Light and deceptively strong polymer collaboration

Don’t take my word for it, go see for yourself how complex and exciting this 20″ Open Form Necklace from Bonnie Bishoff is.

J.M. Syron constructs the nickel silver and sterling silver wire forms which Bonnie covers with polymer patterns. The piece looks fragile but feels surprisingly sturdy because of its metal underpinnings. The colors and stripes shift subtly from link to link.

The couple’s Body Length Necklace shows another example of long slim shapes that appear ethereal and light yet have strength that allows the wearer to twist and twirl all 60″ of beads.

It takes close collaboration to make pieces that feel both well built and elegant.

The easy/hard parts

Today our eyes gravitate to surface designs from UK’s Veronika Sturdy who claims to have a new addiction to silkscreens and imitative wood looks. She’ll be teaching her methods May 20 in a class in Czech Republic.

Silkscreens are another easy/hard part of polymer art. While silkscreens can feature delicate lines and magnificent patterns, the trick is to fiddle with the designs to make them yours – or to make your own patterns, of course.

Here Veronika combines wood textures with distressed patterns enhanced with luscious mottled colors. Look at them large on Flickr to appreciate the details. Then hop over to Pinterest to get the full behind-the-scenes treatment.

Low bar/high bar

Girodon's pendant on PolymerClayDaily.com

You know how it goes. You learn something new that rearranges your brain and suddenly you see it everywhere. My eyes glom onto surface designs. Paints, pastels, powders and anything applied to the surface of polymer are the only techniques that register after a class with Claire Maunsell.

Which brings us to France’s Sonya Girodon’s latest batch of pendants. Are those embossing powders? How is the color applied?

What an art it is to make the colors erupt across the shield-shaped surface. Then she reins the color in on the top square. Simple but complex. Easy but hard.

Polymer taunts us with its low bar to entry and its high bar for mastery. See several more examples of Sonya’s latest mastery on Facebook and Flickr.

Experimenting with construction plus an embossing tip

Watkins reinterprets Benzon on PolymerClayDaily.com

This Jana Benzon-inspired wall art from Rebecca Watkins starts your week with a bright flash of color!

Rebecca was one of the students in this weekend’s class sponsored by the Pittsburgh clay guild. That’s clearly Jana’s Encrusted method of construction reinterpreted in Rebecca’s eye-popping palette and dotted with spirals.

Benzon's newest cutwork earrings on PolymerClayDaily.com

Jana’s early polymer bargello evolved into what she calls her 3D Cutwork. Her new earrings here are an example of Jana’s current thinking in 3D compositions.

Rebecca’s an adventurous polymer artist too. Take a look at what she’s been trying with embossing powders on polymer to enhance ho-hum beads.

Jar art for your desk

Lisa Renner’s 10″ tall Jar Head makes a handy desk item that comes with its own feathered pen. Lisa sculpted this whimsical face over a glass jar and added details with inks and paints.

The feather-topped pen becomes a stunning hairstyle and it’s not likely someone would abscond with that. The container could be used to hold paintbrushes or other tools.

See more of Lisa’s pensive polymer people on her site, Instagram, Facebook, and newly on Etsy.

Lisa’s teaching in Phoenix at Art Unraveled in August (Laurie Mika will be there too).

Upcoming

There’s nothing like a class or conference to up your game. Registration has opened for this June’s French Lick Atelier in Indiana (featuring Libby Mills, Leslie Blackford, Ponsawan Sila, Tammy Dye and Lynda Gilcher.

The Northwest Polymer Clay Guild is accepting reservations for its May 18-22 Clay Camp in Washington. Synergy4 offers you an even deeper roster of talents and techniques at its August events.

In this weekend’s StudioMojo, readers will get an extra helping of eye candy and tool updates that were shared in Claire Maunsell’s surface class for NEPAG. If you’re needing a weekend boost, join us!

Going around in circles

Loose, colorful, happily twirled polymer beads popped into view this week.

Kathryn Corbin’s necklace starts with big textured peach-colored tubes on a thick cord.

In the center, bigger loops of random surface textures in springy colors overlap and crowd against each other. It’s a fresh and spontaneous look that kept catching my eye in Claire Maunsell’s weekend surface techniques class in Boston. What a great use for the samples we were accumulating in class!

Then Jean Rutka posted pictures from a weekend group event in Morrisburg, Ontario.

One photo featured thin extruded polymer strings that Lyn Tremblay twirled into flat round disks and strung into a fabric-like necklace. On her Facebook page Lyn shows a number of other fun designs that come to her when she lets the clay “speak to her”.

Is this fascination with easily twirled bits of clay a trend or just a reflection of the exuberance of spring?

Polymer poetry

After the weekend workshop with Claire Maunsell, several of us who had never been to Boston, took some extra time to soak up the sights. We happened upon GennaRose Nethercott, a lovely young poet, performer, and folklorist who had set up her table and manual typewriter on a street corner and hung out her poetry shingle.

We pooled our money (Helen Malchow was the instigator) and gave GennaRose a few details about our art. She quickly composed this lovely poem. Her words speak to the bonds that are often formed at workshops and conferences. We were verklempt.

Polymer: an ode

We are built of you,
O building block of our universe
of eager hands which reach for you,
twist you into beautiful shapes.
The clay brought us to each other.
A love for the curvature of beauty.
For a firmness we can control.
O the color that bounds up
from the jewelry built of you,
not so unlike the wild hues
of our hearts when alit with camaraderie
What is friendship if not
a work of our own art? A sculpted
form we drew together, layered & bright,
in the only way we know how.

by GennaRose Nethercott
www.gennarosenethercott.com

What started as a silly prank turned into magic that we wanted to share with you.

Travel is wreaking havoc with the PCDaily schedule so nothing, including a daily post, is assured for a couple of days.

Black and white for drama

Heather Powers (HumbleBeads) will be showing these new lentil beads in her trunk show on Facebook on Friday at noon. Black makes a dramatic background for the layers of flowers over the crackled gold leaf. The bits of white pop forward.

You can see how the layers enhance the impression of depth when they’re set in bezels here. The beads will also make their way to Heather’s Etsy shop.

Friday tidy

Have you checked out Claysino June 2-4, the first Staedtler (fimo) event this side of the pond?

May 2 is just around the corner. That’s the deadline for shipping your works for the Into the Forest exhibit. How often do you get the chance to be part of an international exhibit? Grab it!

And join up with us on StudioMojo for the rest of this week’s story.

Visible projects

Elizabeth Wood chose the word “visible” for 2017 as she committed to completing 10 larger pieces during the year.

She describes April’s bowl as Deconstructed Polymer. It’s a macrame mix of polymer and waxed cord that she had fun making even though it took more time than she anticipated.

Hundreds of slices of clay with striped edges sprout from the sides of the bowl. You can see her progress this year on Instagram. You can also see the changes she went through during her journey through making 365 beads.

Her project is indeed making Elizabeth more visible!

Balanced bowl and a TP trick

Boston’s Betsy Baker was pushing hard to get ready for the St. Paul ACC show last week. She gave herself a little diversion from jewelry production to make a series of ring bowls which share the same grunge-meets-elegant aesthetic. The copper colored lining on this one plays nicely against the concrete-like exterior.

If you look at Betsy’s Instagram, you can see how she loads her post earrings into the oven. Wouldn’t you guess that those are toilet paper rolls that have been flattened and pierced with holes for the posts?

Her improvised holder allows her to fire the front of the earrings and hold them upright so that any back details are baked at the same time. When you’re preparing for shows, every time-saving trick helps.

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