Mokume gane treat

This brooch by France’s Isabelle Chatelain speaks to me and it’s too delicious to just let it float by on Flickr. Let’s grab it and mull it over for a Friday minute.

The repeating circle patterns both change and stay the same. This is polymer mokume gane at its best and the color combination shows off the pattern nicely. It hints at Moorish mosaics and Byzantine ceilings.

Isabelle mixes bits of this design into other brooches. Her ability to assemble compositions from small chunks of mokume gane plus textures and colored shapes is remarkable. Yummy.

Find more on Facebook and in her online shop. Isabelle also teaches on CraftArtEdu.

Seeing polymer birds

Cynthia Toops combines large lentil beads covered in millefiori cane slices with small insets of micromosaic bird motifs for this new necklace called Seeing Birds.

The birds are all native to Washington state and the piece is featured in the Of a Feather show at the White River Valley Museum located between Tacoma and Seattle. Read more about the exhibition here .

I wish we had a higher resolution photo so you could dive in for a closer look at her magical images made from super fine threads of polymer.

For a better example, zoom in on this brooch that Cynthia made for last fall’s Tilling Time/Telling Time show at Facere Gallery. Keep in mind that the brooch is only 1 1/2 inches square! Silver bezel is by Chuck Domitrovich.

Encrusted and enlightened

Ann Dillon was captivated by Jana Roberts Benzon’s Encrusted workshop last October. “I didn’t want to do quite the same thing,” Ann explains. “I like matte more than shiny. I’m not into Swarovski crystals. I had been hankering to make some of the rough-edged spirals I’d seen online.”

Ann’s Encrusted works have a woven fiber appearance. “I can’t seem to stop making them!” she admits. See more of Ann’s interpretations on Pinterest and Facebook.

Meanwhile Jana has moved in her own new directions.

The bangle below is her wearable coral reef – complete with barnacles. In another piece she makes polymer look felted, then wrapped (see her Rapt class at Cabin Fever). Techniques are tools that can be used to express very different concepts.

Simple geometry

Bonnie Bishoff keeps expanding her polymer jewelry line (she and her husband, J.M. Syron, are also known for their furniture and functional art). Her designs have gotten both more simple and more complex.

These recent pieces are comprised of wonky polymer-covered circles that are linked and stacked. The striped patterns vary in size and change directions with dashes of color playing against the black and white. Bonnie says that these black and white designs take her back to her woodcut days.

The new designs on her gallery page were sold at holiday shows in Boston and Washington. This one with half-filled circles is my favorite but it was too complex to silhouette for PCDaily (I’m not that crazy). The gallery is full of geometry that draws you in for a closer look.

Here’s Bonnie on Facebook and her line of shawl pins.

Dancing polymer

Susan Hyde’s madonnas and angels are part of my holiday attire. That’s an angel pin I bought years ago at the right. This year she added 4″ dancing women whose bright swirling colors add to their sense of movement. The round stands they dance on contribute more color. You can see them in her Bremerton, WA gallery and on Facebook.

My grandsons are coming for a visit so I’m getting myself in the mood for angels and movement and celebrating.

Polymer commas

These swooping Cernit brooches from Russia’s Olga Ledneva use beautiful blends and particularly graceful smooth shapes.

Think of them as punctuation, grace notes for the end of an otherwise hectic week. You’ll find more from Olga on Flickr and Facebook.

Undercut polymer

Jan Montarsi gives us a fine example of undercutting a veneered shape technique that Ron Lehocky showed last week. Instead of a heart outline, Jan uses a shield shape for his Carnivorous lapel pin.

The edges slope gently because he’s angled the craft knife to remove excess underneath. (Watch Ron Lehocky here if you need a refresher. See step 2 at 2:40 and 3:56.)

Of course Jan’s way with metallics makes the shape even more dramatic and with this before-and-after sanding picture, he demonstrates how that extra step adds richness and depth.

Long ago Jan shared his methods of tinting metallic clays with alcohol inks to achieve clear, warm colors. You can still find his tutorial here. See more examples on Flickr, Pinterest and Facebook.

Scrappy polymer

Crisp fall days make colors brights and simple masks funnier. Look at these new pins from Susan Hyde (she’s mostly on Facebook).

A flat oval polymer face with a circle cut out gets her started on completely silly faces. A few dots and strings of clay turn into crazily raised eyebrows, a moustache or a glob of hair. A slice of any old cane will work for eyes.

Don’t forget teeth or a tongue and everybody gets a pair of jump ring earrings. Perfect Halloween favors.

Start from scrap

As long as we’re going for easy and effective art, check out Debbie Crothers’ scrappy cane tutorial.

I learned a similar version from Carol Blackburn who tames the tutorial and turns the results into tidy stripes and precise geometrics. Any way you handle this tute, it’s a great one to have at your disposal.

Undead polymer

Don’t look now but monsters are beginning to creep into the polymer pages online.

Melissa Terlizzi’s trio of Zombie Brooches: Accessories for the Wicked and the Undead (above) are very weird and wearable.

Melissa’s from Virginia and you’ll find her on Facebook.

Denise Baldwin (left) cooked up a batch of exotic creatures on Flickr. She’s identified herself as ODDimagination so this line of creepies shouldn’t be a surprise. She’s on Etsy. Denise is from Virginia too! Coincidence?

Two-headed polymer

Canada’s Helen Breil can fold, fan, shape and stamp polymer like a champ. Her two ebooks explain how to make beautiful undulating shapes and she’ll be demoing her methods at the IPCA Retreat in Columbus. Helen knows her geometry and is able to fold simple flat cutouts into surprisingly elegant forms.

Collaborating with Annie Pennington for this piece gives Helen’s folded designs an even richer and more complex dimension. Annie, an Associate Editor at Art Jewelry magazine, works in felt and metal along with polymer. Her brooches were IPCA Award winners this year.

Helen sent Annie the blue overlapping folded forms. Annie added the copper setting, the felt center and the round accents proving again that two heads are better than one.

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