Polymer Clay Daily

Monday head scratcher

Melanie West joins fabric and polymer in new ways on PolymerClayDaily.com

Maine’s Melanie West posts daily on Facebook about an astonishing array of artists that she’s discovered.

She rarely reveals what she’s working on.  But in a July feature, she shows a new series brooches that she calls Fabric Rocks. Polymer is involved but she’s done a sleight of hand so that it’s difficult to tell what’s fabric, what’s textured polymer, and how the pattern is created.

She’s probably proudly smirking at having stumped us with her new tricks on a Monday. What’s your guess?

Memorial Day at home

Chris Baird shows gratitude for home in brooches on PolymerClayDaily

Houses, homes have appeared frequently in polymer imagery of late. These small brooches from Minnesota’s Chris Baird (BairdPlayWorks) celebrate “Gratitude for home, nature, and curiosity” according to her tag line. This series is all made of small stripes and solids with touches of gold.

Her striped birds on Facebook are charming as well.

We may be missing the parades and parties today but we can enjoy the beauty of home as we celebrate Memorial Day.

Chris Baird shows gratitude for home in brooches on PolymerClayDaily

Quirky challenge

Barbara Nalepa's quirky characters enliven a 10-day challenge on PolymerClayDaily.com

Sweden’s Barbara Nalepa was nominated by EvaMarie Törnström to take part in an ad hoc challenge for 10 days.

Barbara Nalepa's quirky characters enliven a 10-day challenge on PolymerClayDaily.com

Barbara’s creatures have a wild and funny demeanor with an unexpected sprinkling of shimmering glitter from what may be low-fire enamel powder on polymer.

Since the challenge specifies that the artists don’t have to explain a thing, it’s hard to determine all that’s going on. Perhaps Barbara will elaborate on her quirky characters later.

More characters roam through her Facebook.

Puzzling polymer

Ivana Svobodova puzzles her scraps together on PolymerClayDaily

Czech Republic’s  Ivana Svobodová makes a game of collecting all her thin, tiny scraps and then sitting down for a game of assemblage. Nothing goes to waste as she creates a series of puzzled brooches.

The face parts mixed in with all the patterns add an element of surprise and mystery.

Ivana Svobodova puzzles her scraps together on PolymerClayDaily

Tap into your glow

Terri Wlaschin brings passion to her energetic collages on PolymerClayDaily.com

These small tribal mask brooches from Key West, Florida’s Terri Wlaschin (Shanty Chic Beads) are sculpted, collaged, painted and textured with great energy and spirit.  “I am continually inspired by what I see riding my bike around town, walking the beaches, and observing the colorful characters that inhabit this island,” says Terri.

“I did not even know I had a creative side until my late 30’s when I started dabbling in creative writing and photography. When I began working with beads, I couldn’t stop. I never really knew what having a passion for something was until then. It’s like a religious experience to me, bringing joy and a glow to my spirit.”

Thanks to Sharene Screws for the link to an article about Terri in Jewelry Making Journal. Go with your glow!

Fall faux

Carol Beal reinterprets a fall palette in polymer on PolymerClayDaily.com

Kansas’ Carol Beal (BeadUnsupervised) gives us this week’s interpretation of Fall.

No two leaves are alike. Some are blended, some bargello or stripes, gradations, mottled. They have sculpted edges and contain a wild palette of unexpected colors.

Her polymer brooches are remarkably real.

They make you want to go outside and take a closer look at what you may have missed.

New ways with liquid polymer

Lynn Yuhr expands the uses of colored liquid polymer on raw clay on PolymerClayDaily

This pile of brooches from Florida’s Lynn Yuhr (theflyingsquirrelstudio) exudes a mid-century sensibility. They look like tv sets from the 50s.

Lynn has been exploring and pushing the boundaries of using colored liquid clays on polymer.

I watched Lynn in action and persuaded her to share a few of her discoveries on this week’s StudioMojo. You’ll be surprised at how she uses the liquids and what she’s found about how they behave on raw clay.

See why she keeps a “puddle” on her worksurface and how she dips into that puddle for surprising effects.

Luminous hearts

Follow Ron Lehocky and his collaborative hearts on Instagram via PolymerClayDaily.com

There’s a lovely luminosity about these most recent hearts from Kentucky’s Ron Lehocky. The gold dots popping through watery colored layers lead us to summer’s end.

Because Ron builds his hearts from lots of others’ scraps, it’s hard to know the provenance of the bits and pieces he uses. His heart brooches are lovely collaborations between other’s scraps and Ron’s magic.

He’s close to making 50,000 of these for his Kids Project that receives all the proceeds from sales.

Did I mention that Ron’s on Instagram now? Be sure to follow him.  He’s also teaching at ClayOutWest in late September.

Polymer flower mashup

Malgorzata Wawrzynczak (moiko) wears a modern corsage on PolymerClayDaily

Poland’s Malgorzata Wawrzynczak (Moiko) mashes up Nikolina Otrzan’s methods with her own silkscreens to create a series of flat flower brooches with a mod twist and rusted finish.

Cutouts allow the fabric below to show through.

Gosia heads off on her own toward other flower and shapes. Those tab (half oval) shapes are popping up in more and more designs. 

Malgorzata Wawrzynczak (moiko) wears a modern corsage on PolymerClayDaily

If you want to see what other ideas are catching fire for the fall, join us over at StudioMojo this Saturday when we’ll make sense of the designs and products that are showing up in the shows and exhibits.