France’s Christine Pecaut (Chifonie) works in colors that speak to us on Thursday.
Shimmery teal, navy, and cobalt patterns show up in her exuberant spring line. On the hair barrette, small triangles line up jauntily with one pop of rhinestone bling. The pendant is more flowery with one connecting blue element.
Enjoy Christine’s vision of spring colors on Instagram.
Perth, Australia’s Olga Perova showed this 7″x11″ polymer vase in the Wanaroo Arts Awards exhibit.
She is drawn to vessel shapes and bargello-like patterns. Here she combines both favorites, lining up multicolored patterns in a most meticulous way.
By my count, there are twelve segments to this piece. Can you imagine applying all those strips of clay? It seems too textural to be a cane. It is baffling.
Look more closely on Facebook and Instagram.
Moscow’s Juliya Laukhina forces us to take another look at the weeds we’re battling in our yards.
Juliya reveals the beauty of simple plants in this bangle made of textured polymer tiles. Pressing fresh cuttings into clay or molding material, she creates texture plates that she bakes. Then she presses raw clay into the baked plates.
She gathers the resulting soft-edged rectangles around a bangle form and highlights the textures with a wash of dark paint.
Voila, those nuisances in the garden enjoy a new life on your arm.
Rub the sleep from your Monday eyes and look closely.
This snapshot of Bonnie Bishoff and her son Jaime holds a surprise you may have missed.
At the Nuptials exhibit at Maine Craft Portland, more than 20 artists created one-of-a-kind ceremonial adornment, accessories, and jewelry for those looking to get hitched in style.
Bonnie created a collection of delicate flowery polymer and wire pieces for the 2-month long exhibit. Her son sports a Nuptials tie in this photo. Envision a wedding party completely coordinated with polymer art.
Australia’s Bonnie Gilmore (HatchingSparrows) launches us into the weekend with a frenetic Instagram video that will kick your Friday into high gear.
She cuts, positions, layers, textures, smooths and readjusts at high speed. The resulting earrings carry that energy and brightness with them. Here she is on Etsy.
If you’re looking for energy and brightness but not so much the frenetic part, hop on over to StudioMojo. We slow the pace down and take a more leisurely Saturday morning look at the week’s developments in our polymer universe. Kind of a spa treatment for your over-stimulated creative brain. Relax with us.
This sewn polymer pendant by Sydney’s Heidi Helyard may make you smile.
The juxtaposition of thread and polymer is refreshing. Did she have matching thread on hand or did she build her palette to match the thread? The neat stitches nearly convince us that this is a new sort of textile.
Quilting meets polymer on many fronts but this one is delightfully different. The interview in FindersKeepers about Heidi reveals that her background is in textiles.
She first started incorporating polymer into her textile work. That flip-flopped into incorporating fiber into her polymer clay pieces! Here on Instagram.
These Triangle Women were created recently at Clayathon. I wish I’d learned more about this graphic artist and ancient history enthusiast Susan Downs Reed and her husband Ken.
From the fans’ comments on Facebook, you’ll see that these are based on ancient Greek figures from 800-500 BCE. Susan clarifies that ” I am inspired by artifacts from ancient Hallstatt culture. Hallstatt culture is believed by many archaeologists and prehistorians to be the oldest Celtic culture.”
I did manage to find out how Susan cuts all the patterns for her sculptures and mandalas. It’s labor-intensive and fascinating as you’ll see in this 1-minute tutorial. More on Flickr.
In this newest pendant from Pennsylvania’s Genevieve Williamson, she fuses all her carving, scratches, colors and shapes into one beautifully balanced pendant.
Funny, how we become known by our marks. Hers are spare, stony, weathered and worn. And sold!
I counted three polymer artists (Block Party Press, Sun Ah Blair Jewelry, and Genevieve) in last weekend’s Pile of Craft show in Baltimore. Nice to see polymer popping up in the trendy shows!
You can see more of Genevieve’s marks on Instagram.
North Carolina’s Elizabeth Hamilton has restrung this necklace three times already in her attempt to find just the right look for her newest collection. “Brass beads, black cord, chunky brass chain?” she asks.
“I may still tear it apart and try again,” Elizabeth admits.
Here she combines vintage round painted cork beads with tube beads that she made after a surface treatment class with Claire Maunsell. She calls it her Nothing New collection even though her treatment gives the piece a very new and trendy look.
Curved tube beads are easy to create in polymer and this 3-strand approach is a new one to my eye.
Sometimes it’s clear what message polymer artists want to tell us.
What could Florida’s Alice Stroppel possibly be communicating with her latest edition of flower-covered pigs with wings?
Alice hints that “Serious fun happens when pigs fly.” There’s no holding Alice back. Her pigs will happily fly whenever she wants them to. There’s a lot we could learn from the spunky, irreverent Alice.
Speaking of unexpected fun, come on over to this week’s StudioMojo where we follow Into the Forest exhibit creators Laura Tabakman, Julie Eakes and Emily Squires Levine. Teaching their polymer methods to incarcerated women was a more joyful experience than they ever anticipated. Come find out why.
