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| Doreen Gay Kassel | Barb Fajardo | Julie Eakes |
The 2011 Niche Award finalists have been selected and I snagged these three polymer artists who have been notified that they’re in the running. I’m assuming there are more finalists out there but I couldn’t find an official list. Mousing through the work of these three should launch your week while we wait for other finalists to toot their horns.
I lost track of Eva Haskova’s site after featuring her work last year.
Thanks to a new Flickr link from Bettina Welker, you’ll rediscover a wealth of recent work from this Prague artist. Eva’s canes are simple but sumptuous and dense with pattern. It’s probably not surprising to learn that she teaches pottery lessons for children.
I was afraid that Halloween eye candy wouldn’t sustain you through the weekend but Eva’s online store will surely keep you charged up. Sweet!
The soothing color blends in Carina Feichtinger’s rendition of autumn flowers make me forget my list of chores and head full of ideas. I look up to see the last leaves falling from the trees.
The simple design is based on one cookie cutter shape topped with slim Skinner blend petals. Take a break and chill out with a stroll through her blog and her Flickr site.
Elissa Farrow-Savos’ women sculptures in polymer and found materials resonate with me after a long weekend sharing stories with my sisters and my niece in NYC.
Elissa says of her work, “My women…show their scars and wear them proudly because after all, they make a good story, if nothing else.”
This piece is called “Chorus of Elders.” Her work will appear in this year’s Washington Craft Show (beware, the link will suck you in).
Ingrid Gans sent the tip and I later realized that Susan Lomuto also wrote a lovely post on Elissa just yesterday on DailyArtMuse.
The layered beads from Eriko Page were inspired by Japanese kimonos. Slices of delicate flower canes are onlayed over smooth base beads whose surfaces have been flecked with metal leaf and washed with translucent colors.
See more of Eriko’s work here. Christi Friesen sent the link along.
In this necklace, Germany’s Ingrid Ulrich makes a great mashup of Christine Dumont’s butterfly beads and Carol Blackburn’s mobius beads, rolling them into her own distinct design.
The result is something quite new with Ingrid’s own colors and clear echoes of her teachers. Each of the classes Ingrid has taken pushed her in a new direction. It’s great to see student work develop its own momentum. Thumb through her Flickr pictures to see.
Vermont’s Marie Davis takes viewers on a walk through her studio for a Friday treat. Many of her works are large wall pieces created from canes. She’s been working in polymer since 1987 and you can tell that she still delights in the medium.
I’ve taken the liberty of editing one of her studio tours to make it manageable for PCDaily. My edited version is show here at the top of the right column. Visit her YouTube site for the full treatment.
Bright colors, crisp patterns…a winning combination in polymer from Illinois’ Terri Stone. If you’ve ever muddied up a promising palette, you’ll admire Terri’s ability to mix and match.
Her holiday Etsy shop is bursting with more examples.
I’m packing for a rare weekend with my sisters and these colors look as cheery as I feel. Thanks to Lindly Haunani for the link.
The Ontario and Quebec guilds have pulled me back into mosaic/inchie mode. I’m intrigued by their group’s mystery project that Cynthia Blanton talks about on her blog.
“On the first day we were each given a small square of paper with a fragment of a photo on it. Our job was to duplicate the image in clay, matching colors and size,” she explains.
On the last night the squares were assembled on a larger canvas to reveal the image and produce the masterpiece. What a great project for a group (or a virtual group).
Janine Müller’s pictures from her October masterclass with Sandra McCaw in Germany show more astonishing student work. Sandra is leaving a trail of polymer flowers in a wide range of colors all over the UK and Europe. The work looks more precise in each class. (Here are earlier 2010 class pix from UK and France.) Next comes Switzerland!
