This cane from Australia’s Robyn (shop.Kaori) sucked me in like quicksand in a B grade adventure movie. It’s pulled me in repeatedly.
What’s going on here? The neon colors, the black background, the over/under! How does it work? I’m lost in the jungle. Robyn’s been working with polymer for nearly 30 years so she knows her way around.
I give up. Looks like I’m going to have to grab Patreon to save myself.
This darling tree made from a stack of polymer clay circles is a reminder to me courtesy of the Whimsical Bead in Australia.
Every year I tell myself to make some ornaments and every year time gets away from me. Something about these is so simple and light-hearted and yes, easy. And dots are very in.
I count 27 circles in 4 colors. Yikes…but only half of them require painted dots or stripes. And some circles are the same size.
Ok, I’m getting my Tuesday night girls together in the studio for a session. String circles onto a wire, slap a star on the top and we’re done. My friends swear they’re not artists but for an evening, I’ll persuade them otherwise.
Check out the other color palette Dani offers in her kits.
Anna of Hong Kong’s Bi.Clay illustrates for us how brass circles embellished with polymer clay are having a moment.
The wreath shape makes a beautiful ornamental earring.
You’ll see half-circles, succulents, flowers, vines, and much more added in polymer. The trick is to make the design cling sturdily to the thin brass. Very trendy.
Speaking of trendy, you’ll want to check out the cherries picked for this Saturday’s StudioMojo. We’ve sussed out the best classes, newest designs, coolest findings – all coming to your inbox every Saturday.
It’s not surprising that Maine’s Linda Leach has sold out her puffin ornaments at CraftBoston. Who could resist the mix of canes and wire with a dash of color on their bills? Dangle them from the tree or stand them on the mantle.
Her flamingos have flown the coop too. She may still have a few loons left but you’ll have to move fast to catch them.
Why limit your holiday art to the usual candy canes and red/green palette? Linda shows us that all sorts of fanciful designs bring joy to the holidays.
Utah’s Mary Anne Loveless shows us how she makes Thanksgiving guests overlook even the most generic and predictable Thanksgiving cuisine.
Have you got some orange/brown cane ends? Some muddy scraps (who doesn’t)? You’ve got all the ingredients for your own Gobble til you Wobble recipe.
Don’t worry, yours won’t look like Mary Anne’s. The object isn’t copying. We’re only trying to bring some smiles to the table. Thanks to Mary Anne for showing us how. Follow her, she’s full of good ideas.
Speaking of news you can use, trot on over to StudioMojo. It’s the Saturday newsletter for art-makers at any level who want to ignite their creativity and bring more of what they love to their art.
Illinois’ Linda Webb (Creekside Mosaic) captures both the male and female cardinals in her latest mosaic brooches.
Both of these are plentiful on midwest feeders at this time of year. The bright red flashes are like natural holiday decorations.
They’re also fluttering on her Etsy page along with several smaller mosaic molds in case you’d like to try your hand at Linda’s brand of mosaics.
Often slab earrings seem too repetitive and predictable. Where’s the fun, the heart, the Christmas spirit?
Oregon’s Ashley (heyletsclay) brings the delight back to holiday decorating. She drapes and tangles Christmas lights on a white background using extruded strings as cords and dots as lights. She cuts the meandering results into a bunch of shapes. Using an assortment of cutters, her carefree dance turns into pins, earrings, charms, and ornaments.
There’s the spirit! Bet the kids would like this!
Raccoons have such graphic, distinctive faces. Put crowns on their heads and blush on their cheeks and what have you got? Earrings from Australia’s Zula (Artsyshinycloud).
If unicorns or swans or butterflies are more to your liking, her Etsy site contains a whole menagerie of joyful animal designs carefully rendered in polymer
Saturday’s StudioMojo is positively bursting with the most interesting new ideas from my time in Kentucky. All that stored energy from our confinement had to leak out eventually. And yes, there are new road-tested tools that we couldn’t wait to order. Come on over for a look-see.
Just when we thought Halloween was over, New York’s Nicole Johnson (mealymonster) shows us how we can extend the monster season.
But then Nicole (and plenty of other polymer sculptors) envision monsters lurking around every imaginable event. I can’t conjure up these creatures but I’m fascinated by what fantasies lurk in the minds of other artists.
Was Ohio’s Anita Behnen thinking of me when she designed her new line of mixed-media sculptures? White hair, dots?
Turns out she calls her new imp Alberta Einstein and the story is that learning new math has turned her hair white. (Anita’s creatures all have stories.) It’s not about me at all.
PCD shows you the latest…you won’t find this on Anita’s FB because I’m at my first in-person event since, well you know when. I forgot how energizing and exciting and exhausting these events are. That hasn’t changed.
And hats off to the new people who jumped into this group (organized by Ron Lehocky and his group). It’s brave to jump into a group of buddies who have known each other for years. Hats off to Carla Bull, Priscilla Andrews, Paula Kennedy, and Lynn Abernathy who took the first-time plunge into the Kentucky event. Being creative takes courage, jump into a group in your area.
StudioMojo will be chock full of pictures of cool, crazy, new polymer ideas from Texas to Nebraska from brave artists who ventured vaccinated into the heart of Kentucky to get their groove back. Sign up now to get tomorrow’s edition.
