I’m temporarily out of service
Family issues and a gathering at our house that lasted into the wee hours left me without a post today. Consider this my emotional hygiene day. All is well. See you tomorrow.
Barbee concentrates on composition
When I asked extruder extraordinaire Meisha Barbee what kind of extruder setup she had, she admitted that her equipment was nothing special. She works in small batches and spends more time selecting colors and building a pattern library of small canes than she spends in extruding.
Meisha sent along a luscious sampling of her current work. (Here’s an earlier post.) Her colorways fit into small boxes that she carries between her studio and her gallery.
With her variety of components built, Meisha gets down to the business of composing, balancing, building the elements into finished pieces. It’s a good lesson in planning and prioritizing to start our week.
Brandon’s faux Mexican pottery
Our flower power week ends with fiesta polymer clay beads from Arizona’s Anita Brandon. They’re what she calls “faux Mexican pottery” and made of polymer over an ultralight base to keep them lightweight. Cane slice appliques give the beads extra dimension.
Anita wanted to capture the excitement of the Cinco de Mayo fiestas she remembered as a child. Have an exciting weekend.
Her monarch and morning glory necklace is not to be missed either.
Zimmerman’s polymer pineapple
Bangles and brooches plus sewing, tatting and knitting! Petra Tornack-Zimmerman’s Flickr page reveals a multi-talented, energetic German artist.
If you click around a bit you’ll find that she’s part of a fast-track German polymer clay bunch.
Randee Ketzel brought us this new link. She created a clever rose/rattle bead that you’ll like if you have a hankering for more petals and blooms.
Lombardi’s buds
If yesterday’s polymer petals started you thinking, you’ll want to study Marina Lombardi’s version of flower buds as well.
Her approach is more lyrical and less graphic than Kim Korringa’s. You can see that both artists (Kim in California and Marina in Rome) were inspired by the beauty dripping from hanging pots at this time of year.
Marina’s polymer roses woven on wire with crystals and seed beads creates a wearable garden.
Korringa’s elegant solution
We gushed over Kim Korringa’s simple solution to her hanging blossom earring design. She bakes scrap polymer clay armatures with pins embedded in them and forms the earrings over the bases.
She lightly drapes petals made from four cane slices over the forms, offsetting the layers.
After baking, the petals easily pop off the mounds for assembling and finishing. Kim generously agreed to share her elegant solution with you.
Begin Within
This 12″ polymer illustration by Paula Pindroh will hang in my studio and it’s a perfect bit of post-conference wisdom. With all those new tools and techniques swirling in my head, this plaque reminds me to gently tune out the noise and listen to my heart.
I feel great about shopping at Trader Joe’s knowing that the store hires people like Paula to create their weekly signage.
Short and sweet post today while I deal with the heaps of email and laundry.
The lure of silkscreened polymer
This silkscreened polymer necklace by Arlene Groch and the pendant and earrings that Susan Gross was wearing (pictured below) nearly convinced me to try silkscreening.
Flat or pillowed, densely layered or lightly applied, silkscreened polymer has an elegance that’s hard to match with other techniques.
Though the screens can be a commitment of time and money, it was reassuring to learn that good pre-made screens are becoming more readily available through a number of suppliers.
I retreated to rock making when I felt overloaded with new ideas. I’ll head home this weekend and share more pictures with you next week. Have a great one.
Mills collaborates
Libby Mills just pulled this beauty out of the oven and it has comes to you with a story.
The color palette she selected from her Moo cards! She selected 50 Colourlovers palettes that she loved and had a set made to use for inspiration and later to use as jewelry tags.
It’s a traveling personal paint sample set. Pick a card from your deck for instant inspiration. (These snapshop colors aren’t accurate but you get the idea.)
Libby’s background textures came from tablemate Laurie Propheter who uses textured fabric swatches to impress into clay. (Laurie has a great selection that she sells on Etsy.) A few extrusions later (see the canes) and Libby’s perked up her palette.
Korringa’s canes
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Kim Korringa’s pins give me more caning ideas here at the conference. The shaped edges and slice combinations take my thinking in a new direction.
I found Kim quietly stockpiling components for a necklace series. Mindless production work is her way of accomplishing something in the midst of creative overstimulation.
Her collection of polymer pearlized, ruffled disks and balls made a beautiful collage.