Hola senorita

Julie Eakes is getting in touch with her inner Spaniard as she prepares for EuroClay Carnival in Madrid in September. This cane was initially designed to be an inchie!

Inspired by Adam Thomas Rees’ multi-part cane, Julie built her flamenco dancer as two 4″x4″ squares (top and bottom) which she reduced separately.

On her blog Julie explains the troubles she encountered with this senorita and how she turned flaws into features.

The filigree and beaded touches inserted into the bottom of the pendant add additional flair. See more of Julie on Facebook, Flickr and Pinterest.

Collaborative gardens in polymer

Carol Simmons has been working on this breath-taking modular Wearable Gardenseries for months. This photo is of a box of her components. She’s been shaping and stacking the caned polymer blossoms into fantastical organic creations that can be worn as brooches or pendants.

Carol feels at home with complex pattern but struggles with three dimensions.

Sculptor Maureen Carlson saw Carol’s flowers and thought the heads would take on new life if they were perched on stalks. She envisioned the pieces as sculpture, wall pieces, terrariums, habitats.

Both artists had been to the Chihuly exhibit in Denver. Maureen felt that the blossoms could be at home in the Avatar or Epic movies.

Carol and Maureen’s collaboration on this Woodland Garden led to plans for a couple of possible separate workshops, each taking a different approach.

You can look over their shoulders as they work here and here.

Rough treatment for polymer

Olga Sypkova from Kemerovo, Russia plays rough with her African Ethnic beads.

What starts out as cane slices simply applied to clay bases becomes much more interesting once she draws a few lines with circles, scrapes some lines and scratches the surface with sandpaper.

A coat of light acrylic paint accentuates the marks. The rough treatmentt gives an ordinary polymer bead a tribal look with a mysterious past. The beads must have been worn and treasured.

Olga offers you a step-by-step free tutorial. See more of her work on this Russian site (use your translator).

In polymer wonderland

It’s hard to keep up with Alice Stroppel! I just figured out why so many of her images, like this White Rabbit sculpture, are from Alice in Wonderland. Alice does Alice, get it?

In her own wonderland, Alice’s polymer work spreads across table tops and covers the bases for lamps. Her fish swim up the walls and wind around arms. I’m particularly fond of this haunting portrait of a woman gazing intently…much like Alice herself.

The rabbit seems right for today. People are arriving in town. I’m late! I’m late! Must get to the party.

Chasing after Alice will keep you busy. She’s all over Facebook and Etsy too. If you’ve never made a Stroppel scrap cane, you simply must watch the tutorial.

Alice shared her story on camera a couple of years ago. If you’d like to see more videos like this, join StudioMojo, the weekend newsletter.

Mixing media

Polymer slices baked right on frosted resin beads. What a great idea from California’s Karen Lewis (Klew). She embellishes glass beads using the same technique.

This layered look is Klew’s trademark. See more of her on Etsy and on Facebook.

There’s a free how-to video about her sculpted accent beads on her site for your weekend enjoyment. And here’s a self-care snippet from Klew (with Sarah Shriver) from a few years back.

The IPCA crew is flying into my home town for the retreat and Klew is among them. This is the first time Ohio has hosted such a big time event! News from the retreat coming your way next week. Have a big time this weekend.

Potty polymer

Why yes, I believe that Germany’s Mareike Scharmer embellished even the potty with polymer. Here are the photos of the rest of the guest bath installation at the new Galerie Freisleben where inspiration will follow students from the classroom to the washroom.

The knobs and trim are polymer additions to the fancifully painted cabinets and mirrors and…well just about everything. Read about Mareike’s polymer work on her blog.

The facility is nearly ready and Ariane’s dream looks fabulous. Pore through more pictures of the gallery on Flickr. Claire Maunsell will teach in August and Loretta Lam is scheduled for October.

Bali boots from polymer

This must be the week for innovations. I’d heard rumblings about a new transfer process that Bali’s Jon Anderson is working on. He’s keeping the process under wraps for now but you can see what he’s up to (and purchase works) on his lovely new site.

He transfers the image from his polymer canes to fabric using a secret elixir. He’s getting consistent results while he works out colorfastness and other issues. You can put your name in for your own JSA boots and be a trendsetter.

The site is chock full of goodies including an interview that explains his history in polymer art. Keep up with Jon’s progress on his site and his Facebook page. Jon was voted the members’ favorite in this year’s IPCA Awards.

Polymer fish out of water

Melissa Terlizzi’s Like a Fish Out of Water picked up an award at the Art Works gallery in Richmond, VA even though Melissa says she feels like all her polymer nature scenes look like fish out of water when they’re shown with other traditional art.

She gravitates to bugs and tide pools, shells and sea life. This cane is the result of her taking a long look at turtles, a hard job for someone who admits she can’t sit still.

Melissa has created a following for her Clay and Cabernet nights at a local gallery on warm summer evenings. You’ll find her on Facebook and Flickr.

Rees self portrait

Utah’s Adam Thomas Rees thinks big. He usually covers large animal sculptures with polymer patterns but this time his subject was himself.

First he painted a self-portrait. Then he decided to continue his self study by converting the painting to a 12.5″ x 10″ cane.

He chopped the big cane into 20 small (2.5″) square canes to minimize waste and distortion during reduction. The reduced canes were then reassembled into the finished portrait.

The process is fascinating to see (and his web site is under the weather). I’ve repeated his Facebook photos in a special gallery for you non-FB readers.

It’s not just the size and reduction that make us study Adam’s cane. What look like slap-dash layers of unexpected color build into an exciting self portrait.

That should start your wheels turning on a Monday!

Eastern Tales

Hamburg’s Antonina Lyamayeva calls these her Bagels necklaces. This one is called Eastern Tales. The flat disks have big holes and jumble up nicely. She combines solid colors and patterned disks with a few metal circles thrown in for bling.

This design is quite trendy and it’s another good use for bits of your favorite canes. (Antonia sells a tutorial.)

She’s an accomplished caner which you can see in a separate Etsy shop here. She also works with glass and metal. Check her out on Pinterest and Facebook.

More Eastern Tales

I’m flying to Malta at the end of the week (and I’m blaming the mishap with Betsy Baker’s link yesterday on travel jitters). My speech is ready but I’m not packed.

I’ll report from EuroSynergy for a few days and then I’ll close up shop for a month, posting intermittently as I travel in Nepal and Turkey. After years of blogging daily, I’m anxious to see what happens when I unplug.

I sure hope you’ll check in often for my news from the road and be here when I get back. It’s an opportunity for you to shake up your routine too.

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