Frothy polymer

Jana Roberts Benzon continues to unlock the texture secrets of polymer. She’s ruffled, crumpled and cut her pieces with laser-like precision. Still she felt compelled to push farther.

Now she’s whipped up frothy layers that undulate around this new bangle. Here she is on Facebook and Flickr.

Jana jots her ideas in marker on her glass work surface as she experiments. She uses her phone to take a picture of each step before she erases the writing and moves on.

No more lost steps or mystery processes. Documentation like this is a must if you’re an avid experimenter like Jana.

Zap, slap, bang

A zap of color from Maryanne Loveless and her Colorplay series for Tuesday.

A few tiny textures topped with small cane slices with holes that reveal the crazy cutup colors underneath. You can tell that Maryanne is playing and moving fast. Makes you want to join in, doesn’t it? She calls her business ArtMakesMeHappy and it’s easy to see why.

You can track more of her work and her inspirations on Pinterest and Etsy.

Mimicking stone

Italy’s Ilenia Moreni fools us with her imitative labradorite. Labradorite’s gleaming layered colors are bisected with tricky lines. I’m glad I fell for her faux and bought the tutorial. She makes me want to explore stone imitations again.

Ilenia plays tricks with clothing as well and is able to replicate any era and follow any fancy. Follow her on Flickr and Facebook.

Be an April fool and enjoy all the secrets and tricks in her Etsy shop.

Spring twists in polymer

The spring colors of Angela Guertel’s latest brooch bloom with hints and colors of spring. Her Flickr page shows works that you may recognize as thoughtful twists on well-known processes to which Angela has added her own ideas.

For instance, these black and white beads were made with Kor tools along with some handmade patterns. Angela backfilled the graphic patterns for effect and strung them with textured polymer spacers. Her spring brooch and other reinvented works are on Facebook.

New neutrals

Meisha Barbee’s patterns in new neutral colors are so luscious that you might not notice that she’s veered way off from her normal brights.

Here’s a little StudioMojo minute video from Meisha on how she extends the use of her templates beyond their standard sizes.

Meisha’s on Facebook, Pinterest and in Google images.

Polymer molecules

The young Czech colorist, Dana Phamova, wants to try her Molecule earrings in every color combination. A look at her Instagram and Flickr pages shows you how she plays with color and replicates shifts of light.

It’s no secret that I like to ease into the week, starting with something simple that teaches me how colors work as I look for combinations that sing. These delightful color studies would be a perfect (and very wearable) way to begin. Dana shows more of her studies on her site as well.

Quirky loops

Just when you think you know where Milan’s Alessia Bodini is headed with her extrusions, she swoops in a different direction. On this blue necklace, she flattens an extrusion into a ribbon, loops it over and over, adds her own marks and threads it onto a choker.

She extrudes graduated purple polymer and joins lengths of the resulting triangles into a square pendant that teases the eye. It’s as if Alessia simply has to put her own quirky stamp on each design.

She’s gathered lots more examples on Flickr and Facebook.

Featuring flaws

You might want to reach up on the shelf and blow the dust off Elena Sevva’s vessel. Her polymer-covered jar makes a charming accent with an ancient flair.

I’m drawn to Elena’s piece because my first impulse when covering my own items is to chase all the seams and smooth away the imperfections.

What if you and I celebrated and featured the flaws and highlighted them with paint like Elena does? Could you allow yourself this approach? Could I? Just wondering.

See how Elena embraces looseness and imperfection in her artworks on Flickr and Facebook.

Imitating shells

Tina Holden creates realistic Hawaiian Opihi limpet shells with a set of silicone molds and a tutorial. The starburst texture and jagged edges make interesting designs beyond shells too.

Tina’s a coastal girl from British Columbia and she excels at shells (plus molds and silkscreens). She likes to experiment with new shapes and techniques. Read about her on her blog, Facebook and shop her on Etsy and her website shop.

Tokens from scrap

Jewel-like scrap hearts from Quebec’s Claire Maunsell get us in the proper holiday mood. What mementos and love tokens will you make this week?

Claire says she’ll soon offer a tutorial about the way she uses her scrap to get the dramatic effects you see here.

In the meanwhile, you can learn about her methods of using Pan pastels, inks, paints and some unusual tools with translucent Pardo clay on her new Craftcast class.

Watch how she teases the clay into shape (she was a glass artist before polymer), and applies layers and layers of texture and color until she’s pleased with the effect.

I learned a new way to anchor the probe on the thermometer. It’s often the little tricks you learn in a class that come in most handy. See more of Claire on Flickr, her site, Facebook and in her online Zibbet and Etsy galleries.

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