The UK’s Debby Wakely’s graduated round summer beads have a crisp summery feel. Look closely and you’ll see polka dotted petals and a dab of red at the center of each dark blue flower on the clean white background.
Debby has only this one post on her Instagram (and the BritishPCGuild’s page) so she’s off to a good start! Earlier works show up on Facebook.
Are you ready for tea and scones in the garden?
“My daughter moves on to high school next year,” says Virginia’s Melissa Terlizzi, “so I’m scrambling to finish notebook covers for the teachers she’s had for the past three years.”
This would be the band director’s, right? How cool is that?
Melissa wins PCD’s best teacher’s gift award! Let’s hope she posts more of them on her Facebook page.
Italy’s Alessia Bodini makes spiral beads with a sideways mokume gane twist. She nicks off bits of the sides of the beads to reveal the layers underneath.
Could be a triangle extruded shape. Are you itching to figure it out too? Alissa likes to tease us on her Instagram and Flickr and Facebook.
Turkey’s Alev Gozonar moved from Istanbul to Ayvyalik, a small historic village 270 miles south. As part of the makeover of her old stone house, Alev added a polymer backsplash in the kitchen.
She covered vertical 10″ ceramic tiles with baked polymer veneers in an assortment of bargello-like patterns. She glued the baked veneers onto the tiles with superglue.
Integrating polymer into your home decor adds your very personal touch – plus it’s inexpensive. Got a backsplash that’s in need of an update? Think polymer.
See more on her Instagram and Facebook and follow her renovations there.
Seattle’s Susan Hyde’s Madonnas (7″ x 3″) aren’t technically from scrap but her textiles are stunningly vibrant and she reconfigures her canes in a variety of ways to extend their usefulness. She mixes and matches endlessly and drapes slices of her fabrics so that they become ethnic dress on this compelling symbol of motherhood.
Her method is a variation on a theme that Kathy Amt taught us years ago and in Susan’s hands, it still looks fresh and contemporary.
Susan’s online presence is on Facebook and her site. She was scheduled to demo her skills at Collective Visions Gallery next weekend but was sidelined with a broken arm this week. Get well fast wishes to Susan.
Of course, we couldn’t get through scrap week without Louisville’s Ron Lehocky who continues his march to 50,000 hearts for the Kids Center. Ron receives polymer scrap from around the world, turning tail ends and discarded projects into what will be a half million dollar benefit. See him on Instagram and Facebook.
Here you can see how Ron reconfigured Lindly Haunani’s blended cane ends (top left of photo) turning them into bargello-like veneers that he learned using exciting new methods from Lindly’s Sagacious Sumptuous Color class.
Lindly will help Sue Sutherland and Ellen Prophater at the grand opening of their new Creative Journey Studios in Milton, GA this weekend. Lindly will have a trunk show at the gallery’s opening. She’ll also be teaching the first class in the new facility.
Ron’s hearts will also be available at the opening. You’re invited!
To Carol Beal (BeadUnsupervised) there is no such thing as scrap. She follows some powerful inner radar to assemble this Big Bead Bracelet, mixing media and colors, precious and preposterous for a vibrant combination of shapes, and materials.
Her devil-may-care approach and high voltage colors require more chutzpah than most of us can muster which makes her unsupervised mashup exciting.
Look closely and you’ll see some polymer scrap beads — a little Stroppel cane, a bit of Barenholtz textile treatment. Wouldn’t it be fun to dive head first into a project like Carol does? On Flickr, her site, and Etsy.
Italy’s Silvia Bordin flips a Stroppel cane into summer mode by using white as her color for the solid layer. If you look through her Flickr photos you’ll see any number of variations on Alice Stroppel’s theme.
Has it really been seven years since we started tracking the Stroppel effect?
Maybe June will begin with scrap week since I’m currently fixated on playful pieces from discarded patterns. Because scraps are so disposable, working with them reduces the pressure to make a masterpiece.
And when you’re not so driven to make the perfect piece a spontaneous piece sometimes jumps out.
So we start the week with unpretentious scraps, formed with a cutter and strung on hemp. Thanks for teaching us not to take things so seriously, Silvia and Alice. Ease into the week with some no-fail scrap time.
Just looking at this coral reef pen blank from Alabama’s Toni Ransfield will drop your blood pressure and bring a Friday smile to your face. Watch her rotate the design on her Instagram.
Toni calls it, “My favorite fish blank to date. I added coral this time. I think the coral is what made it look so awesome!”
Since this tube is meant for a longer (Zen model) pen, Toni was able to include coral and layer more fish swimming under your fingertips. See more on her ClayPenBlanks site and Facebook.
Keep your smile all weekend by joining us over at StudioMojo.org
