Polymer Clay Daily

Your Fimo godmother

A Modern Media Comes of Age says Jill DeDominicis in her article about polymer clay in the current issue of Ornament Magazine. The article, which is available online, gives you a comprehensive look at where we’ve come since the first FIMOIK kit hit the shelves in Germany back in 1954. Fimo made its way to the U.S. in 1966.

Few will recognize Sophie Rehbinder-Kruse, the inventor of Fimo, pictured here with her two children. The article’s timeline is particularly interesting and contains lovely examples.

Knowing your ancestry is important because here at PCD you and I are in the business of stretching the timeline forward and adding new names.

The Ornament article is prelude to the Racine Art Museum’s upcoming Terra Nova: Polymer Art at the Crossroads exhibit which promises to be another groundbreaking event.

Paper bead updated in polymer

If you made paper beads as a kid, you may appreciate Greti Botka’s latest tweak on the technique in polymer. Beneath the summertime cool Skinner blends on their cracked outside surfaces, the beads offer just a peek at a layer of thin black and white stripes underneath.

Greti shows a number of her experiments on her Flickr site, including this weird and wonderful Snails Parade of polymer creatures, all born in Austria. Be careful if you’re a fiber freak, Greti has some great wool projects that will snag you.

RAW polymer

Dee Wilder’s RAW (Ring A Week) project this week will start your wheels turning. She calls her piece Lamellia and it’s made of stacks of polymer sheets with occasional highlights of shiny mica powder.

Pressed together at the base, the layers at the front separate and curl to reveal their colors.

Check out her progress here. And Dee’s only half way through the year!

Red, white and Belarus

One more touch of red, white and blue to celebrate the U.S. July 4 holiday. This one comes to us from Anastasia Arinovich in Belarus and reminds us how the big world that polymer artists share sometimes feels like a small neighborhood.

Her mint and chocolate version of these beads may appeal to your eyes and your taste buds. Her peony earrings could have been picked from bushes in your yard.

The link comes to us by way of Belarus’ Anna Anpilogova.

Polymer independence

The Orange County, California guild pulled out their red, white and blue polymer to help celebrate this flag-waving Independence Day weekend.

Guild member Cassy Muronaka explains how an inchie swap is a democratic art activity, “Newbies can go toe-to-toe with more experienced polymer clay artists, because creating a one-inch piece of art that probably will be used in a mosiac isn’t that big of a brain drain.  If you want to go crazy and make a tiny little masterpiece, you can.  But designing the inchies does not have to suck up a large chunk of your life, and the challenge that is presented to your creative muse is relatively modest.”

Flags abound on the Internet this week. Florida’s Sarah Berman displays a heap of polymer patriotism with the stars and stripes on her Etsy site. This bangle is a favorite. Have a grand weekend.

Polymer lemonade!

Kentucky’s Ron Lehocky happily received a bin full of other artists’ scrap clay recently. He’s begun turning those discarded canes, experiments and leftovers – our “lemons” into “lemonade” for the KIDS project.

Take a look at what Ron can do with failures and leftovers! In some of the photographs he’s inserted the original cane to illustrate the transformation.

Ron first separated the donated clay into two piles -definitely scrap and scrap with potential for reworking. All will end up as part of the project, either on the surface or inside the heart pins. Transforming canes is an enjoyable challenge for Ron as he cranks out heart number 15,945!

At $10 each, it’s easy to calculate how much he’s raised for the childrens’ center. Ron wants to pass along a big thank you. Read previous posts about the project here and contact Ron here. He would love feedback from anyone who recognizes their scrap.

Making polymer relics

Christine Damm reveals a bit about her Solstice Necklace in current and upcoming posts on her blog.

Her concepts have coalesed into a teachable format that she’ll debut at ArtBLISS in Washington, D.C. in late September. Her class is called Whimsical Blooms.

Christine makes molds of her favorite found items but that’s just the start. “The part of me that enters into the mix then is in how I color these copies and antique them and arrange them into wearable art. They are transformed by what I add to their history and their story becomes part of my story,” she says.

Today’s important tip, “You don’t have to use the whole image. You can use a mold you’ve made of an antique button but use a piece of polymer clay that’s larger than the impression so you have a “relic”– an irregular shape that looks like it has disintegrated somewhat in the aging process. You can flatten edges or texture them with a tool or a texture sheet. I like to thin the edges out to create the illusion of disintegration even more.” See this necklace and her experiments up close on her Flickr site. Thanks to Margit Böhmer for the link!

Bounty from the polymer patch

Roberta Mohar’s garden is full of polymer vegetables – including pumpkins!

In an earlier PCD post we admired her Hokkaido pumpkin-shaped beads and she’s just uploaded a beautiful tutorial (in English and Slovenian) for you to enjoy. It’s worth the wait for the download.

The shape reminded me of Moroccan pouf ottomans and I promptly tried it for my own new beads below. Lucky for us we can now pick up the finer points in her free tutorial.

Her latest crop of garden flowers is most easily viewed on her Flickr page.

Roberta’s story about how her husband fabricated a motor for her pasta machine will make you appreciate thoughtful husbands and the easy access some of us have to equipment. Got a motor (or a thoughtful spouse)? Go hug it.

Playing with shapes

Conni Filip’s unpainted polymer brooches present a blank canvas, a clean slate for a new week. Without having to consider color, she is free to explore shape. The results sprout in unusual ways and explode in unpredictable directions. These exercises in composition are both playful and productive.

Once a strong design is established, Conni adds paints and other surface treatments to give the brooches color and interest. You can see her finished work on Flickr and on her Facebook photo page. Could your work benefit from this approach?

Summery polymer

Florida’s Barbara Bechtel paints and distresses her polymer beads so that they fit more easily with the old things she loves. She explains that, “I love thrift stores, estate sales and auctions. I like to share and sell my finds. Sometimes, I even put my little mark on them by making them into new things for others to enjoy.”

These recent watercolor beads are painted and sanded to achieve a nostalgic, summery look. Her worn shell beads in polymer give the same vibe.

To learn more about Barbara, read this month’s interview on ArtBeadScene and browse through her Etsy shop.