Blooming bowls

Nancy Nearing has played with polymer for 25 years. Two years ago she gave up her stressful day job, bought a tent and decided to go full bore into her art.

Nancy Nearing's blossom bowls on PolymerClayDaily.com

We’re neighbors and I can testify about how diligently Nancy services her seven galleries, produces for fairs, teaches and searches for new opportunities.

Still she makes time for coffees and guild meetings. Nancy is not a shy artist who works quietly alone. Her energy comes from groups so she rents space at the downtown Columbus Idea Foundry where she rubs shoulders with all kinds of artists who have kept her moving forward.

Her dramatic blossom bowls are one of her signature pieces. She’s found a way to securely adhere the layers of cane slices that form her bowls and she often tops each one with an air plant.

Look at Nancy’s new website, Instagram, Etsy and Facebook to see how much energy and talent she brings to her new job.

Mika’s geometry

Laurie Mika is all about triangles and diamond shapes in Inner Woven, her latest polymer mosaic which will appear in the 2017 Mosaic Arts International exhibition in Detroit from May 4 to June 15.

The piece’s geometric, almost quilted look makes it stand out from Laurie’s usual round and exotic patterns and shapes. Some of geometric shapes are set in windowed openings that reveal deeper layers. The rich colors are unmistakably Laurie’s palette.

She’s teaching this week in Santa Rosa, CA and it’s fun to check out more of her most recent cubes, crowns and mandalas class samples.

Thanks to Laurie for starting our week with opulence! See more on Instagram and Facebook.

Outdoor polymer

Maryland’s Carol Lessans prefers to receive her mail in style. Her first polymer-covered USPS box lasted four years in rain, sleet and snow.

The time for replacement coincided with Carol’s first class with Lynne Ann Schwarzenberg last June. “My first flower morphed into a summer-long study and resulted in a garden of blooms. But where to plant this garden,” Carol wondered. She used slices of her flowers to cover a new box and in the process, she and Lynne Ann became great friends.

People often ask how long polymer will survive outdoors. The answer is complicated and sort of beside the point. Maybe a better question is, “How many smiles, questions, photographs, friendships and memories does a polymer mailbox produce?”

Consider adding some polymer blooms outdoors this spring. Have a happy weekend.

And join us on StudioMojo for the rest of the week in polymer.

Crackle to the max

Polak's maximum crackle on PolymerClayDaily.com

It’s no secret that crackle has crept into polymer art. There was fine and faux, painted and pulled. All kinds of variations. And now maximum crackle from Serbia’s Ursa Polak appears.

If you’re a crackle fan, you probably love it all. Ursa’s version glints with gold and has a distressed relic feel about it. You’ll have to guess how she did it. Look her up on Flickr and her blog.

How cracked up are you feeling?

Simply loopy polymer

Blackburn bangles on PolymerClayDaily.com

Ever since I took a class with Carol Blackburn in Santa Fe, I’ve had an art crush on her impossibly fastidious patterns and the way she makes it all so simple.

Carol will teach some of her clever tricks at a 3-day Purses, Bangles and Beads workshop at Galerie Freisleben in Germany in June. What a dream that would be!

In the meanwhile Carol keeps coming up with more head-slapping designs like this Loopy Links necklace. Of course these softly blended oval shapes would fit into each other.

Blackburn's Loopy Necklace on PolymerClayDaily

Why didn’t we think of that? Spring is a great time to let your own loopy ideas take shape.

Polymer in DC

We can all get up and do a little happy dance that polymer clay is making its appearance in the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington D.C. thanks to the work of Ohio’s Debbie Jackson.

She will be offering two series of designs for sale in the museum shop. Debbie’s indigo line shown here combines polymer clay, indigo fabric, African brass, metallic foils and raffia into a powerful group of shield shaped pieces.

See the rest of her designs on Facebook.

Debbie is also working with DC sculptor Woodrow Nash to produce beads and pieces that will embellish his dramatic figures.

It’s been a banner year for Debbie full of paperwork and negotiation and waiting. Debbie has long been known as a talented and persistent artist and teacher here in our home town and we’re very proud of her. She shows us all how hard work pays off.

Adopted artwork

New Zealand’s Amba Jacobs (TheLittleMew) makes small sculptures and charms based on games and comics and popular culture icons. Here the 2.5″x3″ Dusky Sky Lantern Dragon’s body and feather-like scales are rendered lovingly in pastel sunset colors. It was one of three sculptures auctioned off recently.

When she was a child, Amba liked to rescue kittens, drawn by their vulnerable mews. “My spirit charms are also small, sweet and fragile creatures who want to be adopted,” she says.

She sells her creatures in several online venues (Etsy, Facebook, Instagram, her blog). She shares her methods on her YouTube channel.

Her attention to detail is apparent not only in the carefully crafted works but also in her approach to placing them in good homes. Do you feel like your artwork is up for adoption?

A tangle of polymer

A pretty tangle of polymer flowers from Greece’s AnarinaAnar rounds out PCDaily’s week.

Her pieces have a distinctive look with ceramic-like speckled finishes and dark edges that provide contrast. These flowers bobble on thin wires.

There’s a spontaneous quality about her work that starts the weekend on the right foot. Check Flickr, Facebook and Etsy if you need to soak up more of her cheeriness.

Feathering her nest

Tamara Shea (BlockPartyPress) is thinking ahead to Easter and Mother’s Day with her personalized nest necklaces.

The colored woodblock look runs throughout her polymer collection on Etsy and she’s racked up an impressive number of sales with her signature pieces. Her fans can glimpse what’s ahead on Instagram. You’ll also find her on Facebook and Twitter.

Tamara’s consistent style, quality and online strategy are some of the secrets to her success.

Butterflies are free

Into the Forest submission on PolymerClayDaily

This butterfly bush (more pix here) is a group project from the polymer clay students at the Ohio Reformatory for Women for the Into the Forest exhibit.

The clay came from generous artists who were destashing. (The ORW students are happy to condition old polymer. Let me know if you’re cleaning out and have extra clay.)

They created 27′ of big hole beads that were slipped onto brass rods and inserted into a wooden base made by my husband. The brass rods couldn’t be taken into the facility so we had to visualize the piece and assemble it at home. I’ll take the whole shebang apart to ship it off to Pittsburgh.

Will you be part of this international exhibit? The deadline has been extended to May 1.

You have plenty of time to make your mark on the fanciful forest that Laura Tabakman, Julie Eakes, Emily Squires Levine, Libby Mills and Nancy Travers concoct from your submissions.

The event opens in Pittsburgh in November with a teaser preview on view at Synergy4 in August. Are you tempted to make some beads to cheer up your own garden?

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