Polymer in DC

We can all get up and do a little happy dance that polymer clay is making its appearance in the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington D.C. thanks to the work of Ohio’s Debbie Jackson.

She will be offering two series of designs for sale in the museum shop. Debbie’s indigo line shown here combines polymer clay, indigo fabric, African brass, metallic foils and raffia into a powerful group of shield shaped pieces.

See the rest of her designs on Facebook.

Debbie is also working with DC sculptor Woodrow Nash to produce beads and pieces that will embellish his dramatic figures.

It’s been a banner year for Debbie full of paperwork and negotiation and waiting. Debbie has long been known as a talented and persistent artist and teacher here in our home town and we’re very proud of her. She shows us all how hard work pays off.

Polymer surprises

Even if you won’t be traveling to the Czech Republic for Polymer Week 2017, July 2-8, you’ll want to take a closer look what the 15 teachers will be presenting. (Scroll to the bottom of their page.)

For example, these brooches from Spain’s Fabiola Perez Ajates pull you in with their layers, colors, patterns, textures, cutouts. So neatly and cleverly done!

Just when you think that your eyes have taken in all the details, you find another point of interest. Shapes that look easy and geometric turn out to be slightly askew. These visual surprise packages will be part of Fabi’s classes. She shares glimpses of her patterns and palettes on the group’s Facebook page as well as on her own blog and FB page.

Could your work benefit from another helping of surprise?

Polymer hats

Blackford, Terlizzi and Friesen on PCDaily

Pink polymer everywhere! Artists hopped on the craze for this symbol of women’s marches around the globe.

These brooches were made by Leslie Blackford (Instagram), Melissa Terlizzi (Flickr), and Christi Friesen (Instagram).

I can vouch for the vibe at the Washington, DC site which was very friendly and upbeat (more in StudioMojo which will come out Tuesday). Many polymer artists joined in marches and cleverly added their wearable reminders that women are united and strong.

Does this inspire you to make your own version?

Marching as one in polymer

Rachelle from our polymer classes at the Ohio Reformatory for Women made the We March Together pins for Jackie Burns and me.

Faces were the subject of last month’s class and Rachelle has been making face canes ever since. Mine is has orange/blonde streaked hair and Jackie’s hair is white.

Their brooches certainly remind us that we march together in support of all women’s issues.

Then Pennsylvania’s Andrew Thornton put a pink hat on his baby dragon to show his support for the marchers. He explains the details of his process on his blog. Off to march with a wild cast of characters.

Polycolored polymer

Nikolina Otrzan’s Polygonal Color brooches will wake up your Monday. Imagine lining up those angles and colors! The stripes bring another level of complexity while almost imperceptible dots of color add grace notes.

Nikolina takes her geometry in other directions as well. See what she’s up to on Flickr, Pinterest and Facebook. Surely she’ll teach her clever technique on CraftArtEdu soon.

Color cravings

Do you have color cravings? My mouth watered and my stomach said, “Yum, let’s eat that!” when I saw these polymer and silver donuts from Ford & Forlano’s booth at the Baltimore ACC show. (More new work here.)

They’re not edible but those reds look mighty juicy and my system gets confused when bombarded by beauty. The earrings’ blues vibrated and hummed happily too.

If you’d like a calorie-free color snack, go sample the goodies on Dave and Steve’s site and Facebook page.

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