Polymer Clay Daily

Snail shapes for spring

Snail shapes are in the air! Yesterday Fabi’s vessels from Madrid and today it’s Germany’s Margit Boehmer’s polymer sea snail earrings. Margit is all about bright rainbow colors and her Flickr pages are packed with them. Is it the spring rains that have brought out the snails? The link to Margit came from Randee Ketzel.

The Virginia group is settling into studio mode and gradually new works are being unwrapped from their travel boxes. Tomorrow I’ll uncover someone’s new treasures to share with you.

Paper and polymer

These paper and polymer vessels from Madrid’s Fabi may bring a smile to your Monday. The quirky finishing touches are polymer shapes with a Dr. Seuss feel.

The pots themselves are made from “serpentinas”, paper strips wound into a tight coil and pushed into shape. Even if your Spanish isn’t strong, you’ll catch how they’re made on this YouTube video. (Paper streamers may be common in some places or quilling strips would work.)

Once Fabi got started she couldn’t resist adding polymer finials and making ornaments and earrings and other trinkets.

Fabi’s interests are wide-ranging as we’ve seen in earlier posts. Look at her Flickr page and her blog to see what she’s been up to.

Polymer slinky

What started out as another split ring variation by Maggie Maggio became a “Slinky” polymer bracelet as we worked side by side on vacation.

It began as a snake covered with a Skinner blend and was rolled out to four feet in length before it was pinched flat.

Cornstarch between the coils kept the layers from sticking to each other. Slinky is lightweight and as much fun to play with as it is to wear. (Here’s the original video about split rings.)

The other cool variations that Maggie came up with aren’t ready for prime time yet but you can check her site to follow her progress. She’s teaching a polymer watercolor landscapes class in June if you’re in the Northwest.

Have a grand weekend. I’m off to Virginia…another polymer-rich environment that will surely contain interesting material for next week’s posts.

New ways for old shapes

Slovenia’s Roberta Mohar gives a new twist to familiar techniques with her large flattened spiral extrusion beads. Her pumpkin-shaped beads are cleverly formed from three balls of clay that have been folded and joined.

Roberta brings her own sensibilities to otherwise standard methods of bead making. Look closely at her Flickr and Facebook offerings and you’ll see new life breathed into familiar techniques.

Spring fevers

Tory Hughes‘ imitative agate beads are part of her spring collection (see collection parts 1 and 2). The Trebizond Treasure Collection includes faux stone along with antique beads, crystal, abalone and more joined together in a sophisticated melange. Her Aquarelles series glows with fresh spring colors.

Tory has been sorting and refining her website as well. Her new navigation makes bouncing between her teaching, gallery and coaching services much easier and brings them comfortably under one roof.

Speaking of sites…

PCDaily has been experiencing some hiccups in the past couple of days. Thanks for your patience. Stay tuned.

Picking polymer winners

Elaborate hats, roses and horses are all part of the tradition at this weekend’s Kentucky Derby race. Ron Lehocky’s polymer heart pins may become part of the tradition too.

The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft is now among the galleries that carry the pins and the new Women Creative Gallery also sells them. If you’d like to support the project, write Ron with your color preferences and he’ll make a selection for you.

Ron has created and sold over 15,000 hearts with all proceeds going directly to the KIDS Center for Pediatric Therapies. We’ve followed this amazing project for six years and you can read more here.

Ron’s project is a “sure thing.”

Polymer appliques

Germany’s Eva Soehjar’s polymer embroidered earrings bring a breath of spring to begin your May.

White pear shaped bases are appliqued with dainty flowers made of tiny pieces of clay which are layed on and shaped with a needle tool. Eva treats the polymer beads as canvases for painting on her Etsy site.

We last visited Eva a couple of years ago (here) with two other artists, Jennifer Morris and Italy’s Marina Lombardi who both work in similar techniques. See how all three have progressed.

Thanks to Marian Hertzog for reminding us to take a second look.

And the winner is….

Jane Perala of Nanimo, BC! Dayle pushed the button on the random number generator. Creative Sparks is off to Jane today. You can get yours here. We were bowled over by all your lovely comments.

Here’s one of the fabric and polymer new works that Dayle’s been working on. It’s what she considers a sideways approach to polymer.

Waking the muse

Melanie West has revived her appetite for beads. She’s added a hole and modified the shapes of her squid, cicada and cephalopods that usually become bangles.

The new creations retain her unmistakeable undersea aesthetic.

Explaining her “two steps back” approach, Melanine says, “I have found that sometimes going back to a form that comes easy (i.e., simple round balls with holes in them) helps coax out a sleeping muse.”

And speaking of muses, we’ll post the winner of the “Creative Sparks” giveaway here this afternoon.

Royal couple, polymer style

Joan Israel’s vision of the royal couple may not match those in the news headlines but her 17″ polymer cane slice covered bottles have a very regal air. She’s been on a bottle jag that’s fun to study. My favorite is her scotch bottle.

We looked at Joan’s painting-by-the-slice creations earlier this year and she’s added tons of work to her Flickr site in the meanwhile. I can’t imagine the stash of canes required for this body of work!

Have your royals ready for Friday’s events!

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