Polymer Clay Daily

Tips and Tricks

Leather, wire, cactus imposters

Track polymer and resin artist Camille Young on Flickr as she creates jewelry art every day during June. (Usually gamer icons are the subject of her art.) A Tucson resident, Camille didn’t have to look far for a model for this cactus cuff.

She makes a fabulous faux barbed wire which she used for a Western style eyeglass leash. Here’s her original faux barbed wire tutorial. The more recent version makes use of Sculpey SuperFlex clay baked over Stretch Magic cord.

Patty Barnes faux leather biker cuff was named the co-grand prize winner in the Rings & Things contest. Patty says that, “The use of polymer clay to create the cuff allowed me to explore a variety of surface textures, decorations and embellishments.” She’s moving on to punk, western, disco and other versions. Thanks to Janice Abarbanel, Susan Lomuto and others for passing this link along.

Ancient dolls, modern bottles

These Ancient Luminous Art Dolls from Texas’ Tricia Dewey transform modern glass bottles into icons from ancient cultures.We looked at Tricia’s luminous polymer beads some months back and now she’s incorporating the technique into her sculpture.

She reveals that, “Growing up with my mother and grandmother as artists, I did not personally begin working artistically until my mother’s death in 2002.” Polymer clay and digital imagery were her first explorations with later ventures into encaustic wax. You can track the zigs and zags of her explorations on her Flickr site.

Ponsawan blends

Ponsawan Silapiruti offers yet another variation on the Skinner blend which she uses to create her free Mini Roses tutorial.

Based on overlapping rectangles of clay, this method is good for those of you who, like me, have trouble cutting triangles. Ponsawan has a gift for simplifying that makes every trick look easy.

Applying metallics

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?

The Natasha bead evolves

Claire Maunsell’s experiments with polymer Natasha beads provide us with some brain teasers to start the week. (Iris Mishly offers an easy-to-follow .pdf tutorial of the basic Natasha technique here.)

Watching the symmetrical patterns emerge is mesmerizing. Beginners are often introduced to the wonders of polymer this way and the technique can make wonderful use of a scrap pile. But, as Claire points out, it leaves you with a squared off brick.

Claire began by pulling on a Natasha block. Bullet forms appeared. “I started in earnest at this point to etch and scratch away at the emerging and disappearing lines, the remains of the original perfect mirror images,” she says. “Then, the corners of the Natasha ‘brick’ began to move outwards, and the bead to shorten – they became propellers and pods and mostly maintained their symmetry.”

Her results are fascinating and she explains her process in detail. Try it! What can you come up with?

Beads – before and after

Who couldn’t use a little “before” and “after” on a Friday? The thought of salvaging polymer beads gone blah sounds appealing at the end of the week, doesn’t it?

Take a look at how Anna Anpilogova solved her problem. There’s no wasting polymer in Belarus (or Boston or Bellingham). With some judicious carving (before on the left), Anna has turned ho-hum into hot (after on the right)!

Tidbits for the weekend

This link to Alison Torres’ video of Sarajane Helm creating an impromptu face from a lump of polymer is mesmerizing. I missed this tutorial of Geninne Zlatkis’ bird mobile during the holidays but it’s never out of season. Here’s the finished version. Have a dazzling weekend.

Using cutters

Celine Charuau’s polymer Cathedral Flower brooch is very understated for the usually flamboyant Gris Bleu. The stepped, layered, dimensional cutouts immediately put the viewer in mind of a cathedral window. Delicate, simple and amazing!

On closer inspection, you can see how Celine used simple graduated cutters to achieve this brilliant effect. Then take a look at the snowflakes from Camille Young (and closeup here) that were featured more than a year ago.

Are you using your humble clay cutters to their full potential?

The secrets of good eggs

These polymer covered eggs are remarkable not just for cheery seasonal fun but because they were created by students using an ingenious, no-fail method developed by Carol Simmons.

On the groups’ Facebook page, you can examine these eggs and other objects created last weekend at the Buckeye Bash in Dayton. Using kaleidoscope-patterned canes, Carol’s students created consistently successful veneers.

Her egg formula involves four strips of cane slices, some math calculations and a template. Unfortunately I left before all the secrets were revealed. The Ohio class was Carol’s dry run for her new class called “Intricate Cane Veneers.”

Polymer medicine

Another dose of color for you from Anna Anpilogova today. The warm colors of her polymer “mango” beads remind us that spring is not far off.

The text on her blog is in Russian and it’s fun to follow along on her studio experiments in Belarus. Anna’s Flickr pages give you the pictures without having to translate anything. She invents constantly and offers this simple faux chevron tutorial that ends with a sophisticated result.

Thanks to Claire Maunsell for the link.

Delightful diversions

There’s nothing better to veer your week off track than a couple of interesting polymer techniques. If you’re facing serious deadlines and chores, stop reading right now.

The first tantalizing tutorial is a bit of Japanese-inspired faux lacquer from Nan Roche. Alison Torres reports from the CFCF event in Maryland that’s in progress this week. Nan briefly describes her method in this short video. (The picture is Alison’s work from Nan’s class.)

Then I happened upon luminous faux mother of pearl from LesEthiopiques. The text on Hélène’s free tutorial is in French accompanied by step-by-step shots of her discoveries. Wouldn’t that be fun to try?

I have deadlines and chores of my own that I’m avoiding. Perhaps if you trot off and try these tricks, I can focus. Sneaky, eh? You try them so I won’t have to.