Michigan’s Georgeann Galante helped launch polymer lessons at the Ohio Reformatory for Women with her donation of 14 Atlas pasta machines several years ago. Those machines did not fare well when they were screwed down tightly to the tables. They eventually worked themselves apart. We added a Lucy machine when we won the bid on […] Read more
Melanie West wore her new Bones necklace at Synergy4 in August. One night it was a long chain, the next she quickly reconfigured it as a choker and bracelet. The genius of Melanie’s design is the way the links are connected with o-rings held in place by the bulbous ends of each snakey bead. A […] Read more
Karen Mitchell sent PCD this photo of a solar eclipse pin made by her husband, Randy Townsend, at a post-Synergy4 micro mosaic class on Friday. He finished it quickly after their return to California so he could wear it for the eclipse. We’re recovering in the Colorado mountains and will upload photos as the network […] Read more
Alisa Levy’s jaunty necklace caught my eye at Synergy. The jumble of circles and stripes looked a little Hundertwasser-ish as it sparkled brightly at the opening Synergy4 reception. I snapped a picture. I’ve learned that the patterns are from a design transferred onto glitter clay. Alisa then colored it cleverly and the effect was perfect […] Read more
The Canary Islands’ Pilar Rodriguez Dominguez has mastered building canes and all the polymer basics. Now her work has taken a leap forward and what’s the reason? Scraps, of course! Playing with scraps is often a freeing experience. There’s no wrong way and often you stumble into some very right accidents, especially when you have […] Read more
Laura Tabakman, Emily Squires Levine and Julie Eakes, the creative forces behind the global collaborative Into the Forest exhibit created this series of 4″ caned flower brooches as part of a fundraising effort. Sales of these and a smaller bar brooch series will help cover the costs of the exhibit and associated opening festivities in Pittsburgh […] Read more
If there’s a theme to the Virginia conference, it’s Hacking Polymer. In every corner of the workroom someone is slicing, gouging, carving raw polymer in new, more aggressive ways with tools borrowed from woodcarvers and manicurists. Jana Roberts Benzon credits ceramicist Zemer Peled with inspiring her to try a small similar organic piece. This 3″ X 2″ experiment combines […] Read more
Sure, you may have been impressed by the cheeky, funny characters that Doreen Gay Kassel has been creating for her Synergy4 presentation with Donna Greenberg (Translating Your Environment into Your Inspiration). Doreen’s characters are funny and engaging and quite complex. Then she wows us with casual, offhand leaves that look as if they floated to the ground, […] Read more
Lisa Renner’s 10″ tall Jar Head makes a handy desk item that comes with its own feathered pen. Lisa sculpted this whimsical face over a glass jar and added details with inks and paints. The feather-topped pen becomes a stunning hairstyle and it’s not likely someone would abscond with that. The container could be used to hold paintbrushes or other […] Read more
This butterfly bush (more pix here) is a group project from the polymer clay students at the Ohio Reformatory for Women for the Into the Forest exhibit. The clay came from generous artists who were destashing. (The ORW students are happy to condition old polymer. Let me know if you’re cleaning out and have extra clay.) They created 27′ of […] Read more
