Mix and match polymer

Cute, cute, cute. The pattern mix-and-match on Hila Bushari’s recent beads makes me want to pull out all the small remnants of my canes and make some big round beads.

Look at the ginghams and polka dots, stripes and little flowers! She combines the patterns and colors together in a trendy, carefree way that makes it look easy.

The translation of her post indicates that Hila leaned on her Israeli cane-whiz friends Marcia Tzigelnik and Ronit Golan to supplement her supply of canes.

Great idea! Recruit friends to bring their canes and have a bead making gathering. You make beads and do a little studio spring cleaning at the same time. It’s a win-win!

Win-winning reminder

While you’re playing (and win-winning), remember to extrude a few patterns and send snapshots of your creations my way. I’m collecting entries for a Spring Push competition and prizes. Attach your photo to an email and send it in. The deadline is April 16 with winners announced April 18.

Three winners will be featured on PCDaily and pictured in our next ad in The Polymer Arts magazine. Strut your stuff! Email your entry.

Polymer mood beads

These beads from Indiana’s Beth Ann Hoover will reflect your mood. She offers a whole series of Mirage polymer beads that include heat sensitive liquid crystals that change color.

How does Beth Ann do this? Does she add ink? Film? Paint? What’s your guess? Will she divulge her secret? Looking at these beads may put you in a curious mood (that’s yellow). Here she is on Facebook and Pinterest. What mood have you chosen for this week?

Correction: Thanks to all who quickly noted that these are manufactured hollow polymer beads that Beth Ann is distributing. My bad, I misunderstood and I rarely venture to wholesale bead sites. Problem is I’m still intrigued as to how this is done. So the question remains. Color my mood “red” with embarrassment.

Icing on the cake

Galina Grebennikova’s extruded beads show a positively brilliant modification of devices. She uses icing tips to get the effects she wants. Look at what she does with this ruffle tip.

Galina’s discovery got me wondering about what other clever ideas and shapes are out there.

Spring push contest

How have you used my Global Extruder Disk patterns? The dot patterns and interlocking tiles found on the disk are popping up in fashion this spring.

Snap a picture of your item that used my extruder patterns or some combination you came up with on your own and enter the Spring Push contest. The art must consist of mostly extruded polymer. Pretty easy, eh?

Attach your photo to an email and send it in. The deadline is April 16 with winners announced April 18. Is there a pattern you’ve been missing? Let me know and we’ll try to include it in our next set.

The top winner will win a $50 gift certificate from Global Studio Tools. Second prize is a copy of the book, Polymer Clay Global Perspectives and third prize is Protect Your Memories sealant. Winners will be featured on PCDaily and pictured in our next ad in The Polymer Arts magazine. Strut your stuff! Email your entry.

Polymer buds

Ireland’s Silvana Bates starts our week with wrapped polymer bud beads that look fresh from the garden. With their rounded tops and sherbert colors they could almost be edible.

Silvana has only been using polymer for a year yet she’s posted an impressive gallery of pictures of her work on Facebook, Pinterest and Flickr.

Living far from other polymer artists, she’s had to develop her own methods. The birds, bugs and flowers in her garden provide ample inspiration. Don’t miss her butterfly watercolors and her hummingbirds. Silvana tweaks colors and shapes to suit herself.

Dotty polymer

Start your week with an easy bead from from Israel’s Hila Bushari. Her spotted beads are easy on the eyes and easy to do. And she adds a free video in case you need a how-to.

A second version of her simple bead is made even more striking by rolling, shaping and texturing. Dots are all the rage in fashion this season and these snappy colors are good for spring.

She’s added dangles and more designs on her Flickr site, her Etsy store and her Facebook page.

Out of time polymer

Imagine my surprise when I picked these beads for today and then found that the artist, Kathy Richardson of Cincinnati, Ohio, had recently taken a class from Leslie Blackford (she was yesterday’s inspiration). Let’s call it great minds thinking alike.

Kathy was already a committed boho style, urban grunge, mixed media kinda gal. Leslie pushed Kathy to think about sculpture for her Out of Time Designs. The double entendre of her shop name makes you think, doesn’t it?

The polymer beads at the left are from another time when children played with wooden toys instead of video games. She applied colors, sanded and colored them again to give them the worn look of old toys. Peeling bark was the inspiration for the curled beads at the right.

Kathy says, “My shop started from a need to pay for this terribly addictive habit of making things to make people smile, make me smile and make the world a bit brighter in the process.” Take your time and smile as you look at her work this weekend.

White-on-white polymer

Ease into your week with these lovely white-on-white beads from the UK’s Angela Guertel. She makes a plain white hollow bead base and adds slices of white shapes for interest. The shine on the slices adds an additional subtle note of contrast.

Angela says she uses small cutters to make her shapes. Extruded shapes would also work well for this understated, sophisticated look.

You’ll find Angela on Facebook and on the IPCA group page. She posted about going to Georg Dinkel’s EuroSynergy session so I hopped over there.

Wow! Have you seen the photos on the EuroSynergy page lately (more here on FB)? Stunning. There’s still time to sign up! I’ll be there to help you envision your future in polymer.

Streamlined polymer

London’s Carol Blackburn knows how to slim down. Not weightwise (she’s already trim) but stepwise. There are a few people in our community who know how to streamline patterns and translate a complex design into a few strategic steps. You’ve probably seen her ingenious Shell designs pictured below. Her book has been published in four languages.

She teaches a slew of classes about her methods. I took a class from her and came away with a hassle-free way to inlay a new bowl. Her efficiency comes from years working in knitting and high fashion where time is money.

Carol’s teaching some of her pattern tricks at a weekend workshop in Santa Fe in February at Penina Meisel’s studio and they have a few seats left. Here’s more of her work on Pinterest.

Polymer fantasy beads

North Carolina’s Barbara McGuire has posted her polymer fairies, butterflies, bees and other fantasy women beads. Barbara says that, “I did a search for fairy beads on ebay – and there were 2500 listings! Butterfly beads 22500 listings! Guess I am not the only one who likes fairies and butterflies!”

Barbara’s beads may be the most ethereal and fantastical, however.

She layers flora and fauna cane slices on top of her distinctive mokume gane. She’s added another how-to tutorial video that explains her methods on her YouTube channel.

Barbara has flitted like a butterfly around the polymer community for more years than she’ll probably admit. You can catch up with her on Facebook and Flickr (and ebay, of course).

Bubbling polymer

Lucie Struncova tantalizes us with these Bubbling Pebble polymer beads. This Czech Republic artist and entrepreneur alludes to an ebook but I couldn’t find it and I suspect that it hasn’t been released yet. (Let me know if you locate the tutorial.)

In these pebbles she combines unusual colors and patterns into a fresh graphic pattern. The yellows and grays update color combinations that you may remember from the ’50s. Lucie shows darker, distressed versions of her bubbles on sample beads here.

Still a teenager, Lucie (with the help of her father) has designed a new extruder and a slicer along with her own brand of clay for sale in her shop. All this in addition to an impressive collection of designs and tutorials. She brings an energetic youthful vision to our craft and you’ll want to keep your eye on her.

Her products are available through Kimberly Idalski here in the US.

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