Spring breaks

Florida’s Lorraine Vogel (WiredOrchid) brings us a springy look with her combination of layered surface techniques. If lightly layered beach motifs speak to you, Lorraine’s tutorials let you in on her methods

Whether it’s batiks, transfers or a mix of media and methods, Lorraine builds over a light clay, adding and subtracting until she reaches a tropical mix of color and shape.

Here’s her freebie tutorial on StencilGirl to experiment with. Lots of examples of her sun and sand on Etsy, Facebook. Flickr and Instagram.

Mystery polymer mosaic

Does it bug you when you can’t quite figure out how a piece was constructed? I am stumped by this pendant/bar/bead from Jana Honnerova and the Czech translation doesn’t help.

Blended and stamped veneer? Extruded interlocking patterns? Faux mosaic? Silkscreen?

What you can clearly understand is that Jana put a lot of time and skill into developing this brain-teaser pattern. She has a masters in biology/genetics and was a skateboard champion too.

Here’s her work on FB, Flickr and Etsy. Oh look, Jana will teach in Dallas in March!

In the meanwhile, let her design tease your polymer brain.

Off to Baltimore

Maine’s Bonnie Bishoff and JM Syron are off to this week’s ACC show in Baltimore. The wholesale/retail show begins on Wednesday and features more than 500 artists.

This necklace, called The Plenty is one of their new offerings. The smooth pieces are thin and glide over each easily. Though the beads are thin, they feel solid and elegant with a stunning array of colors and shapes. See the couple’s other new designs on Facebook.

Polymer is well represented at the Baltimore show. These are the artists I found. Let me know if you spot others. Let’s wish them a great show!

Dumont’s decollage

Christine Dumont introduces nature’s grunge to high style with her Birch Bark Bangles. “Trees speak to me,” she says.

Her surfaces are smooth but rich with visual texture and minimal muted color. Her processes involve both adding ingredients to the clay and tearing away pieces from the clay.

She’ll be teaching several “Decollage” classes this year. (Think of decollage as the opposite of collage.) See her workshop schedule here and follow along on Facebook

What’s in your forest?

Have you been watching what’s being submitted for the Into the Forest exhibit later this year?

Each leaf, bug and blossom is more intriguing than the last and it’s hard to wrap your head around how Emily Squires Levine, Laura Tabakman and Julie Eakes will combine all the colorful bits they’ve collected for this international collaborative project.

This week’s submission from Eriko Page may make you wistful for spring. Her tight round polymer buds are ready to burst into bloom. But wait, a second batch of Eriko’s flowers have already opened! See more of her hyper-real caned flowers on her sales site and FB.

A preview of Into the Forest will be on view at this summer’s Synergy4 with the whole shebang on view beginning in November, 2017 in Pittsburgh, PA. There’s still time to join and add your work to the project. Pieces must be postmarked April 4, 2017.

Read the guidelines on the FB page where nearly 700 polymer artists hang out, watching every forest fantasy that arrives from around the world.

Mystery scrap

JScreations scrap idea on PolymerClayDaily.com

Johanna S (JS Creations) hits on all cylinders with this bright necklace that she calls Dust to Dawn. In the first place, the flat disks appear to have been cut from scrap clay (and we’re always chasing scrap clay ideas). And further, the colors are bright enough to warm the most wintry day.

So even though we don’t know who or where Johanna is, this simple necklace is a winner. She only shows up on Flickr. If you can unravel more of this mystery, let us know.

Meanwhile appreciate another cool use of leftovers.

Pass it on

It’s Valentine’s Day, pass it on! Ron Lehocky’s meter rolled over 37,000 polymer hearts at the first of 2017.

That’s $370,000 worth of polymer hearts that Ron has made and sold in the past 11 years. The money goes to the Louisville Kids Center for Pediatric Therapies where Ron is a pediatrician as well as an artist and fundraiser.

Watching Ron make hearts is like a restful meditation (you can see him in action here). If you ever doubt that you can accomplish something with this artform, read Ron’s stories on Facebook…and pass it on.

Sunny Monday

New York’s Donna Greenberg calls her newest wall art an Olive Eater Urchin but I call it sunshine. An 11″ diameter prickly sculpted, textured and painted sunshine is a perfect way to begin our week.

“The weirdos do add up,” Donna says of her other-worldly constructions, “Some have new homes to fly to, others will be in shows or going to workshops with me. Table room is at a premium in the studio these days.” She has created these decorative gems at a prodigious rate.

You can see lots more of them on her website and Pinterest. Donna will be sharing her techniques in a Tidal Pool pre-conference class at this year’s Synergy.

Pared down heart designs

Dimitriadi pares down designs to their essence on PolymerClayDaily

These delicate polymer hearts on a strand of small beads give us a youthful, innocent view of hearts.

They’re from Eri Dimitriadi, a Greek architect and polymer artist. See her on Facebook and Pinterest.

Her spare, minimalist architectural sentiments merge with an attraction to smooth, curvy natural forms. She takes simple techniques and gives them power with spare and elegant design. Don’t miss her wall pieces featured on her Etsy site here.

TBT polymer

Remembering the Dalai Lama pendants we shared along the trail on our Upper Mustang trip in 2014. Makes me wonder where these little photo transfers are now.

My husband upgraded his computer and he’s had me on tech duty so today’s post is a TBT from the photos I had on hand. See his photos more clearly on my Instagram. Now to write this weekend’s StudioMojo. Join us!

‹ 1 … 111 112 113 … 405 ›