Facing yourself with polymer

Australia’s Wendy Moore sat herself down and had a talk. She’d been neglecting her creative self as she traveled and dealt with various worthy projects (you’ll know her name from the Nepali Samunnat project).

When Wendy finally gave her creative side some quality time, this wonderful face cane materialized.

The face cane was inspired by Argentinian artist Graciela Fuenzalida who draws wild women portraits on leather purses and bags.

Dressed up with earrings and hairstyles, Wendy’s face turned into a whole sorority of happy creative selves.

This may also remind you of Pier Voulkos’ early faces. There’s a face cane video here if you need a quick start. Let your creative self pick up some clay and face the week together.

Cellular mashup

For this pendant, Germany’s Annette Kruger (wolfschmuck) took inspiration from Eugena Topina’s polymer openwork tutorial. She also felt influenced by Melanie West’s organic cell structures.

By using layers of multiple colors (Eugena shows her samples in white) and shaping this bead as a hollow form, Annette achieves some exciting results that suggest a whole new range of possibilities.

Her first experiments show promise but miss the mark with underwhelming palettes. After several tries she scores and captures our attention. I don’t know about you, but I’m itching to try this.

See more of Annette’s efforts on Facebook and Flickr.

Polymer surface design

Vickie Turner has moved to the east coast of Canada and writes a lovely post (on her polymer blog, Claymagination) about her new home and the work she’s doing in her studio. The tour of her area provides a dreamy diversion.

She took a class in polymer surface techniques with Claire Maunsell in Montreal before the move and used it as the starting point for these very distinctive and painterly beads.

Vickie says that she finds herself in the studio – usually by painting. You can easily see how she brings her “process painting” to polymer with stunning effect.

That’s two dynamic teacher/student matchups this week.

Before and after polymer

Pennsylvania’s Emily Squires Levine used her Artchain Challenge to show us these Then & Now works. Inspired by Karin Noyes’ polymer bowls, Emily formed her first version in the mid-1990’s around a custard dish. It drooped when she removed the warm clay from the form but she was undeterred.

Fast forward to this fall and you’ll see how far Emily has come. In fall 2014 she created a flower pot of wavy tendrils in muted greens and metallic golds, part of her Sargassum series that appeared in the Racine Art Museum exhibit.

Emily’s bowls, eggs and tiles depend on her own strong color palette and exploit the negaitve spaces between elements.

Browsing through her galleries of bowls and polymer/resin tiles on her site and photos on Facebook and Flickr may set you off on your own journey of exploration.

Be sure to keep a photo of your first efforts!

Seeing polymer birds

Cynthia Toops combines large lentil beads covered in millefiori cane slices with small insets of micromosaic bird motifs for this new necklace called Seeing Birds.

The birds are all native to Washington state and the piece is featured in the Of a Feather show at the White River Valley Museum located between Tacoma and Seattle. Read more about the exhibition here .

I wish we had a higher resolution photo so you could dive in for a closer look at her magical images made from super fine threads of polymer.

For a better example, zoom in on this brooch that Cynthia made for last fall’s Tilling Time/Telling Time show at Facere Gallery. Keep in mind that the brooch is only 1 1/2 inches square! Silver bezel is by Chuck Domitrovich.

Encrusted and enlightened

Ann Dillon was captivated by Jana Roberts Benzon’s Encrusted workshop last October. “I didn’t want to do quite the same thing,” Ann explains. “I like matte more than shiny. I’m not into Swarovski crystals. I had been hankering to make some of the rough-edged spirals I’d seen online.”

Ann’s Encrusted works have a woven fiber appearance. “I can’t seem to stop making them!” she admits. See more of Ann’s interpretations on Pinterest and Facebook.

Meanwhile Jana has moved in her own new directions.

The bangle below is her wearable coral reef – complete with barnacles. In another piece she makes polymer look felted, then wrapped (see her Rapt class at Cabin Fever). Techniques are tools that can be used to express very different concepts.

Feel good Friday polymer

My new polymer alter ego from Erica Sturla may skip around the pages of PCD to dress up the place and brighten some nooks and crannies. (What a fun business expense!)

Today she’s waiting for you on the “How to get noticed” page.

A roof over our heads

Give yourself a feel good moment and take pride in the lives you helped improve as you watch this 3-minute video of progress on the Samunnat Raise the Roof campaign that you funded last year in Nepal.

The Samunnat Etsy shop is back online now that Wendy Moore has returned home to Australia with fresh inventory. Catch up with her and the ladies from Nepal on the blog, in the store and at KazuriWest.com. Thank you for your continuing support.

Guess who polymer

Recognize this artist? You won’t find this polymer Baby Groot on the Etsy or Ipernity or CraftArtEdu pages of Bettina Welker.

This Guardian of the Galaxy character (it’s the highest-grossing superhero film of 2014) was tucked into Bettina’s Facebook sculpture album. Her superhero sculpts are a guilty pleasure and I’m guessing they’re collaborations or commissions from her young son.

Sometimes it’s fun to stretch a different art muscle. Sculpting obviously tugs at Bettina’s creative heart and she’s good at it. Have you ventured out of your comfort zone lately?

Queen of Hearts polymer

Virginia’s Melissa Terlizzi reminds us that Valentines Day is around the corner with her Queen of Hearts sculpture. Melissa set out to make something dark and creepy with Tim Burton edginess but ended up with a wide-eyed innocent.

“I decided to go with it, and completely lost myself in the project. Even the Queen of Hearts must have been sweet once, right? Before she had her heart broken a few times, and started lopping off people’s heads,” she explains. See Melissa’s sculptures on Flickr and Facebook. It’s time to start considering hearts of all varieties.

Hypnotic polymer

You may need coffee to steady your nerves before you start on this optically challenging polymer cane from Helene Jeanclaude (Les ethiopiques).

Her free video tutorial makes this Checkered Hypnotic (Damier hypnotique) cane pattern deceptively simple and her step-by-step photos are clear enough that you do not need to speak French to follow along. (I know because I tried it.) She gathers soft edged hollow pillow beads made from the patterns into the necklace and ring shown below.

You’ll find much more on her blog (she offers a whole library of tutorials), Facebook, Pinterest, and on Flickr. Helene offers this new instruction as a bright spot in the dark days they’re experiencing in France. Merci!

Yesterday’s lucky earrings are available for anyone who needs them. Go Bucks!

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