her upcoming jewelry to see where this pops up.
Get the full slicing effect on Robyn’s Instagram (@shop.kaori). Now wasn’t that satisfying?
Virginia’s Angie Wiggins starts every year with a palette of colors that she sticks to for 12 months.
Ribbons of violet run through leftover Skinner blended circles that will become coasters. The colors are easy on the eyes and invite us to explore and enjoy the gradations.
Angie sticks to her plan. There’s something comforting and smart and reassuring in that. Her use of blends is mesmerizing. Check out her Instagram.
