Polymer Clay Daily

Pieced polymer

Pieced polymer quilt from Kathy Koontz on PolymerClayDaily.com

South Carolina’s Kathy Koontz (flowertown_originals) found that polymer was a great way to translate her affinity for embroidery into another art form.

It’s very soothing to zoom in and examine the complex canes and textures that she assembles into quilt squares. The outline of extruded blue thread makes a perfect border and contains the designs.

“I love it when people say, “Just looking at your work makes me happy,” Kathy admits. “I couldn’t think of a better compliment.” She’s on Instagram here. And the biggest stash of her current work is on Facebook.

Illusory polymer

Lizzi Holt practices magic learned from Melanie West on PolymerClayDaily

You might swear that these canes by the UK’s Lizzi Holt (BizziZizzi) have concave centers. When you finally agree that they don’t it may take you some time to figure out the cane’s optical illusion.

Lizzi is drawn to mysterious spiral forms that pull you into their orbit. See her Peace Pebbles and watch her ride the peace wave. Follow her on Instagram to see where she takes these tricky canes.

If you guessed that Lizzi was inspired by a class with Melanie West, you’d be right. She’s been dreaming up new patterns ever since a British Polymer Clay Guild class with Melanie in London last fall.

Bringing scrap to life

Angela Bahrenholtz combines her scrap techniques on PolymerClayDaily

Israel’s Angela Bahrenholz has all her ways of simulating fabrics and combined them into three polymer wall quilts, each a 3″ square. Scrap polymer becomes scrap quilts.

Her methods are quite addictive, cutting and stacking repeatedly. You use up your scrap and precision isn’t much of an issue. A win-win in my estimation. The results bring the clay back to life. Examine all her pieced polymer quilts and other art on Flickr. See her tutorials and finished works on Etsy.

Tokens that inspire

Andrew Thornton stamps inspiration in polymer on PolymerClayDaily.com

Pennsylvania’s Andrew Thornton (AllegoryGallery) must carve stamps while he watches tv. This polymer token was inspired by Oprah’s speech the other night. He turns quotes into tokens that customers carry with them as reminders and for luck.

He has a new batch of inspirational charms on his Instagram, Etsy and blog pages. The paints and metallic touches that he adds after curing bring his small amulets to life?

What words would you use for reminders and for luck?

On StudioMojo, the weekend newsletter, we track fast-paced polymer developments that are otherwise hard to find and follow. Join us for the behind-the-scenes news you can use in your studio.

Layered and assembled elements

Mari O'Dell's assembled extruded pendants on PolymerClayDaily.com
Mari O'Dell's assembled extruded pendants on PolymerClayDaily.com

Mari O’Dell has been dreaming up Japanese-inspired pendants in her Annapolis, Maryland studio/treehouse.

She begins with castings made from segments of antique Japanese kashigata molds. Translucent polymer tinted to look like jadeite is pressed into the molds and cured. The elements are set aside to be assembled into finished pendants.

Mari uses a distinctive way layering on extruded Japanese design elements. Though she has limited strength in her hands, she’s devised clever extruder workarounds.

The piece is then surrounded by a bezel made of thin strips of clay and the entire work is mounted on clay backing. The final touches involve alcohol inks, heat set stamp inks and a final curing.

Follow along with more of her designs and experiments on her Instagram site.

Spring palettes

Caroline Casswell tries out spring colors on PolymerClayDaily

The UK’s Caroline Casswell lets us look over her shoulder as she dreams up palettes for spring. Caroline is new here on PCD and you’ll want to get acquainted with her Instagram, Facebook and website personas. She swings from polymer jewelry and bowls to mosaics. Easy to see how one medium influences the other.

Her Pinterest boards are filled with fresh ideas and I had to drag myself away from there to finish this post.

Ice in the pasta machine!

Melissa Terlizzi finds ice in her pasta machine on PolymerClayDaily.com

The start of this polar bear plaque was an icy-looking piece of clay that Melissa Terlizzi loved as it rolled out of her pasta machine. Perfect chunky glacial accident! All it needed was a big furry animal!

“The sheet of clay behind the bear is my favorite part of this piece. I loved the raw edges and organic shape, so I just left them that way,” she says.

Melissa mounted the piece on a silver-leafed wood panel treated with a crackle finish, and tiny silver microbeads which all sparkle! See the final version on Facebook.

In our hemisphere, this chilly scene seems just right.

Lured by complexity

Learn complex geometry from Jana Honnerova on PolymerClayDaily.com
Learn complex geometry from Jana Honnerova on PolymerClayDaily.com

Czech Republic’s Jana Hannarova can’t stay away from complex, layered, lustrous patterns. When she’s really excited she challenges herself with hollow forms and translucent clays that reveal even more complexity. The reticulated necklace here can be worn three different ways.

It’s a good thing it’s Friday because you may need some time to examine Jana’s Flickr, Instagram and Facebook galleries of work. Join her Facebook workshop group if you’re interested in the online workshops she will offer this year.

On Saturday you can join us over at StudioMojo where we suck up inspiration from all kinds of concepts, tools and eye candy that floated by during the week. Your year is off to a great start and StudioMojo keeps the momentum going. Try it!

When interests shift

Kathy Cannella changes her groove on PolymerClayDaily.com

Kathy Cannella has a distinctive sense of color and a fondness for geometrics, mosaics, and veneers. But I don’t really know much else about this Santa Fe artist. It’s nice to bump into folks who hide out on Flickr or lurk quietly on other social media.

Look through Kathy’s Flickr pages. She’s been creating quietly and competently for several years and last fall she turned more active. She changed her groove. This is all conjecture on my part, of course, but I like to theorize and whatever happened looks positive.

When you examine your work, can you point to when something shifted in your life, an event happened or a direction changed? What would you like to shift in your art this year?