Minnesota’s Chris Baird uses patterned slices and hand-formed beads in patriotic blue and gold polymer to spell out “peace”.
While we figure out what real support for Ukraine will look like, many feel compelled to show their sentiments in the art at their fingertips.
Sculpey brand ambassador Amy Koranek cured strands of Souffle and then consulted YouTube for how to tie the pliable strings into a decorative knot. Now to finish the piece with a closure. This was an in-progress shot from our recent in-person event in Ohio (Buckeye Bash).
Leaning over shoulders as artists work out new ideas is a terrific way to learn and see where trends are headed.
If you like being on the cutting edge, join us at StudioMojo. Every Saturday sit down with a cuppa and follow links to the most happening events and most clever products about to come to market. We scour our sources to keep you up to the minute. Join us tomorrow.
Dallas’ Lisa (makesmalltalk) has been draping, wrinkling, and wrapping polymer for some time. As the Olympics have us saying this week, “She nailed it,” with this translucent striped vessel. Lisa had been creating big earrings but now she’s gone even bigger.
Can’t you see it filled with brushes or tools? Or hanging with a light inside? The container has a tactile, fabric quality that’s exuberant and fun.
Lisa sells her new collections every Friday evening.
If you want more examples of polymer artists who are veering off course into new territory, join us at StudioMojo each Saturday morning where we suss out fresh ideas, emerging trends, and other artists who are nailing it!.
Maryland’s Amy Sun Ah Blair gears up for the March Pins and Needles online CraftBoston show.
She covers pieces of flat polymer circles with dots, stripes, and color collages then piles them into a very happy, very modern flower brooch.
If you read through the list of CraftBoston artists you’ll find a number of polymer artists in the mix.
France’s Chifonie sprinkles tiny red hearts over all her animal friends.
Underneath their simple shapes and endearing expressions are layers of luscious colors, bits of cane, swirls of stripes, and shimmering crackled metallics.
It’s an endearing combination of fancy and plain, whimsical and serious. Always dotted with a bright red indication of where Chifonie’s heart lies.
Where does your heart show up in your work? We’ll be examining that in Saturday’s edition of StudioMojo. Sign up today!
Wiwat Kamolpornwijit started his show season with a twist in Florida last weekend. Dots are a hot item and Wiwat gives his a twist that plays with geometry.
He backs dotted veneers with silver clay that he cuts into circles. Sliced across the middle, half the circle heads east and the other flips west as they are mounted on round silver links.
Sometimes we like the unexpected.
Oregon’s Laurel Swetnam was bummed that her schedule forces her to miss her friends’ Clayathon class about using what’s in your closet to come up with new palettes and patterns.
Laurel grabbed a much-loved top that gives her a sunny glow every time she puts it on and headed to her studio to try out the concept.
She scored! Her riff on the pattern includes dotted and striped tubes that enhance but don’t compete with the flowery batik pattern.
If you’d like some pointers about how you can mix and match accurately without going overboard, grab a seat in the online class with Shelley Atwood and Joan Tayler.
Give your old favorites new life.
StudioMojo lets you in on all sorts of behind-the-scenes happenings every Saturday. Sign up here!
France’s Laurence Pelee (Deco_laure) makes delightfully complicated hearts with a Mexican twist. They’re beaded and layered with wings and flowers and trinkets on shapes that swerve slightly.
Laure uses all her tricks on these small brooches – canes, mokume gane, stencils, paints, beads. It’s all there in lively and energetic colors.
UK’s Helen Cruickshank shows her love of cats in this project for a Valentine’s Day fundraiser (Colchester Caring for Our Cats Fundraising). She created one design of a cat in a heart shape and repeated it using a variety of veneers and canes.
Her way of repeating designs is perfect for those of us who quickly tire of making the same thing again and again. February 1 is Groundhog Day you know (the movie popped into my head).
Ever the clever girl, Helen has just published her second book, Polymer Clay for All Seasons, which contains a menagerie of 13 delightfully varied projects.
Seattle’s Anne Dofelmier (baublehaus) loves woman’s best friends in the form of earrings that are a tribute to Basset Hounds, Dachshunds, Pit Bulls, Greyhounds, Standard Poodles, Toy Poodles, Boston Terriers, French Bulldogs, Labrador, German Shepards, Australian Shepards, Cocker Spaniels, and Schnauzers. Her love is obvious.
Anne admits that she entertains herself in the studio by singing dramatically. “The problem is I often forget that you can see into the studio from the street,” On more than one occasion someone walking their dog has stopped to watch the show.
That show extends beyond dogs to atomic and retro designs in kitschy colors.
She’s dramatic and passionate snd great fun.
