Utah’s MaryAnne Loveless found an old wire egg basket at the second hand store that was perfect for holding her selection of polymer insects. She admits that the display could be confused for a buggy hat.
MaryAnne’s colorful creepy crawlies are particularly alluring at this time of year. What a great use for tail ends of canes!
See all the caned and textured pieces that she’s been putting together.
Try making a wand like Maevinwrenscraft (anyone know her name?). She attaches a naturally faceted quartz crystal or other gem to a wooden rod with clay and bakes.
Then she decorates the resulting wand with leaves and vines that wind up the wooden base and rebakes. The design can become a hairstick or, without a rod, becomes a pendant. The magic continues.
Page McNall provides a chipper Monday with her folkart bird as I fly home. Her 2″x4″ polymer sculpture is formed over an aluminum foil armature and then inked and painted. She placed the bird on a Stroppel cane-covered base. Page talks about her latest works (check out her designer rat) on Flickr and sells them on Etsy. You can see what’s inside her head on Pinterest.
I’ll be catching up and back to work tomorrow! Thanks for helping me out during my fabulous vacation.
It’s the last day of class with Dayle Doroshow and you know how everyone gets frantic to finish. I’m no exception so I’ll just offer you these pictures of Dayle’s signature polymer flowers while we students complete our artworks.
Dayle’s polymer “paper beads” have always been a PCD favorite (see picture right). Long thin triangles of polymer scraps are twirled onto a needle tool paper-bead style.
Dayle leaves the bead on the tool and flattens the bead by stamping it with a rubber stamp. This preserves the hole. Voila! Beautiful bead from scrap! Here she is in the archives. I’ll be back at my computer next week.
I was captivated by Svetlana’s faux ethnic beads two years ago when I posted this and her methods still excite me. Luckily her tutorial is still there for you to study.
Svetlana Gracheva from Donetsk, Ukraine embeds what look to be jump rings into her faux ethnic polymer beads with a stunningly realistic effect. The jump rings become bezels for small imitation turquoise and coral pieces.
Other metal is sandwiched in the middle of faux amber and turquoise beads. You can see examples of the techniques in her Lhasa and Nagrang Tibetan-style necklaces.
On her Tibetan bead class description page, Svetlana offers pictures (scroll down her page) that show how she performs her sleight of hand. In that class she finishes the beads with mosaic inlays. What a treat for those of us searching for new faux fun.
Vacation post from the archives
If you were one of Leslie Leving’s polymer beastlies, which one would you be?
There are loads to keep you guessing.
Vacation posts from another part of my Internet brain
The sign on Ruth Ann and Michael Grove’s site says under construction and let’s hope the sign is right. Only Ruth Ann’s pin and necklace galleries are operational.
The California duo were a driving force in polymer in the 80s and 90s and collectors would vie for their pieces. Grove & Grove sold their inventory in 2010 and after a couple years off they’ve hinted that they’d like to try their hands again.
Polymer Art Archive tells the story well in posts about their Flora or Fauna, their big early exhibition pieces and their early, early geometrics. This spectacular necklace is from 1994. Vacation posts from the archives
How kind of you to do online research for me while I’m on vacation! Chris Kelsey sent in this link to Florida polymer painter Debortina, Deborah Groover.
Your eyes will flit around like these Beach Party birds, checking out the wealth of patterns and colors pieced together into larger images.
To give you a size idea, the work shown here is 22″ x 32″. The process comes closest to applique.
Deborah explains, “Once my clay is heat set, I cut apart sheets and reassemble them into a polymer collage. I then add color and washes, use sgrafitto to remove color then add more color, and on and on until I am satisfied. The backgrounds are not clay (except for the small ones). I use layers of ink pens and paints to create the texture.” Experience the whole shebang on Flickr.
Vacation is lovely! Class begins on Monday and maybe I’ll try polymer painting!
France’s Celine Roumagnac specializes in quirky worlds in polymer. From mushroom cottages in the forest to mountain villages captured under glass, she shares her colorful, happy worldviews.
Celine’s Au Pays des Rêves (Dreamland) provides a perfect setting for me as I leave for England and France. I feel a bit like this explorer chosing his path. The hardest part has been to narrow the tools I’m packing to just a few necessities. Sorting has been a good exercise.
I look forward to joining Dayle Doroshow’s group for a week of playing and flea marketing. The area looks luscious on her blog, doesn’t it? I’ll try to stay in touch with you. Enjoy Celine’s world travels on her Flickr site and her shop.
Vacation posts from the archives.
Fabienne Avranche’s (Terre d’Effa) polymer string bowl struck a chord with us back in 2008 and five years later, readers are still snatching it from the archives.
Now I can post a somewhat larger photo. The bowl’s colorful playfulness appeals to the child in all of us. Five years later we can see Fabienne’s work more easily on her Pinterest site as well as on her original website.
Vacation posts from the archives
