Polymer under construction

The sign on Ruth Ann and Michael Grove’s site says under construction and let’s hope the sign is right. Only Ruth Ann’s pin and necklace galleries are operational.

The California duo were a driving force in polymer in the 80s and 90s and collectors would vie for their pieces. Grove & Grove sold their inventory in 2010 and after a couple years off they’ve hinted that they’d like to try their hands again.

Polymer Art Archive tells the story well in posts about their Flora or Fauna, their big early exhibition pieces and their early, early geometrics. This spectacular necklace is from 1994. Vacation posts from the archives

Beach party polymer

How kind of you to do online research for me while I’m on vacation! Chris Kelsey sent in this link to Florida polymer painter Debortina, Deborah Groover.

Your eyes will flit around like these Beach Party birds, checking out the wealth of patterns and colors pieced together into larger images.

To give you a size idea, the work shown here is 22″ x 32″. The process comes closest to applique.

Deborah explains, “Once my clay is heat set, I cut apart sheets and reassemble them into a polymer collage. I then add color and washes, use sgrafitto to remove color then add more color, and on and on until I am satisfied. The backgrounds are not clay (except for the small ones). I use layers of ink pens and paints to create the texture.” Experience the whole shebang on Flickr.

Vacation is lovely! Class begins on Monday and maybe I’ll try polymer painting!

Polymer worlds

France’s Celine Roumagnac specializes in quirky worlds in polymer. From mushroom cottages in the forest to mountain villages captured under glass, she shares her colorful, happy worldviews.

Celine’s Au Pays des Rêves (Dreamland) provides a perfect setting for me as I leave for England and France. I feel a bit like this explorer chosing his path. The hardest part has been to narrow the tools I’m packing to just a few necessities. Sorting has been a good exercise.

I look forward to joining Dayle Doroshow’s group for a week of playing and flea marketing. The area looks luscious on her blog, doesn’t it? I’ll try to stay in touch with you. Enjoy Celine’s world travels on her Flickr site and her shop.

Vacation posts from the archives.

Polymer heartstrings

Fabienne Avranche’s (Terre d’Effa) polymer string bowl struck a chord with us back in 2008 and five years later, readers are still snatching it from the archives.

Now I can post a somewhat larger photo. The bowl’s colorful playfulness appeals to the child in all of us. Five years later we can see Fabienne’s work more easily on her Pinterest site as well as on her original website.

Vacation posts from the archives

Trading in polymer

These faux African trade beads from Utah’s Cody Craynor pop up from time to time. They’re modern-day reminders of other times and cultures.

If you’re a polymer artist drawn to caning, you can’t help but visualize what it would take to capture this pattern. Thanks to Cody’s excellent reproductions, faux trade beads have long been on my “to-do” list. Yours too?

Class tonight

Pop on over to Craftcast.com to check out Christi Friesen’s live online class this evening. Christi shows you how to combine polymer clay elements with beads, pearls, gemstones, and crystals to create your own spectacular fantasy necklace. And you’ll have a chance to win a free copy of Polymer Clay Global Perspectives!

Vacation posts from the archives. I’m in Europe and will check in whenever I can.

Wormy polymer

Judy Dunn’s clever constructions and her polymer folded cranes peace project kept catching my eye as I thumbed through the archives. Her tutorials for making cranes are still on YouTube.

Judy’s life got busy and she was pulled to other pursuits. I sent her a note saying that we miss her fine work and I hope she comes back to polymer. In the meanwhile, we can still learn from the ways she combined and recombined short wormlike shapes into interesting groups for earrings and necklaces.

Vacation posts from the archives

Polymer postcards

I’m dipping into the archives while I’m on vacation. We first talked about these polymer postcards in 2008! At workshops it was great to make polymer postcards to send home. Fun to make and they make terrific souvenirs.

The U.S. mail will accept the artwork if it’s within their guidelines. Tory Hughes may have started this mischief and she still teaches postcard creation in her classes.

I’ll be taking a class while I’m away so I’ll try to come up with some postcards from my journey. Vacation posts from the archives

Gone fishin’

Leslie Blackford doesn’t think much about photographing her extraordinary small sculptures but I can’t resist snapping pictures of them.

The segmented fish and smiling alligator wiggle and writhe on the cords that run through them. I snagged these recently as Leslie was preparing samples for the Las Vegas Clay Carnival where she’ll be teaching with a great cast of characters in late August.

Leslie grew up in the woods of Kentucky and Tennessee and she has an affinity for snakes and birds and other woodsy creatures. She dresses her versions in costumes and puts them in baffling situations that charm and delight. Here’s a reclining bird, a deer in camoflage, a girl with a bucket of snakes, and a wine glass that might give you pause.

Yesterday’s broken link to the PolymerClayGlobal site has been fixed. Thanks for letting me know.

Sister site

Let me send you off to PCDaily’s new sister site, Polymer Clay Global. It’s the companion site for the brand new book, Polymer Clay Global Perspectives, and was created to help you find out more about the artists in the book.

Enjoy a look at the 13 featured artists. Try the free tutorial from Kim Korringa and explore the links to over 100 artists featured throughout the book which arrives in bookstores in July.

We’ll be adding to Polymer Clay Global regularly. The new site will provide enhanced resources beyond what’s offered in print. Pre-ordering online will get the book to you hot off the presses. Don’t forget to meander back to PCDaily!

Fixed the link!

Polymer geometry

Today squares popped out. These square bangles by Belgium’s Moise Vanden Broeck have been circulating around Pinterest and even though his post about them is a couple years old, the concept is fresh and the overlapped construction would be strong and attractive. Layers of square and rectangular clay pieces are stacked around a form and baked. Moise is a metalworker whose mind churns out polymer tools as well as designs.

Tanya Mayorova’s squares applied on a solid color bangle base continue our square theme. She takes a more painterly approach to her geometry, inserting small squares into larger ones. She uses the technique on beads as well. Clever, simple, effective!

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