How about this reverse mokume gane from Bulgaria’s Maria Ivanova for a Friday brain teaser? Maybe you’d call it a combination of mokume gane and backfilling. Maria calls it painting with mokume gane.
Look at her quick visual tutorial and you’ll get the gist. That’s how this simple flower and her Lady with Flower pendant were done. Does this twist on a familiar technique start some wheels turning?
Rosica Mohamed from Sofia, Bulgaria brings us a branch of spring buds realistically sculpted from polymer. I’m guessing that this was part of her May Day attire. Can’t you just picture a maypole dancer wearing these blossoms as she weaves a streamer over and under?
Rosica’s updated blogs and Facebook page make it easy to watch her progress to increasingly refined work and experiment with putting a Bulgarian spin on standard techniques.
There are no wimpy colors or shy designs in Barbara Bechtel’s bowl of beads. (It was a grab bag and it’s gone.) While she specializes in beads inspired by tribal fetishes and netsukes, Barbara gives her polymer versions strong contrast and updated colors with fashionable flourishes.
It may take you a while to make the rounds of all the web addresses this prolific artist uses on Etsy, Facebook, and for her blog.
Read the artist interview with her on ArtBeadScene where she says, “I like that my work has remained true…I think it has always been a reflection of myself….a documentary, if you will. I can look back at both the good work and the bad work, and I can see what was going on in my life at the time.”
In some of her recent work Canada’s Helen Breil facets and twists polymer and gives it a metallic or glass-like surface treatment. This particular pendant, part of her Creative Bails series can be hung two different ways.
See just how twisted Helen has gotten herself lately. And see how quickly students make fashionable textured bracelets in her workshop.
All your resistance to carving polymer will vanish once you thumb through Page McNall’s latest examples of her work and pictures of her tools.
Page shows how she often makes silicone molds of her carvings which simplifies creating subsequent similar pieces.
It helps that as a dentist, Page has plenty of access to drills, sharp tools and mold-making materials. She has a painterly way with color that’s stifled at her day job.
Calgary’s Susan White has been a jewellery maker for 15 years, transitioning from lampwork and metals to polymer and metals. Her etched copper links are accented with gilders paste.
The squares of pearlized polymer are riveted on. Below you can see her earrings with silver tubes riveted in the middle of lentil beads. More links here and here. Have a riveting weekend!
Claire Wallis‘ polymer nail veneers provide a clever solution to those who aren’t adept at nail decor. She bakes thin shaped slices on curved foil forms and glues the baked slices onto press-on nails. “I wanted to create polymer clay fake nails but in order to be strong enough they ended up too thick so these are paper thin slices stuck onto fake nails,” she says.
Note: I ran right out and bought some drugstore nails which melted in the oven. Then I made a mold of each size nail which allowed me to make perfectly shaped veneers.
Can you go overboard with this impractical but fun idea? If your earrings match your coffee mug and your nails, your friends may plan an intervention.
See more of Claire’s work on Facebook and on her site here.
Oregon’s Roseanna Smith describes herself as “long-time painter; new to polymer clay” and she doesn’t reveal much more about herself on her Flickr site. We’ll have to watch to learn more.
These blue Sunrise Shields are part of her carving exploration and her background as a painter shows through as she layers two opposing Skinner blends together, removing the top layer of polymer to allow the bottom colors to show through.
Her simple shapes harmonize nicely with patterns that like to play hide and seek. She’s going to be fun to follow.
A leisurely spring web walk led me to Arden Bardol’s site. She’s a Niche Award winner with a spring/summer collection that will start your juices flowing.
Pour your coffee before you dive in. Mining her site will take a while. I’m liking these polymer rings stacked over textured surfaces. The muted colors are restful and very wearable.
These platypus beads from Lena Fadeeva in Belarus take their shape from the small Australian animal with a distinctive bill.
Such an intriguing shape! Inspiration for new bead shapes can come from unlikely sources.
Lena’s blog is in Russian so you may want to try your own translation (and correct me if I’ve blundered). She’s been sharing her work on Flickr and in her sales gallery for a couple of months and this new direction looks very promising.
