Polymer Clay Daily

Artfair polymer finds

Lori Wilkes’ was one of six polymer booths at the local show and I spotted this new necklace. The beads looked African to me but she swears that she was following an Italian influence. Either way, kewl. She revealed that tool used to distress these beads is a fine wire dog brush.

Lori has a book coming out in October that may satisfy readers who complain about how artists getting started in polymer can be deluged with confusing and conflicting information. Lori’s book, The Absolute Beginners Guide: Working With Polymer Clay, is from Kalmbach Books and it’s available for pre-order on Amazon. Sample a few pages here.

Spotting polymer at artfairs is one of my favorite games. The others I found yesterday were Kim Arden, Valerie Wright, Annabelle Fisher, Greg and BJ Jordan, and River Wolfe. Hope I didn’t miss any.

Urban urchins

Montreal’s Vickie Turner makes Urban Urchins that are hollow and graffiti-covered whereas Lynda Moseley’s from last week were the green sea variety. What is it with urchins?

Vickie’s polymer sea creatures have migrated to the city. Her blog tracks her plans and sketches and you can follow her journey from the beach to the city. She’s still playing with the shape.

It’s instructive to look over her shoulder as an artist mulls over work in progress. Watch as she labors on Labor Day.

I’m off to an art fair.

Polymer faux wire

Helen Breil’s free String Bead tutorial may keep you busy this weekend. This necklace is dusted with mica powders, sealed with spray and filled with pearls.

Helen extrudes the strings and forms them into faux wire that can be shaped (and reshaped) into slinky cages into which you can tuck other beads.

In most places it’s still warm enough to extrude with ease over the end-of-summer holiday. On her website she offers a slideshow that guides you through the process that you can tailor to create your own designs.

Thanks to Helen for providing our entertainment. And check out her texture stamps too.

Folded polymer

Winnie Poh comes to us from Moscow (I think). These clever folded beads are cutout and stamped stars whose points are folded up on themselves.

Her site is chock full of ideas that are well executed with a very Russian feel. Hair ornaments and smoothly finished hollow pendants are mixed with video game and cartoon figures.

Let’s hope there’s a Russian translator among you who can fill in the blanks about this young artist.

Faux sea urchins

Lynda Moseley’s Faux Sea Urchin Spines were inspired by a necklace in Heather Powers‘ new book, Jewelry Designs from Nature during a weekend of experimentation as Lynda cleaned out her inspiration box.

She found a sticky note on page 82 in her copy of the book. “Find some of these,” it said. “I had never seen the spines in olive, and Heather’s are also a lot bigger than the ones I have,” Lynda explains. She made a new batch in polymer.

Lynda’s experimenting is often fruitful as you can see from her Etsy shop. On her blog she explains other designs she’s dug out of her inspiration box.

 

Get your spook on

Jodi Creager says that she’s already got her spook on for the fall season. Have you?

She and Richard created a 16″x10″ shadow box filled with ghosts that will make you shiver. The Mandragora Manor hanging box is miniature scale with six polymer ghosts and witches peering out the windows. Here are more views and the haunting story from Ebay.

Sue Ossenberg sent the link along. Note: The Ebay photos seem to be gone and the links aren’t working. Let’s wait and see if they reappear. Perhaps the ghosts were unhappy.

Stamped polymer

Shaw moth

Tamara Shea’s (BlockPartyPress) beautiful moth pendant was created with a hand carved stamp from her original drawing. In her signature style, Tamara stamped the 2 7/8″ x 2 1/2″ moth onto brown polymer clay, hand painted it with metallic gold, green and silver acrylic paint, then distressed and sealed it.

Simple stamping techniques combined with dynamite drawing skills can make for some stunning effects. Her Etsy shop’s having a back-to-school sale!

Have a great weekend.

Polymer twins

Cortney Rector and Kirsten Arundt are twin sisters who have always enjoyed creating art together. Their folk art polymer cake toppers, sculptures and ornaments are sold through their IndigoTwin Etsy shop and their trendy work has appeared in magazines like Prims, Parenting and Brides. The twins have always enjoyed creating art together and continue to give each other inspiration.

This mermaid, Ondine, appeared in the summer issue of Prims. The sisters love the ocean and as children daydreamed about being mermaids. Read their stories and check out their Facebook page. It’ll make you wish you had a twin.