Bring out your Spring Palette as Carol Beal (BeadUnsupervised) does with this Kandinsky-like bracelet.
You can see what she’s cooked up for spring on her Flickr page and on Etsy. Carol mixes her media in delightful ways.
I’ve been unsupervised all weekend and am not quite ready to return. Talk amongst yourselves.
When Germany’s Bettina Welker and Scotland’s Melanie Muir realized that they’d hit upon the same solution to a polymer connection problem, they got in touch with each other and had a good laugh.
No one would confuse Bettina’s latest Swiveling Neckpiece with this new Standing Stones piece by Melanie but if you deconstructed them, you’d see that the engineering is remarkably similar. They independently worked the connection conundrum out in the same way at the same time.
Swivels and rivets have been around for a long time, of course. This particular solution was a technique whose time had come.
Two takeaways here: you’re part of a community that can solve differences in a frank and cordial way, and sometimes a solution arises in several places at the same time. No harm, no foul.
We can also agree that flawless execution makes everyone take notice. We’ve been searching for ways to hide the distraction of hardware and both these artworks feature polymer beautifully all by itself.
You may not be drawn to Sarah Sorlien’s polymer imitative rock but there are plenty of dogs who love it!
This Philadelphia physician makes Odor Stones, hollow polymer stones that are used as hiding places for dog training and competitions. She creates these functional faux stones for a canine sport called Nosework. Now you understand the holes.
Sarah says she learned rock basics from my online class and then added her own magic ingredient – cement. “Add a little liquid clay if it gets too powdery,” she suggests. It’s cheaper than embossing powders and was already available in the garage. “Don’t get it near your eyes,” physician Sarah cautions. See more of her examples on Pinterest.
An interesting diversion from jewelry on a Thursday. PCD took an interesting diversion too and stopped posting on schedule. Technological spring fever!
Elena Sevva’s latest series of necklaces look sand-washed and sun-bleached by the Israeli elements. Her Archeological series is strung on coarse twine. The one on the left is From the Beach and features a faded pencil drawing on the focal bead. Another is entitled From the Old Olive Grove.
Elena’s work is rough and worn. She’s at her best when she pulls from memories to create fragments in polymer. Each piece is full of stories, mystery and history.
She’s gathered a large trove of pieces that inspire her on her Pinterest board and she keeps a continuing catalog of her work on Flickr.
Syndee Holt shares her secrets of silkscreening and coloring on polymer tonight (March 18) on Craftcast. She also excels at taking images from camera to computer to polymer and then bringing them to life with inks, pencils and markers. I’ll be in the front row! Come join me.
Maine’s Jayne Dwyer has jump on spring with this big and complex pansy cane. If you’ve ever grappled with a big cane, you’ll be impressed by what Jayne has achieved – complicated shading and graduated, textured colors everywhere. We’ll have to check back to see what she makes of it.
Jayne thinks in both a painterly and a 3D way which can be downright tricky. The canes are very clever puzzles.
Go through her Paper Moon Jewelry Facebook page and Pinterest boards to see how she uses slices of reduced canes. She translates her Spring fever into polymer canes just in time for St. Patrick’s Day!
Slovenia’s Tina Mezek makes Circle Pins that pop with playful loops of wire and polymer accents. Tina trained as jeweler and now she mixes her media with ease.
She carves a design, then stamps, colors and uses liquid clay liberally. Her lopsided accents give her pins an extra springtime flair.
Turns out, Tina teaches the methods for making these pins on CraftArtEdu. See more of her work on Pinterest, Flickr and Facebook. You won’t want to miss her angels!
Tina Crouse’s is a feel-good Friday story. She’s launched a Facebook page to spread the word about the Kindware Premier program. Tina is the Ohio project’s manager and she’s introducing their new collection of Medallion Cuffs, wide leather bands with a polymer oval stamped with a choice of an inspirational word.
Tina took part in the Kindway program when she was incarcerated. The polymer jewelry that inmates make as they’re building their skills is sold by volunteers at art fairs and other events.
Once they transition back into their community, they may opt to continue selling their polymer art through Kindware Premier. Tina explains it more clearly.
“I became involved in this organization while I was incarcerated and not only did it change my life, but it gave me a future. All these handcrafted gifts are made possible because there are people investing in lives impacted by incarceration. While I was incarcerated I was able to develop a skill set working with polymer clay that I never knew I had. It became an outlet for me. Each time I worked with the clay I would turn all the negative that happened in my life into positive. All the bad things that were said to me into kind words – I am a good mother, I am smart, I am beautiful, I am worth it and I CAN CHANGE! All those stones thrown at me at one time are now re-purposed and transformed into beautiful gems.” she says eloquently.
But life’s not always easy (here’s more of her story) and Tina works as a waitress and takes care of her children as well. She was able to attend the Buckeye Bash conference last month (that’s Tina with me and Ron Lehocky in Dayton). The Kindway women sent along inchies they’d made. Tina serves as a terrific role model for other women who will be released in the near future.
Your support, likes, and good wishes energize these women and the Kindway/Kindware project. Have a feel good weekend. Contact Tina here to purchase her cuffs which cost $25 plus $3 shipping.
Miniaturist Stéphanie Kilgast (PetitPlat) has been on a steady diet of polymer fruits and veggies for 70 days. Can she possibly keep this up for an entire year?
She posts her new food sculptures almost daily on Facebook where you can follow her progress and cheer her on.
“I’m starting to feel a bit tired with this daily challenge,” Stephanie admits. “It is a lot of work to handle and I can’t seem to be able to make them in advance, say make 3-4 veggies in one session. Ah well, I need to get a grip about this, otherwise I’m going to exhaust myself.”
Why miniatures? “Miniatures are usually appreciated because they make you think you can put the world in your pocket,” says Stephanie and the colors are endlessly inspiring. She also ventures into other subjects including a line of City and Galaxy jewelry.
Read more about this French artist on Instagram, Pinterest and Flickr. Yep, she’s got a whole page of tutorials in case you’re inspired and you may enjoy this older video about her work.
It may take you a while to see the clock in this picture. The red dots on the heap of black and white patterns provide the clues.
Carol Blackburn made some of the polymer designs and then taught Tory Hughes. Tory combined her own black and white layers with Carol’s to build this sculpture/clock. “Movement feeds my spirit and nourishes my psyche,” Tory admits.
“It’s a great challenge with Carol’s patterned skins because I respond like everyone else: they are so gorgeous as a sheet of stunningly precise pattern and color that I don’t want to cut them up either! But part of why Carol and I work so well together is that the creative threshold is different for the maker versus the viewer,” Tory explains.
The two collaborators will teach their unique magic tricks on June 26-28 in Santa Fe, NM, as the next step in their Take Two series. This one’s called Take Two, Moving Along. Learn to build stunning patterns (Carol) and turn them into sculptural fabrications (Tory)!
Read more about Tory’s recent experiments with sculpture and motion here. See some of Carol’s precise patterns here and here and on Pinterest.
Heather Powers’ Wedgwood Pottery-inspired beads contain promises of a new season. Her imitative Jasperware beads feature raised white relief sculpture on matte backgrounds in spring colors. Here the Wedgwood beads are paired with leafy designs and topped by birds.
Heather is one busy blogger! Tonight she presents her tips for Promoting Your Jewelry Business Online to the Baltimore Bead Society. She’s gathered her source material, over 300 articles for artists/sellers, into one hugely helpful Creative Biz Pinterest board.
She operates multiple shops and teaches on cruises, workshops, bootcamps and retreats. She writes books. She blogs and connects like crazy. Go marvel at her talents and don’t miss her free jewelry tutorials!
