Polymer blooms

Yes, yes, Germany’s Jana Lehmann knows just what we need for Monday. Her flowerpot pins bloom with bright graphic flowers springing out of textured cone shaped Skinner-blended pots.

Each flower contains a contrasting “seed” bead and is topped with dots of polymer. Jana says she prefers flowers in pots because they last longer than cut flowers in vases.

Jana stepped away from her precise style and used only very basic tools to create these monsters for a Fimo kids book she’s writing. See the whole range of her work on Pinterest, Flickr and Facebook.

Folded, silkscreened, crackled polymer

Since you’re revved up for tool shopping, here are a couple more juicy tidbits.

Helen Breil and Tonja Lenderman teamed up to create a new line of retro-looking silkscreens. (They go nicely with my retro extruder disks that are now available online!)

If you’ve never silkscreened on polymer, you’ll want to watch Helen’s free video tutorial that quickly shows you how. She’s been experimenting with using Tim Holtz crackle medium along with silkscreens to produce aged and crackled patterns as on this black folded bead (with red feathers)! Click on the image for a better look.

Helen used Picket Fence crackle paint over black clay using her Cosmic Spider Webs design. See more of her silkscreened samples on Pinterest. Helen’s books and stamps are available from KazuriWest.com. Catch up with Tonja on her blog and Facebook.

Lusting for tools

New tools offer the promise of exciting discoveries, new creations. When we’re cooped up and restless we start thinking, “What if ?”

Melissa Cable thought What if? and popped a band embellished with snap bezels and polymer into the oven to see if the leather would survive. It did and Create Recklessly was born.

If you’re itching for something that will help you take your work up a notch, come on over to Craftcast this evening (7:00 pm EST) for the free I Love Tools online party.

Discounts, giveaways and virtual appetizers! Reserve your seat or listen in later. Here’s what’s on the agenda (including my newest disks):

Art Clay World stamps with Jackie Truty
Potter Tools USA with Melissa Muir
Jool Tools with Anie Piliguian
Perfect Match Doming ™ with Janet Alexander
The D.R.E.A.M. Machine with Wilma Yost
Dover copyright free designs with Barbara Becker Simon
Create Recklessly leather tools with Melissa Cable
Polymer extruder disks (new set #2) with Cynthia Tinapple
The BIG shears with Robert Dancik

Polymer paired

Marina Rios (fancifuldevices) was born in Uraguay and lives in Chicago. Perhaps that helps explain how she’s able to reconcile colliding worlds, patterns, materials. Here’s what she says of her assemblages that often include polymer.

Balancing opposites is how I think of the universe and how I make jewelry. Old is paired with new, feminine contrasted with masculine, rustic mixed with refined, western enriched with tribal, functional elaborated with decorative…all these dualities and more are synthesized into an artifact that tells an alternative story of our past or perhaps a myth for the future.

On Pinterest you can see her polymer on a single board. On other sites (Etsy, her blog) your eyes have to search carefully to pick out which components might be polymer.

She says of her cosmic Victorian tribal jewelry, “To me they are a magical key to an imaginary realm.”

And the Oscar goes to…

My slightly wonky bowl from a slightly wonky and very snowy weekend at the combined Ohio guilds’ event (Buckeye Bash) weekend. I cheerily combined stripes and chevrons from scrap plus extruded flower slices. No sanding and not a bit of worrying went into this little pedestal bowl. I’m adding this to my growing collection of playful objects which make me happy.

Meanwhile I ignored the computer and didn’t troll through your latest work. I have no choice but to feature myself if I want to watch the Oscars on tv with my husband.

The red carpet wins. You’re oggling the gowns and the jewelry too, right? Back to work tomorrow.

Same, same but different

Ron Lehocky took my folded inchie suggestion and ran with it! This is his Ronnie Gane applied to thin 1-inch squares that have been folded into beads. The necklace has lively movement that looks like kerchiefs fluttering in the wind. Isn’t it fun to chase a design from Margit Bohmer to Ford and Forlano to Lehocky in one week? Same, same but very different.

Here’s Ron’s mokume gane method applied to rolled beads. The high contrast makes the beads pop. He’ll be teaching his technique this morning.

Tool freaks

What’s the first thing we do at a conference? Shop!

There are some terrific new gizmos and gadgets. I cover this side of events more thoroughly in StudioMojo on the weekends.

Next Wednesday tune in for a free ToolTime presentation over at Craftcast. I’ll show off my new set of extruder disks there plus you’ll find plenty of other tool temptations. Reserve your seat.

Tight formations

Jael Thorp’s small polymer compositions combine caning and mosaic and texturing in intense formations. Every space is beautifully covered.

There’s a tiny bit of collaboration cane from Ivy Niles (IKandiClay) in these busy scenes. My favorite is the stones and stream-themed shape.

Look for more of Jael on her blog, Flickr and Facebook.

I’m off to the Buckeye Bash that’s held at Wright Patterson Air Force Base (speaking of tight formations). What treasures will turn up? Check tomorrow!

Polymer tubes

Designs seem to show up in bunches, don’t they? Here’s Ford/Forlano’s most recent variation of an angular piece that shares a shape with Margit Bohmer’s stamped and painted folded squares that we looked at on Monday.

Dave models the big black necklace version of the theme that they’ll be selling at ACC Baltimore this weekend.

Dave and Steve make their design from round tubes cut at an angle that allows the beads to bump and bunch. The surface treatment on the red, white and blue polymer is tantalizing and almost looks metallic.

The edge of each bead reveals solid color below the thin surface veneer. The clasp is cut at the same angle and repeats the theme. You can read about their latest shows on Facebook.

Polymer menagerie

Cats, cows, goats, robots and other comic creatures are splatted flat against the wearer’s chest in Caroline Cornic Isola’s world (Klick Art) of polymer pendants.

She starts with square shapes and decorates them with minimum pattern and maximum personality. Their bead and buna legs dangle comfortably.

Caroline is an illustrator and comic artist at heart (see her animal sketches here). We’re so lucky that she added polymer to her bag of tricks. You can catch her on Etsy and Facebook.

Inchie beads

Germany’s Margit Bohmer decorates a small square of polymer then bends back two corners so that they touch to form a bead. The resulting beads fit together snuggly and join visually into a single shape.

Maybe we should try this with the inchies we trade and collect at events!

Snowbound/Beachbound

For those of you who are snowbound, I invite you to warm yourselves by following the polymer-bikini clad models on Italian runways and streets.

Chiara Duecentogrammi cooks up bright polymer pieces that have high fashion appeal. Here’s one show. You’ll want to check in with Chiara to see where she goes next.

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Artists

Tool freaks

Snowbound/Beachbound