Fall colors are popping up. The faux soutache earrings created by Magdalena on this Polish site bring Halloween to mind….but a very sophisticated Halloween. What a perfect use for extruded clay.
I’m on the road this weekend with no time for research. Any Polish speakers out there who can tell us more about Magdalena?
Kate van Aphen submitted this polymer painting for a recent virtual paintout (VPO). “What’s that,” you ask?
It’s a virtual painting trip. The theme and location are chosen and the artists travel via Google Street View to find a scene they like and screencapture it. Kentucky’s Bill Guffey started the clever exercise when he wanted to paint outdoors but could only paint at home at night.
Kate is from South Africa and now lives in England. She has a background in computer arts and was drawn to polymer by its tactile nature and vivid colors. Her Sisters Beach, Tasmania polymer painting is 10cm x 10cm and is drawn from a Google view.
Pittsburgh’s Rebecca Watkins participates in VPOs when she can and she sent Kate’s link along.
Vancouver’s Joan Tayler has made polymer whistles for years. This leaf shape is a new design. Look at all the others on her Etsy shop.
Don’t you think it’s time for Joan to write a whistle tutorial? I sure would like a lesson…and I’d pay good money to avoid the problems that she’s already worked through. If you feel the same, leave a comment and maybe Joan will take the hint.
Lori Wilkes’ was one of six polymer booths at the local show and I spotted this new necklace. The beads looked African to me but she swears that she was following an Italian influence. Either way, kewl. She revealed that tool used to distress these beads is a fine wire dog brush.
Lori has a book coming out in October that may satisfy readers who complain about how artists getting started in polymer can be deluged with confusing and conflicting information. Lori’s book, The Absolute Beginners Guide: Working With Polymer Clay, is from Kalmbach Books and it’s available for pre-order on Amazon. Sample a few pages here.
Spotting polymer at artfairs is one of my favorite games. The others I found yesterday were Kim Arden, Valerie Wright, Annabelle Fisher, Greg and BJ Jordan, and River Wolfe. Hope I didn’t miss any.
Svenja Lohse knows how to impress us with size! Those repeating patterns in her Obstschale Mexiko (Mexican Fruitbowl) and Obstschale Strudel (Fruitbowl Swirl) have put me in a Tuesday trance. They’re like meditative mandalas. The canes! The work!
Svenja lives in northern Germany and is a member of the German group. Go kick around on Svenja’s sites. Bettina Welker sent in the link.
Montreal’s Vickie Turner makes Urban Urchins that are hollow and graffiti-covered whereas Lynda Moseley’s from last week were the green sea variety. What is it with urchins?
Vickie’s polymer sea creatures have migrated to the city. Her blog tracks her plans and sketches and you can follow her journey from the beach to the city. She’s still playing with the shape.
It’s instructive to look over her shoulder as an artist mulls over work in progress. Watch as she labors on Labor Day.
I’m off to an art fair.
Helen Breil’s free String Bead tutorial may keep you busy this weekend. This necklace is dusted with mica powders, sealed with spray and filled with pearls.
Helen extrudes the strings and forms them into faux wire that can be shaped (and reshaped) into slinky cages into which you can tuck other beads.
In most places it’s still warm enough to extrude with ease over the end-of-summer holiday. On her website she offers a slideshow that guides you through the process that you can tailor to create your own designs.
Thanks to Helen for providing our entertainment. And check out her texture stamps too.
Winnie Poh comes to us from Moscow (I think). These clever folded beads are cutout and stamped stars whose points are folded up on themselves.
Her site is chock full of ideas that are well executed with a very Russian feel. Hair ornaments and smoothly finished hollow pendants are mixed with video game and cartoon figures.
Let’s hope there’s a Russian translator among you who can fill in the blanks about this young artist.
Lynda Moseley’s Faux Sea Urchin Spines were inspired by a necklace in Heather Powers‘ new book, Jewelry Designs from Nature during a weekend of experimentation as Lynda cleaned out her inspiration box.
She found a sticky note on page 82 in her copy of the book. “Find some of these,” it said. “I had never seen the spines in olive, and Heather’s are also a lot bigger than the ones I have,” Lynda explains. She made a new batch in polymer.
Lynda’s experimenting is often fruitful as you can see from her Etsy shop. On her blog she explains other designs she’s dug out of her inspiration box.
Jodi Creager says that she’s already got her spook on for the fall season. Have you?
She and Richard created a 16″x10″ shadow box filled with ghosts that will make you shiver. The Mandragora Manor hanging box is miniature scale with six polymer ghosts and witches peering out the windows. Here are more views and the haunting story from Ebay.
Sue Ossenberg sent the link along. Note: The Ebay photos seem to be gone and the links aren’t working. Let’s wait and see if they reappear. Perhaps the ghosts were unhappy.
