Still spinning

Yesterday we spiraled extrusions around an egg. Today we watch Germany’s Jana Lehmann (Feeliz) as she winds around the centers of her series of Spiral brooches.

The colors blend into each other as the layers build. White dots and black and white accents provide a diversion from the strong colors.

Jana’s debuted a series of graphic dolls that are also decorated with spirals made of subtly blended colors.

You can catch Jana on Facebook and Flickr. Don’t miss the pen/pendants before you go spinning off to your weekend.

And if you’d like an even closer look at what happened in polymer clay art this week, join us over at StudioMojo for the inside scoop in the weekend newsletter.

Fantasy shopping at ACC

What would you pick if money were no object and you found yourself transported to a Ford/Forlano booth? What would you choose?

Here’s my pick, a Stacked Pin made of polymer and sterling. It measures 2 3/4 x 4 3/4 x 1?.

The brooch’s graphic elements are filled with echoes of the old CityZenCane work from the 90’s. So it’s a combination of sentimental and trendy.

What would you choose and why? It’s an interesting fantasy/exercise. Their site plus Facebook and Pinterest are well stocked. Go shopping!

And if you really do want to shop, they’re set up at the ACC St. Paul craft show April 6-9. You’ll find Lindsay Locatelli and Betsy Baker there as well.

Warbling character

This simple sweet warbler from Melissa Terlizzi continues our review of characters. She was so anxious to hear songbirds again that she made her own. Zoom in close and you can almost hear him singing.

A smooth base shape, some marbled polymer cane feathers neatly arranged and some color details for the head, eye and beak. Melissa knows her birds!

Turns out this is one of the samples for a CraftArtEdu class that Melissa is working on! He may have to be slightly smaller to perch on your lapel.

Have you followed along on FB as Melissa drilled us on our ABC’s? She spent 26 days sculpting a most exotic alphabet.

More pink

This piece from the unpredictable Carol Beal (beadunsupervised) blends nicely with yesterday’s pink brooches.

Carol’s style is carefree, almost slapdash and always entirely her. Her lemons make great lemonade. More on Instagram.

One more polymer present

This sweet little free tutorial is a last minute Christmas gift from Czech Republic’s Dana Phamova (Fruitensse).

She shows you how to make puffy polymer animal brooches using white polymer, some simple textures, and pan pastels (or chalks). Dana pops up on Instagram, Flickr, Facebook and Pinterest too. What a lovely gift for holiday playtime!

Tolerant polymer

The spectacular physical beauty of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque inspired Heba Bazari to create polymer art that celebrates islamic design elements. Fantastical flower designs are inlaid in the floor and the columns of the mosque.

The flower sculptures symbolize love, tolerance and mutual understanding and are a fitting feature for International Tolerance Day which is celebrated every November 16.

An American-Syrian artist Heba is a metalsmith and polymer clay artist with a Ph.D. in molecular biology. After living for thirty years in Virginia, she is currently an assistant professor of science working and living in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Heba spoke at this year’s EuroSynergy in France and received the 2016 Crafthaus/Arrowmont scholarship. Read more on Facebook and Instagram.

Strong polymer women

With strong women so necessary these days, Debbie Jackson’s striking portrait of a Nubian woman in polymer expresses the sentiment we’re looking for. Clearly defined, unabashed woman.

The brooch is part of Debbie’s new mudcloth collection that she’ll unveil at the upcoming NOBO show in Ohio.

Women figure prominently in Debbie’s new series. You can sample it on Facebook.

Autumn leaves

Moscow’s Natalia Leitman (madlen) gathers three translucent polymer leaves into a fall brooch.

The gently curved thin variegated pinks, reds, and oranges glow and show off the vein markings. See more of Natalia on Instagram and Flickr

Watch what you love

If you love tools and would like to forget about politics, join Craftcast’s Alison Lee and her panel of artists on tonight’s I LOVE TOOLS.

Tonight’s online show is the 10th in this popular series. It starts at 7:30 ET (Wednesday, October 19) and you can register for drawings here.

Splat and swash

With her latest series of splats and swashes, Donna Kato indulges her love of colored pencils. She always liked the look and feel of pencils but didn’t feel she had the talent to become an illustrator. She always felt at home with polymer.

The Ribbon brooch is the newest iteration that combines the two processes. The Splat necklace continues a sunny spring version.

More and more polymer artists are coloring on both baked and unbaked polymer,

creating gradations, textures and colors. A black edge enhances the contrast.

Donna has uploaded photos of her growing collection of bright hand-drawn designs on Facebook. Combining pencils, polymer and most recently, animal drawings hits a sweet spot for Donna. “This series really makes me happy, happy.” she says.

Would pencils brighten your day?

Bugs in galleries

Wisconsin’s Joyce Fritz has been celebrating creepy crawlies in the most dramatic ways since 1993. You’ll see her Yipes polymer insects in crawling around the finest galleries and shops across the country.

That doesn’t leave her much time for online exposure so perhaps the best way to catch all her bugs in one spot is on Google or on her website. She’s worth tracking down. Her story is best told (and you get a better idea of the size of these critters) in this interview in her college alumni magazine.

This year’s crop of lightning bugs encouraged me to shed more light on Joyce’s work.

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