Portraits with layers of interest

Melissa Terlizzi takes you on safari on PolymerClayDaily.com

Virginia’s Melissa Terlizzi takes us to the jungle with her polymer Safari Portraits. On the finished piece, Melissa included two more portraits –  a giraffe, and an elephant – onto the finished canvas.

She sculpts mostly wildlife and mostly for home decor, with a real fondness for her subjects and an understanding of their habitats. Note how she pulls the viewer into her scenes with layers of interest and loads of surprising details. What could have been a good animal portrait makes you part of a story.

Flowers with a snug fit

Lisa Haney's flower box holds treasure securely on PolymerClayDaily.com

Another Clayathon find. This small treasure box is from Virginia’s Lisa Haney. Her Skinner blended flowers stand out in colorful relief on the dark blue background and are highlighted with paint.

Lisa Haney's flower box holds treasure securely on PolymerClayDaily.com

Look inside and you’ll see the flowers repeated there.

Lisa is proud of the way the lid seals tightly on the all-polymer container. No loose lid here!

Lisa’s mostly on Facebook and Pinterest where she gravitates to 3D vessels and floral scenes.

Experimenting with construction plus an embossing tip

Watkins reinterprets Benzon on PolymerClayDaily.com

This Jana Benzon-inspired wall art from Rebecca Watkins starts your week with a bright flash of color!

Rebecca was one of the students in this weekend’s class sponsored by the Pittsburgh clay guild. That’s clearly Jana’s Encrusted method of construction reinterpreted in Rebecca’s eye-popping palette and dotted with spirals.

Benzon's newest cutwork earrings on PolymerClayDaily.com

Jana’s early polymer bargello evolved into what she calls her 3D Cutwork. Her new earrings here are an example of Jana’s current thinking in 3D compositions.

Rebecca’s an adventurous polymer artist too. Take a look at what she’s been trying with embossing powders on polymer to enhance ho-hum beads.

Tubular polymer

Nowak on PolymerClayDaily.com

Two artists have gone tubular for spring. Same thinking with very different outcomes from Austria’s Izabela Nowak and Pennsylvania’s Genevieve Williamson.

Izabela uses slim tubes in graduated purples formed into a 3D necklace. She has been experimenting for months with what she calls her Straw Technique.

Williamson on PolymerClayDaily.com

Genevieve takes a more minimalist approach with long slender polymer tubes strung into a bright multi-color strand. “Is it too light?” she wonders on Instagram.

PCD will look at several new stringing, assembling, designing developments that have emerged recently. Looks are changing for spring!

Lovecraft polymer

Belchi on PCDaily

Spain’s Ana Belchi plays with forms in her Lovecraft-inspired series of polymer baubles.

The bulbs and tentacles radiate out from the center of this pendant with pleasing dark symmetry. See more on Instagram, Flickr, and her site. She’ll be teaching a pre-conference workshop at this year’s Synergy4.

Thinking of introducing another dimension into your work?

Leaves of the world

Leonini on PCDaily

Each side of Cecelia Leonini’s (ImpastArte) leaf-like beads provides a separate canvas. She uses very different geometric patterns on each surface to create her Leaves of the World necklace.

You may like her in-process photos that show how she shaped each of the 3-sided beads on a single gently curved wire. Here she is on Etsy and Facebook.

This more complex and updated worldview of fall leaves is right on target today. Have a great fall weekend.

Painted pot

Stavridou on PCDaily

Greece’s Arieta Stavridou (Big Fish Arietas Handmade World) brings us a look at the last of the summer flowers with this polymer covered vessel.

The dimensional textured blossoms hover near the outer edges of the graceful shape. The blended background makes the whole arrangement look more like a painting than a pot. See more of Arieta’s unusual approach to covered shapes on Facebook.

 

Brotherly love in polymer

Stevens on PCDaily

This city scene shows the Philadelphia skyline compressed into a colorful and small (7 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ deep) 3D polymer wall piece.

It’s the first time Veruschka Stevens has attempted wall art (though she’s created lots of diorama necklaces) and she challenged herself further by limiting her tools to a knife, a blade and a roller.

She’s looking for your input about framing her creation. Here are four possibilities that you can comment on. Which do you prefer?

Veruschka likes big, bold statement jewelry that she photographs in sunny, fashionable settings. You may consider jazzing up your wardrobe after seeing how her models vamp with attitude in her colors. She has a board on Pinterest dedicated to her models.

Poke around the vibrant website of this fearless artist (yep, she sent PCD her link so you wouldn’t miss it…hint, hint). There’s more to see on Facebook and Pinterest.

A break from eggs

Schiller on PCDaily

Colorado’s Laura Schiller decided to take a break after years of focusing primarily on pairing polymer and eggs. Laura’s known for her elaborately drilled and designed shells. Here she is on Facebook.

After drawing zentangles on polymer-covered eggs, she wondered what would happen if the popular drawn zentangles were white on white. Then she wondered about zentangles that evolved to 3D in black and white. Off she went on her tangent with no thought, no color, all play.

The latest result is this 11″ square tile, a zentangle gone wild. Now that Laura’s got it out of her system, she’s happy to return to the nest. She leaves us to consider what might happen to zentangles next.