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Texan Dawn Barker’s polymer clay Escudo do Mar represents life under the sea, capturing its color, movement and vitality. The 24" by 30" mosaic of 1.5" polymer clay tiles is mounted on stretched canvas and was voted the winner in the Etsy Guild’s August challenge. The details glow in the dark, giving the piece an entirely different look at night. A lovely summer memory.

Hit the books! If you’re itching to expand your vocabulary and sharpen your design skills, you may want to consider these two books on design. Design!: A Lively Guide to Design Basics for Artists & Craftspeople by Steven Aimone and Design Language, Interpretive Edition by Tim McCreight were favorites in the conference library. The books are not specific to polymer clay but they can help you build a good design foundation.

Clues

he work of Washington’s Sharon MacLeod makes me want to see more. PCDaily first featured her thin polymer clay bangles in January 2006, noting that her site was last updated in 2003. She signed the PCDaily guestbook this summer and sent the picture at the top right.

Elise Winters just sent in these pictures of Sharon’s bracelets that she recently purchased at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (click on the images for details).

Sharon has a distinctive, minimalist style and a sophisticated color palette. Her technique is a mystery. I guess we’ll have to keep piecing the clues together. Any help out there?

Summer ends with color

France’s Mathilde Colas’ colorful site is just what we need to begin a glorious weekend. Take a look at her glowing work. She has several books in print and a new one out next month.

The link was sent in by Wisconsin’s Sari009 whose site is a fun diversion as well (caution, it loaded slowly for me). Have a great Labor Day weekend.

It’s all in your head

I’ve missed a few of our polymer clay nightlights from a session with Leslie Blackford last week. This will give you an idea of the silly fun you can have with a glass votive, some transluscent clay, a small light bulb and a dash of imagination.

Playing like this is a great exercise and the results are often surprising. I had no idea that a strange Walter Cronkite lookalike lived in my head. Click to see a few more twinkling samples.

And here’s Judy Dunn’s.

Summer Fun

This memory wire bracelet from Anne White Designs is perfect for end-of-summer polymer clay fun. The colorful transluscent beads are separated by hollow cording strung onto the wire. Clever, don’t you think?

Anne is from the Cincinnati area.

Momentum

Italy’s Bernard Stimpfl-Abele shows some high style polymer clay rings on his gallery site complete with his working drawings. Stimpfl-Abele’s work is a collision of organic and surreal in the vein of Peter Chang, Wendy Malinow and Ford/Forlano.

It’s a type of design in polymer clay that’s gaining momentum. Food for thought and a feast for the eyes.

I’m sorting my conference pictures and notes and will share them later this week.

Spot of Color

Industrial meets organic meets polymer clay in these delicate designs by Pennsylvania’s Sharon of Nectar Jewelry Design. She takes a minimalist approach to the use of clay, using it to add a splash of color to her pieces.

Sharon’s one of those Etsy girls and I thank her for bailing me out of my post-vacation lethargy.

Saving the World

Floridian Karen McGovern is a conservation biologist who creates art and polymer clay jewelry to raise funds for wildlife conservation. "Art can save the world!" she says.

The stories that Karen tells with her jewelry are fascinating…like The Bubble Lady, a polymer clay altered art storybook necklace which it says is "…perfect for those who keep the child inside alive and well entertained." Her Climbing Woman Vine story is told by the piece pictured here.

Karen is all over the web. Find her at Etsy here and at IndiPublic here. Her blog seems to be a bit out of kilter but I’m sure she’ll get back to it and you’ll want to visit regularly.

The link was sent in by Babs Young from Michigan. Have a great weekend.

Luminous

Colorado’s Karen Sexton says that these luminous polymer clay pins she just finished are the result of a simple process. She lightly painted Pinata inks on thin alternating layers of translucent and pearl clay and stacked the layers.

She impressed the stack with various tools, mokume gane style. Thin slices of the resulting cane were applied to a pearl backing to create the pins. A deceptively simple process.

What she leaves out of this description is her lovely sense of balance and color. Karen’s one of those artists without a site and her local guild’s site is under reconstruction. The guild will have a new gallery of members work up soon but I couldn’t wait to show you Karen’s fine work.

Nightlights

Using an upside-down glass votive, a light (from FactoryDirectCraft.com) and translucent polymer clay, we watched as Leslie Blackford created another of her fanciful and mythic nightlights.

Leslie is genuinely surprised when we tell her that not everyone can conjure up the delightful stories and animals that fill her head. We’re going to give it a try and later in the week I’ll share our results with you.

The steps for making this lamp are deceptively simple. Mix a bit of color into the clay, coat the glass with glue, drape the thin clay over the votive, create the embellishments, and cut a thick layer for the base with a hole in the center to accommodate the light. Add the feet after the rest of the sculpture is baked.

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