Seems to be a blingy week! The over-the-top color, glitz and shine of these simple lightweight earrings from North Carolina’s Pati Bannister screamed, “Pick me! Pick me!”
Pati pulled out her gold leaf and alcohol inks as she riddled the clay with Peter Max ’60s textures and colors. See more of this series on Flickr, her blog and on Etsy. Her colors and ideas shine through on her Pinterest boards too.
Some mid-week bling from Lindsay Locatelli (wazodesigns). Her edgy new works are appearing at trendy trunk shows, popular galleries and hip pop-up shops.
Lindsay’s mixed media jewels include wood, paint, thick rope, and in this case polymer and gold leaf. A turquoise color flashes on the back of the faceted earrings.
If you want to see what’s ahead for art jewelry scroll through her Instagram, take note and check back often.
Lots of us have gelli plates stashed away in our studios wondering how to use them with polymer. Enter Syndee Holt hobbled by an injury with time on her hands. The happy outcome of her mashup – not the ankle, but the combination of rubber stamp, polymer, paint and gelli plate – is the technique used on these darkly subtle metallic pendants shown on Facebook.
Syndee will be teaching her method at Fandango in Florida in May (not sure if there are open spots). While she’d much rather not have had the injury, it’s given her a double shot of creative juices.
And no, a gelli plate is not the serving dish for jellyfish.
Cate Van Alphen shows off her Week 15 mistake on this wavy art vessel. Her glaze made of ink in liquid polymer clay slid down the sides of the bowl into a puddle. “Next time I think I will try to set it a bit using a heat gun before curing in the oven,”she says.
But Cate wasn’t altogether displeased with her mistake/discovery. Isn’t that the way? She explains more on Flickr and her blog.
I’ve slid back home into my own post-vacation puddle. Time to get busy!
Polymer whale courtesy of Russia’s Anna Primak (Snorkys) on Instagram.
Sealife has been my theme this week as I wrap up a vacation in the tropics. We’re back to our regularly scheduled programming on Monday.
Tool Tuesday
Craftcast’s free I Love Tools webinar introduces us to a whole bunch of the latest tools and ideas. The ninth edition of this popular show will be online live on Tuesday. Sign up here.
Don’t despair if you can’t join in at 7:30 ET on Tuesday evening, the recorded version will be available later. The live party is the best fun if you can squeeze it in.
Check out the lineup of artists and find out what tools they’ve discovered to make your studio life easier.
Here’s the latest version of the Shisha beads that the ladies in the Samunnat Nepal project have been making for California bead dealer, KazuriWest. The ethnic-inspired beads have been very popular in the US market and are now available in new colors. Shisha refers to the tiny mirrors embedded in the clay that echo the exotic mirror-encrusted saris and textiles of Nepal.
The building pictured here was built with money raised by the polymer community. You helped raise enough money to create this permanent home for the project which includes workshop space and room for temporary housing for women in crisis situations.
The three stalls on the left are micro-financed businesses that the women fund as some participants launch out on their own. That’s Ron Lehocky’s gift cow grazing in the yard.
You might enjoy reading about this month’s exciting delivery of a vibrating sander (carried in a suitcase by Australia’s Wendy Moore). This has been an exciting story from the start.
Funds raised by the FIMO50WorldProject will support the project and you have until the end of April to submit your tile and join in the fun!
This beachy necklace from Michigan’s Sandra Niese (DandyBeads) could have floated off from the beach I visited this morning. See Sandra on Facebook and Pinterest.
“What day is it?” asked Pooh.
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh.
Still on vacation
France’s Sylvie Peraud will be crossing the pond in June to teach her Unbalanced Necklace (shown here) and her Denim tricks at the Creative Arts Fest: Master Class Camp in Laurel, MD June 17-20.
I couldn’t resist that headline. Thought it might get your attention.
Sylvie likes dramatically balanced/unbalanced and cleverly constructed pieces. She’s already worked on rounds and squares and her almost triangular necklace was the next logical step. It’s completely made of polymer and the clasp is cleverly camouflaged.
Here are the registration details and the list of classes (an impressive line-up). Find out more about Sylvie on Facebook, Flickr and CraftArtEdu.
Since I’m going to the beach next week, I found myself gravitating to all things sunny and warm. Rather than fight the urge, I headed to Deb Groover’s (Debortina) Florida site where I knew I’d find what I was looking for.
Deb and Tina’s big clay paintings are filled with bright slabs of polymer. Here the umbrellas, surf boards, beach chairs and bathing suits (plus a few dogs, balls and towels) are flat pieces of pre-baked polymer affixed to a wood background and painted around. (She explains how on this StudioMojo video.)
Deb and Tina hop-scotch between art shows in the south, next week in Tallahassee. On Facebook you can see how their clients love to integrate the paintings into their homes.
This is also my way of letting you know that I’ll try to write some posts but delivery may be sporadic.
Jana Roberts Benzon continues to unlock the texture secrets of polymer. She’s ruffled, crumpled and cut her pieces with laser-like precision. Still she felt compelled to push farther.
Now she’s whipped up frothy layers that undulate around this new bangle. Here she is on Facebook and Flickr.
Jana jots her ideas in marker on her glass work surface as she experiments. She uses her phone to take a picture of each step before she erases the writing and moves on.
No more lost steps or mystery processes. Documentation like this is a must if you’re an avid experimenter like Jana.
