These 3″ x 4″ polymer bowls from France’s Sonya Girodon are loaded with rough texture, dark color and curious details. They wobble and fold over and let the light in. They beg to be examined.
Even their names, Give some, take some (left) and ForNever (right) make you stop and look again.
Sonya says that her bowl experiments were prompted by Melanie Muir’s recent series in the London Design Fair. Perhaps the hunter-gather impulse still stirs us in the fall.
Meeting the artists whose work you only knew online previously requires some adjustment. You will know Jana Lehmann of Stuttgart from photos of her meticulously crafted pens and jewelry on Flickr and Facebook.
Here’s a new necklace of hers that sold immediately at the FIMO Symposium in Germany. Jana told me about the project books she’s written for FIMO (they don’t come up on your U.S. Amazon) and her venture into teaching in the U.S.
We chatted about how she might combine the caretaking path she’s considering with the art and teaching at which she excels.
In each FIMO50 class, islands of translation spontaneously appeared as multi-lingual students bridged the gaps between artists and we got to know each other. (Leila Bidler shows lots of photos on Facebook.)
Kristin Halvorsen’s newest beads from the Hooked on Polymer Facebook page match my FIMO50 party mood.
Kristin’s from Norway and her tube beads are formed from a wild patchwork of bright cane slices. The beads are are made uniform with color-matched metal grommets baked into each of their ends. Here’s Kristin on Pinterest.
The Symposium classes have started and I’m suffering from FIMO FOMO with the rest of you because I’m still adventuring in the city. I’ll join the festivities in earnest on Friday. Meanwhile check the great pictures all over Facebook.
What is FIMO FOMO? It’s the Fear Of Missing Out on the party. But fear not, there’s more coverage to come.
Joan Israel gives us a reminder to look around for surprise color in the leaves at this time of year. She mounts her own variety of polymer leaves onto a black canvas background for a dramatic effect.
When we slow down and take the time to look, we discover Joan’s vision of jewel-tone foliage all around us. See more on Instagram, Flickr and her site.
This is the night that Fimo50 participants pack their most distinctive pieces to wear at the symposium in Nuremberg. Could these crisp graphics belong to anyone but Carol Blackburn?
There’s no denying that we each have a style and we might just as well own it as Carol does with this new necklace. The controlled black and white stripes of varying widths, dots and chevrons radiate cheer and someone who’s ready to celebrate.
What piece of yours do you wear when you’re ready to have some fun? Should you make a new version that reflects the real you?
It’s the end of vacation season and if you’re looking for a way to hang onto those memories, take a hint from Puerto Rico’s Sylma Santos-Santori.
It’s not often that a super simple project strikes our fancy but these little polymer magnetic containers with spidery air plants look fashionable and celebratory.
Marble a ball of beach-colored clay, indent a space for a plant, cure in the oven and glue a magnet to the back. Instant scrapbook,
Quick, preserve a little bit of your summer. See what other designs Sylma has devised on Instagram and her site.
Haven’t you been inspired by those big sculptural shells on the beach and wondered what they could illustrate?
Christine Harris says of her work, “Horseshoe crabs have copper based blue blood that is used by the medical industry for its antibacterial qualities and is still being studied. Basically they milk the blood from the horseshoe crab and try to release it but many of them do not survive.”
She usually does “lots of nerdy research” on the creatures while she works and often explains their meaning on her blog when they’re finished. Be mesmerized by the work-in-progress shots from this Virginia art therapist and sculptor.
Next week’s posts may be sporadic as I celebrate FIMO50 in Germany. Cut the cake and sing with us virtually as we look at what it means to turn 50.
Sweet gum tree pods litter the sidewalks at this time of year. Polymer illustrator Helena Bogosian found a creative use for her stash of dried seed pods. They make amazingly fetching curls and more.
Prowl through Helena’s Facebook and Instagram sites to see how she’s turned polymer and the bounty from her sweet gum tree into moody, haunting portraits.
Three shades of each color make up this faux dimensional cuff from Petra Nemravova of the Czech Republic. Such happy colors! Petra shows her step-by-step color-mixing and assembly process free on her website.
Of course you’ll want to spend some time in her tutorials and tools departments! There are a couple tutorials in her Etsy shop too.
Stephanie Kilgast didn’t intially reveal where she was headed with her collection of polymer crystals. She offered a great little YouTube video of how she made these other-worldly minerals. She usually creates incredibly realistic miniature foods. Crystals pointed to change.
Her clusters of cave growths reappeared mounted to a dimensional canvas trailing a blue wash of color. Stephanie explains her sculptural painting and talks about her burst of creativity on her site. She hints at more changes to come.
See what other big steps Stephanie is taking on Patreon and Instagram. They’re brave and inspirational steps!
