Polymer chips

Russia’s Maria Belkomor is drawn to disks too. Hers are usually thin and flat (unlike yesterday’s Bagels) and her most recent versions have chipped edges that increase their tactile quality. It would be hard not to play with these when you wore them.

It takes quite a supply of disks to make this East Lemonade necklace (that’s what the translation called it) which ends with carved beads and a matching button closure.

The best place to see Maria’s stackable creations is on Pinterest. She has more on Flickr and her blog, including a lovely way of knitting with extruded strings. Thanks to Eva Menager for the link.

Lots to nosh on

Thank you for all the notes wishing me Bon Voyage. I’ve left a few goodies in the blog freezer that will automatically emerge now and then. You won’t starve and there are plenty of morsels in the archives if you get peckish. (Scroll to the bottom of the right column.)

Eastern Tales

Hamburg’s Antonina Lyamayeva calls these her Bagels necklaces. This one is called Eastern Tales. The flat disks have big holes and jumble up nicely. She combines solid colors and patterned disks with a few metal circles thrown in for bling.

This design is quite trendy and it’s another good use for bits of your favorite canes. (Antonia sells a tutorial.)

She’s an accomplished caner which you can see in a separate Etsy shop here. She also works with glass and metal. Check her out on Pinterest and Facebook.

More Eastern Tales

I’m flying to Malta at the end of the week (and I’m blaming the mishap with Betsy Baker’s link yesterday on travel jitters). My speech is ready but I’m not packed.

I’ll report from EuroSynergy for a few days and then I’ll close up shop for a month, posting intermittently as I travel in Nepal and Turkey. After years of blogging daily, I’m anxious to see what happens when I unplug.

I sure hope you’ll check in often for my news from the road and be here when I get back. It’s an opportunity for you to shake up your routine too.

Pinterest prowling

Pinterest sometimes let you crawl around in an artist’s head. Take a look at Betsy Baker’s boards on Pinterest.

You can see photo setups she’s considering, polymer canes she’s thought about, jewelry that appeals to her. Her sense of style is so authentic, so “her” that it makes me sigh with pleasure.

Sure, Betsy has a website and other online presences and shops, but with Pinterest she gives us more insight into how she thinks.

The painterly pendant is called Landscape 2 and it’s from her etched veneer series with extruded strings pressed in which she explains on Facebook. The earrings look like salvaged circles from an abstract canvas and they’re from an earlier version of her etched color series. Betsy sells a good tutorial about her methods but not about this etched color process yet.

Dots, strings and squares


Karen Brueggemann – 1st prize – Mokume gane strings	Marilyn Dobris – 2nd prize – Rare Tropical Polka Dot Flower	Carole Monahan – 3rd prize – NYC Taxi cuff

Here are the three winners in the Spring Push extrusion contest! Strings, dots and squares!

It was gratifying to see a variety of extruded shapes in all the entries and to have examples from artists who otherwise don’t show us what they’re up to.

Follow the links to more examples of the winners’ polymer extrusions. The suggestions for new Global Studio Tools disk designs were terrific too. Thanks to all who played along with us. Have a playful weekend.

Good eggs

Spain’s Iratxe Maruri proves that not all Easter eggs are alike. Hers are dotted, pale and smiling as they stand up straight on their bases.

Then she shows us how to make a low tech, high fashion statement using only small round balls of polymer flattened, layered on a dome and accented with paint. She works in a playful and charming way.

Iratxe has a second shop full of polymer sea creatures. See the full scope of her miniatures and other work on Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr and her web site.

Converging polymer

“For this pendant I used a convergence pattern inspired by a quilting template,” says Switzerland’s Sandra Trachsel. The colors buzz against each other as the stripes alternately grow thinner and fatter.

What draws you further in are the chunky areas of color outside the center square. There’s much to deconstruct and reassemble as you study how the pattern works. Sandra must have been a quilter in another life.

Rocky Tuesday

You may stop to admire the jewelry on Jan Geisen’s site. She mixes muted, organic surfaced polymer with geometric shapes to make her her signature work.

What stops me are Jan’s rocks. The surfaces and colors are almost superreal. They make me want to know what beach in Minnesota she’s been walking.

This series is all black and white and their rounded edges and muted colors have a soothing effect. Jan is able to achieve the same trick in many color ways as well as on her jewelry.

There’s more to see on Etsy, on Flickr and on her blog. Perhaps it’s Jan’s early jobs in photography and printmaking that gave her a sharp eye for detail.

Don’t be shy

Show us what you’ve extruded lately. Our Spring Push winners will be announced on Friday. You still have time to snap a photo of your work and send it in.

Catch of the day

Something fishy is happening with Mary Anne Loveless. Lately this Utah artist has been drawn to making her Poissons series with beautifully patterned scales made from cane slices.

Most of her fish are hollow and measure from 10 inches to a foot long. Some of these beauties have ferocious looking teeth. Some shimmer with colorful Skinner blends, stripes and dots.

Are they wall art? Free-standing sculptures? Maybe she’ll tell us. Can’t you envision a school of these swimming across a wall? Right now you can see them best on Flickr. With any luck she’ll post them in her Squarespace shop soon.

Polymer fonts

Two lovely alphabets surfaced this week. The one at the left is an Easter font from Zim and Zou (Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmermann), a French duo that usually stick to paper sculpture for their very famous illustrations.

This polymer work (they say plasticine but I refuse to believe it) is overgrown, lush and inviting. Their illustrations look like they should be tried in polymer and I wonder if we’ll see more of their work in this vein.

The second alphabet is from Raku Inoue who developed a charming monster alphabet. This Canadian artist was born in Japan and he uses polymer as a way to bridge the gap between painting and photography.

You simply have to scroll down through his bio that explains how he went clazy, as he calls it. His videos give you an even more intense look at his process.

I saved these sites until Friday so that the extended browsing they require wouldn’t interfere with your work or home life. I was entranced by these masterful storytellers and you may be too. Enjoy your weekend.

Polymer selfie

There’s more than one way to create a selfie! Ireland’s Joanne Bolger formed her own 3DeePortrait in polymer. She cut those realistic lenses for her glasses out of a plastic bottle.

Joanne has developed a knack for capturing likenesses that become gifts for all occasions.

Her polymer subjects usually sit in the foreground near the edge of the frame and on top of the mat. An illustration in the mat opening sets the scene. Here she is on Facebook.

Joanne sent me her link. I would have had a hard time finding her otherwise (hint, hint). Sometimes sending a selfie can lead to good things.

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