Polymer Clay Daily

Delicate botanicals

Paris’ Cécile Bos (11prunes) worked as a biology researcher before she happened on polymer. Her approach to caning is small, as you might expect, and resembles textile design. You can catch the drift of her thinking from this photo collage on her website.

Blocks of small designs on a matching background are created and then combined into a repeating design.

The finished patterns are quite delicate and small, just the right size for her delicate pendants and long thin tubes. She’s on Instagram and Facebook.

Mid-week is the right time to think about changing directions. Cecile has opted for smaller and more delicate works.

Improv polymer

Jan Geisen capitalizes on her scraps on PolymerClayDaily.com

Minnesota’s Jan Geisen considers herself an improv artist. The scraps interest her much more than neat and tidy patterns.

Here she jumps on the wire trend and a wire ring comes to the front and then the back of this unusual layered necklace with circles and rough edges. See all of her improvisations on Flickr.

Polymer undertow

Pulled in by Jana Honnerova's wave on PolymerClayDaily

The layers of Prague’s Jana Honnerova’s Wavy Ball fold over each other in a languid motion that pulls us into the week.

Look at the designs that she’s been trying. Which is your favorite? Her prototypes are mostly on IG and haven’t made it to her Etsy shop yet.

There’s a brooch or earring version on Flickr. Perhaps there’s a tutorial in the works.

Art pods with zen

Marina Rios mixes Japanese cane weaving and polymer on PolymerClayDaily

Chicago’s Marina Rios (Fanciful Devices) ran out of good rocks to wrap. She’s been trying Japanese basketry ornamentation over smooth river rocks. She weaves cane reed over the center and then subtly inks it for dimension.

With no more suitable smooth rocks to work on, Marina had no choice but to make her own art pods. She covers a foil form with polymer and then goes to town with silk screened, inked, crackled, faceted and gold leafed veneers. The pod hangs on a hammered and oxidized steel ring.

On Etsy and Instagram, Marina’s mix of media has a wonderfully calming effect.

Need more calming effects? Join the StudioMojo crowd on Saturday mornings where we dig below the surface to explore the behind-the-scenes discoveries that don’t fit on the daily menu at PCD. The odd, the new, the questions and the trends we’re dealing with. Fun stuff. 

Meandering mosaics

The clay is leading Jana Lehmann in new meandering directions on PolymerClayDaily.com

Something cheery has moved Germany’s Jana Lehmann in a new meandering direction.

Jana extrudes strands of marvelous color and builds modern designs by carefully laying them next to each other.

She adds extremely small dots of color as accents and surrounds the piece with a black and white frame.

The heart is made similarly with flat, graduated ribbons of polymer. These require dexterity and a love of small detail but they exude a joyousness that’s infectious and ready for spring. More on Facebook and Flickr.

Mandala earrings from canes

Silvia Ortiz De La Torre builds extruded earrings on PolymerClayDaily.com

My polymer radar did a little shiver when Silvia Ortiz De La Torre’s Mandala earrings popped up on Etsy.

Near the edges, the black shows up and frames the designs. The colors bounce off each other playfully. The hole in the middle offers a reprieve from the intensity of pattern. What a great use of all those bits of extruded (or handmade if you prefer) bits of cane.

Your brain on polymer

Polymer builds brains according to Marina Sabio on PolymerClayDaily.com

The brains that Bordeaux’ Marina Sabio (TinySparks) sculpts in polymer appeal. I find myself trying to think up clever words to justify why her art tickles me.

No reason, no words. Sometimes we just like what we like. Maybe it’s because my extrusions often end up a ball looking suspiciously like one of these without the personality. She offers her brains in bloody and galactic.

If you need to give yourself a smile, explore further on her site, Etsy and IG. 

See-through polymer

We can see through Kathrin Neumaier's earrings but not her methods on PolymerClayDaily.com

In her latest batch of Flickr photos, Kathrin Neumaier gives us an update on her studies in coaxing liquid polymer to behave like glass.

This series appears to be solid. She says in her captions that she’s using liquid Fimo. Kathrin has also mastered using Cernit and other materials in her quest to unlock the secrets of how to imitate glass with polymer.

Do a search on PCD and you’ll see that we’ve been curious about Kathrin’s methods for years.Can you figure it out?

 

 

Egg-stremely difficult

Carol Simmons can arrange one cane in many ways for an Easter treat on PolymerClayDaily

Egg-stremely difficult is how the UK’s Wentworth Puzzle catalog describes the wooden puzzle made from a photo of a grouping of polymer-covered eggs by Colorado’s Carol Simmons.

All the puzzle pieces are the identical shape which elevates the level of difficulty.

Using her rich and complex kaleidoscope patterns Carol is able to arrange a dizzying array of designs from the same cane.

Read about Carol’s egg-sperience in arranging cane slices on eggshells in this post from the archives.

Happy Easter!

Join us at StudioMojo on Saturday when we cover more polymer art, events, and ideas that you won’t want to miss out on. Sorry, no chocolate bunnies.

Modern and mindful

Diane of MindfulMatters stays in the moment with this modern pendant on PolymerClayDaily

“I love working with clay and mixed metals not only to unleash my creativity – but as a vehicle to practice mindfulness or the state of truly being in the moment,” says Diane of MindfulMatters. (Couldn’t find the last name of this Cleveland artist. Help?)

Diane translates intriguing natural geometries and textures into fun and wearable art jewelry. “I am a chemist by training and have always worked with my hands to create things whether in the lab or my home studio,” she says.

This 2.375″ x 1.5″ pendant in muted colors and textures is a delightful mix of off-balance elements that pull together nicely. Have a look at Diane’s Etsy site.