The UK’s Claire Wallis intrigues us with another smoothly blended cane. This time her cane layers imitate a blue lace agate geode. Made into a small brooch, it cradles a small pocket of crystals in its heart.
Claire’s recent Water and Lightning canes were recently explained in a tutorial offered on CraftArtEdu. She shares her inspirations on Pinterest and more photos on Flickr.
Even though you can detect the echoes of teachers and tutorials in Kathy Cannella’s polymer jewelry, her own voice comes through loud and clear. She puts her juju on each piece, zigging when you thought she’d zag. It’s a cool trick to retain your own aesthetic when you’re following someone else’s instructions. Kathy shows us that it can be done!
Kathy crackles, veneers, textures and distresses with confidence. It appears that she has a background in sculpture. She keeps a low profile and all we know is that she’s from New Jersey. There’s more to come so keep her on your radar.
Polymer whale courtesy of Russia’s Anna Primak (Snorkys) on Instagram.
Sealife has been my theme this week as I wrap up a vacation in the tropics. We’re back to our regularly scheduled programming on Monday.
Tool Tuesday
Craftcast’s free I Love Tools webinar introduces us to a whole bunch of the latest tools and ideas. The ninth edition of this popular show will be online live on Tuesday. Sign up here.
Don’t despair if you can’t join in at 7:30 ET on Tuesday evening, the recorded version will be available later. The live party is the best fun if you can squeeze it in.
Check out the lineup of artists and find out what tools they’ve discovered to make your studio life easier.
Guess what medium was used in the piece that won the top award at the Schmuck (German for jewelry) exhibit during the world’s top international contemporary jewelry event. You are looking at Jelizaveta (Liza) Suska’s Frozen Moment brooch made of polymer and crushed marble powder.
It’s the winner of the top prize at the Munich exhibit and was chosen among 700 applicants. The field was whittled down to 66 designers from 21 countries and took place during Munich’s Jewelry Week. The judges were intrigued at how the brooch resembles an unpolished gemstone. Translucent polymer has captivated us for years. With Liza’s vision and skill, it’s gaining wider recognition.
Liza, 26, is a Latvian who lives in Sweden. Read about her in the New York Times, her site, on Facebook and on Pinterest.
I hope Liza doesn’t mind our basking in the glow of her prize. The polymer community will happily latch onto the coattails of this talented young jeweler. The prize was brought to our attention by Kathleen Dustin who agrees that it marks a big step forward.
Another step forward
PolymerArt’s Sage Bray announces the April 14 publication of Polymer Journeys 2016 with 30% off the cover price until March 30. The book (in paper and digital formats) covers recent works of hundreds of artists.
Sage included my input about how the community has progressed and where we’re headed. Whether you’ve been a polymer artist for 10 days or 10 years, you’ll find something useful and inspirational in this book to keep you moving forward.
The spring colors of Angela Guertel’s latest brooch bloom with hints and colors of spring. Her Flickr page shows works that you may recognize as thoughtful twists on well-known processes to which Angela has added her own ideas.
For instance, these black and white beads were made with Kor tools along with some handmade patterns. Angela backfilled the graphic patterns for effect and strung them with textured polymer spacers. Her spring brooch and other reinvented works are on Facebook.
Germany’s Cornelia Brockstedt was trained as a goldsmith and she’s run a design agency for 17 years. Her training is evident in her cleanly designed and impeccably finished polymer art like this new Winter Blues brooch.
Conny is fond of irregular and surprising shapes. She challenges herself with what seem impossible constructions like her entry in this year’s IPCA awards. Skinner-blended extruded strands wove through a central structure to create a complex geometric pendant.
She’ll be teaching her Wave minimalist 3-part bangle at a post-conference Synergy workshop. See the whole range of Conny’s experiments and discoveries on Flickr and Facebook.
Lindly Haunani’s Crayon Lei in Oranges and Greens is one of eight polymer treasures in the Spectrum exhibit on view through July 10 at the Racine Art Museum. The lei was created in 1998 when Lindly was experimenting with inclusions.
Wax from crayon shavings were mixed into the polymer and melted off during baking. The residual pigment colored the translucent polymer in a mottled pattern. Color is a central element to all three of Lindly pieces in the show.
Lindly gave me a Crayon Lei as an engagement gift that same year so it’s especially near and dear to my heart and I’m pleased to share it with you. Read more about her process in this PAA feature.
Pieces from Pier Voulkos, Dan Cormier and Jeff Dever are also part of the RAM show which focuses on works that use color as a defining principle in form and design. Read more and see the rest of the polymer works in the exhibit on the PolymerArtArchive.
A heap of 4″x4″ tiles for the FIMO50 World Project is mounding up in my studio. Here are the project details.
I’ll forward my pile of tiles to Germany in one batch after April 30. You still have time! US artists can forward entries to: Cynthia Tinapple, 1 Hartford Court, Worthington, OH 43085.
An Instagram page shows a selection of entries. If yours hasn’t shown up on there, email me a photo and I’ll add it.
The polymer community was saddened by the loss of California’s Dottie McMillan. She was one of the first people I linked up with on the Prodigy bulletin board way back when. She was a writer, artist and good friend in the polymer community. Here’s an earlier PCD feature about her work.
You’ve probably figured out that sometimes I choose pieces to feature just because they’ll make a bright spot on the PCD site design. And some shapes are fun to cut out in Photoshop. I indulge myself.
Pavla Cepelikova’s organic brooch struck all the right notes and doesn’t it look pretty here? I have no idea how she’s making those patterned swirls. She adds sparkly bits in the crevices.
The brooch is part of her Ammonite series and she tells all in a tutorial on Etsy. You may remember that she offered her version of polymer batik a couple of years ago. Pavla shares lots of examples on Flickr and Pinterest.
Speaking of indulging yourself, there are a raft of conferences coming up early next year. Need a treat to put on your gift list? The New Jersey Clayathon has a very attractive price tag especially if you register within the next two weeks.
Could you use a friend in your pocket this Monday? Serbia’s Milos Samardzic (Tramps and Glams) creates polymer Pocketmen that he markets on Etsy. He’s been recreating silent movie stars, circus performers and book characters into offbeat polymer and wire sculptures since 2008.
The eyes and hands of the 1 1/2″ x 3″ brooches are designed to peek over the edge of your shirt pocket. “They can be shy, they can be silly, they can even be grumpy at times, but they are always devoted and honest friends,” says Milos.
See the whole cast of characters on his blog, Facebook and Twitter.
Yes, yes, Germany’s Jana Lehmann knows just what we need for Monday. Her flowerpot pins bloom with bright graphic flowers springing out of textured cone shaped Skinner-blended pots.
Each flower contains a contrasting “seed” bead and is topped with dots of polymer. Jana says she prefers flowers in pots because they last longer than cut flowers in vases.
Jana stepped away from her precise style and used only very basic tools to create these monsters for a Fimo kids book she’s writing. See the whole range of her work on Pinterest, Flickr and Facebook.
