Mutilated polymer

Margit Bohmer chops, scratches, carves, gouges, and mutilates her polymer beads in the most delightful and enthusiastic ways. Her colors are exuberant.

“I especially like to make simple, rustic beads and ethnic-inspired jewelry. Krobo beads from Ghana and the gorgeous jewelry from Tibet are wonderful sources of inspiration,” she says.

Margit’s DaWanda shop and her Flickr pages show how her color palette has remained constant over the last few years while her techniques have gotten bolder and more energetic.

Have a bold, energetic and enthusiastic weekend!

Revealing color

Jenna Wright’s Tarot necklace combines neatly carved polymer beads interspersed with companion disks and dotted barrels.Her Flickr site reveals how she has perfected her style using Celie Fago’s carving tools, preferring to carve the beads after baking.

On this Flickr picture she explains the tools she uses for each effect. Controlled nicks in the bead surfaces reveal surprising colors that delight the eye. Jenna is from Nova Scotia and sells on Etsy as Boxes for Groxes.

Oops, PCD is a little late today. I set the clock to the wrong time zone. The mountain air has this flatlander light-headed.

Integrating tutorials

Lorraine Vogel's polymer pendants and earrings glow with graceful shapes and layered colors that make me envious. Look closely and you may spot tricks she's learned from tutorials by Lynda Moseley and Ginger Davis Allman but the stamps, the carving and the colors are distinctly her own. She uses tutorials in the way they were meant to be used, quickly integrating them into her signature style.

A graphic artist from South Florida, Lorraine brings a keen eye for balance and harmony to polymer. She has a couple of Etsy shops and you can find her on Facebook. Her Flickr photos will give you a wider look at her eye-pleasing creations.

Need a freebie?

Don't miss Margit Bohmer's step-by-step photos of her doodle transfers for some free weekend fun.

Sulky polymer

France’s Sonya Girodon’s Boudoir necklace has a softer, more romantic way with designs and doodles. Sonya explains that boudoir means, “Little bedroom or study adjacent to the lady’s main bedroom of the castle – a place to hide away and be alone amongst the things she loves. Bouder means to sulk in French.”

Sonya takes Sutton-slice accented pieces of polymer and rolls them into dimensional tube beads. The coral and beige colors add to the sulky mood and the square metal bezel adds intrigue.

Sonya usually gravitates to ethnic designs and you may enjoy her pages on the EthnicJewels ning site. Here’s her Rain Dance necklace where she carves designs into polymer. You might have guessed that she grew up in South Africa. See the range of her strong and unusual designs on her Flickr site.

Doodled polymer

Pennsylvania’s Staci Louise Smith doodled on white polymer after she was inspired by a favorite painter’s new work. Her doodle beads made her feel better about not buying the painting.

When you visit Staci’s studio you will see how doodling is deeply embedded in her art brain. It may make you consider painting your floor!

In the same post she talks about salvaging a batch of black polymer beads by carving doodles in them. Staci works in metal clay, sea glass, wire – you name it.

Most of her polymer beads show up on her Artisan Accents site and she’s a force in the Love My Art Jewelry group. Yesterday’s Kimberly Rogers is also part of the group.

Summer polymer report

Genevieve Williamson’s latest blog posts read like a charming and fun-filled “What I did with my summer” report for the start of school. She includes sea glass, shells and rock souvenirs from the beach. Check out her Buoy Necklace inspired by a family vacation.

Genevieve’s muse is calling for more carving, more distressing and she’s itching to get back into the studio. The surfaces on these Fragment Drop earrings on Etsy have gotten smaller and more interesting. It’ll be a busy fall for JibbyandJuna that you can follow here.

Scribbled polymer

Hollow beads are all the rage this year. At last week’s conference my tablemate Libby Mills applied her own distinct style by carving and doodling on the hollow forms with Prismacolor pencils followed by a wash of black acrylic.

She paired the beads with wire wraps that echoed the scribbled look. You may notice that scribbling has been a theme of Libby’s for years. This new design may push her back into the studio to play again.

Carving tools and tricks

All your resistance to carving polymer will vanish once you thumb through Page McNall’s latest examples of her work and pictures of her tools.

Page shows how she often makes silicone molds of her carvings which simplifies creating subsequent similar pieces.

It helps that as a dentist, Page has plenty of access to drills, sharp tools and mold-making materials. She has a painterly way with color that’s stifled at her day job.

Carving a new niche

Oregon’s Roseanna Smith describes herself as “long-time painter; new to polymer clay” and she doesn’t reveal much more about herself on her Flickr site. We’ll have to watch to learn more.

These blue Sunrise Shields are part of her carving exploration and her background as a painter shows through as she layers two opposing Skinner blends together, removing the top layer of polymer to allow the bottom colors to show through.

Her simple shapes harmonize nicely with patterns that like to play hide and seek. She’s going to be fun to follow.

Polymer wallflowers

If you thought polymer-covered switchplates were passe, look again at the work of the Anchorage artist at Bull’s Eye Studio.

She canes and carves and layers home decor items as if they were small canvases. We touch light switches every day so why not make them eye-catching?

Her sculptural wallflowers are captivating and she adds utensils and card cases to her line of functional pieces. Bull’s Eye came to Flickr in late December and you’ll want to keep watching her there and on Facebook.

‹ 1 2 3 ›