Trading in polymer

These faux African trade beads from Utah’s Cody Craynor pop up from time to time. They’re modern-day reminders of other times and cultures.

If you’re a polymer artist drawn to caning, you can’t help but visualize what it would take to capture this pattern. Thanks to Cody’s excellent reproductions, faux trade beads have long been on my “to-do” list. Yours too?

Class tonight

Pop on over to Craftcast.com to check out Christi Friesen’s live online class this evening. Christi shows you how to combine polymer clay elements with beads, pearls, gemstones, and crystals to create your own spectacular fantasy necklace. And you’ll have a chance to win a free copy of Polymer Clay Global Perspectives!

Vacation posts from the archives. I’m in Europe and will check in whenever I can.

Wormy polymer

Judy Dunn’s clever constructions and her polymer folded cranes peace project kept catching my eye as I thumbed through the archives. Her tutorials for making cranes are still on YouTube.

Judy’s life got busy and she was pulled to other pursuits. I sent her a note saying that we miss her fine work and I hope she comes back to polymer. In the meanwhile, we can still learn from the ways she combined and recombined short wormlike shapes into interesting groups for earrings and necklaces.

Vacation posts from the archives

Polymer postcards

I’m dipping into the archives while I’m on vacation. We first talked about these polymer postcards in 2008! At workshops it was great to make polymer postcards to send home. Fun to make and they make terrific souvenirs.

The U.S. mail will accept the artwork if it’s within their guidelines. Tory Hughes may have started this mischief and she still teaches postcard creation in her classes.

I’ll be taking a class while I’m away so I’ll try to come up with some postcards from my journey. Vacation posts from the archives

Gone fishin’

Leslie Blackford doesn’t think much about photographing her extraordinary small sculptures but I can’t resist snapping pictures of them.

The segmented fish and smiling alligator wiggle and writhe on the cords that run through them. I snagged these recently as Leslie was preparing samples for the Las Vegas Clay Carnival where she’ll be teaching with a great cast of characters in late August.

Leslie grew up in the woods of Kentucky and Tennessee and she has an affinity for snakes and birds and other woodsy creatures. She dresses her versions in costumes and puts them in baffling situations that charm and delight. Here’s a reclining bird, a deer in camoflage, a girl with a bucket of snakes, and a wine glass that might give you pause.

Yesterday’s broken link to the PolymerClayGlobal site has been fixed. Thanks for letting me know.

Sister site

Let me send you off to PCDaily’s new sister site, Polymer Clay Global. It’s the companion site for the brand new book, Polymer Clay Global Perspectives, and was created to help you find out more about the artists in the book.

Enjoy a look at the 13 featured artists. Try the free tutorial from Kim Korringa and explore the links to over 100 artists featured throughout the book which arrives in bookstores in July.

We’ll be adding to Polymer Clay Global regularly. The new site will provide enhanced resources beyond what’s offered in print. Pre-ordering online will get the book to you hot off the presses. Don’t forget to meander back to PCDaily!

Fixed the link!

Polymer geometry

Today squares popped out. These square bangles by Belgium’s Moise Vanden Broeck have been circulating around Pinterest and even though his post about them is a couple years old, the concept is fresh and the overlapped construction would be strong and attractive. Layers of square and rectangular clay pieces are stacked around a form and baked. Moise is a metalworker whose mind churns out polymer tools as well as designs.

Tanya Mayorova’s squares applied on a solid color bangle base continue our square theme. She takes a more painterly approach to her geometry, inserting small squares into larger ones. She uses the technique on beads as well. Clever, simple, effective!

Intense polymer

Put on your sunglasses to enjoy Dusdee Chotipruk’s small sculptures, hangings and jewelry. This picture of her work area shows how she immerses herself in color.

Thailand’s popular Dichan magazine featured Dusdee in its June issue. “I am a very low profile person but my creations may be loud,” she says.

She mixes crocheted rounds, bright polymer canes and glass beads into an updated ’60s fashion statement.

Micro polymer babies

Camille Allen’s polymer babies are not made of soap or marzipan or chocolate! They’ve been the subject of many internet myths and viral hoaxes. Camille uses her polymer originals to create a less expensive line of resin molded babies. The originals are rare and very pricey and most everything on her site is soldout.

It is extremely difficult to create a lifelike baby in polymer at micro size and Camille does it very well. Here’s an early PCD post about her. We’re expecting another grandchild in July and I gravitate to babies in preparation for our own tiny miracle.

Playtime polymer

When Carol Simmons gave herself time to play, she found some new ways to make use of her kaleidoscope cane pieces. “The lack of perfection adds a primitive charm to the necklace. To me it looks tribal,” she says. Read her post about how playtime helped her.

If you need some partytime/playtime, sign up for Wednesday’s live online Craftcast class with Tejae Floyde. Tejae’s romantic polymer Spinner Hearts combine elements of a wheel of fortune game with a pocket-sized memento. Sit down at your computer and join the group watching Tejae explain her methods live. You can download the video and review it again when you’re ready to play on your own.

Tejae is one of the 13 featured artists in the Polymer Clay Global Perspectives book coming to bookstores soon.

Taller polymer

Illustrator Doreen Kassel’s usually squat, rotund polymer characters (made over glass ornaments) are sprouting skinny necks and spindly legs as she gets ready for for a busy schedule (scroll down her home page to see the dates).

These sculpted and painted Blended Beasts will make their class debut next year. Her preparations for teaching have unleashed a flurry of creature (plus totems and shrines) that must have been brewing in her brain.

Flickr’s new big format pictures makes Doreen’s animals brighter and more boldly bizarre. Go have a look on her blog, on Etsy, on Facebook – they’re everywhere! And she’s won another Niche Award this year!

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