Polymer links

Nikki Blanchard and a number of other polymer artists started their new year right by sending me links to their sites. Why be shy and hide your work? You’ll be surprised at how much more confident you’ll feel just by throwing your electronic hat in the ring.

New links are like belated holiday presents for me. You’ll be making my research easier. It’s a win-win.

Nikki gave up her glass studio after 18 years and found a home in polymer so she’ll bring lots of relevant skills to her new medium. I like the placement of the findings in these earrings. Her photos show that she’s off to an promising start. Have a great weekend!

Polymer every week

You can sense both the relief and the pride in the end-of-year posts from polymer artists who persisted through one of the 52-week challenges. These Rocky Path earrings are from JuLee Wolfe who chronicles her challenge on Pinterest. Here’s more of her work on Flickr.

Hats off to those who completed the difficult task of producing and uploading new artwork each week in 2012. You can see how their skills got better and how concepts were refined and rethought as the work progressed. They are an inspiration to the rest of us as we launch into a new year with high hopes of improving our art.

Here’s the earring group’s page. A new Brooch-A-Day group is forming here. Let me know if you know of other challenges starting up.

Understated polymer

These holiday polymer earrings from Michigan’s Sandra DeYoung-Niese may calm you in a hectic week.

Sandra created her own mold from a real evergreen branch. It’s a subtle holiday image with just a touch of red and a dusting of snow.

Wander slowly through her understated Etsy items and her Flickr site where the soothing vibe continues. Breathe!

Simple gifts

As long as we’re talking gifts, we’d better think about the kids. These poseable pieces from Australia’s HollyJayne are so cute and simple (she has a 2-year-old son). Of course Holly’s mastered the devilish details that can make simple spectacular.

Holly shows the pieces and parts on her Facebook page and she sells them on Etsy. See all her creatures on Flickr.

Speaking of simple, don’t you just love these little striped Christmas trees from Ukraine’s Masha Shupova? These are just the thing for that sylish, minimalist friend. Here’s her Etsy gallery.

Fall faux soutache

Fall colors are popping up. The faux soutache earrings created by Magdalena on this Polish site bring Halloween to mind….but a very sophisticated Halloween. What a perfect use for extruded clay.

I’m on the road this weekend with no time for research. Any Polish speakers out there who can tell us more about Magdalena?

Spirals or circles?

The Austrian coils or the Swiss circles? I couldn’t decide which ones to feature so you can choose for yourself. The designs are each made from extruded polymer but with entirely different approaches.

The coils are from Austria’s Eva Ehmeier (she’s the model). Graduated colors are extruded (or rolled) into thin strands which are curled and built right on the earwires. Choose your favorite among the neon colors here. Eva developed this design when she allowed herself some playtime in the studio.

E. Mischler from Switzerland gives a monochromatic twist to Bettina Welker’s retro cane that creates a snakeskin or mosaic look. Smooth lentil beads are suspended below coordinated solid color beads. This artist/pharmacist admits that clay has been her addiction since 2007 when she discovered that polymer brought balance to her life.

Clearly a polymer mystery

We start the week with a head-scratcher from Katrin Neumaier. How does she form her glass-like Firefly earrings? In the comments (in German) on her Flickr page she reveals that liquid Fimo is involved. She certainly starts our week with a mystery.

You may recall that we featured Katrin’s glass-like earrings on PCD back in February. The early ones were made using Pardo translucent polymer clay. Obviously, she wasn’t satisfied and kept experimenting to achieve an even clearer form.

I see some teaching in Katrin’s future, don’t you?

In one ear

Sure, Percy Lau’s extra ear earrings are a little creepy. But they’re funny too and her contemporary jewelry includes twists on glasses and chocolate and other body parts, mostly in polymer. The ears are a hit on Etsy.

This Chocolate Feast tickled me too! In one ear, out the other. Don’t miss the headband. Have a fanciful weekend.

Faux soutache

Soutache is a skinny flat decorative braid that is usually used as drapery trim or on military uniforms but lately it’s been showing up in jewelry. Polymer faux soutache turns up on the FaceBook page of Italy’s Olimpia Corvino in some interesting shapes.

Fans of polymer extruding will love trying this new twist. The link was sent in by Ronna Weltman.

Summertime studio time

My studio time has dwindled and my head is full of ideas. My fingers are itching to do something other than type. I’ll be cutting out a couple of days of PCDaily posts each week to get reacquainted with polymer.

There’s plenty here to explore. Just enter your desire into the search box in the right column and you’ll be surprised at what you find. Of course there are delightful videos and inside tips on StudioMojo every weekend for those who want to take our relationship to the next level.

Extruding with a twist

Germany’s Cornelia Brockstedt shows us another extrusion trick with these string earrings.

Thin spaghetti-size strands of polymer have been gathered at the top and bottom and formed into a pod shape. Hand-formed wire bead caps join the pod to the findings.

Cornelia’s Flickr pages are full of experiments and research. She has a background as a goldsmith and graphic designer.

Cornelia’s built an impressive repertoire of textures and shapes, submitting one each week for the guild’s Club 52 project.

Are you ready to try extruding?

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