Architectural polymer

Delaware’s Arden Bardol is one busy polymer artist, selling her work through a long list of galleries, on Artful Home, and with a number of shows thrown into the mix.

And she’s been a repeat Niche Award winner and finalist (2014).

Her Wings and Windows brooch gives a hint of her training in architecture. She tried interior design and ceramics as well. Arden combined her talents and settled on polymer clay. She started selling in earnest in 2005 through her Art-Ture studio, a blend of art and architecture.

Her 3″ wide Petals brooch is part of her current collection and comes in a number of colorways with companion earrings. Cane slices are coordinated, shaped and layered on their edges into a flower with small splashes of dots and dashes. There’s more to explore on Facebook.

Does Arden’s volume of work make you want to get busy this week?

Facing the holidays

Melanie West went all “spots and dots” while Donna Kato got “spikey” and Loretta Lam played “hide and seek” in the new work they just unveiled on Facebook in time for the season. The works have a loose and confident feel about them.

Not ready for the holidays? Join the rest of us in the crowd who have good intentions and are scrambling to get artworks finished (or started).

Settle down and remember that the holidays aren’t really about competition but about heartfelt expression.

Breathe and take in the beauty of what others have created.

Heartfelt homecoming

Veronika Sturdy (from Prague and now working in London) brings us charming off-season dotty hearts. The texture and the individually placed dots on a slightly graduated background make a soft and romantic statement.

Veronika has heaps of works in all kinds of polymer techniques for you to explore on Flickr and Facebook. She’s a ceramic artist who googled “clay” and got thrown wildly off-course when “polymer clay” came up in her results.

Veronika’s heartfelt reminders reflect my comfort with being back home with my lusciously large desktop screen and screaming fast Internet connection. Happy to be home! Now to answer all your emails!

Polymer comic relief

Enjoy a little comic relief from Pavla Cepelikova. These cute polymer pins are the work of students in her Comics class. What a fun introduction to polymer. Go see the rest on her Flickr site as I soak up the final few days of my vacation. Need more? Try Etsy and her Czech site.

New polymer directions

Massachusetts’ Bonnie Bishoff has tapped into a new creative vein with her latest works for the Minimal to Bling exhibition at The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston. This cuff of flattened pebble shapes and these brooches that have a 3D tab-and-slot construction represent a couple of new directions.

On the furniture front (Bonnie and her husband are best known for their polymer inlaid furniture), you can catch their work at the Fuller Craft Museum in the Made in Massachusetts: Studio Furniture of the Bay State show.

It’s easiest to keep up with Bonnie on Facebook where she dashes up pictures of her newest works.

Payoff polymer

Denver’s Rosemary Probst insists on calling me Cindy (no one calls me that). When I taught her my latest polymer rock technique, she insisted on putting rhinestones in her version. Rosemary loves to taunt me in the most delightful ways.

This three interlocked circle pin that Rosey created is simple, clever and fashionable. Discussions about taking your work to the next level have netted results for her. Many of Rosey’s works are sold to support cancer research and Facebook is as far as she ventures into technology.

We all know artists like this who don’t seek fame but have happy hands that bring joy to our community. Surely after this post Rosey will stop calling me Cindy. Have a happy weekend.

Wired polymer

Ponsawan Silapiruti has been playing with positive/negative space as she makes wire brooch and pendant forms. " I use bigger gauge wire to make the form, then use smaller wire to wrap around the big wire and in the middle. When I put on a sheet of polymer to fill it up, the clay grabs onto the wire," she explains.

You can see how Ponsawan has progressed with her wire working on her Flickr site and get even more details on her Facebook page. One of the wire forms below became this polymer-filled brooch.

Breezy polymer

On a hot day, the graceful, spare designs from Ohio’s Grace Stokes are like a cool breeze.

Grace says that her work with polymer was born out of frustration. "I did not want to be limited by the color or pattern or size of a stone," she says. " Polymer allows me the versaility to create elements and qualities exactly to the specifications that I want for my designs."

Time for a mint julip!

Polymer pests

Utah’s MaryAnne Loveless found an old wire egg basket at the second hand store that was perfect for holding her selection of polymer insects. She admits that the display could be confused for a buggy hat.

MaryAnne’s colorful creepy crawlies are particularly alluring at this time of year. What a great use for tail ends of canes!

See all the caned and textured pieces that she’s been putting together.

Oxidized polymer

Spain’s Ana Belchi celebrates 500 blog posts with a shower of new work. Her Industrial Disease series shows Ana’s efforts at oxidizing polymer clay. Wires appear and disappear in these rough pieces that were inspired by the work of Montserrat Lacomba.

Her Cuerda Seca (translates as dry rope?) group shows ragged edged brooches made of blocks of color divided by deep black channels. Explore all of this and more on her Flickr site.

Ana will teach her oxidation class at the August GredosClayFestival in Spain. Visit the site for all the class listings.

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