Polymer Clay Daily

Summery flowers

Doesn’t this necklace from Cecilia Botton look charmingly simple? A no-brainer!

Extruded square black tubes of polymer are interspersed with shorter sections of tube that have been embellished with simple flower cane slices. The colorful slices pop out against the black background.

Cecilia is French and works in Hong Kong. As a fabric buyer she has lots of experience with what does and doesn’t work in patterns. Her web sites are a riot of experiments and playing with patterns in ways that catch the eye. See what she’s done with the Stroppel cane. When she’s not traveling, Cecilia gets up early to fit in some polymer work before she begins her job and it’s easiest to track her work on Flickr.

Giving myself a long weekend! See you here on Monday.

Moscow summer

Lauhina bangles
Lauhina cushions

Need a taste of summer? This is Moscow summer from Juliya Lauhina. Not only are the colors like sorbet and salads, her techniques contain twists and turns that will leave you scratching your head. How did she do that?

Plus you get to see Juliya at her booth in the market.

Polymer paydirt

Tucked in among the oxidized silver, bronze and copper chains, pendants and earrings in Greg and BJ Jordan’s booth at the local art fair, a blast of color jumped out at me. Paydirt! New polymer!

BJ and Greg are from Fort Wayne, Indiana and have been metalworkers for 30 years. BJ creates the polymer sheets and inlays the fired patterns into the bezels.

Jordan mosaic pendant

Her bold colors and graphic patterns compliment their strong primitive metal designs.

I had to have a pair for my collection (business expense, right?) and you can find them online at Etsy here. For their most current activity, check their Facebook page.

In one ear

little ear

Sure, Percy Lau’s extra ear earrings are a little creepy. But they’re funny too and her contemporary jewelry includes twists on glasses and chocolate and other body parts, mostly in polymer. The ears are a hit on Etsy.

Chocolate Feast

This Chocolate Feast tickled me too! In one ear, out the other. Don’t miss the headband. Have a fanciful weekend.

Faux soutache

Soutache is a skinny flat decorative braid that is usually used as drapery trim or on military uniforms but lately it’s been showing up in jewelry. Polymer faux soutache turns up on the FaceBook page of Italy’s Olimpia Corvino in some interesting shapes.

Fans of polymer extruding will love trying this new twist. The link was sent in by Ronna Weltman.

Summertime studio time

My studio time has dwindled and my head is full of ideas. My fingers are itching to do something other than type. I’ll be cutting out a couple of days of PCDaily posts each week to get reacquainted with polymer.

There’s plenty here to explore. Just enter your desire into the search box in the right column and you’ll be surprised at what you find. Of course there are delightful videos and inside tips on StudioMojo every weekend for those who want to take our relationship to the next level.

Southwest mysteries

The southwest influence is clear in these mixed media art dolls from Albuquerque artists Mary and Doug. I wish I could tell you more. We’ll have to wait for information to seep in through the back channels. Susan Lomuto pinned the link on her board first.

The doll bodies are made of various fabrics with stylized and painted polymer heads. They stand 15″ tall. There’s a whole Etsy gallery of interesting designs!

More mystery

If your first efforts in polymer are discouraging, you may want to click on the photo below to see who started out making basic beginner beads just like everyone else. His beads have improved considerably. See what happens when you keep trying?

Polymer Tone Shrine

Germany’s Georg Dinkel has looked at polymer for many years in his job as a photographer for Staedtler, the maker of Fimo. This year he picked up a couple of leftover blocks and he was hooked.

Except for a wooden frame and the electronics, the rest of his Tone Shrine is polymer. Three speakers and an ipad are housed inside the structure which took three months to complete. He started with a smaller ipod nano shrine for his seven-year-old daughter. For his “zaubertafel” ipad the project grew bigger.

Growing up surrounded by German Rococo and Baroque architectural masterpieces, Georg knew how to speak that visual language in polymer.

With a simple display change, the shrine can resemble Big Ben, cathedral windows or any other appropriate icon. Enjoy these photos and this video of his ornate celebrations of technology.

Polymer dollmakers

These hands by polymer doll artist Diane Keeler require a scale and level of detail unfamiliar to most polymer jewelry folks. (The hands are from a class Diane teaches.)

There’s no cane work pattern or rough texture to camouflage flaws. Many polymer doll makers have been elected into NIADA and their sculptures are highly prized.

For an education in polymer dolls, look at the work of Diane Keeler, Jodi and Richard Creager, Kate Church, Annie Wahl, and others in this very specialized branch of 3D polymer.