Wearable signs of hope, growth, and comfort for all! That’s the tagline that Minnesota’s Chris Baird gives her small brooches made of sweetly colored cane slices.
She likes to stick to geometrics and color these days though she’s had a long career in various media. You’ll want to explore what grows in her polymer garden on Facebook.
Make yourself a sprig of hope and fasten it to your lapel this fine spring Monday.
Seattle’s Cynthia Toops pays homage to our current reality with her latest small micromosaic brooch.
Her “Armed and Ready” cowboy wields a yellow tape lasso for 6′ social distancing, a mask, nitrile gloves and sanitizer in holster. He wears a covid brooch instead of a sheriff star.
Cynthia bakes very fine threads of polymer which she embeds in an unbaked layer and cures again. All this in a cast sterling bezel by Chuck Domitrovich.
Over at StudioMojo we’ll thread our way around current events and look at all the creativity this crisis has spawned. Join us!
France’s Christine Pecaut adds the most charming villages to hair barrettes.
The array of textures, foils, crackles, and canes that she lavishes on these small wonders tells us how exciting these miniature scenes are to her. Such whimsical detail.
Maybe she wasn’t thinking of our current circumstances but she reminds us of the beauty and importance of the places that shelter us. She’s here on Instagram and Etsy.
Yesterday it was a punch. Today it’s a hug. It’s hard to wrap your arms around all the emotions we’re feeling. Clay can help.
Portland’s Gesine Krastner shows us her Hugs by Mail on her Etsy shop and Instagram.
Gesine has a charming way of making difficult emotions and tender feelings easier to deal with in her clay creatures and illustrations. See a whole bunch of them on her website.
Georgia’s Anita Kennerley shows how polymer can pack a punch. She calls her 4 1/2″ round piece Rona Rules. Crocheted red dots are tucked in between textured and torn bits of silver clay with a tattooed fist that gets in your face with a message.
What a powerful way to emphasize the number one rule for fighting this virus.
Anita has great spirit and she never pulls her punches. Here she is on Facebook.
Texas’ Deb Hart gets a jump on Easter with her polymer mosaic eggs. Deb has an unusual way of filling in around her central elements and defining the spaces with thin border canes and fine repeating patterns.
No time to make them? Deb offers 50% off her own finished eggs or her tutorials until April 13. (Use promo code Easter2020.) Her workbooks are all 50% off through the end of May while we keep our families safe at home.
You’ll also find Deb’s polymer designs with a southwest flavor on Craftcast and Facebook.
Looking for a free tutorial that will bring you back into the present and give you a stress break? Florida’s Alice Stroppel offers just that. Access the tutorial here.
Squirt polymer through the spaghetti-like disks (the ones with multiple holes) of your extruder and get busy making a portrait from the strings. No, extruder? Roll long snakes by hand or use your medium of choice.
The tutorial is broken into four short steps. It may be just the thing you need to get your hands back on clay.
Alice wants to create an online gallery of “Self Portraits in the Time of Isolation” Add yours via the link. Any media welcome.
Studio Mojo will look at helping you deal with the shockwave of events and keep you looking at “What is” instead of getting stuck with the less predictable and less helpful “What if”. Join us.
“All this sheltering in place is giving me the blues,” says Boston’s Betsy Baker (Stonehouse Studio).
Are you surprised by the small gem tucked in the middle of Betsy’s folded layers of polymer? There are gems hidden in this hardship and heartache. Look closely.
These small tribal mask brooches from Key West, Florida’s Terri Wlaschin (Shanty Chic Beads) are sculpted, collaged, painted and textured with great energy and spirit. “I am continually inspired by what I see riding my bike around town, walking the beaches, and observing the colorful characters that inhabit this island,” says Terri.
“I did not even know I had a creative side until my late 30’s when I started dabbling in creative writing and photography. When I began working with beads, I couldn’t stop. I never really knew what having a passion for something was until then. It’s like a religious experience to me, bringing joy and a glow to my spirit.”
Thanks to Sharene Screws for the link to an article about Terri in Jewelry Making Journal. Go with your glow!
While most of us are squirreled up at home, Australia’s Wendy Moore (after_the_monsoon) comes back online with a splash.
Wendy’s been watching quietly from the sidelines for a while as she took a break. Now she’s collaborating with Dissonance Fashion and creating new work inspired by Helen Breil and Bonnie Bishoff. Wendy’s resurgence shows us the value of taking time off!
Of course, her heart is never far away from the ladies of the Samunnat Nepal project that she has nurtured since 2006. Welcome back to good health and polymer, Wendy.
Make time on Wednesday for the free Fun At One on Craftcast. This week watch Deb Hart create her polymer eggs and see Deb Karash (prismacolor on metal) demo her black block tool.
