This pile of fall leaves from Meg Newberg is her latest cane discovery. (They’re all from one cane.) She loves to experiment with canes and find new patterning methods. She stumbled on a way to make soft-edged designs that are great for glowing pumpkins, spooky spiders and organic shapes. She calls them her Painterly Canes.
Maybe you can figure it out. If not, she sells her tutorial for a very reasonable price on Etsy. See more examples on her blog.
Layl McDill’s complex cockapoo cane starts out looking like a fantastic jumble of paw prints and hairy swirls. This Minnesota artist’s millefiori canes are fearlessly big and full of patterns that reduce down to marvelously rich images full of color and meaning.
 |
 |
Her designs are made with 8 to 15 pounds of polymer that reduce down to 10 feet of canes that she sells or makes into sculptures. “Sometimes it seems that these women and creatures just climb out of my piles of polymer clay,” she says.
Layl doesn’t back away from size or complexity and teaches classes where students revel in producing plate-sized flowers. See more of Layl’s on Facebook, her site, Pinterest, and her Etsy gallery.
What would happen if you went bigger and more complex with your work?
Kathrin Neumaier tantalizes us one more time with her translucent polymer tricks. In this experiment her faux amber Honigtropfen (Honey Drops) beads are made from uncolored Pardo clay.
Kathrin pushes the boundaries as she takes the material beyond it’s recommended baking temperature. In the comments she hints that she baked the colorless clay, “…too long and too hot” to achieve the golden color. The black dots indicate that she nearly went too far.
What would happen if you pushed your work too far this week?
We end the week with pumpkin-colored pendant that comes with a Friday freebie tutorial.
Galina Grebennikova shows how she achieved this neatly textured pendant with no molds, no stamps. The tool she uses looks like something you’d find in a manicure set or a toolbox.
The trick is repeat, repeat, repeat and then highlight with dark colors. Here’s the photo tutorial.
Galina’s from Moscow and lives in Irvine, California. Small world! She offers some texture variations on her blog here. PCD has picked up some of her other tricks in these past posts.
The way these polymer earrings and necklace by Rositsa Mohamed hang makes me think that she lives near vineyards in Bulgaria. They look like bunches of grapes that are full and ripe and ready to pick.
Small bits of canes appliqued on the surfaces add an ethnic flavor to simple colors and patterns. See more of Rositsa’s work on Flickr and Facebook.
Rositsa fooled us with flowers the last time she was featured on PCD.
Nicole Johnson’s Pumpkin Heads should put you in an October mood. She has a whole gallery of pumpkins complete with teeth and bulging eyes. Her blog is newly renovated for the season with fresh mummies, monsters and zombies. She’s even written a book on the subject.
If zombie books aren’t your thing, there are several new polymer technique books that you may find of interest:
Marie Segal’s Polymer Clay Artist’s Guide is a comprehensive directory of surface effects. (It’s hard to keep track of all the new ones, isn’t it?) She features the work of lots of up-and-coming artists who may be new to you. The pictures make the recipes easy to follow and it’s a reference book that’s handy to have.
If mixed media is more your cup of tea, look at Incite, Dreams Realized: The Best of Mixed Media. You’ll spot the work of several polymer artists in this arty, inspiring book.
If how-to projects with hip designs are what you’re hungry for, try Polymer Clay Art Jewelry by Ilysa Ginsburg & Kira Slye. It’s bright and breezy and full of fashion.
This slightly off-register look is very trendy. Switchplates from Alaska’s Katie Way are part of her inventory for the holiday show season. She applies the colors first and then stamps to her heart’s content, adding a wash of color to make the stamps stand out.
In Global Perspectives, Rebecca Watkins shows a similar method applied onto beads using dark powders to bring out lines drawn in the clay. The beads at the right were done by Zona Manualidades who got these terrific results by following Rebecca’s instructions in the book.
Then take a look at Kimberly Arden’s holly cane. She gets the same, coloring-outside-the-lines look on her canes. This seemingly spontaneous way of caning requires planning and I’m sure Kimberly has some tricks up her sleeve.
Looks like you’ll be seeing a lot of playful, off-kilter patterns in polymer. It’s a perfect time of year to give perfection a rest.
Ponsawan Sila and Lee Ann Armstrong collaborated to make these bold amoeba-like earrings.
Ponsawan gave the drops their blingy pop by using Speedball Caligraphy Ink. She outlined the cane designs and spattered the background with blasts of bright gold. The Facebook crowd erupted in a flurry of comments and questions and Ponsawan shared what she’d done to add the perfect finishing touch.
Here’s Ponsawan’s home site and here’s Lee Ann’s place. Lee Ann has developed her own special tools. Take a look at her Simple Slicer.
Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes end the Back To School sale of their ebooks (and a couple of other juicy promotions) at the end of today.
Don’t you love starting the week with tricks and deals?
My husband and I need deadlines to motivate us to finish new work. This week we had to hustle to finish some walnut pieces for a woodworkers gallery show. Deadlines help us stop thinking and get it done!
The striped polymer inlay idea has been marinating since I took a class with Carol Blackburn in Santa Fe where she taught us to make big sheets of variegated colors.
If I seemed distracted this week, it’s because I was awash in color. Here’s my husband’s complex turning project.
Gwen Gibson
One of the first bowls I ever inlaid was in a weeklong class on Whidbey Island with Gwen Gibson who passed away this week. She was a marvelous artist and a lovely person with a huge sense of style and a generous heart.
PolymerArtArchive chronicles several periods of Gwen’s works. Read about her early work, her wall pieces and her cuff bracelets. La Cascade, her home in Durfort, France remains a jewel that draws artists from all over the globe. We will miss Gwen and were lucky to have her creative spirit among us.
More fall colors from Russia’s Anna Krichevskaya. The rough texture matches the rustic pallete which is highlighted by scratches in the layered surface. Zoom in to feel the intensity.
I enjoyed this hip, arty, quick video of the Moscow market where Anna sells her wares. Except for the language, this footage could have been shot at art shows around the globe. Here’s Anna on Flickr.
