Colorful beginning

Beginning today and for the next 10 days, Carolyn Good (2 Good Claymates) will start off the new year by sharing her polymer recipes for the 2014 Pantone Spring 2014 colors.

Carolyn admits that at first she wasn’t thrilled with the colors. Then she remembered that computer screens often aren’t accurate. ” When I compared the color numbers with my Pantone color charts and began to mix up these new shades, I started to feel more inspired,” she says.

Here’s the introduction video from Pantone to show you what’s trending. Check Carolyn and Dave’s site each day and pull out your copy of Polymer Clay Color Inspirations and splash color all over 2014.

2013 top ten

These photos from 2013’s most popular posts prove that PCD readers can’t resist a clever polymer trick. Each of the top 10 posts offered a shortcut or a tutorial that revealed ways to make polymer do more than you thought possible. Knit it, batik it, glaze it to make it look like ceramic or fabric or metal and more.

Whether they developed their methods by happy accident or through careful research, what polymer artists share on PCD represents years of dedication and a willingness to share. Thanks to these top 10 and to all of you who have generously contributed your works to the blog. Have fun reviewing these favorites:

Rubiks scrap

I bet you have a pile of holiday scrap mounting up in your studio waiting to be turned into something wonderful. France’s Pinklily (Sandrine Arevalo Zamora) has just the new trick you need and her pictures are so complete that you won’t need any translation. She calls it the Rubik’s Cube Effect.

No fancy tools or solutions required. Assemble your most colorful scrap, some screening, netting, or needlework canvas (she uses “gardening mesh”), black clay and you’re set.

Maggie Maggio first pointed this out to me and I take that as a stamp of approval. Enjoy! Here’s Pinklily on Facebook.

Modern mosaics

Prague’s Pavla Cepelikova gathered samples of her polymer mosaic lentil beads into one long strand of color and pattern. She sells a tutorial that shows simple step-by-step instructions.

This technique was first taught by Amelia Helm in the 90’s. I took Amelia’s class back then and am happy to have updated lessons based on today’s polymer formulations, inks and materials. Pavla’s been refining her methods for quite some time (PCD featured her early mosaics a year ago). Follow along with her work on Facebook and on Flickr as well.

Playful polymer

Here are three artists who can help reacquaint you with your inner polymer child. Look at the playful way Austria’s Eva Marion Schulz experiments and dabbles with clay.

If you scroll through her Facebook photos you’ll see that she paints with polymer, sculpts with it and even gives it wings and feathers.

In the vase at the left she takes leftover canes, flattens them, backs them with scrap and cuts out ovals. Starting at the bottom of a glass vase, she adheres the ovals using her hand inside for support.

Want to play more? Two free tutorials popped up that are so simple and quick that you won’t be able to resist them.

Watch Iris Mishly’s video about how to make a holiday whirligig from a stack of narrow strips of polymer. Hang it and watch it spin gracefully.

Heather Powers shows you how to make merry little owls with just a pinch and some paint. You’ll feel like a kid again.

Raising a ruckus

Raising the Roof has raised a ruckus thanks to you. Your generosity is amazing. Remember that a donation here makes a great gift that you can print (here’s the donation card) and slip into an envelope to present with a slight bow and a quiet, “Namaste.” (The light in me honors the light in you.)

Crocheted polymer

Cut out and texture a polymer slab, pierce the clay with a few small evenly-spaced circles. Consider adding a second layer and more holes. Fire the design. Sew contrasting threads in and out of the holes, wrapping the edges and adding colorful touches.

Madrid’s Fabiola Perez Ajates developed this simple decorative mixed media technique that simulates popular crocheted fashions.

See how quickly her students added their own touches to Fabi’s concept and include this idea in your holiday project stash. Fabi is featured in the Polymer Clay Global Persepctives and her projects are inviting and ingenious.

Holiday polymer

Pennsylvania’s Beth Petricoin has created a polymer acorn with a surprise inside.

This little beauty (formerly a small plain glass jar with a screw-on lid) contains a battery-operated tea light. A thin layer of tinted translucent clay over the jar gives the light a warm glow.

Wouldn’t these look great on your holiday table? Beth shows more on her Flickr page. Don’t miss her polymer quilling experiment.

Painterly polymer canes

This pile of fall leaves from Meg Newberg is her latest cane discovery. (They’re all from one cane.) She loves to experiment with canes and find new patterning methods. She stumbled on a way to make soft-edged designs that are great for glowing pumpkins, spooky spiders and organic shapes. She calls them her Painterly Canes.

Maybe you can figure it out. If not, she sells her tutorial for a very reasonable price on Etsy. See more examples on her blog.

Going too far with polymer

Kathrin Neumaier tantalizes us one more time with her translucent polymer tricks. In this experiment her faux amber Honigtropfen (Honey Drops) beads are made from uncolored Pardo clay.

Kathrin pushes the boundaries as she takes the material beyond it’s recommended baking temperature. In the comments she hints that she baked the colorless clay, “…too long and too hot” to achieve the golden color. The black dots indicate that she nearly went too far.

What would happen if you pushed your work too far this week?

Manicured pendant and free tutorial

We end the week with pumpkin-colored pendant that comes with a Friday freebie tutorial.

Galina Grebennikova shows how she achieved this neatly textured pendant with no molds, no stamps. The tool she uses looks like something you’d find in a manicure set or a toolbox.

The trick is repeat, repeat, repeat and then highlight with dark colors. Here’s the photo tutorial.

Galina’s from Moscow and lives in Irvine, California. Small world! She offers some texture variations on her blog here. PCD has picked up some of her other tricks in these past posts.

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Tips and Tricks

Raising a ruckus