Follow the dots

UK’s Olga Petrova shows off her latest polymer-covered 4″ x 8″ vessel.

Extruded designs? Probably. Textured? That too. Accented with a wash of black? Yes. Begs to be touched? Indeed!

The vase looks like a 3D zentangle with islands of designs floating in rivers of dots. Wouldn’t this look stunning as a shelf accent? See more on Instagram, Facebook and Flickr.

Room accents

If you’d like to create accents for your home decor, sign up for one of the remaining seats in my class at Creative Journey Studios in Georgia, October 7-9. You’ll learn all about polymer and wood plus other unusual decorative accents that will make your heart sing.

Pull this

Fan pulls! Now wouldn’t that be a smart idea on a hot day like this?

Angie Wiggins makes these in her rustic studio in the woods of Virginia – a good place to work when it’s hot. Picture her chickens clucking in the background.

Grab yourself a beverage and wander through Angie’s world on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Angie’s known for her handmade paper bowls embroidered with beads and polymer do-dads though she veers into switchplates, spoons and other dashes of color that customers enjoy using around the house.

Modern artifacts

Luann Udell moved from Vermont to California, switched her workspace from a barn to a small studio and added woodworking and box-making skills to her mix of media.

Now her polymer artifacts from lost cultures and imagined prehistories are sometimes housed in refinished antique boxes as in this Shrine: Red Deer Clan.

Her story’s a good one and you can read it and see an overview of her work on ArtsyShark.com.

Follow her on Facebook and Etsy. Thanks to Lyn Tremblay for sending the link along to PCDaily.

Luann adds that she’s having an Open Studio in Santa Rosa this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, August 6 & 7, from 10-5.

Performance, polymer mashup

New Orleans artist, Vinsantos puts his hoarder tendencies to good use in his Kreeture series of assemblage dolls.

“I see the art that I create as a mash-up of sculpture, assemblage, fashion design, makeup, and hair artistry.” “I also see it as the reinvention and preservation of beauty. The characters found in Kreeture stem from my years on the underground performance art circuit. I’ve spent many years in the public spotlight either as a live musician, a Drag artist, and more often as a combination of both,” he explains.

Vinsantos shadow box characters can be seen at Tresor Gallery and you can follow him on Facebook.

Thanks to Laura Tabakman who read an article on Vinsantos in Art21 magazine and sent the link along

New ceramics

Pan pastels, improved crackle techniques and better glazes are making it harder and harder to tell polymer from ceramics.

This square pendant from Michigan’s Christi Uliczny proves my point. The only clue that this pendant is polymer might be its vibrant colors.

Christi credits Iris Mishly and Hilla Bushari’s imitative ceramic tutorials with teaching her the basics. See how Christi brings her own color sensibility to the pieces on her Etsy, Flickr and Facebook pages.

Love the depth and warmth of ceramic glazes? You can mimic them in polymer. No kiln required.

Seashore polymer

The Netherland’s Eveline Klootwijk-Barten (CreaLine) cracks us up with her all-too-real ladies at the beach. Look at those smooth skin tones, those relaxed poses, those ample thighs! You can tell that she’s laughing with, not at, these ladies of leisure.

Eveline has put together an impressive list of weekly classes and frequent workshops and has organized two FIMO events. She’s been working in polymer since 1994 so she comes by her impressive sculpting skills honestly.

Take a look at her site and Facebook to see all the people she’s introduced to polymer and catch her enthusiasm.

Transforming canes

Meg Newbergs’ transforming cane shifts colors like a treasured and worn carpet. What’s one cane looks like many.

It’s difficult to comprehend how the simple canes she constructs can reduce to be so complex. She’s got a great grasp of geometry and she sends out pages of pictures and explanations of a new idea each month.

If you enjoy caning, her monthly subscription is a good deal. This transforming cane is August’s lesson.

Meg allows me to teach some of her designs to inmates who are delighted each time they follow her clear instructions. Not many tools are required and even the newest caners can experience success. Here she is on her site and Etsy.

Fish and waves

Victoria’s Wanda Shum entered this dimensional Fish & Waves polymer-over-glass vase into the Sooke Fine Arts show that runs from now until August 1. The show is Vancouver Island’s longest-running juried fine art show and the island’s premier summer arts event.

Over her 18 years working with polymer Wanda has become expert at caning, often pushing canes from 2D slices to 3D sculptures and jewelry. Read about her on her website and then hop over to her Instagram page to see more of her collection.

You won’t want to miss Wanda’s signature cane and her alphabet canes. She offers unusual stainless steel and polymer chopsticks on her Etsy site. You’ll also find her on Facebook and Pinterest.

Double duty polymer bail

Syndee Holt tweaks Jan Montarsi’s easy polymer bails to get double use out of a brooch/pendant.

Syndee added a small hole at the bottom of Jan’s domed circle bail design which allows it to accommodate a pin that slides diagonally from the top hole to the new bottom hole for a brooch. Or slide a cord through the top two holes to wear the piece as a pendant.

Jan makes his bail on a domed form and uses liquid polymer to adhere it to the brooch. You’ll find more examples and clever adaptations on Flickr,

See more of Syndee’s innovations on her Pinterest site and on Facebook.

50% off sale

My extruder disk sets and Helen Breil’s stamps and screens are all deeply discounted only on the KazuriWest site starting today (while quantities last).

Scratchy polymer sea star

This use of Angela Schwer’s (DillyPad) polymer Sea Star wall tile isn’t really fair because it has great movement and texture in its monochrome simplicity.

What’s not fair is that today it feels like something similar is scratching the back of my throat. I guess international travel was more stressful than I thought.

So go look at the cool organic shapes Angela comes up with while I recuperate.

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