Polymer Clay Daily

Traveling polymer…and you can ride along

In preparation for my November trip to Nepal, I’ve been immersed in creating easy, fashionable polymer patterns that I can teach the women in the Samunnat project. The tour will be led by Australian polymer artist Wendy Moore.

I stand on the shoulders of many polymer artists who have taught me their tricks and tips over the years. You’ll find a little Toops, a dash of Korringa, a bit of Benzon, hints of Voulkos, a touch of Tinapple and more in these new designs.

You can be among the first to test out my crazy quilt/gypsy bead, bangle, and bowl designs in a class I’ll be teaching online on Craftcast on October 19 at 8:00 p.m. ET. Proceeds from the 90-minute class will help support the Nepal project. Sign up!

I’m anxious to report back to you on how Samunnat and other women-centered projects affect lives. Check out The Girl Effect (here on Facebook) to learn more.The videos are stunning.

To have polymer artists involved in efforts for change is exciting. Thank you for your help.

Yin Yang brooches

It’s difficult to pinpoint what makes these polymer brooches from KatchaT so appealing. Smooth rounded edges make them touchable. The scattered dots of extruded color slices look like confetti and add a party atmosphere.

Their yin/yang colors and shapes bounce your attention back and forth.

The Voila site chose them as winners in their competition this month.

KatchaT is an au pair from Czech Repulic who’s living in Aberdeen, Scotland. See more of her work in her Voila gallery.

Good news travels fast

If you want to watch how fast information travels around the globe, count how many variations on Alice Stroppel’s scrap cane you’ve spotted in the week she introduced it.

Since last Friday’s post we’ve watched examples pop up from the US, UK, Israel and beyond. The photo at the right is from France’s CreaSof who has skillfully integrated the technique into brooch designs.

Here are a few more you might enjoy:

I hope your weekend is filled with good news.

On a tangent

From their base on the west coast of Mexico, Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes are about to go off on a new tangent and unveil their next big idea. Join their mailing list (it’s free) to see what all the fuss is about. All I know is that they’ve been working hard and they’re giddy with nervous excitement.

Cultural icons

A Barb Feldman iphone brooch sits on the window sill in my studio. It reminds me how much polymer and Apple are entwined in my experience. Seeing this cultural icon played back as a cane slice usually makes me smile.

Today the brooch is a reminder of how technology and our craft and my family grew up together and what a debt we owe to Steve Jobs.

Deceiving deco polymer

Polymer clay bezels have moved up a notch in sophistication lately. New metallic clays, gilders pastes and other surface treatments combined with convincing faux aging techniques make it difficult to tell what’s metal and what’s not.

The bronze beads and bezels on Elsie Smith’s site (Sweet2spicy) and in her Zibbet gallery have an art deco feel to them. You’ll want to look twice to make sure that they’re polymer. Mary Ann Loveless sent in the link.

Polymer Cornucopia

It’s October! We’ll try to ease you gently into this season’s creepy, scarey polymer art with a look at Suzicq’s voodoo doll with her basket of charms. Suzicq specializes in small art dolls (check out Fred, Ethel Mae and Lola) and fairie houses. She’s new to PCD and was sent to us by Claire Maunsell.

Lance Perry (CrescentHillDesigns) offers another light look at Halloween with a candy corn cottage which is part of his Cornucopia Village.

Look for Lance’s Alfred Hitchcock Moon Man Sculpture in the current issue of Somerset Studio!

Polymer pie

Start your week with a big helping of polymer pie from Madrid’s Fabi. She heaps up nine polymer clay decorative bowls in graduated sizes. The shaping, carving and painting of white polymer makes these into a most appetizing pile of saucers that stack up into a lovely sculpture.

You can see Fabi’s progress from white to color on her site. She’ll be offering this class in her studio. Rebecca Watkins pointed us to the link.

Stroppel cane examples

The Stroppel cane has traveled around quickly after Friday’s post. See two examples that popped up on the weekend from Randee Ketzel in Texas and Elsie Smith (Sweet2Spicy) in Vancouver.

Stroppel’s polymer strudel

Before you tidy your polymer workspace for the weekend, consider trying a clever trick from Florida’s Alice Stroppel. She’s added a short (and free) video of her Stroppel cane on her website.

Colorful cane scraps layered between thin sheets of high contrast background produce new random patterns that give the scrap new life.

We had fun trying this at our recent conference where scrap was plentiful. These brooches were a late night collaborative effort by Alice and her table mate Meisha Barbee as they cleaned up the leftover bits of the day.

May your weekend be filled with colorful random bits of fun!

Polymer that recharges

The car dealership waiting room was my impromptu office this afternoon. So you can imagine that an email introducing me to Vancouver artist Amanda Parker was what I needed (well, that and a battery).

Amanda, who sells under the MarianandHazel name, is new to PCD and her always-white, zen-like polymer jewelry speaks softly, calmly and fashionably. She majored in glass which she still works in as she branches out into polymer and recycled leather.

If you need a Thursday breather, sit down with a quiet cup of tea and check out her site, her recent Facebook pictures and her Etsy gallery. The sites, like her designs, are soothing and restorative.

Go-with-the-flow polymer

The UK’s Cate van Alphen created this polymer Baroque Water pendant for The Four Elements Deviant Art Contest. Pearlex powder provides shimmer on the watery bezel and bail. The theme continues around the pendant back. Her second entry is shown here.

Cate writes with charming candor about one meandering experiment saying, “I find myself rather indifferent to the result. I did not have a particular plan when I was making it, so I am spared disappointment, but I also don’t have anything to judge it against to determine if it is a success. And now I wish I could remember how I did it.”

She’s headed in interesting directions and her wishpots and polymer covered headpins offer glimpses of unusual designs ahead.