Beware, Afi Tajvidi’s polymer characters are sweeter than Easter candy and just as addictive. This Toronto artist has a delicate voice and a soft touch completely in sync with her palette and her stories. Check out Hippopo shown here or the romantic Igie and JellyBelly.
Her dainty, fine characters are sometimes available on her Etsy Joojooland shop where she also sells her illustrations and jewelry. They’re nicely grouped on Flickr.
These polymer pendants from France’s Cathy (dumauvobleu) are intensely caned, collaged and textured. Balancing colors and patterns takes skill and patience. Cathy must have her dot technique down to a rapid fire rat-ta-tat-tat because her Flickr pages are full of patterns riddled with texturing.
In the mood for spring? Take a look.
Who knew that a 3-hour time change could wreak such sleeping/waking havoc? Surely I’ll feel awake tomorrow!
Just in time for Easter, Cindy Silas finished her micromosaic from our recent class with Cynthia Toops. Cindy’s leaping bunny is set in a metal clay bezel that she textured with photopolymer plates.
Here’s the in-progress shot in case you missed it. Baked, splinter-sized pieces of rolled polymer are set into unbaked clay, a tedious but meditative process.
I’m leaping to the west coast today for a vacation. If you see beach pebbles and sea glass creeping into PCDaily posts, you’ll know why.
Claire Wallis invites the wearers of her polymer brooch to fill in the empty bubble and make their own statement with her quote brooch. “Grab a pen and express yourself,” she says.
Her matching earrings whisper sweet nothings.
We last looked at this UK artist’s faux knitting. “My work generally leans towards simple colours and sculptural shapes and with the exception of striped, stacked canes I hadn’t tried anything more adventurous. This was my first attempt at a ‘proper’ cane,” says Claire.
What would you like to say to yourself this week?
Dayton’s Anita Behnan packs her 1″ polymer bugs full of smiles. Putting personality into a small lump of clay is quite an art. She knows how to give her creatures endearing expressions as she surrounds them with little caned flowers.
At this point in the season, all the bugs in the garden look as harmless as these. She sent along this very sweet rabbit as well. You’ll have to check Facebook to see more of Anita’s work.
Maria Airoldi from Bergamo, Italy transforms bullseye polymer extrusions into fascinating African textiles by applying some sort of tiny metallic dots to the surface. They look like sequins but the same thing could be achieved with a metallic paint pen. You can see how Maria enlivens ho-hum beads with a dash of sparkle as you check out her Flickr pages
After seeing the twinkling mirrored mosaic magic in Philadelphia, I’m on the prowl for ways to incorporate sparkle into my work. Whole new worlds open when you take a stimulating class, don’t they?
Barbara Briggs‘ polymer Flora beads are part of her new collection of polymer, metal clay and glass beads that form this Potpourri bracelet.
It’s hard to tell where the metal stops and the polymer begins and that’s part of the delight. I love how common this mix and match approach to media has become…especially when silver prices reach over $40/ounce!
On her Etsy site Barbara offers the bracelet as a pattern and/or a kit to assemble.
This polymer potato chip ring from Ponsawan Silas popped up as I was researching Pardo clay use. Very convincing, eh?
Funny how food references look so enticing when you decide to cut back on snacks. Where are those faux broccoli examples?
I’ll be back in the swing tomorrow.
The student work from Cynthia Toops’ polymer micromosaic class is a testament to both her teaching and the expertise of the Philadelphia guild. Here’s a small sampling of student work at the end of the weekend class (hastily assembled in my hotel room). Each student quickly reinterpreted Toops’ techniques into her own style.
It was an added bonus that we stumbled on Isaiah Zagar’s Magic Gardens in South Philly on Saturday evening. Zagar’s mosaic covered storefronts, alleyways, gardens and galleries provided a perfect counterpoint to Toops’ tiny formats. The micro and macro of mosaics! Meeting Zagar working in his studio was an unexpected treat.
My clumsy and colorful class bead shown here takes after the Zagar style. Thanks to our hosts, Martha Aleo and Ken Baskin, and to the great guild bunch. I’m on the way home after an invigorating weekend.
I’d be remiss not to mention a few more polymer “scribers” but this list is by no means comprehensive. Lately Rebecca Watkins with her Circus beads and Bettina Welker with her Sgraffito earrings have been at the forefront.
Looking back, names like Maggie Maggio, Luann Udell and Tory Hughes come to mind. And we haven’t even touched on the Zentangle folks yet!
I’ll be scribbling this weekend…taking notes in a class in Philadelphia.
With any luck we’ll get some pictures from the opening of the exciting Woman Creative – Art and Jewelry gallery in the Atlanta suburb of Buford, Georgia. Gallery manager Ellen Prophater has gathered an extensive exhibit of polymer work from artists across the country. The Polymer, From the Beginning exhibit opens this weekend. See video and teasers here.
