It’s difficult to pinpoint what makes these polymer brooches from KatchaT so appealing. Smooth rounded edges make them touchable. The scattered dots of extruded color slices look like confetti and add a party atmosphere.
Their yin/yang colors and shapes bounce your attention back and forth.
The Voila site chose them as winners in their competition this month.
KatchaT is an au pair from Czech Repulic who’s living in Aberdeen, Scotland. See more of her work in her Voila gallery.
If you want to watch how fast information travels around the globe, count how many variations on Alice Stroppel’s scrap cane you’ve spotted in the week she introduced it.
Since last Friday’s post we’ve watched examples pop up from the US, UK, Israel and beyond. The photo at the right is from France’s CreaSof who has skillfully integrated the technique into brooch designs.
Here are a few more you might enjoy:
I hope your weekend is filled with good news.
From their base on the west coast of Mexico, Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes are about to go off on a new tangent and unveil their next big idea. Join their mailing list (it’s free) to see what all the fuss is about. All I know is that they’ve been working hard and they’re giddy with nervous excitement.
Before you tidy your polymer workspace for the weekend, consider trying a clever trick from Florida’s Alice Stroppel. She’s added a short (and free) video of her Stroppel cane on her website.
Colorful cane scraps layered between thin sheets of high contrast background produce new random patterns that give the scrap new life.
We had fun trying this at our recent conference where scrap was plentiful. These brooches were a late night collaborative effort by Alice and her table mate Meisha Barbee as they cleaned up the leftover bits of the day.
May your weekend be filled with colorful random bits of fun!
Eva Ehmeier’s dimensional polymer Naucum brooches beg to be studied and touched to understand and appreciate them. Eva demonstrated her fondness for folding with her Artichoke series.
The folding continues with this new group whose edges have been accentuated by painting and sanding. Selecting a favorite new colorway from her workspace would be a difficult choice.
Thanks to Lindly Haunani (she specializes in folding polymer too) for the link.
Conni Filip’s unpainted polymer brooches present a blank canvas, a clean slate for a new week. Without having to consider color, she is free to explore shape. The results sprout in unusual ways and explode in unpredictable directions. These exercises in composition are both playful and productive.
Once a strong design is established, Conni adds paints and other surface treatments to give the brooches color and interest. You can see her finished work on Flickr and on her Facebook photo page. Could your work benefit from this approach?
Sometimes examining work up-close-and-personal is a pleasant surprise. Here in Virginia, Jana Roberts Benzon‘s tray of pieces to be finished was an astonishing visual feast. Jana is best known for her intricate Arabesque line which photographs well. Her newer works need to be seen to be believed.
Jana’s sea sculpture brooches are tactile treats and her dimensional landscape pins need to be viewed from several angles to appreciate the full effect of their sliced and stacked construction. Flawless finishing is always a delight to see.
Here’s her Flickr site for more examples.
The weather is terrific and we work late into the night. I must get some sleep and bring you more tomorrow.
Claire Wallis invites the wearers of her polymer brooch to fill in the empty bubble and make their own statement with her quote brooch. “Grab a pen and express yourself,” she says.
Her matching earrings whisper sweet nothings.
We last looked at this UK artist’s faux knitting. “My work generally leans towards simple colours and sculptural shapes and with the exception of striped, stacked canes I hadn’t tried anything more adventurous. This was my first attempt at a ‘proper’ cane,” says Claire.
What would you like to say to yourself this week?
Santa Fe’s David Forlano is the western half of the Ford/Forlano design duo. (Steven Ford lives in Philadelphia.) The art magazine, Riveting Riffs, features David and his work as both a polymer jeweler and as a sound designer. He co-produces the suspenseful web series Cyphers.
David recounts how he and Steve ricocheted from art school to roofing jobs to polymer clay. He tells the story of how they sold their work at first in surf shops and later in museums. They continue to change.
David traces the thread of collaboration, innovation, and fearlessness throughout their careers which has taken turns not unlike the curving paths in their Ribbon Brooch at left. It’s a good read and he discusses the relationship Ford/Forlano have with the Texas design studio, Allie-Coosh. Prepare for a rich read and an inspiring story with lots of eye candy.
Celine Charuau’s polymer Cathedral Flower brooch is very understated for the usually flamboyant Gris Bleu. The stepped, layered, dimensional cutouts immediately put the viewer in mind of a cathedral window. Delicate, simple and amazing!
On closer inspection, you can see how Celine used simple graduated cutters to achieve this brilliant effect. Then take a look at the snowflakes from Camille Young (and closeup here) that were featured more than a year ago.
Are you using your humble clay cutters to their full potential?
We broke new ground, Terra Nova, in 2010! Thanks to the persistent effort spearheaded by Elise Winters and joined by many others, we can look forward to polymer’s first major museum show and a companion book at the Racine Art Museum October 2011 to February 2012. Look at PolymerArtArchive to learn about the history of your artform.
The Terra Nova: Polymer Art at the Crossroads exhibit promises to show how far polymer art has come in a short time by spotlighting eight Boundary Breakers. (This Blossoming Radii brooch is by Jeff Dever.)
With this PCDaily post #1413 we continue to watch polymer art grow. I look forward to another year with you. Happy new year!
