More than one way with polymer

No cane slices were combined to create Barb Fajardo’s latest experiment! For this 4″ diameter bowl she’s using her Mandala Flora technique that includes a clever mix of cut and replace plus texture and paint.

It’s a welcome departure from the usual. (Remember her last bowl experiment?) We sometimes forget that with polymer there’s always more than one way to get the results you want. Start a week full of possiblities.

While her site is undergoing a makeover, you can find Barb on Flickr, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Who’s got the button

Angelika Arendt’s Purple Swan was at the end of a wild goose chase. You can see how her sculptures were a natural progression from her lush, dense drawings. Angelika’s catalog and collections are fascinating and impressive. This juicy purple polymer ends the week on a bright note.

I hesitate to send you on the same wild goose chase I fell into. But it’s Friday and you have the whole weekend to get lost in wonderful, colorful links so here goes. Scotland’s Buttons by McAnaraks Facebook page was where the road to Angelika began.

Fran Harkes and Steve Cormack make resin buttons and they pull inspiration from textiles, fibers, ceramics, polymer and whatever. Their posts lead you to an eclectic mix of styles and media pulled together by a great eye for pattern and color. I was surprised to find my own art there!

I forced myself to stop looking/linking or I’d never get this post written. McAnaraks’ Pinterest boards continue the fun and they sell their buttons on Etsy and on their site. Enjoy a colorful wild ride this weekend.

Evolving bangles

Two flat sculpted bangles caught my eye. Similar designs with very different treatments.

The first is from Pennsylvania’s Staci Smith (stacilouiseoriginals). She’s happy to be back to polymer after nursing a sore shoulder. “This was one of those things I couldn’t stop sketching or thinking about. It’s a practice bracelet.”

She shares some in-process shots on her blog and Facebook. She’s also published articles in the latest issues of Belle Armoire and ClothPaperScissors.

The second was from Czech Republic’s Eva Haskova who wrapped extruded elements into a shape that looks like the structure of a chemical element with random holes and connected particles. You can see more of her stylish discoveries on her site, Flickr and Facebook. Here’s her quick free video too.

These concepts made me want to revisit the extruded flat heart I played with a few years back. The flat bangle evolution continues.

Cloud, rain and trees

This award winning Cloud, Rain and Trees by Virginia’s Wiwat Kamolpornwijit combines both more structured and more organic elements than the necklaces usually created by this environmental researcher turned polymer artist.

Wiwat had been a winner in the 2011 and 2013 Niche awards and a finalist in the Saul Bell Awards in 2011. He took the top 2015 Niche Award in the professional polymer clay category with this neckpiece.

The luscious color on his latest work on Facebook looks like another move from a limited palette to one with more echos of Thailand. Wiwat doesn’t give us many clues but you can sense that 2015 may be his year and there are changes ahead.

Polymer beach finds

Sandra Deyoung Niese’s (DandyBeads) imitative beach finds look appealing on her Etsy site at this time of year. She lives in Michigan but her heart and her polymer designs live in a warmer climate.

This 2″ wire-wrapped pendant is painted with sea blue and sand acrylics and delicately distressed with sea urchin patterns.

If you need some sun and sand to brighten your day, look at Sandra’s beautifully wave-washed polymer pieces on Facebook and Pinterest. This one’s sold. I’m wearing a pretty piece of beach on a cord to ward off snow. It’s not working but I don’t care.

Telltale polymer heart

Christine Damm’s hearts are wild and spontaneous and very much her. She’d like you to throw away all your templates and cutters!

Christine explains to her students that, “Your piece will become truly unique only if you address every single aspect of its design and source or design it yourself. That means devising your own shapes and forms whenever possible.”

She recommends a quick-sketching method to discover your own heart. “The shape itself means something to us culturally and anthropologically on a subconscious level. It’s also a very universal symbol.”

Before you start cutting out polymer hearts this week, doodle a page or two of your own valentines. You may find that your heart is in a different place and has taken on a new shape in 2015. Christine wears her heart on Pinterest, her site and Flickr.

Mokume gane treat

This brooch by France’s Isabelle Chatelain speaks to me and it’s too delicious to just let it float by on Flickr. Let’s grab it and mull it over for a Friday minute.

The repeating circle patterns both change and stay the same. This is polymer mokume gane at its best and the color combination shows off the pattern nicely. It hints at Moorish mosaics and Byzantine ceilings.

Isabelle mixes bits of this design into other brooches. Her ability to assemble compositions from small chunks of mokume gane plus textures and colored shapes is remarkable. Yummy.

Find more on Facebook and in her online shop. Isabelle also teaches on CraftArtEdu.

Evolving talking heads

A class with Ronna Weltman pushed Seattle’s Sue Ellen Katz to begin making polymer Talking Heads five years ago as a daily creative meditation. (Here’s a PCD post about the beginning of her work.)

The talking heads have evolved into elegant magnetic brooches embroidered with glass beads and semi-precious stones. Sue Ellen has created hundreds of polymer faces in three collections: Ancient Entities, Goddesses and Chinese Zodiac.

Alese, The Light Bearer, is an Ancient Entity painted with alcohol inks and surrounded with seed beads, vintage beads and crystals. She is a 2″ x 4″ magnetic brooch.

When not worn, Sue Ellen’s pieces are richly framed in shadow boxes that she designed. The deep, fabric-lined frames have metal backs that hold the brooches and create a dramatic presentation grouped on a wall.

The effect of these collections (photographed by Douglas S Yaple) is captured on Sue Ellen’s new site (click the Display it/Wear it headings to see the frames). See more on her blog, Facebook and Pinterest.

One tool, one day

Julie Picarello allowed herself only one imprint tool for these Lunar Flowers. She haunts hardware stores looking for metal parts that leave unusual marks and shapes. For this exercise Julie challenged herself to move out of her comfort zone and design in 3D in a more loose way than usual for one day.

” I threw all caution in the wind, and distorted and manipulated on purpose. It was a strange feeling, and I might even have whimpered a little when I forced myself to cut a hole off-center. But by the end of the day, I was hooked on these simple little components,” she says.

She admits that she’s returning to her beloved imprinting technique, “But it feels good to have dipped a toe in uncharted waters, and lived to tell the tale.”

Her new works also include crackle surfaces and patterned edges that haven’t appeared before. Have you ventured beyond your usual depth lately?

Butterfly booth bush

Wanda Shum’s butterfly brooches alight gracefully in her booth on a round potted bush. The spring scene invites shoppers in for a closer look. A Vancouver artist, Wanda is selling her wares at a Toronto wholesale show this week.

It’s easiest to understand how she sketches and builds her butterfly canes by looking at her Facebook photos. You’ll also find her collections of work on Pinterest and Flickr.

Wanda’s colors are hot and her bugs and butterflies add a welcome dash of color on a cold day full of white snow.

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