Moving out of your zone

These cane slice polymer earrings from Sandra McCaw looked lovely on Sandra. Quick pictures taken on a paper plate don’t do them justice but if you go to her site you’ll see more of these beauties.

The five-slice rectangles are bordered by a fine strip of clay topped with gold leaf. The findings are handmade and have the most delicate hammered hooks.

On another note, it’s oddly refreshing to watch this group of polymer clay experts struggle and make rejects and failures as they collaborate in search of new ideas. Amid the piles of not-so-greats, you can spot strange new successes. More about that with pictures as the week progresses.

Polymer studio in a box

San Diego’s Meisha Barbee shares her new spring palette, the result of a whirlwind color mixing fling (check it out). Once the polymer colors were mixed and conditioned, she carefully stacked the sheets into thick and thin layers that play off each other’s intensity. Her stripe canes grab attention.

With a box of companion bullseye canes and another box of mica shift textures, she’s assembled the raw materials for a fresh line of brooches, pendants and earrings.

Since Meisha works both in her home studio and at her Spanish Village Art studio, she needs to transport her canes from place to place. Doesn’t this tidy arrangement make you want to develop and organize your spring palette? See earlier pictures from this Niche Award winner here and here.

Think big!

Madrid’s Silvia Ortiz de la Torre thinks big and bright with these polymer-covered foil beads. Her stringing is fanciful and fun.

While we’re on the subject of big, check out this new video (at the top of the right column) from Hand Guitars that shows Jon Anderson rolling out one small component of a very large and complex cane.

Don’t you wish the process went as quickly and smoothly as this fast-paced movie?

Shriver’s big beads

Sarah Shriver has added big polymer shapes, a bit of metal and new palettes (her Frida colors) to her repertoire. She calls the series pictured here her acorn beads. She’ll be teaching how to make these new big beads, veneer beads built over ultra-light clay, at CFCF in February.

Clicking across the images on her site’s front page makes me want more, more and bigger pictures. And it makes me wish I were on the west coast in December when she sells and parties up and down the coast. If you’re in the area, put one of her events on your calendar.

Moscow moments

A link from Kathy Weaver pushed me to look at Russian sites which give us an idea of how polymer art is progressing in that country. This requires clicking through annoying ads and garbled translations but it’s worth the effort.

The trendy colors and hip clothes in the photos on Julia Laukhina’s site could have been from a craft fair in any urban center. Julli-Ya is from Moscow and this batch of soothing colors launches us calmly into a new week.

Then I ran into Elkozzzavra also from Moscow who loves her Dremel. She enthusiastically drills and carves polymer. It works and she’s developed techniques that look like a good outlet for aggression and result in gem-like sculptured art.

Check out her swiss cheese trees and positive/negative butterfly. Luckily she adds a photo tutorial with her carved pumpkin pin.

Polymer plus

My eye can usually spot polymer at 50 paces and when it can’t, I’m delighted. Which is why Claire Maunsell’s latest batch of beads thrills me. There’s a fluidity that may come from her years working with glass. This polymer looks like something more.

Claire added bits of image transfer leftovers to her hollow beads, brushed on some new metallic paints, played with translucent clay, stippled surfaces and drew with inks. It’s her layering of colors and methods and messages that fools the eye and builds up a wonderful story.

Claire also shares her process in ways that I can understand. She reveals that, “Sometime ago I bought a set of metallic paints to use with polymer, but every time I tried them the result was so disappointingly garish that I would throw all the results away and curse my inability to resist temptation in art supply stores.” Who hasn’t been there?

She thoroughly describes her thought processes, her missteps and her techniques on her blog. I like going to her Flickr pages to get an overview of her results. What an inspiration.

Speaking of fooling the eye! I just looked at Judy Belcher’s latest trompe l’oeil polymer canes. You simply must study these!

Simmons art grows

Carol Simmons has tiptoed into blogging and you can follow along as she rolls out her new polymer cane slicer. It’s a serious machine that certainly does the trick.

Carol is also unveiling new work with this Sporocarps piece. After years of looking at mosses, lichens and algae under the microscope, she reinterpreted her vision in polymer.

She’s also published a new Flickr site which gives you a quick view of how her botanically-based art has grown.

Haskova’s Halloween candy

I lost track of Eva Haskova’s site after featuring her work last year.

Thanks to a new Flickr link from Bettina Welker, you’ll rediscover a wealth of recent work from this Prague artist. Eva’s canes are simple but sumptuous and dense with pattern. It’s probably not surprising to learn that she teaches pottery lessons for children.

I was afraid that Halloween eye candy wouldn’t sustain you through the weekend but Eva’s online store will surely keep you charged up. Sweet!

Davis’ studio tour

Vermont’s Marie Davis takes viewers on a walk through her studio for a Friday treat. Many of her works are large wall pieces created from canes. She’s been working in polymer since 1987 and you can tell that she still delights in the medium.

I’ve taken the liberty of editing one of her studio tours to make it manageable for PCDaily. My edited version is show here at the top of the right column. Visit her YouTube site for the full treatment.

Mix and match polymer

Bright colors, crisp patterns…a winning combination in polymer from Illinois’ Terri Stone. If you’ve ever muddied up a promising palette, you’ll admire Terri’s ability to mix and match.

Her holiday Etsy shop is bursting with more examples.

I’m packing for a rare weekend with my sisters and these colors look as cheery as I feel. Thanks to Lindly Haunani for the link.

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