Polymer Clay Daily

Luminous

Colorado’s Karen Sexton says that these luminous polymer clay pins she just finished are the result of a simple process. She lightly painted Pinata inks on thin alternating layers of translucent and pearl clay and stacked the layers.

She impressed the stack with various tools, mokume gane style. Thin slices of the resulting cane were applied to a pearl backing to create the pins. A deceptively simple process.

What she leaves out of this description is her lovely sense of balance and color. Karen’s one of those artists without a site and her local guild’s site is under reconstruction. The guild will have a new gallery of members work up soon but I couldn’t wait to show you Karen’s fine work.

Nightlights

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Using an upside-down glass votive, a light (from FactoryDirectCraft.com) and translucent polymer clay, we watched as Leslie Blackford created another of her fanciful and mythic nightlights.

Leslie is genuinely surprised when we tell her that not everyone can conjure up the delightful stories and animals that fill her head. We’re going to give it a try and later in the week I’ll share our results with you.

The steps for making this lamp are deceptively simple. Mix a bit of color into the clay, coat the glass with glue, drape the thin clay over the votive, create the embellishments, and cut a thick layer for the base with a hole in the center to accommodate the light. Add the feet after the rest of the sculpture is baked.

Rich

This polymer clay petroglyph bead by Klew captures interest on many levels. The image is ancient, intriguing and highly polished, the background is variegated, the base bead is bright colored and unpolished.

Klew’s addition of a coil of color framing the image adds an unexpected textural element. When she surrounds the bead with complementary glass, bone and metal beads, as in this bracelet, the effect is rich.

Klew’s clip-on magnifier glasses were a real hit. She’ll be carrying them on her site.

Loops

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This stunning necklace by Wendy Malinow shows the excitement and artistry that can be achieved with polymer clay. For a week I’ll be surrounded by works like this that stretch our minds and our talents and sharing them with you (once we get the network connection working properly).

Wendy doesn’t have her own web site but there are a couple of pages about her polymer work and her PMC work floating around. If you click on the image you’ll get some idea of the complexity of this piece. It’s filled with texture, color and sprinkled with rhinestones. It sings!

Note: You can see lots of Wendy’s work in a new book called Metal Clay and Mixed Media Jewelry

Play Doh

I’m doing laundry, mixing clay, packing my techno-gear and filling my I-pod for vacation so it’ll be total silliness for Friday. I’ll report from the road next week.

Thinking Big?

This Play-Doh bunny in NYC is rumored to be part of a new Sony Bravia ad. View the "Balls" and "Paint" ads if you haven’t seen them. The new campaign is all very hush-hush.

Freebies

Send a 2" square polymer clay tile to The Satin Cord folks in Florida and you’ll get a free satin cord necklace or a length of cord. They’ve moved and want to embellish a 30" round table in their store. There are other prizes too. Here are the details.

Have a big fun weekend.

It’s Only Plastic

Donna Kato credits the Peter Chang book, It’s Only Plastic, that she was given by her hosts Natalia and Dani in Spain as the impetus for lifting her out of a creative slump. When you look through this Scottish artist’s work here and here, you’ll understand why. Chang’s acrylic, resin and PVC creations are surreal, graceful and bright.

I was also reminded of a polymer clay bead made by my first teacher, Carol Shelton, some years back and now in Hollie Mion’s collection. We knew that Carol’s design held possibilities. It’s fun to see an idea bounce around the world, change and blossom again.

Lost and Found

Donna Kato thought she lost her groove and I thought I lost Cathy Johnston. Not to worry, both have been found.

After a creative slump and lots of frequent flyer miles, Donna’s got her groove back with some stunning polymer clay pop art beads.

And Cathy Johnson lost her domain but her little polymer books and puppets live on at a new address. Cathy’s organizing registrations for both Clay Carnival and her Eastern Washington guild’s clay escape. I love finding things I was sure were lost, don’t you?

Thanks for all your lovely comments on yesterday’s video.

First Effort

Even though this is a first effort and not my finest work, I had to show you my first YouTube video. My children have been bugging me to get moving on YouTube and I’ve spent hours teaching myself how to edit and record. Whew!

This jigsaw puzzle face cane is a simple and fun technique I learned in a class with Australia’s Michele Fanner. I used the Picasso black and white image for simplicity sake. It works on more colorful and complex designs as well. (I wish I’d spent as much time on the cane as I did on the editing.)

The looped blade tool was an idea from a Mike Buesseler class. I have several that my husband created for me. I’m off to a conference next week and plan to use my newfound skills to capture more snippets for your viewing pleasure.

New Meets Old

Contemporary handcut designs plus old, distressed finishes equal chic in the polymer clay jewelry of Maryland’s Tamara on her Etsy Block Party Press site.

Using stamps handcarved with her own distinctive designs, she impresses the clay and then brings out the texture with acrylic paints. Tamara’s been featured recently on trendy sites like cuteable.

My order arrived with a bounty of additional cards, coupons and goodies. A nice way to start the week.

Living to Create

Read the profile of Missouri’s Scott and Victoria Garrette if you want to know how one young artist couple struggles make a living these days. They paint and those colors and patterns spill over into their polymer clay work

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They tried New York. They tried "real" jobs. They have children. They do Etsy and shows. In the midst of their moves they left a totally cool straw bale studio behind. They’re back in Missouri and they sound quite happy.

Here are the Garrette’s Etsy sites (his and hers), the Kansas City Etsy street team they’re active in, the blog, the Flickr photos. "I live to create," says Scott.

Have a creative weekend.