Dog bowls

Of course you’d guess that Baltimore’s Linda Pearl was a dog lover from her bowls in the swap at the Virginia conference. You might also sense that her background is in pottery. And her shapes and treatments have a distinctly Japanese feel to them.

She showed me how she cut a shape and let it slump inside a hemisphere cake bowl creating a graceful shallow dish shape.

She transferred her images from toner copies and played with various textures and metallic finishes.

Linda’s Facebook page is pretty sparse and she swears that better online presence is on her to-do list. Click on the images here to see more.

This crop of bowls was a particularly good one and we’ll cover it more completely in Saturday’s StudioMojo.

Gelato polymer

Lindly Haunani opened a box of her new “Spring Gelato” tinted translucent beads ready for stringing and our mouths watered at their lusciousness. The edges of the canes were accented with embossing powders. The petals are gently pinched, and shaped. They’re drilled after baking. More on Facebook.

Lindly works mise en place, creating all the components for her limited editions before she begins the assembly process.

PCD will unveil a bit more from Virginia tomorrow and reveal a more comprehensive wrap-up on this weekend’s StudioMojo.

Refreshing polymer

Carol Blackburn shaped these bright little polymer purses to accommodate a small perfume atomizer in case the wearer needed to refresh. She shows an open purse here. See more of her incredibly sharp patterns (canes) and crisp colors on Flickr.

Sparks flying

You’d think the polymer groupies gathered in Virginia would be out of ideas after 26 years but the sparks are still flying. PCD will feature some of the new ideas from here at the end of the week. StudioMojo will contain even more of the newest tips and tricks in the Saturday newsletter.

Traveling scrap

Scrap from Jon Anderson’s studio in Bali made its way to Ron Lehocky’s workroom in Louisville.

Through all sorts of serendipitous connections and with a great deal of fun and intrigue, Jon’s polymer scrap is raising hundreds of dollars for the Kids Project in Kentucky.

You can see pictures of more of Ron’s results by clicking on the image.

He nearly discarded Jon’s canes that had welded themselves together in transit. What are you doing with your scrap? Are you overlooking treasures?

There’s more to the story! Jon is sending another batch of what he calls polymer cheese (more securely packaged this time) when Barb Alexander’s tour arrives in Bali soon.

Featuring scrap

The post I meant to show today is back at home and I’m on the road to my first conference of the season so today I’ll serve up my own work.

My intention is to inlay larger areas of pattern into the wood pieces turned by my husband. This vase is made of spalted maple.

The polymer diamond shapes were cut from my stash of scrap canes.

Funny how even scrap takes on an artist’s style. There’s no escaping it so you might as well feature it. You can see more of my recent work on Instagram or my website. I’ll be teaching my inlay methods at the French Lick Atelier in June in Indiana.

Beautiful ordinary

There’s a zen vibe to Elizabeth Wood’s Instagram pictures. Each square photo focuses on her daily polymer bead close up.

Her new blog is equally unusual, with no pictures (whaaa?) and brief, insightful posts.

She explains her approach by saying that her work “…utilizes everyday materials like polymer, paint, thread, and base metals to remind us that beautiful lives are usually made up of ordinary things.”

This is all part of Elizabeth’s 365 Project that she started in January. Her goal is to get better at noticing the beautiful ordinary in life, to loosen up her work methods, and to explore bead making in a more in-depth way.

Take a deep breath, smile and enjoy your beautiful weekend.

Reversible, articulated, flexible polymer

Reversible, articulated and flexible – these three adjectives have defined the design ideas that France’s Olga Nicolas has pursued in polymer.

The dangles on these earrings can be removed and flipped over to reveal another pattern on the second side. On her Flickr pages you can see the results of recent research – articulated bracelets, clever magnetic closures, hidden hooks and buttons.

Olga notes that her ideas have “ripened and evolved…” as she looked for well-designed closures, comfortable bracelets and earrings that offered variation.

See other research results from Olga on Facebook and Pinterest.

Say it with polymer

France’s Nadege Honey telegraphs messages through her Dots and Dashes jewelry. This necklace says “Life is beautiful.”

“I wanted to create jewelry with meaning, where the piece itself is not the main focus, but rather the message is,” says Nadege. Decipher the Morse code of Happy Birthday, Thank You and other phrases in her Etsy shop.

You don’t need to know Morse code to enjoy the clear colors and graphic combinations in Nadege’s pieces which are best seen on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and her site.

Here’s a springy page of brooches from her design journal.

Translucent fever

No matter how hard you try not to catch it, Translucent Fever is in the spring air (in this hemisphere anyway).

Once you come in contact (Marie Segal got it going) then you start encountering glassy pastel examples everywhere. These stacked petal earrings are from Spain’s Manon van Kempen on Instagram. Manon has a feel for flowers and these look just challenging enough.

Though you may not feel you have time to get sidetracked, resisting the urge to play with translucent is futile. Go ahead, get it out of your system. Enjoy!

Last but not least

If you thought you were the only one who worried over their FIMO50 entry, think again. Even Julie Picarello fretted about working in a size and shape she wasn’t used to. “I have never made anything that size before and was honestly a little overwhelmed. I’m just so glad my tile is done,” Julie admits.

What better way to start May and end the project than with Julie’s dreamy colors and ethereal mokume gane? There’s more on Flickr and her website.

If your entry is just getting to the mailbox (the official deadline was extended to May 3), let me know.

Over a hundred tiles from the US have been individually wrapped and I’m looking forward to boxing and shipping what looks suspiciously like a large heap of contraband.

Heartfelt thanks to all of you who worried and worked to help others.

‹ 1 … 130 131 132 … 405 ›