Thin bands of summer colors swirl around bright beads. No doubt that Spain’s Natalia Garcia de Leaniz has come up with some clever way to build these beauties.
The necklace is a sample for one of Natalia’s classes at August’s Gredos Clay Festival in Spain. She’s also devised a flat, flexible polymer bracelet that’s very wearable and mysteriously constructed.
See more of Natalia’s cheery designs on Flickr and Facebook. And have a cheery weekend.
Arden Bardol’s clever construction of these Wings earrings keeps you looking.
Her training as an architect shows in her efficient and colorful designs that show a different curve and color from every direction and include a peek-a-boo in the middle.
You can save 15% on her Artful Home offerings during their sale. Arden shows even more on her site and on Facebook.
The UK’s Claire Wallis intrigues us with another smoothly blended cane. This time her cane layers imitate a blue lace agate geode. Made into a small brooch, it cradles a small pocket of crystals in its heart.
Claire’s recent Water and Lightning canes were recently explained in a tutorial offered on CraftArtEdu. She shares her inspirations on Pinterest and more photos on Flickr.
On her blog you can see how Wendy Moore’s polymer pod series developed methodically and colorfully. Her collection of pod shapes offered a great place to test the understanding of color that she picked up working through Tracy Holmes’ Colour Deck.
Wendy limited her experiments to flat, textured, cutout and stacked graphic shapes and then simply linked them together.
The proof of the pudding for the project, however, was seeing Wendy (in glasses), her mother and her sister wearing the series on her Instagram site.
Wendy also reports on the latest activities of the Samunnat ladies in Nepal who traveled by bus to Kathmandu thanks to support from the polymer community. Read about their adventure here.
If you’re a silkscreen novice like me you’ll find the tips that Helen Breil offers in her new free tutorial particularly helpful.
Use pastels? Mix colors in one quick pass? Who knew? She demos the basics in a quick video and then moves to some clever enhancements.
Helen only started experimenting with these processes on polymer rather recently. Following her lead can save you lots of time and frustration.
What better way to start the week than with timesaving tips? There’s more on her site, Pinterest, Flickr and Instagram.
Even though you can detect the echoes of teachers and tutorials in Kathy Cannella’s polymer jewelry, her own voice comes through loud and clear. She puts her juju on each piece, zigging when you thought she’d zag. It’s a cool trick to retain your own aesthetic when you’re following someone else’s instructions. Kathy shows us that it can be done!
Kathy crackles, veneers, textures and distresses with confidence. It appears that she has a background in sculpture. She keeps a low profile and all we know is that she’s from New Jersey. There’s more to come so keep her on your radar.
Few people tend their flowers as faithfully as Ohio’s Kim Arden. Gearing up for her summer shows (this weekend is Kalamazoo) she’s awash in flowers.
You’ll note a subtle stripe in her backgrounds and a mix of surface textures and graphic elements. The pearls here add another grace note. She has such a bounty of blooms that she makes it fun to pick from her garden. You can get a burst of energy just by visiting her Facebook photos.
It’s rare that my husband suggests artworks so I paid attention when he said, “Have you seen Leslie’s new Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves on Facebook?” He has his own collection of manly polymer and Leslie’s pieces are his favorites.
Kentucky’s Leslie Blackford feels a kinship with outcasts of all types and you need to look closely to catch the personality, humor and heart in her lovable characters.
Leslie’s gearing up for her classes with Porland’s Wendy Wallin Malinow at Art & Soul, the popular mixed media conference in Virginia Beach on October 1.
You won’t want to miss this duo teaching their version of the Garden of Earthly Delights. Wonderful art emerges when they put their considerable talents together. See what I mean by checking them out here and here.
This pendant from Florence Minne-Khou (creationmyway) resembles the patriotic bunting that’s festooned around my neighborhood. It’s not likely that a U.S. holiday was her inspiration since Florence is French but still…
She swoops extruded flat ribbons of polymer from one side of a wire to the other, using holographic beads to hold everything in place and to add accent.
Shape-shifter designs have been jumping out at me (this one’s a year old) so we’ll declare that our theme. If you wander through her Pinterest page, you’ll see what speaks to Florence as she plays with shape. Admire more on Facebook.
Milan’s Alessia Bodini tweaks regular shapes and surfaces in unexpected ways. Her tube beads are a bit off balance and threaded at unexpected angles. She uses colored pencils to color the polymer exteriors.
Alessia doesn’t like to travel the usual roads. Look at her Facebook and Flickr collections to see how she plays with our expectations.
