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!
Spain’s Pilar Rodriguez Dominguez (El Rincon de Amatista) layers flower slices over tiger and leopard cane designs to produce an effect that’s both tame and wild.
The combination seems odd but it works in this necklace.
Isn’t that often the way it works? If it makes sense in your world, follow that and people will stop and take note.
The way Germany’s Eliska Koliosova (fimeli) experiments with tube beads and plays with extruded patterns makes me want to know more about her and her work.
She’s quite elusive on her Flickr pages that contain mostly dreamy photographs with polymer experiments sprinkled in. Look at how she plays with shapes and scrappy bits in this necklace.
My interest in finding meaning in beads made from scraps has taken me to strange and interesting areas. I’ll be taking the month of November off to explore this phenomenon and write about it. No PCD for a month!
Writing daily is such a habit that taking a break scares me. This week and then some time off. It will be good for our relationship, right?
Connecticut’s Carole Monahan (CuriousClayCreations on Instagram) made little emoji for her guild’s upcoming open studio.
Aren’t they totally cute? Little balls of yellow textured with the appropriate face and accentuated with paint.
Carole says the whole series will be displayed in a bottle she’s labeled FEELINGS. Who wouldn’t like these as magnets, pins, or earrings?
Tokyo’s Wakana Kobayashi (WakkaClay) creates crisp geometric patterns for earrings and hair accessories.
Though the online translation is rough, it’s obvious that she speaks polymer fluently.
In her work-in-progress shots on Instagram, the components appear to be extruded but they may be rolled carefully by hand. Something to aspire to on a Monday.
UK’s Caroline Casswell has created a polymer link necklace that would be so easy to wear with any wardrobe.
It makes me want to sit down and make a whole bunch of blue and white canes that look a little Japanese and a little Willoware china. Old meets new. East meets west meets polymer.
Caroline shows these in several palettes and sizes on her Instagram.
But cane-making will have to wait until Saturday’s StudioMojo is finished. Links to great stuff from all over came sailing in this week. Organizing them and making them make sense is like reading tea leaves. Want to know what’s in your future? Join your friends in polymer over at StudioMojo.org.
Before you know it, Halloween will be here. UK’s Pete Simpson (impsandthings) makes it abundantly clear that the holiday is near with a collection of pumpkin-heads prepared for the Faerie Fayre at Glastonbury.
“When you walk through the woods, graveyards, and paths near your home, keep an eye open for movement in the shadows. Listen for rustling in the leaves or the sound of tiny feet. Who knows what wonders you might see,” he cautions on his Facebook.
Pete’s heads look mighty convincing.
