The crackle finish on Alisa R. (Treasurefield’s) Sitting Pretty polymer bird, made me take another look at my project that I thought was finished. Not-so-fast! Perhaps I need to explore that lovely crackle glaze. It makes a fabulous faux old ceramic finish and might work on the mosaic I’m building.
Remember Alisa’s faux wood, faux gems? She’s got a knack and I’m off to buy some crackle paint.
One look at Amy Wallace’s polymer chevron beads makes me want to try chevron canes again. The bright colors give them a happy, ethnic, graphic look that’s very much in vogue.
Amy has shut down her old Ovenfried site and the “stacker” bead tutorial that she popularized has vanished (sigh). She’s opened a new blog and Etsy sites. On her Flickr page her megastackers and snakeskin beads show off the newest twist on her old stacker technique.
Seth Savarick doesn’t believe in small as you can see from his latest polymer necklace at the left and the bangles he inspires in his workshops (see Friday’s post). The wearers of his creations must be prepared for conversation.
Seth will teach his method, Think Big Work Big: Large Scale Jewelry Forms in Polymer Clay, at Arrowmont the last week of September.
Cynthia Toops will teach her Bracelets, Bangles and Cuffs class at Arrowmont September 5-11.
Where do the bits of crochet end and the polymer begin? Moscow’s Oxana Volkova mixes her talents so cleverly that I can’t tell where one stops and the other begins. She performs her sleight of hand with felt and fabric…and even shoes!
The possibilities are endless. Oxana’s imagination and enthusiasm are contagious and may put a spring in your step as you head to your studio.
Chains have gone through a transformation lately. The links are big and uneven. Shapes have changed. Sizes may be mixed and matched within a piece.
This Big Linx chain from London’s Debbie Carlton illustrates the point in polymer.
Debbie’s also a fan of the big bangle and you can see her work best on her Flickr gallery. The bangles were inspired by a workshop Debbie took with Seth Savarick.
If you like polymer chains, you’ll want to revisit Wendy Malinow’s version. And, come to think of it, there’s an ancient version I created in my archives. Guess I’ve been hooked on chains for a while. Escape your chains this weekend.
The goal of Heather Powers’s Art Bead Scene daily blog is to unite bead artists and jewelry designers who use art beads in their work. (Here’s Heather’s personal blog.)
The collaborations of the Art Bead Scene’s wire, metal, glass and polymer artists result in trendy, nostalgic assemblages of friends’ work and scavenged beads from the past.
Heather’s Humblebeads gallery on Flickr tracks how Heather’s polymer beads have been used by 23 of her fellow designers over the last couple of years (like this necklace from Lorelei Eurto that uses Heather’s work as a focal bead).
Most of the members of her group concentrate on one medium and when it’s time to create a wearable piece, they happily pick and choose the components from a wide array of baubles.
Other artists who work with polymer on the Art Bead Scene roster of editors include Cindy Gimbrone and Lynn Davis (hope I didn’t miss anyone). Warning: the links lead you to lovely sites that may suck up your afternoon.
To polymer artists, there’s nothing more appealing than a neat pile of coordinated canes. Show us the resulting bouquet of flowers and you’ve got our attention. These lovelies are from Madrid’s Fabi (fperezajates).
A few minutes on her Flickr site will reveal how she’s combined polymer with felt, crochet, books and wood. She even shares a mini-tutorial about turning a nail brush into a letter holder.
I admire Fabi’s experimentation with household items and decorative accessories.
Moving beyond bowls and frames, she embellishes drawers and makes sewing tool holders. Keep your eye on Fabi’s work.
This polymer wall art from Laurie Mika not only looks good with my site’s color scheme (always a consideration), it also reminds me to think in three dimensions on a similar project I’m working on for my new porch.
Thumbing through her site made me feel like I’d just taken a quick class. Her tiles are colorful and richly layered with a confident looseness and freedom
In creating her “Urban Icons” she uses a variety of overlapping techniques – mosaic design, painting, rubber stamping, collage, embossing, beading, and embedding just about anything into polymer clay.
She’s posted a growing list of workshops and you can also refer to her Mixed Media Mosaics book for more instruction on her lusciously embellished techniques.
Cassy Muronaka’s post about her treasures from the recent Grove and Grove sale grabbed me in the first sentence, “Polymer clay was a snowball that really began rolling down the hill in the early 1990s, picking up very fine artists along the way.”
Cassy describes the Grove’s step-blend process and tells why it remains important. She shares pictures of the face canes that were their trademark and says that, “After spending a couple of weeks mooning over these exquisite Grove and Grove face canes, I may have to take another crack at it.”
Monday is a good day to mull over her thought that, “I find it ironic that after all these years, I am getting starting to get new ideas from some of the very old things they produced.” Here are some more pictures from their sale.
Polly Apfelbaum creates hybrid works that exist in an ambivalent space between painting, sculpture, and installation. For her latest show in New York she fashions small, smooth, brightly patterned panels she calls Feelies from unbaked polymer.
Studiowork showcases an improvisational studio practice and engages an exchange about the dimensionality of clay and its potential for abstraction.
Considered one of the most original artists working today, Apfelbaum pushes painting past its traditional forms, off the wall, and into pop culture. Her work is in the collections of many major museurms. Often arranged on the floor, Apfelbaum’s forms are usually comprised of intricate, nearly psychedelic layers of dyed fabric.
A New York Times review says of this exhibit, “There is a cuteness factor here, but it is quickly overruled by the blazing colors, assorted stripes, dots, checks, swirls and grids and abstract intelligence evident in the 200-plus examples.”
Steven Ford, who sent us the link says he’s followed Apfelbaum for years and admits that, “The work in this current exhibit is crude by most polymer clay artists’ standards but it’s fun to see what she finds consistent with her other work.” The polymer community has worked toward being considered a serious art medium and Apfelbaum’s exhibit may be one more step toward the cachet we’ve been seeking. The show runs through August 13.
