Inspired bowls

Encouraged by the progress that Donna Greenberg enjoyed with her series of polymer bowls, Gera Chandler decided to have another go at what she calls her segmented bowls.

Gera says of her first efforts, “A few days ago I saw the amazing holey bowls that Donna Greenberg is making. It was an epiphany moment. I got the inks out again and made this petite prototype (right).”

That led to Gera’s Segmented Vessels (left). ” It is always good to switch things up every now and then,” she says.

Supermoon viral spiral

Last night’s supermoon gives us a great opportunity to feature these lunar like polymer constructions from Donna Greenberg.

Her bowls have progressed over the last six months from palm-sized spikey cups to larger, shallow vessels with spiraling textured interiors riddled with holes. This 10-inch wide one she calls Viral Spiral.

Donna’s documented her lunar explorations on Facebook and Flickr. Her work has encouraged others to revisit polymer bowl designs as Donna moves on to incorporate metal clay into more complex designs.

She collaborated with metal clay artist Kathleen Nowak Tucci for the series of small bowls that were featured on the cover of the Fall 2014 edition of Metal Clay Artist magazine.

Kickstarting Oozeq

Oozeq has 5 days left to raise the seed money that will help launch production of its starch putty that can be used for hollow forms. Manipulate the putty into any shape and bake it hard. Wrap the baked shape in polymer and bake again then soak in water to wash away the putty.

Kickstarter tells the whole story and you can be in on the ground floor. Will you support this exciting development?

Polymer shards

This bowl that looks like a mosaic construction assembled from pieces of Delft pottery is Wendy Malinow’s lastest in her series of nests.

The pieces in the China Shard Nest are made from polymer on which Wendy as drawn blue images. The piece isn’t finished, she says there’s a honey covered egg to come.

Wendy’s style is unmistakeable. Here I am modeling one of her wonderfully strange dolls at the Buckeye Bash. Surf through her world on Tumbler and on Facebook. Have a wonderfully strange weekend.

Polymer with a point

Using 413 small millefiori canes and lots of patience, Canada’s Dorothy Siemens created this 5″ diameter ball.

She describes her system as, “…one step at a time – and eventually it’s done! Truth be told, it happens over a period of weeks as each stage seems to need baking, drying or thinking!” She calls this latest one her Ball of Pointless Pointillism.

Dorothy has been pondering her obsessiveness in both polymer and beading. “Much of my work, especially in polymer, seems to involve the creation of many small components of similar appearance, arranged in grids or around spheres,” she says. Her shelf of creations tells the story.

She prefers to think of these repetitive works as meditative which means they’re not really pointless at all.

You can read more about her inspiration and her meditations on her blog. See more in-process shots on her Facebook page and Pinterest.

Potty polymer

Why yes, I believe that Germany’s Mareike Scharmer embellished even the potty with polymer. Here are the photos of the rest of the guest bath installation at the new Galerie Freisleben where inspiration will follow students from the classroom to the washroom.

The knobs and trim are polymer additions to the fancifully painted cabinets and mirrors and…well just about everything. Read about Mareike’s polymer work on her blog.

The facility is nearly ready and Ariane’s dream looks fabulous. Pore through more pictures of the gallery on Flickr. Claire Maunsell will teach in August and Loretta Lam is scheduled for October.

Bali boots from polymer

This must be the week for innovations. I’d heard rumblings about a new transfer process that Bali’s Jon Anderson is working on. He’s keeping the process under wraps for now but you can see what he’s up to (and purchase works) on his lovely new site.

He transfers the image from his polymer canes to fabric using a secret elixir. He’s getting consistent results while he works out colorfastness and other issues. You can put your name in for your own JSA boots and be a trendsetter.

The site is chock full of goodies including an interview that explains his history in polymer art. Keep up with Jon’s progress on his site and his Facebook page. Jon was voted the members’ favorite in this year’s IPCA Awards.

Monday monsters

Caroline Cornic-Isola (KlickArt) was first featured on PCD only a couple of weeks ago and already she’s captivated us again, this time with monsters.

She offers some pictures of her process that involves drawing and texturing on raw clay then coloring with markers on fired clay.

The washers and nuts that she uses as accent beads on the robot pendant repeat the mechanical theme.

Caroline loves to draw and she’s just gotten started at drawing on polymer. You’ll want follow along on her Facebook page (that’s the only place I could find her) and see where she takes these monsters and the process.

Cats, kids and 27,000 hearts

Cats, kids and hearts – this winning combination has vaulted Ron Lehocky over the 27,000 mark in his polymer project that benefits the Kids Center.

Ron’s efforts have been assisted by artists who send him their unused canes, teachers who gladly show him their tricks, and collaborators who use his hearts in their work.

Leslie Blackford showed Ron how to transfer images with water and use colored pencils to bring life to the eyes of these cats before the images were transferred.

Jimmie Boatwright purchased a heart at Creative Journey Studios and used it as the centerpiece of the beaded necklace shown here.

You may select hearts from Ron’s latest collection of pins made from upcycled donated canes. These will be on sale at the IPCA retreat in Columbus, Ohio this month. If you donated clay, your patterns could reappear on a heart that will help Ron to his next big number.

Polymer brush strokes

Wendy Jorre de St. Jorre’s Weeping Willow cane is just one in her yearlong study of trees and canes. Every week this year she’s constructed a cane based on a species of tree.

This example is based on a Monet painting of willows. “I wanted to see if I could make brush strokes with clay,” she says.

If Boabs, grass trees, and river gums look exotic to you, it may be because her trees are inspired by Australian landscapes.

Her latest effort, Snow Gums, is a 5-cane series that matches horizontally to make a continuous panorama. She wanted to have all her assignments completed so that she could play in Las Vegas at Clay Carnival this week.

Wendy carefully documents her efforts and shows her canes on her Flickr site and there’s a concise overview on her Pinterest page. It’s an impressive project to follow.

Showing off polymer

If counting the number of artists using polymer in a prestige art show makes us more credible, we’re doing well. According to this year’s roster at the San Francisco ACC show, polymer pops up frequently in the roster.

There’s Wiwat Kamolpornwijit, Jillian Moore, Ford/Forlano, Debo Groover (the birds polymer painting here), Mary Filapek, Anne Klocko (the bicyclists at right) and I’m sure I missed someone.

We span categories from jewelry to painting to mixed media to sculpture. The show runs August 8-10, but if you can’t hop over to SF, thumb through the exhibitors.

(You’ll get a better sense of the size of Debortina’s paintings on their Facebook page.)

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