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?

Retro paint

Thank goodness that Croatia’s Nikolina Otrzan revealed her painterly polymer methods in a free tutorial that she uploaded this week. Her process is hard to guess but easy once you see it done.

Nikolina starts with a crisp graphic style that she later softens and blends for a retro effect. Thanks for the tute!

Her Flickr site is full of other examples including this clever cat design. She likes to doodle on polymer.

Spring cleaning

Thanks to the eagle-eyed Facebook fans who let me know that the PCD posts weren’t appearing in FB. I replaced the dusty old 2007 plugin with a shiny new one. I guess we wore it out!

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.

A flowering career

An afternoon of pulling weeds among the forget-me-nots and lilacs made my eyes drift to these earrings by Zuleykha McMillan on Etsy. Bountiful and bright cane slices are formed into bell shapes.

Zu talked about working with a new baby on her lap and I was drawn into her tale. Her mother came for a visit and showed Zu how to keep her polymer art going with a baby in the house.

Since the birth of her first child, she’s gravitated away from polymer jewelry to polymer faces. The story continues…in both Russian and English. (On Flickr if you just want pictures.)

Revived polymer

Rebekah Payne gave up on these polymer earrings. She figured she had nothing to lose and baked the sad, scooped out green beads. Then she let them sit around for a while. She layered them with paint and added dots. They started to look better. She hung crystals in the hollows and topped the beads with some wire wrapping. Rebekah calls them her Happy Returns earrings.

This story of persistence and patience is a good one to start the week. Get the full scoop on her blog and scroll through her Etsy offerings. Don’t you have ugly ducklings waiting to become swans?

Deadline polymer earrings

Germany’s Anke Humpert brightens a gray winter Friday with these cheery red polymer umbrellas. With a second week deadline looming, she whipped up these earrings for her 52-week challenge. The pressure of a deadline can force out surprising creativity.

Determined to start the new year right, Anke’s been tackling the organization of her studio and you can vicariously enjoy her progress here. Have a cheery weekend.

Dutch polymer designs

New earring designs are rare in our world. Holland’s Els Van Haasen stacks polymer clay beads on a wire for a new and intriguing look. Does the end wire fit snuggly into the tube bead? How do these look on? So many questions.

Els’ Flickr page led me to the Dutch guild’s page and it seems that outside-the-box thinking is the guild’s mission. If, like me, you’re in search of exciting ideas and shapes, wander through their members’ pages.

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