Roll the dice

“I cross my fingers for your and my country,” Istanbul’s Alev Gozonar wrote to me this week as we all brace for change.

Alev’s response to the serious tension in Turkey has been to create art for the Contemporary Istanbul 2016 show last weekend. One hundred large pieces covered in polymer are required for a game Alev calls Q-Bo. Click on the photos for the scale of Alev’s 100 installation pieces.

Alev Gozonar - polymer game installation

The tongue-in-cheek game reduces tension and boredom. It’s perfect for the US election day. Roll the dice and hope for the best. There’s more on Facebook and Alev’s site.

Remember that there are others all over the world in turmoil. An art project is often an effective outlet for stress.

On the fence

Meredith Dittmar adds art to her fence with polymer. She’s mostly creating with paper these days – wonderful, intricate sculptures.

Every so often she integrates a sculpture or uses polymer for structure on one of her airy assemblages. See if you can find them on her Instagram or her site.

On the fence? No excuses. Go vote!

Then decorate your fence.

Stretching polymer

Australia’s Sabine Speisser (papagodesign) is pleased with how her online class with Christine Dumont and Donna Greenberg propelled her polymer work forward.

This 7″x 9″ vessel, a Microcosm of Micro-organisms, was created in Voila’s Creative Design Series. Sabine’s dense patterns quiver with energy and life force.

“Guided outside influence and critique opens us up to many more possibilities beyond one’s comfort zone,” says Sabine. Read more of her comments on Facebook and follow her on Flickr.

Ready to stretch your boundaries?

Stripes that sizzle

This striped free-form hollow bead necklace from London’s Carol Blackburn certainly brightens our week!

Carol has an absolutely magical and ingenious way of creating these patterns. She often cuts and reassembles simple stripes into more complex geometric forms (see her Chop and Change workshop) but the stripes also look gorgeous on their own.

See examples of her stripe manipulations on Flickr and catch up with her latest on Facebook.

Pencil me in

Italy’s Alessia Bodini used colored pencils to give these hollow polymer beads their vibrancy.

Surface treatments on polymer are becoming more plentiful (see yesterday’s pastels) and more interesting as artists take more painterly approaches to our small canvases. You can follow Alessia’s experiments on Facebook and Flickr.

Have paints and pencils showed up in your toolbox?

Textured pastels

With pan pastels on polymer all the rage, Virginia’s Page McNall offers us a free and easy way of combining pastels and texture. Best of all, her method also uses scrap clay.

In a quick visual tutorial, she shares her way of making the rippled polymer veneers for her Sunset on the Water pendant.

Catch up with Page on Pinterest and Facebook.

Tricks and treats

California’s Caroline McFarlane-Watts (tall-tales.com) makes some of the scariest 5″ broads you’ve ever seen.

Her miniatures are custom made for use in film, TV, editorial, advertising and for personal collectors. See these good and bad witches in process on her site.

Caroline shows more of her tricks and treats on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Happy Halloween!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eYLc55Mc7w

Showing off the results

What do you do with those magnificent pieces of cane? Sometimes it’s a challenge.

Here France’s Laure Steele (LorEtCreations) makes pieces of a master class cane into a stunning pendant by elegantly joining two shield shapes. The accents she uses are subtle and effective.

See more of her sleight of hand on Pinterest and Facebook.

I’m in a cane class with Marie Segal in Kentucky and my eye is searching for ways to show off the best bits. Join the StudioMojo group for a Saturday morning report.

More geometry

If you like your geometry with a dash of chaos, take a look at California’s HighLowJewelry.

Sonya Gallardo mixes her chaos with geometry and adds a heaping spoonful of fashion.

Here some squiggles of polymer on black clay roll out into an abstract creation. There’s plenty to admire on her site, on Instagram, and pinterest. This is geometry for minimalists.

Back to geometry

This Geometrik neckpiece from France’s Florence Minne-Khou represents the tip of a pyramid-shaped iceberg. There’s a trend emerging that takes us back to geometry class.

Florence usually likes curves and the sharp cuts represented a challenge. The possibilities make it worth the effort.

Look at the way the light changes the color on each surface. See more of her experiments on Facebook and her blog.

if the move toward geometry makes your brain buzz, you might want to look at Nikolina Otrzan and Dana Phamova for a couple more examples.

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