Polymer fantasy beads

North Carolina’s Barbara McGuire has posted her polymer fairies, butterflies, bees and other fantasy women beads. Barbara says that, “I did a search for fairy beads on ebay – and there were 2500 listings! Butterfly beads 22500 listings! Guess I am not the only one who likes fairies and butterflies!”

Barbara’s beads may be the most ethereal and fantastical, however.

She layers flora and fauna cane slices on top of her distinctive mokume gane. She’s added another how-to tutorial video that explains her methods on her YouTube channel.

Barbara has flitted like a butterfly around the polymer community for more years than she’ll probably admit. You can catch up with her on Facebook and Flickr (and ebay, of course).

Yikes colors

Maine’s Suzanne Anderson (Yikes Studio) warms the weather with the bright colors in her winter collection.

Assembling the blue and aqua links requires multiple bakings (see her baking method here). Then seed beads add a finishing note.

Suzanne finishes the inside of her bangles with contrasting patterns and highlights the bracelets with rhinestones surrounded by polymer bits.

If you need more heat, look at her fiesta colors and shop in her Etsy gallery. Just dive in anywhere on her site to be fully immersed in color. Here she is on Facebook (and you’ll want to browse her Pinterest too).

Suzanne admits that she likes all things fashion and is happy to mix metal clay, enameling, seed beads, fiber and more with her polymer.

Polymer dwellings

Jessica Jane is a 20-something California girl with a head full of sweet petite houses and creatures in happy colors. This group represents the first installment of her 30-day Dwelling a Day challenge. Jessica doesn’t say much about herself but a stroll through her Flickr and her blog will introduce you to her view of the world and start your week on a bright note.

Innovative heart

Kathleen DeQuence Anderson’s Forming to New polymer heart box will be part of this year’s Black Creativity Exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago during the month of February.

The box will be shown along with the works of 99 other African American artists from across the US in the nation’s longest-running exhibition of African-American art.

She started making heart boxes when her aunt died unexpectedly. Kathleen quickly created a piece in which she and others could write heartfelt parting messages. The boxes have evolved over the years and here’s her gallery of samples, her shop and her Facebook link.

This box was designed with the exhibition’s innovation theme in mind. Its rich colors, patterns and textures represent the stimuli, conversations, discussion and collaborations that feed the innovation process.

Retro geometry

The retro cane from Bettina Welker takes a new shape in this Ombre Pyramid pendant from Kseniya Iokhna (SolarBird) from Belarus.

In fact Kseniya displays a number of crisp geometric variations on extruded patterns. Her faceted cuts make for even more dimension and a fresh look. Sometimes she cuts across the pattern exposing the striped sides.

Her earrings have a sleek profile and she’s partial to color blends that look as if they’ve been dip-dyed.

See more on Facebook and on Flickr.

Polymer paintings

Victoria BC’s Gera Scott Chandler hints that she’s returning to her polymer on canvas works. If you look closely at this sample crackled luminous polymer painting of pears you’ll see micro marbles on the glowing surface.

She has a loose easy style that may come from years spent teaching art to young children. Gera’s decided that 2014 is the year for her to teach her methods for assembling vibrant colored compositions.

She uses her veneer method to apply polymer to her FuSion bracelets as well as to canvases and other forms.

She shows the basics of working on canvas in her chapter in my Polymer Clay Global Perspectives book. I’m hoping that she’ll announce some classes where she’ll reveal even more of her refinements.

Here’s her Etsy site and you can follow along on Facebook and Flickr as she dips her toe back into teaching.

Buddha nature polymer

Everybody’s back at the gym as Joseph Barbaccia reminds us with his Exercising Your Buddha Nature illustration in polymer. Lately his illustrations have all been created by using thin strands of polymer as strokes of color.

Joseph must be in touch with his own Buddha nature to compose such meticulous polymer works.

He took a less appealing view of the body in his 2010 Integration series of works. His Obesity fuses the belly (the hair is his own) with a kitchen grater.

Joseph lives in Virginia and has worked for 35 years in graphic design and as an art director.

Polymer confetti

There’s a bit of leftover New Year’s celebration in these flashy polymer pieces from Connecticut’s Kristie Foss. Glitter flakes and micro marbles are suspended in resin layered over Skinner blends. She captures the party confetti in mid-air.

In another recent post, Kristie shows off her imitation opal which she achieves with a slurry of iridescent flakes, alcohol inks and translucent liquid polymer over metal leaf on polymer.

Prowl through Kristie’s site to give your Monday a boost of inspiration. The link came to PCD from Katie Oskin.

Stacking snowflakes

The holidays are mostly over but let’s take one last look before all the ornaments are put away. Slovenia’s Klavdija Kurent starts with snowflake cutters in stepped down sizes (I’m guessing here).

She colors the polymer cutouts and then adds textures and stacks them, adding more color and metallics for emphasis. There’s more of her distinctive style on her blog and her Facebook site.

You can see that Klavdija has some tricks up her sleeve and she’ll be sharing them in her Let’s Twist Again workshop at Eurosynergy in Malta. Contact her by email to register.

Mixed media is back

Tanya Mayorova’s mixed media combo will appeal to anyone who has been wondering what to do with a stash of unused beads. She wraps a mix of beads threaded on wire around polymer big-hole beads which have been stamped and given a metallic sheen. The effect is primitive, ethnic and very fashionable.

Tanya is from Russia and now lives in Spain. You’ll find lots more of her rich mixes of color and texture and media on Flickr.

Whew! PCD is back!

Starting the year with a clean slate, a new server and a promise to back up regularly. After a couple of harrowing days of outage, we’re ready to face 2014.

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