Polymer Clay Daily

Meyerhoff’s wayback clay

Riding the polymer clay sculpture theme for another day, look at the work of Illinois’ Jill Meyerhoff (claygirl45) who has been illustrating and designing with clay for 30 years.

Some of her more recent works for sale on Etsy are sculptural reliefs based on polaroid snapshots from the 70s. They’re sweet, sentimental looks at the past celebrating the simple pleasures of life.

Her wax lips and giant candy necklace will put you in the wayback machine. Thanks to Judy Belcher for the tip.

Arkin’s polymer clay commentary

Continuing Friday’s art-as-commentary theme, let’s look at another army of polymer clay figures from New York’s Elliott Arkin whose small people exude a kind of eerie lifelike quality. Mr. Arkin fashions remarkably detailed scale models of exaggerated characters that are designed to provoke close-up inspection.

Early works are represented on Arkin’s web site (many links are broken and it hasn’t been updated recently). His more recent pieces are wry comments on art, society and politics. They can be found on the Artnet magazine site. The link comes to us from Susan Rose.

Leavitt’s art army

Seattle’s Mike Leavitt has crafted an army of 225 polymer clay action figures which he calls his Art Army. The people he immortalizes range from singer Bjork to Chihuly (pictured here) to Vincent van Gogh. “I liked the idea of the art army, of them fighting without violence….It wasn’t just about non-violence, it was about fighting with art, with music, just entertainment, whatever it may be,” he says.

His fully-articulated action figures represent famous artists, each one handmade from Fimo and elastic and standing from 7 to 10 inches tall. Leavitt’s web site chronicles his art that covers a wide range of media and subject matter. It includes an animated feature chronicling “The Art Army vs. The Man.”

One Seattle critic calls Leavitt’s work an antidote to cultural suckiness. Take a look and have an imaginative weekend. Thanks to Susan Rose for the link.

Mokume Gane light fixtures

You’ve probably figured out that I’m scrounging around the house for polymer clay fixtures to show you. The weather’s too nice to spend the evening web surfing.

Here are the lights from my copper bathroom. We made the tub surround from sheets of roofing copper…here’s the sink.

The little pendant fixtures from the lighting stores seemed overpriced so I made my own from translucent clay and copper leaf using Lindly’s “Haunani Gane” method. I first formed a thin cone of translucent, baked that as a base, added thin slices and baked again.

You have to be careful of the bulb wattage but with modern cool bulbs, heat isn’t a problem. These have been up for three years.

Hyde’s covered branches

Susan Hyde suspended several large polymer clay covered branches from the ceiling of her sweet little cottage in Seattle a few years back. She had strands of lights woven around the suspended twigs. The effect was colorful and charming.

I bought some from her and put them in a display above the piano (shown here). I’ve also covered sticks myself and put them in a vase which always causes people to take a second look. You can tidy your yard and gather art supplies at the same time!

Pennywise Project

Once upon a time there was a heating duct cut into this hardwood floor. I hated how the repaired wood looked in our otherwise lovely room. I’m a firm believer that most of life’s problems can be solved (or at least covered) with imagination and good adhesive.

Here’s my pennywise solution. I put a layer of self-adhesive cork on the floor first. My husband calculated that it would cost a mere $17.00 from his stash of pennies to stop my nagging about the ugly floor patch. Voila.

You’ll note that there’s not a speck of polymer clay in this project. I have something to show you but you’ll have to wait until I have enough light to take a picture later in the morning.

Rings & Things Winners

Lynne Ann Schwarzenberg swept the table at the Rings & Things contest with her polymer clay “Three Tiger Lilies” necklace winning first place in the polymer clay category as well as the $1000 grand prize. Congrats to Lynne Ann!

It was heartening to see so many good entrants in this year’s contest including (some, I see now, are from prior years…thanks Kim):

Ann Inman’s Cedric and Bubba, Lynne Ann Schwarzenberg’s Good Things Come In Threes, Eugena Topina’s Wild Fire, Deborah Anderson’s Reversible Tile Bracelet, Sandra Cowan and Lori Bouchard’s Roses of One Garden, Ginnie Parrish’s Happy New Year Vessel, Judy Dunn’s Fall Floral Splash, Cheryl Moore’s Nile River Goddess, Christina Cassidy’s Trot On (pictured here), Judy Dunn’s Underwater Starfish Box. Thanks to Tommie Howell for the link.

Fewer Bells and Whistles

There are so many clever widgets and trackers but all the bells and whistles sure do slow a site down. I know how frustrating slow pages can be. So I try the fun stuff for a day or so and then, poof, it’s banished.

IE images

Are the comments working for most people now? Oh dear, the images still aren’t aligning properly in IE on a PC. I’ve searched for a fix to no avail. I’ll keep trying.

Hughes takes a new direction

Leave it to Victoria Hughes to take the whole magic bead/mokume/texture trend that we’ve been examining in a new direction. Her colors! Her shapes! This is not your grandmother’s brooch yet this one hints at something ancient.

Victoria has a page of new brooches on her web site. She’s also included her roster of east coast classes this spring including a debut of a promising new pietra dura (stone mosaics) technique.

The weekend simply got away from me! How can it possibly be Monday already?