Polymer Clay Daily

Extreme polymer

McCrorey on PCDaily

Desiree McCrorey has long been known for sharing her thorough experiments with polymer. Irena Saravanja’s crackled polymer surfaces started Desiree’s wheels turning and she headed back to her science lab/studio.

Desiree offers her results to you and they’re fascinating. She’s tested lots of ways to crackle the clay with a heat gun using various utensils and methods to arrive at very different results. She may inspire you to add more tests of your own.

CORRECTION: The work of France’s Agnes Dettai was what prompted Desiree’s exploration. You’ll find the inspiration on Agnes’ Flickr site.

Cozzi virtually yours

Cozzi on PCDaily

If the pictures from EuroSynergy classes on Facebook leave you feeling envious, Alison Lee has a remedy. She’s featuring a brand new online class with Louise Fischer Cozzi on May 7.

Louise will teach her award-winning translucent polymer disk necklace and take you through all the steps from creating the disks to finishing and assembling. She creates her surface textures and patterns using a variety of techniques including etching, painting and tear-off techniques.

Alison filmed the class in Louise’s studio and you’ll feel like you’re right there. You’ll be able to review the steps later by watching the video that comes with the class. That’s a bonus that conference classes can’t offer. And you can purchase her work in her Etsy gallery.

Horselovers polymer

Jorre de St Jorre on PCDaily

Horse lover Donna Kato sent us the work of fellow horse lover Wendy Jorre de St Jorre from Australia. Wendy created this Faux Turquoise Horse using Lynda Moseley’s methods to great effect. Talk about synergy!

Donna says that Wendy started out as a ceramicist and considers herself a newbie at polymer (she took a class from Donna). Lots more interesting works on her Flickr site.

You’ll find quick snapshots of Eurosynergy on Facebook. Wish you were here.

Polymer chips

Belkomor on PCDaily

Russia’s Maria Belkomor is drawn to disks too. Hers are usually thin and flat (unlike yesterday’s Bagels) and her most recent versions have chipped edges that increase their tactile quality. It would be hard not to play with these when you wore them.

It takes quite a supply of disks to make this East Lemonade necklace (that’s what the translation called it) which ends with carved beads and a matching button closure.

Belkomor on PCDaily

The best place to see Maria’s stackable creations is on Pinterest. She has more on Flickr and her blog, including a lovely way of knitting with extruded strings. Thanks to Eva Menager for the link.

Lots to nosh on

Thank you for all the notes wishing me Bon Voyage. I’ve left a few goodies in the blog freezer that will automatically emerge now and then. You won’t starve and there are plenty of morsels in the archives if you get peckish. (Scroll to the bottom of the right column.)

Eastern Tales

Lyamayeva on PCDaily

Hamburg’s Antonina Lyamayeva calls these her Bagels necklaces. This one is called Eastern Tales. The flat disks have big holes and jumble up nicely. She combines solid colors and patterned disks with a few metal circles thrown in for bling.

This design is quite trendy and it’s another good use for bits of your favorite canes. (Antonia sells a tutorial.)

She’s an accomplished caner which you can see in a separate Etsy shop here. She also works with glass and metal. Check her out on Pinterest and Facebook.

More Eastern Tales

I’m flying to Malta at the end of the week (and I’m blaming the mishap with Betsy Baker’s link yesterday on travel jitters). My speech is ready but I’m not packed.

I’ll report from EuroSynergy for a few days and then I’ll close up shop for a month, posting intermittently as I travel in Nepal and Turkey. After years of blogging daily, I’m anxious to see what happens when I unplug.

I sure hope you’ll check in often for my news from the road and be here when I get back. It’s an opportunity for you to shake up your routine too.

Pinterest prowling

Baker on PCDaily

Pinterest sometimes let you crawl around in an artist’s head. Take a look at Betsy Baker’s boards on Pinterest.

You can see photo setups she’s considering, polymer canes she’s thought about, jewelry that appeals to her. Her sense of style is so authentic, so “her” that it makes me sigh with pleasure.

Baker on PCDaily

Sure, Betsy has a website and other online presences and shops, but with Pinterest she gives us more insight into how she thinks.

The painterly pendant is called Landscape 2 and it’s from her etched veneer series with extruded strings pressed in which she explains on Facebook. The earrings look like salvaged circles from an abstract canvas and they’re from an earlier version of her etched color series. Betsy sells a good tutorial about her methods but not about this etched color process yet.

Dots, strings and squares
Karen Brueggemann – 1st prize – Mokume gane strings Marilyn Dobris – 2nd prize – Rare Tropical Polka Dot Flower Carole Monahan – 3rd prize – NYC Taxi cuff

Here are the three winners in the Spring Push extrusion contest! Strings, dots and squares!

It was gratifying to see a variety of extruded shapes in all the entries and to have examples from artists who otherwise don’t show us what they’re up to.

Follow the links to more examples of the winners’ polymer extrusions. The suggestions for new Global Studio Tools disk designs were terrific too. Thanks to all who played along with us. Have a playful weekend.

Good eggs

Maruri on PCDaily

Spain’s Iratxe Maruri proves that not all Easter eggs are alike. Hers are dotted, pale and smiling as they stand up straight on their bases.

Maruri on PCDaily

Then she shows us how to make a low tech, high fashion statement using only small round balls of polymer flattened, layered on a dome and accented with paint. She works in a playful and charming way.

Iratxe has a second shop full of polymer sea creatures. See the full scope of her miniatures and other work on Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr and her web site.

Converging polymer

“For this pendant I used a convergence pattern inspired by a quilting template,” says Switzerland’s Sandra Trachsel. The colors buzz against each other as the stripes alternately grow thinner and fatter.

What draws you further in  are the chunky areas of color outside the center square. There’s much to deconstruct and reassemble as you study how the pattern works. Sandra must have been a quilter in another life.