Moose Jaw Monday

Jude Radwanski connects to other artists on PolymerClayDaily.com

Jude Radwanski (fireflyartjewellery) reached out to fellow Canadian Helen Breil in an attempt to meet other polymer artists. Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, doesn’t have much of a clay community.

After a 30-year career in interior design, Jude transitioned to polymer. The Saskatchewan Craft Council came up with a new “wearable craft” category to be able to include her in their shows.

Her scribed and textured and wonky pieces exude a fearlessness that’s just great for a Monday. Welcome aboard, Jude!

Modern twists

Isis Blackstock (littlepiecesjewelry) turns squiggles and wrinkles and tubes into polymer chic.

Isis Blackstock makes polymer chic and striking on PolymerClayDaily

Isis’ pieces are light on technique and heavy on making a smooth, sleek, modern statement.

Wintery polymer

Meike Lucia Friemel brings winter to polymer on PolymerClayDaily.com

“It has to be a long time ago when we had such a winter with low temperature and so much snow. Of course, I went out for frosty photos and frosty hands and feet,” says Germany’s Meike Lucia Friemel (MeikeLucia) who is both a metalworker and polymer artist.

“I like the difference between “slow” metalwork and “fast” clay work,” she says. Polymer gives her the possibility of neverending color.

See how Meike brought the wintery weather into these bangles. They may make you shiver here on Facebook and Flickr.

Mix and match playful bangle

Valérie Bodino-Nazet builds a wonky, fun bangle on PolymerClayDaily.com

France’s Valérie Bodino-Nazet hits the spot with this mix-and-match segmented bangle to wrap up the week.

Black and white stripes are a no-fail pattern to break up the tiny flowered pattern, the black and white leaf-like section, and the graphic black and white piece with just a splash of florals. Here on Instagram.

It’s hard to tell if this is one solid bangle or if the bracelet is in three sections of tubes that stretch apart at the stripes. No matter, it’s a playful and slightly wobbly Friday treat.

If you’re in the mood for more treats, join us over at StudioMojo where the value of a playful approach to polymer art is one of the big keys to success. Come join us.

How does your garden grow?

Juliya Laukhina shows us the beauty of weeds on PolymerClayDaily.com

Moscow’s Juliya Laukhina forces us to take another look at the weeds we’re battling in our yards.

Juliya reveals the beauty of simple plants in this bangle made of textured polymer tiles. Pressing fresh cuttings into clay or molding material, she creates texture plates that she bakes. Then she presses raw clay into the baked plates.

She gathers the resulting soft-edged rectangles around a bangle form and highlights the textures with a wash of dark paint.

Voila, those nuisances in the garden enjoy a new life on your arm.

Watch Juliya on Instagram and Facebook.

Pixelated rainbow

Deb Hart explores the rainbow in her pixelated cane bangles on PolymerClayDaily.com

Texas’ Deb Hart is cooking up a tutorial for her rainbow pixelated cane. Here she’s turned the cane into bangles of extruded tube beads curved to ride comfortably on the wrist.

The edges of the squares in the cane glow and accentuate each color. Look on Facebook and Etsy to see where Deb goes next with her cane tricks.

Mud cloth Monday

Kathleen DeQuence Anderson's polymer mud cloth on PolymerClayDaily.com

These mud cloth pattern Bogolanfini polymer bangles strike a balance between tribal and contemporary jewelry. The colors are perfect and the patterns are purposely loose and energetic.

Each bracelet is formed from two curved mud cloth-patterned tube beads and four spacers joined with a twist. Another version joins over a wider cuff.

They’re from Massachusetts’ Kathleen de Quince Anderson and she sells some of her polymer creations at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. See her signature heart box and most current works on Instagram.

Sleek spare looks

One more look at the sleek, scratched, sgraffito pieces that take an engineered, minimalist turn. They give us our last bit of winter’s gray and they’re both from France.

Sonya Girodon’s flat resin Wildfang bangle is embedded with horsehair and accented with two slotted polymer beads that slide on adding more shapes and a touch of bright yellow.

The horsehair looks like scratches floating in the clear resin. If you look at her Flickr page you’ll see how productive the winter has been for Sonya.

Céline Charuau’s (grisbleu) faceted and scratched gray dangles are complemented by white beads wired securely to the larger surfaces. Look more closely on Flickr.

These designs have power in their sparseness and prepare us for spring’s exuberance.

Frothy polymer

Jana Roberts Benzon continues to unlock the texture secrets of polymer. She’s ruffled, crumpled and cut her pieces with laser-like precision. Still she felt compelled to push farther.

Now she’s whipped up frothy layers that undulate around this new bangle. Here she is on Facebook and Flickr.

Jana jots her ideas in marker on her glass work surface as she experiments. She uses her phone to take a picture of each step before she erases the writing and moves on.

No more lost steps or mystery processes. Documentation like this is a must if you’re an avid experimenter like Jana.

Denim and ruffles in polymer

You may not usually envision denim with ruffles but Russia’s Anna Bragina combines these two concepts quite nicely in her new Denim polymer bangle.

The rough-edged pieces (I’m guessing some extrusion was involved) stack up tightly next to each other in a rich selection of blues. Some strips fold back and forth to form ruffles. The contrast of tight/loose, rough/ruffled, makes me start thinking about how I could build an outfit around this. And getting the viewer/customer involved is what our art is all about, isn’t it?

See more of Anna’s solid and sophisticated pieces on Flickr and on Facebook.

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