Blurring the lines with enamels

Nikolina Otrzan replicates enamel's blurry lines on PolymerClayDaily.com

Polymer artists have long tried to replicate the soft blurry edges that are the hallmark of copper enameled pieces.

Low fire (cold) enamel powders were rumored to be the answer but my vials of powders went to the back of a bottom drawer several years ago after some messy attempts.

Croatia’s Nikolina Otrzan makes me want to dig out my powders and give it another go. Her tutorial shows me where I went wrong. She uses liquid polymer, layers and other tricks to keep the powders under control.

Nikolina has lots more patience than I do. She loads up her instructions with photos and steps. I pare them down for my experiments to see how they fit my style.

Imitative enamels may be the next big thing. If this rings your chimes, now’s the time to explore.

Love beads

Aow Dusdee's psychedelic beads take us back on PolymerClayDaily.com

Thailand’s Aow Dusdee makes beads that burst with the psychedelic colors of the early days of polymer. The shapes are updated and the tassels are trendy but Aow’s beaded pulls and dangles have an unmistakable 60’s hippie vibe.

They harken back to days of youthful protests of another era and give us hope that today’s passion and energy will become a breakthrough moment for societal repair.

“Smile on my face. Love in my heart. Peace in my mind. Color in my life. Creativity in my soul. Wanna share it with the world,” says her tagline. Her Facebook will put you in the Wayback Machine.

Friday piranhas

Estelle Marchal brings her inner pirhanas to life on PolymerClayDaily.com

This school of piranhas by France’s Estelle Marchal (lesPtitsmobiles) may not look very dangerous but they have a mouthful of scalpels.

It’s easy to understand mouthfuls of vitriol today (even though Estelle makes her fish look rather benign). See how she turns them into mobiles, schools of sea characters that float through the air with eyes that glow in the dark. Watch Estelle bring these characters to life.

Need to bring your creative side back to life? Head on over to StudioMojo for a look at the ideas that our wild times have hatched.

True grit

Ginger Allman Davis (thebluebottletree) calls this her True Grit vessel made with leftover baked polymer shavings and other studio debris rolled into the thick raw clay.

It’s part of Ginger’s 100-day challenge. There’s more to the story. Her grandfather was a bit player in the original movie!

It feels like we’re in need of some true grit. We’re all trying to make sense of our circumstances right now. I’ll take this as our sign of strength for Thursday.

Polymer eloquence

Ron Lehocky touches our pain on PolymerClayDaily.com

Ron Lehocky reflects our pain.

A touch of real

Angie Wiggins brings us back to reality with her down-home earrings on PolymerClayDaily.com

Hunting for something to pull me out of my funk. You too? Too much turmoil and trauma.

Virginia’s Angie Wiggins and her funky earrings did the trick. She doesn’t put on airs or try to prove a point. Plus I love how her earrings hang over the rim of this down-home cup.

Angie has chickens running in the yard. She’s your girl if you need to get in touch with something consistently satisfying and real.

Dark iridescence

The long thin shapes of these iridescent purple and blue feathers from Natalya Aleksandrova form a most graceful and stunning Midnight Crown bracelet.

Natalya Aleksandrova's feathers glow with dark, magic on PolymerClayDaily.com

The bracelet will be available as part of the “Night Time Magic” show of the Soul Sisters United group on Facebook on June 3-4.

Natalya’s textured feathers glow as their narrow shapes fit comfortably on the wrist. Look more closely on Facebook.

Manly polymer

There’s time this weekend to whip up a manly soap dish for Father’s Day or just for fun. These are from Moscow’s Juliya Laukhina and are intended for her brother.

The men will be impressed that the patterns are composed of scrap. Use a Stroppel cane or Kim Korringa’s mosaic trick or some other variation of a scrap veneer.

Useful, not too fussy, and made with love – what more could your men want?

If you need more fresh-squeezed creative juices, head on over to StudioMojo to see what goodies we pulled out of our stash of new ideas and products that wouldn’t fit into PCD.There’s so much going on! Our juices are flowing.

Mindful remaking

Doreen Willey rearranges lost scraps into dazzling tiles on PolymerClayDaily

These tiles from California’s Doreen Willey are a dazzling blast from her past. Encouraged by Christi Friesen’s Play Days and driven by bags of scraps that Doreen was anxious to reduce, reuse, and recycle, she jumped into this project with stunning results.

Years of design decisions added up to works with wild variety yet a cohesive, exuberant look and feel. “If you are like me, you probably have a huge stash of stuff you’ve made that’s gone into boxes never to be seen again,” says Doreen.

“I pulled out my boxes, started cutting my stuff up and put it back together in a new way,” she explains. And we’re lucky she did! What an inspiration! Here on Facebook.

Easy does it

Sofie Pollion's pieces have a carefree casual attitude on PolymerClayDaily.com

France’s Sophie Pollion (s0fi_insta) favors strong shapes and graphic simplicity on her polymer jewelry. The oversize oval holes on this pendant look casual and confident on the multi-strand leather cord.

Her Instagram is full of clever designs and quirky closures that she tosses off with seeming ease. Of course they are more considered and thought through than it might appear. Here she is on Facebook.

Enter your studio with an attitude of nonchalance and ease and see what happens. Kind of a “fake it til you make it” trick. See what happens.

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