White wallflowers

Starting 2015 with a limited palette may appeal to those artists who want to approach the new year with calm and care.

California’s Angela Schwer rarely ventures beyond the white polymer she uses for her organic wall art.

Made to resemble the rare Corton Olympic dahlia, this 7″ bloom was arranged petal by petal on a base and created to hang on the wall. She also makes a 12″ version.

Angela explains her process and her choice of subject matter in this interview.

A stay-at-home mom, she sells on Etsy. In the past couple of years she’s moved into larger commissioned installations. You can see more in-process shots and new monogrammed letters on her Facebook page.

2014 Top Five

PCD’s 2014 annual report shows that readers were very curious about hollow polymer forms. Here are your five favorites:

The top attention-getting post for the year was Kim Arden’s lush summer design. She layered translucent circles and leaf shaped slices over a scrap clay striped base.

There is no denying that Kim is an attention-grabber in everything she does. On Facebook she chronicles one outrageous antic after another alongside eye-catching polymer designs. Look at her latest cat cane.

My thanks to every one of the million and a half visitors who stopped by for a look at the latest development in polymer this year. Please visit often in 2015. Happy New Year!

Polymer journals

Thinking of making a journal for the new year? London’s Aniko Kolesnikova (MandarinDuck) excels at creating finely textured sculpted polymer tiles. When baked and then glued onto blank book covers, the humble journals speak volumes.

The Indian elephant piece to the left is the early, unpainted version of the tile. Layers later, washes of paint and highlights of color make the image much richer. Nothing Aniko has shown before has captured so much attention she says.

You can watch a terrific timelapse of her making a floral journal on YouTube and she hints that a tutorial about the elephant will follow.

Aniko shares her inspirations online on Pinterest and sells on Etsy. See more in process shots of this piece on Flickr.

Doodled polymer ornaments

Filigree meets mosaic meets polymer in these ornaments from Jael Thorp. The dark reds and bright accents add richness, hinting at traditional patterns and including canework then veering off into more contemporary doodles in clay. Their meandering intensity winds around to weave a complex story.

This style started when Jael was doodling with clay as she made a batch of inchies. Read more about how she got carried away in this post and on her blog, on Flickr and Facebook.

Stencils and polymer

Watching how Laurie Mika applies stencils to polymer is mesmerizing. Even if your style is miles away from Laurie’s layered, collaged, jewel-encrusted shrines, you may find yourself considering how it would be to lavish color and pattern with such abandon. Or maybe just add pattern in a new way.

Truth is, stencils are a departure for Laurie too and she shares her first efforts. She’s a guest artist on Stencil Girl Talk and she shows a little step-by-step on their site. It’s an Indian-inspired mandala with mirrors and recycled glitz. The stencils are rolled into the clay to create an embossed pattern that’s later enhanced with paints.

Laurie used three of Stencil Girl’s patterns and she plans to add her designs to their line in 2015. Here she is on Facebook.

Cheers! Holiday polymer

Traditionally Staci Louise Smith makes small gifts for lots of friends and family at Christmas. This year, after three days playing in the studio, she had gifts and a new line of polymer wine stoppers.

These will definitely be added to next year’s show inventory she says. Of course, wine stoppers aren’t just for Christmas, in fact, these have a beach air about them.

Staci shares her method (and lots more pictures) on a blog post and on Facebook.

She joins the two elements by drilling a shallow hole in the top of the cork and the bottom of the bead. Then she inserts a 14g wire, joining bead and cork. She epoxys both ends of the wire.

The intense carving and soft shaping of these beads shows how much thought and effort she’s put into her small gifts. And sharing them with us is generous as well. Staci’s friend, Karen McGovern, sent the link along to make sure we wouldn’t miss it.

Spun polymer

See what Kathrin Neumaier has been up to using liquid Fimo and chalks or inks. For this December batch she uses the polymer like spun sugar to achieve a blown glass translucency.

At least that’s what I’m guessing from her cryptic captions. One of these days we’ll find out what Kathrin’s learned but for now, admire her latest experiments.

The “like” numbers and social logos that have littered the PCD pages recently are the results of my own experiments.

Fingers crossed, I think I’ve about got it sorted out. Thank you for your patience with my mess. Experiments are like that.

Coming to blows with polymer

Vancouver’s Joan Tayler is offering an early holiday treat. Gift yourself her 9-page polymer whistle tutorial and you’ll be able to create your own presents – useful zipper pulls, clever pendants or noisy kids’ toys.

“In spite of the simplicity of this design it has taken me years of small changes to come up with an efficient way to make a polymer clay whistle,” Joan admits.

Joan taught me her method this summer. I had success on my first try and I’ve been bugging her to publish a tutorial ever since. My nagging paid off! The tutorial spells out the steps every which way – in photos, in words, and with drawings.

Joan turns her whistles into lovely birds and hides them under gently draped leaves. StudioMojo subscribers will hear me toot my whistles in tomorrow’s edition. I don’t often gush but making whistles is a special skill that Joan has made available for the rest of us.

Gifts outside the box

Angie Wiggins wanted to think ouside the box as she considered making gift items this season.

Her business card holders are sure to be a hit and on Facebook she shared a photo of the wood block she drapes decorated clay sheets over to form her cheery desktop artworks. The bright bulbous feet give the card holders height and add to the party.

Starting out as a weaver, Angie has become well known for her paper bowls onto which she adds bright beads and small bits of polymer. She considers herself a mixed media artist, a chicken farmer and a garden grower.

You can see what inspires Angie on Pinterest and catch more of her work on Facebook. Angie has a strong and fearless sense of color that infuses all her designs with excitement.

How do you roll

Did you make paper beads from magazines and glue when you were a kid? Do you have a soft spot in your heart for these easy beads in polymer?

Margit Boehmer recently rolled these lovely chalked and textured versions. You can see her latest ones here and buy them on Etsy.

I dug out Dayle Doroshow’s versions from 2011 for you to examine too. Dayle used her scraps, flattening the rolls with stamps as a last step and then adding a contrasting color wash.

All that you need are tall triangles of flattened polymer. Wind each triangle up from wide to narrow around a rod.

Paper beads in polymer are easy and great for holiday projects, no matter how you roll.

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