Glass and polymer from Harris

Cheryl Harris teamed up with glass artist Margaret Zinser to create this luscious necklace. The Sedona colors caught my fancy today.

Cheryl now creates her own dichroic pieces which she calls PolyDichroFusion pendants. She wraps the glass with polymer leaves and pairs them with companion beads. See her newest versions on her Flickr site and her Etsy gallery.

Hiking trips have cut short my computer time. The petroglyphs we saw today will surely show up in my work. We’ll be sitting down for studio time soon.

Ford/Forlano add blog

The Ford/Forlano duo have added a blog to their newly renovated website just in time for their Synergy presentation and the opening of their show at Snyderman-Works Galleries in Philadelphia.

The show features the new jewelry and print/painting collaborations of the Steven Ford and David Forlano who carry on a back and forth dialog between Santa Fe and Philadelphia.

Ford/Forlano Calder-inspired polymer pin

Steve says that he’s, “…excited about what’s happening with our print/painting collaborations. And some of that imagery is coming back into the clay work as well.” Read the story of how the new line of pins began with a mistake.

And leave them a comment to welcome them to blogland.

Belcher’s greater-than-the-sum art

The collaboration theme of the Synergy 2 conference in Baltimore has already inspired some terrific mash ups. The fiber/polymer and metal/polymer creations on Judy Belcher’s Flickr site are impressive. Judy is the consummate team player so it’s not surprising that she’s good at partnering her art.

This jacket is by Kerr Grabowski with reversible jewels and closures by Judy. The model is Judy’s daughter.

Universal Connections, the 12.5″x8″ piece pictured, is the result of Judy’s collaboration with Victoria Altepeter, a metalsmith and currently resident artist at Arrowmont.

Take a look at the 37-artist polymer mosaic that Laurie Mika pulled together and see if you can identify each artist with only 2″ squares as clues. You have until December 20 to enter the contest. There is still space in classes at Synergy companion events, Cabin Fever Clay Festival and Synergy 2 Hands-On. You might drop a hint to Santa.

Finnish artists create visual glossary

Two Finnish polymer clay artists, Petteri Leppikallio and Pörrö Sahlberg (Hiidet), have launched monthly challenges for themselves that they’re posting on their site. Their blog posts (this is just a small sampling) are becoming an online sketchbook and a visual glossary that they hope will inspire others.

This month Pörrö has been using two colors which she shapes into basic shapes using basic techniques. Petteri, a woodworker, has been exploring textures.

The ground rules for the year-long project specify that the ideas are more important than results.

“I need to study simplicity. There are tons of techniques available in the literature and the net, however I feel the simplest things and themes are somewhat unstudied. There must be lots of new ways to do old things and probably some new ideas rise from repeating the old ones,” says Pörrö.

With their studious and structured approach, their collaboration will be a fascinating one to follow.

Pier and Penina move toward sculpture

Alexis Pier and Penina Meisels (Pier and Penina) stopped by for a visit on Friday. They’ve both moved from California to Santa Fe to continue their polymer clay collaboration.

Their focus has moved from jewelry to sculpture. These two small sculptures are from Penina (look for Alexis’ tomorrow). The hollow form on the right is made of polymer and covered with organza which is painted with Prizmacolor markers and blender pen.

Since their web page hasn’t been updated recently, I’ll add a picture of Penina’s earrings here for your Monday inspiration.

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