Polymer Clay Daily

Tips and Tricks

Secrets from the hardware store

Julie Picarello's secrets come from the hardware store on PolymerClayDaily.com

California’s Julie Picarello has a new batch of focals ready for the annual Tucson bead show next week. She’ll be buying, selling, and teaching her new Lunar Feather Beads.

She prowls through hardware stores and walks the long aisles of the big box stores looking for pieces she can stamp into or otherwise incorporate into her mokume gane designs.

In her Tucson classes, students will learn how to use new tools she appropriated from the HVAC department!

In the group pictured here, Julie gives a nod to textiles but look closely and you’ll see washers and traces of metal. This new series is done in her signature color palettes and sprinkled with painted and torched do-dads. She’s on Facebook here.

Layered and assembled elements

Mari O'Dell's assembled extruded pendants on PolymerClayDaily.com
Mari O'Dell's assembled extruded pendants on PolymerClayDaily.com

Mari O’Dell has been dreaming up Japanese-inspired pendants in her Annapolis, Maryland studio/treehouse.

She begins with castings made from segments of antique Japanese kashigata molds. Translucent polymer tinted to look like jadeite is pressed into the molds and cured. The elements are set aside to be assembled into finished pendants.

Mari uses a distinctive way layering on extruded Japanese design elements. Though she has limited strength in her hands, she’s devised clever extruder workarounds.

The piece is then surrounded by a bezel made of thin strips of clay and the entire work is mounted on clay backing. The final touches involve alcohol inks, heat set stamp inks and a final curing.

Follow along with more of her designs and experiments on her Instagram site.

Ice in the pasta machine!

Melissa Terlizzi finds ice in her pasta machine on PolymerClayDaily.com

The start of this polar bear plaque was an icy-looking piece of clay that Melissa Terlizzi loved as it rolled out of her pasta machine. Perfect chunky glacial accident! All it needed was a big furry animal!

“The sheet of clay behind the bear is my favorite part of this piece. I loved the raw edges and organic shape, so I just left them that way,” she says.

Melissa mounted the piece on a silver-leafed wood panel treated with a crackle finish, and tiny silver microbeads which all sparkle! See the final version on Facebook.

In our hemisphere, this chilly scene seems just right.

Holiday cheer

Elf Jane Dwyer and Santa Lehocky collaborate for the kids on PolymerClayDaily

Our polymer Santa/Dr. Lehocky is still in his workshop upcycling canes (like these poinsettia and snowman slices from Jane Dwyer) and turning discards from artists around the world into hearts that will benefit the Children’s Center in Louisville, KY.

Elf Jane Dwyer and Santa Lehocky collaborate for the kids on PolymerClayDaily

This heart story has been going on for 12 years and last night’s total topped 40,520. Each one this Santa has made raises $10 for the Center. Do the math! Yes, your art can make a difference.

If you need some holiday cheer, watch Ron demo his 3-step process in this popular video or follow the Kids Center Christmas festivities on his Facebook page.

Happy Holidays! Join us for virtual eggnog and more Saturday morning tidbits over at the weekend’s StudioMojo.

Polymer ready for snow

Karen Walker's wrapped snowmen gather for the holidays on PolymerClayDaily

The UK’s Karen Walker wraps her snowmen in mufflers with fashionably oversized buttons on their coats. They gather in a group with their pets, ready for winter.

Karen deepens the textures and highlights them with a dark wash then adds a few polka dots.

The simplicity of her shapes gives the scene added charm and you can see more examples on Instagram, her site, and on Facebook.

Polymer under the bed

Feel the love and understanding in this small sculpture from Wisconsin’s Gina Griffith. Gina shows a deep understanding of children’s fears in her Dark Corners of the Nursery.

The strewn blocks, the bunny slippers, and the superhero cape capture the scene with a little girl clutching the covers as she imagines monsters under her bed.

Enjoy every step in Gina’s detailed process on Instagram and Facebook. And you’ll see the children who are her obvious inspirations.

The little kid in me wants the birthday cake Gina made recently. What lucky kids they are to have such a talented and loving mother. They’ll want to treasure this piece of her heart.

Thanks to Lindly Haunani for introducing PCD to Gina.

 

No-fail knitting

Leila Bidler gives imitative knitting a new twist on PolymerClayDaily.com

Even if you never learned to knit, Italy’s Leila Bidler demonstrates how you can simulate the look. She extrudes strings of polymer in shades of blue, twists them and lines them up…without dropping a stitch!

A second layer of stitching every inch or so gives the swatch the look of a fancier pattern and more complex knitting.

On Leila’s Instagram page she turns these faux knits into cozy cuffs and finishes them with a faux wood button for a wintry accessory.

A snowy day is a perfect time to check out this season’s crop of faux knit ideas. Every year there’s some new twist. PCD’s all-time favorites are still Juliya Laukhina’s from 2010.

If you’re looking for more fun behind-the-scenes tidbits, come on over to StudioMojo where we indulge in deep polymer chats every Saturday morning. 

Polymer takes wing

Karina Formanova's birdy brooches take wing on PolymerClayDaily

Russia’s Karina Formanova has created flocks of small bird brooches in a huge variety of colors. You can see from her Instagram focus that Karina has studied her birds.

She distills their colors and shapes down to combinations of subtle Skinner blends and delicate canes that make her birds seem to flutter on the wearer’s collar. 

Follow her works in progress on her Facebook and see the range of colors in her shop. The brooches are nicely packaged in nests of matching papers.

Mean mason jar

Pamela Carmen's big florals cover a jar in a hurry on PolymerClayDaily.com

Florida’s Pamela Carman makes a mean Mason jar. This big floral one has actually been upcycled with one of those fancy liquid soap pumps.

The background for her flowers is textured white clay. Pamela’s big blooms allow her to create a quick composition without having to cover every inch of the glass jar with pattern.

She shows a bunch of them on Instagram if you’re in a handmade gifty mood.

If your mood has gotten grinchy and fed up with the pressures of the season already, join us over at StudioMojo where we help you keep your priorities balanced and your mojo bopping along. 

Olive green with jealousy

Sliced stripes from Sandra Trachsel on PolymerClayDaily.com

Switzerland’s Sandra Trachsel says of her bracelet inspired by an Irish Quilt pattern, “It is actually not a cane, but striped patterns cut and burnished together.”

I was certainly fooled. You’ll have to read the descriptions on each of her photos on Flickr to be sure you’ve guessed the technique correctly.

Her olive green diamonds pendant may stump you too. She created the basic color pattern, positioned a silk screen over the color shapes and added paint in perfect register. Impressive, eh?

When my studio gets messy, you may note that PCD posts gravitate to neatniks and perfectionists who control the clay so well. The reason for my change in focus contains equal parts jealousy and admiration.