After a frustrating day in the studio, it’s a relief to me to see how something like these post earrings from South Carolina’s Shannon Tabor (Charleston_Clay_Jewelry) can be so straightforward and successful.
Sometimes we make things more difficult than they need to be.
Shannon cuts textured circles in several sizes then highlights the textures and stacks them falling downward.
Unusual, sophisticated and done! Posted on Instagram.
Think of polymer techniques as having a lineage when you look at these earrings from Texas’ Shelley Atwood.
Kathy Amt taught Dayle Doroshow who shared it with me who showed a whole bunch of folks this scrap technique on video. Who knows where it came from even earlier or where it will go next?
It’s circled back around to Shelley who’s put her own spin on it on Instagram. Shelley layered thin bits of scrap and then carved her design, which revealed colors underneath.
It’s invigorating when we see new life in our roots.
Enjoy the bright colors of these Snow Stars from France’s Celine Roumagnac. They’re a fresh way to start your week.
Celine takes the usual holiday red and green to new places as she combines pieces in fractal-like stacks of shapes.
See her seasonal polymer delights on Instagram.
Ukraine’s Darya Podorozhna (sofoxyclay) gathers a flock of polymer birds on a delicate chain for bird lovers to wear and admire.
While these little beads don’t require much clay, they do demand a keen eye and attention to detail. Birders know their birds. You can catch them on Etsy and here she is on Instagram.
The first week after vacation has rushed by and already I could be back in the holiday frenzy. Over at StudioMojo, we’ll try to slow it down and move into the holidays with grace, a smile, and gifts from our hearts. Join us.
Paris’ Cecile Bos (11prunes) makes her delicate floral patterns look easy as the rest of us squint in amazement.
You have to think like a textile designer to understand her methods of matching repeats and working on a solid color background.
Cecile worked as a biology researcher so she’s comfortable finding patterns and working in minuscule. She turns these canes into the daintiest of jewelry that she sells on her site and shows her in-process on Instagram.
Vermont’s Christine Damm was inspired to play with her scrap veneers. No jewelry inspiration arose from the heap.
“A few screw-ups later, I decided to put them all on a backing and voila! now I have a new veneer that will become holiday cards called Merry Christmas, Baby! on Redbubble. All veneer scraps used were surface painted previously, FYI,” says Christine.
Send greetings to friends and customers that show off your art. Lots of online printers will make the photo of your work into cards and all sorts of items.
These big-hole tube beads from Pennsylvania’s Genevieve Williamson are sculpted and carved into pleasant shapes that stack together in an unpredictable way that makes the eye search for symmetry and pattern.
Color is the unifying element and soothing shapes are the icing on this cake.
She shows them off on Instagram.
California’s Meisha Barbee began this brooch with a slice of stripes in her wonderful colors. I might have stopped there but she wanted to push on.
She was fond of her silicone trivet with a bubble pattern (strange in-process shot) so she made a mold of it and used that mold to create a mokume gane pattern on top of the stripes which looked weird to my eye.
Meisha kept going and added random balls with her Etch ‘n Pearl tools. Better, but I wasn’t loving it.
Stretch, make a border, bake over a lightbulb and wow! A retro pin is born…along with a lesson about following your vision.
So I’m back to daily posting, refreshed and wiser and following my vision thanks to a month of being with friends who know the importance of following theirs.
Regular PCD readers have been wondering where their morning blog posts are. Not to worry, I’m on hiatus for the month of November recharging my batteries and brain.
PCD has brought you polymer goodies daily since 2005 with occasional time off for good behavior.
This week we visited Kim Korringa in her new home and studio. What a treat! This Rebecca Zimmerman teapot from the late 90’s is in Kim’s great collection of works.
If you can’t bear to miss out any longer, click on over to studiomojo.org for the weekend catch up and insiders’ view.
PCD will resume its usual daily early morning coffee schedule in December.
Apparently, dragons enjoy celebrating Halloween as you can see in this edition of Little Lazies from Seattle’s Leah Lester.
Very benign and cute creatures are what we need this year and Leah’s is a happy story. She started out as a cake decorator but really wanted to create monsters and so she did.
Legions of polymer lazies appear on Instagram and fly off her Etsy shelves. Sometimes that happens when you follow your heart.
Here’s wishing you a Happy Halloween. I’ll be taking time off to write and play for the entire month of November. PCD will be on hiatus but StudioMojo will come out every Saturday. So if you’re needing to check in with your buddies in polymer, come on over for our Saturday confab. See you back here in December!
