Polymer Clay Daily

Faux oxidation

Inspired by the oxidized silver and gold jewelry at the Baltimore American Craft Council show, Donna Greenberg wanted to see if she could imitate the expensive metals in polymer clay. Here are her two faux oxidized gold Natura freeform bracelets with faux opal, quartz and hematite pearls. Her Facebook page shows even more.

She says, “I don’t have to tell you how seductive this material is. It’s always leading me down unexpected paths. I recently left my mural and decorative finish company after 22 years and I needed something creative to do as well as earn a living at. This is a lot easier than standing on scaffolding and ladders ten hours a day!” Have an easy weekend.

Grunge beads

After yesterday’s perfectly patterned polymer eggs and and symmetrical canes, Doreen Willey’s penchant for grunge beads feels delightful. Wednesday yin, Thursday yang.

California’s Doreen says, “It’s beginning to look like the grungier I can make my beads, the better I like them. Seems like I’m trying to make a mess.”

I so sympathize with her sentiments but I also know how tricky the fine line between grunge and garbage is. Doreen does good grunge. See it all on her Flickr site.

The secrets of good eggs

These polymer covered eggs are remarkable not just for cheery seasonal fun but because they were created by students using an ingenious, no-fail method developed by Carol Simmons.

On the groups’ Facebook page, you can examine these eggs and other objects created last weekend at the Buckeye Bash in Dayton. Using kaleidoscope-patterned canes, Carol’s students created consistently successful veneers.

Her egg formula involves four strips of cane slices, some math calculations and a template. Unfortunately I left before all the secrets were revealed. The Ohio class was Carol’s dry run for her new class called “Intricate Cane Veneers.”

Learn to quilt with polymer

These new polymer quilt canes from Minnesota’s Jennifer Patterson are built from extrusions (with more on Facebook here). It’s fun to look closely and see how she assembles the shapes using marbilized clay that simulates fabric. The squares are further textured and shaped into beads and brooches.

The one on the far left above is a custom design commissioned by the Oregon Coastal Quilters Guild. The piece at the right is a famous Underground Railroad sampler design.

Click here to see how she stacks the long extruded strands of polymer. She sells extruder disks made specifically for quilt patterns. There’s a free Ohio Star Quilt tutorial on her site if you’d like to give it a try.

Bashing ideas

Carissa Nichols’ Ultralight Sculpey pendants caught my eye at Ohio’s Buckeye Bash (my pictures here) in Dayton. She sculpts the pieces in white clay, bakes and then colors them with alcohol inks and seals them with a spray. Inking the chalky surfaces allows for a bright, frilly effect.

The marshmallowy ultralight requires more gentle handling than other polymer clays. Once baked, however, its soft texture, makes for easy carving and it can be used as a strong armature for large pieces. (See Sarah Shriver’s big beads and Melanie West’s biobangles, for example.)

Carol Simmons was the Buckeye Bash’s visiting artist this year and the room was abuzz with teams creating kaleidoscope canes and slicing them deli-thin on her prototype slicing device.

Sculptural effect from inclusions

Big hollow polymer beads with inclusions are the latest creation from Christine Dumont who is also the founder of the popular European Voila Web site.

In the new beads small fluted “ossocopia” are embedded in the clay, with the tips of their horns protruding or with concave saucers recessed into layers of color, the newest twist in her sculptural approach to polymer beads.

Christine has been teaching workshops online and in several countries. Her butterfly beads flutter all over Europe. She’ll be teaching at Polymer Pamper Play in the UK in March. I hope your weekend is filled with lots of pamper and play.

Polymer medicine

Another dose of color for you from Anna Anpilogova today. The warm colors of her polymer “mango” beads remind us that spring is not far off.

The text on her blog is in Russian and it’s fun to follow along on her studio experiments in Belarus. Anna’s Flickr pages give you the pictures without having to translate anything. She invents constantly and offers this simple faux chevron tutorial that ends with a sophisticated result.

Thanks to Claire Maunsell for the link.

Beads that speak for themselves

I was looking for polymer that was springy and required no explanation since I’m fresh out of words.

Luckily Silvia Ortiz de la Torre posted this necklace that fit my requirements precisely. If Google translator is accurate, this is Silvia’s rendition of beads from a tutorial by fellow Spaniard, Natalia Garcia de Leaniz that appeared in the new From Polymer to Art magazine (the Blue edition). They’re super textured and built on cores of crumpled foil to keep them light. Silvia uses eye-catching graduated color on the base beads.

Let me know if I botched the translation. The beads are exuberant in any language!

Our polymer niche

Arden Bardol is one of the winners just announced in the 2011 Niche Award competition. Arden was omitted from our previous list of finalists. Her Timepiece belt buckle won in the fashion accessories category.

The other winners are Wiwat Kamolpornwijit (fashion jewelry), Doreen Kassel (polymer clay), and Barb Fajardo (polymer clay).

Eight polymer artists were finalists this year and a whopping four of the eight were named winners in their categories. Clap for them and stand up, take a bow for our polymer community. It’s a nice niche you’ve helped establish.

Delightful diversions

There’s nothing better to veer your week off track than a couple of interesting polymer techniques. If you’re facing serious deadlines and chores, stop reading right now.

The first tantalizing tutorial is a bit of Japanese-inspired faux lacquer from Nan Roche. Alison Torres reports from the CFCF event in Maryland that’s in progress this week. Nan briefly describes her method in this short video. (The picture is Alison’s work from Nan’s class.)

Then I happened upon luminous faux mother of pearl from LesEthiopiques. The text on Hélène’s free tutorial is in French accompanied by step-by-step shots of her discoveries. Wouldn’t that be fun to try?

I have deadlines and chores of my own that I’m avoiding. Perhaps if you trot off and try these tricks, I can focus. Sneaky, eh? You try them so I won’t have to.