Rees self portrait

Utah’s Adam Thomas Rees thinks big. He usually covers large animal sculptures with polymer patterns but this time his subject was himself.

First he painted a self-portrait. Then he decided to continue his self study by converting the painting to a 12.5″ x 10″ cane.

He chopped the big cane into 20 small (2.5″) square canes to minimize waste and distortion during reduction. The reduced canes were then reassembled into the finished portrait.

The process is fascinating to see (and his web site is under the weather). I’ve repeated his Facebook photos in a special gallery for you non-FB readers.

It’s not just the size and reduction that make us study Adam’s cane. What look like slap-dash layers of unexpected color build into an exciting self portrait.

That should start your wheels turning on a Monday!

Red, white and floral

This red, white and blue is from Katarina Mravcova (Ketlin) from the Slovak Republic but we’ll snitch it for the US July Fourth because these earrings feel festive on our festive day. You can see them on some lovely models here.

Gathering bunches of delicately blended and layered petal cutouts, Ketlin creates bouquets of pastel polymer.. She suspends her mini-florals from ear wires or pendant bails.

In her day job, Ketlin is a Geographic Information Systems research scientist who relaxes with polymer art which she sells online. Her soft, serene color sense sets her work apart and you can see it best on Facebook.

Happy Independence Day!

Ink drawings on polymer

One look at Christina Cassidy’s profile photos on Facebook and you’ll understand why she draws horses so beautifully on polymer clay. She’s grown up with animals and is surrounded by them.

Though she no longer has horses, she owned and worked with them for many years and they remain her muse and the subject of most of her polymer art on Etsy.

Her etherial fine-lined ink drawings are modern Lascaux Cave paintings that capture the essence of the animals. “I love drawing small and drawing on polymer clay is wonderful, it’s so forgiving and inspiring,” she says.

This 1 7/8″ x 1 1/2″ Copper Paint Horse Trotting pin has a white polymer base. Chris drew on the baked form with India and copper inks adding light green and blue inks for the background. She seals her works with a protective finish. Here’s where we first discovered her.

Polymer gnOHMes

Pittsburgh’s Les Polinko showcased her Gnome Consciousness sculptures at a June RawArtists.org exhibit. It’s hard not to smile at her blissfully meditating Spirituality Gnomes. There’s more on Facebook.

Les says her work is inspired by universal archetypes, fantasy, dreams and folklore. She’s also an author, illustrator and teacher. She’s also the vice president of the Pittsburgh guild.

Read about how Les gathered the 20 sponsors she needed for the exhibit. They received tickets to the show, a polymer sugar skull pendant and an invitation to an After-Crafter skull-painting party.

Russell renaissance

Maryland’s Kelly Russell crackles, paints, transfers, stamps and leafs and she does it so well that it’s hard to say what the material is. But what you can say it that it’s beautiful and you can bet there’s polymer involved.

It looks like Kelly has abandoned her website and only puts photos on Facebook. She has a huge Pinterest site but none of her own art is there. She makes us work to find her.

You can click on these photos to get larger versions but you’ll have to go to Facebook to see other shots that show their intricacy and dimension. The pendant below has surprising dimension (the polymer cameo is quarter-sized) and a glass bezel.

The colors and the crackle make the pieces look ancient. Kelly has spent the last few years refining her PMC skills and we welcome her back to the polymer neighborhood.

Polymer beach reads

This Little Boat Brooch from Spain’s Iratxe Maruri will send you sailing through all her online shops and blogs. Iratxe is an illustrator and mixed media artist whose beach scenes and creatures have charm and childishness without seeming treacly sweet.

Iratxe has a very thorough web identity. You can see her inspirations and studio setup on Pinterest and find lots more on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr plus several shops.

She keeps one store for her sea creatures and another for her plants and animals.

On a summer Monday her fresh images may give you a momentary vacation.

Imitating ikat

Polymer is looking more and more like textiles these days thanks to artists like Lynda Moseley. She’s not happy in her studio unless she’s experimenting, pushing the limits of what polymer can imitate.

Hang on, because I think there’s an ikat tutorial coming from Lynda. Look at all the pictures on her Flickr pages. Each ikat sample she posts looks more authentic and touchable.

She’s updating the processes first introduced by Kathy Amt, Susan Hyde, Tory Hughes (celebratng 30 years in business) and others.

You can be sure that Lynda won’t publish her instructions until she’s worked out all the kinks and can tell you how to avoid problems. She makes all the mistakes so that you don’t have to. Now that’s worth paying for. Happy weekend!

Off to the races polymer

Alaska’s Katie Way (Bull’s Eye Studio) makes clever holders on which race runners can collect their number bibs. Katie embellishes the plaques with sayings stamped in polymer and clips that hold the runner’s reminders of past marathons.

Katie has a passion for both running and polymer and she manages to bring the two together. Now she’s reaching out to biking events, incorporating bike parts into her work.

Katie’s a stamp and texture girl and she’s developed some eye-catching techniques for decorative items that she sells after the sports season. Check her on Facebook and Flickr.

Polymer marathon

It feels like we’re off to the races with polymer this summer too and the pace is fast! Here are five events coming up quickly that I haven’t been able to tuck into PCD posts. I sure don’t want you to miss out:

Fire Mountain’s Creative Clays Jewelry Making Contest deadline is coming up in July. The prizes are fab.
IPCA is holding their retreat in Columbus, Ohio this August. Of course I’ll be there! Great classes and pre-conference workshops. Here’s the info on Facebook and their website. You can check the list of who’s coming and sign up online.
Helen Breil is the visiting artist at the IPCA retreat and she’s written a new ebook here.
Carol Blackburn will be teaching her polymer bowl technique this Sunday online on Craftcast.
And if you can include Santa Fe on your travel list, consider the wonderful creative retreats and classes that Tory Hughes is hosting. Artifacts and relics in July, Light Art in August.

Navel gazing polymer

Dan Cormier has been unveiling the 27 pins entered in the Broken Internet Project that he presented at EuroSynergy. The pin at the right by Dan is what got the ball rolling.

Each participant reintrepreted his design as it mutated from artist to artist.

Dan’s original concept referred to two landscapes, one rural and one urban, bisected by a bold zigzag. The jagged stripe represented energy as well as a split, maybe a broken heart. Several of the artists clearly picked up on the theme and some saw it differently. Read all about the project on Flickr and on their Facebook page.

Dan and Tracy will be teaching at Master Class Camp in Maryland in July. This mysterious piece is from the Form and Finish: Bare Essentials class.

No matter how long you study this smooth polymer belly-button shape, its construction looks impossible. Dan’s specific methods for finishing right from the start could make all the difference in your work. See the list of classes here.

Bursting beads

My eyes skitter over the pictures online as I emerge from my vacation fog. I don’t know when I’ll catch up and settle into a routine.

The photos that broke through the fog today are very small delights. Eriko Page’s beads are sweet and succulent. This California artist was trained in Japan and you can feel the influence.

Instead of carefully covering a base bead and hiding it under cane slices, she arranges luscious petals around a solid color bud, making her beads look like exploding blossoms in a polymer garden.

Eriko’s sleight of hand gives the beads a distinctive look that you can enjoy here. Here’s an interview with her from FireMountainGems that tells you more.

Note: In yesterday’s post I missed mentioning Claire Maunsell’s class at Gallery Freisleben…there are a few spots left for you lucky ones.

‹ 1 … 175 176 177 … 391 ›