Twofer Friday

It’s a twofer Friday to tide you through the weekend.

Cecelia Leonini’s Surreal necklace stands on its own even as it contains echoes from Iris Mishly, Nikolina Otrzan and other artists working with textures and inks. (Cecelia credits Nikolina’s and Iris’ tutorials.)

Note how the three main pieces were cut from one image. This painterly approach is being played with widely and moves polymer in new directions. Cecelia’s progress is documented on Flickr and Facebook.

If you’re looking for some warmth this weekend, let Russia’s Anna Krichevskaya bundle you up in a tweedy blue bangle. The heathered colors of her extruded faux knit resemble the big bulky sweaters sure to beat the chill. There’s more on Flickr. Stay warm.

Start simple

The possibilities for patterns expand when you insert a cane into the tube of an extruder. Here are just a few examples from the Mammoth Cave retreat.

Mari O’Dell showed students how to position, control and combine canes. A striped cane started these petals. Slices of the resulting extrusions were shaped into flowers or reinserted into the extruder to create even more complex designs. Nancy Nearing created this lovely lotus.

The retro flower fabric (right) was an experiment with slices from my petal disk impressed on a striped background (see Debbie Crothers free tutorial).

Folded charms are made from slices of a checkerboard cane. Amy Koranek manipulates the slices into a graceful shape by lightly pressing corners together.

Will simple ideas grow into more complex ones in your studio this week?

Extruda-Palooza

It’s all-extruders, all the time here at the Mammoth Cave Extruda-Paloozain Kentucky. This Black Widow Spider by Ohio’s Chris Kibitlewski is mostly polymer. He makes the legs from the thinnest extruded tubes I’ve ever seen by using three disks (a corer and two circles).

Amy Koranek fills bottle caps with bits of Halloween-themed extrusions. Mari O’Dell is filling our heads with new ways of thinking about extruding that I’ll share next week.

Making rainbows

Sometimes all we need is color to brighten our day. Today Ronit Golan’s stacks of midnight rainbow colors will do the trick. Hint: she adds dark blue to her usual 24 colors for this version.

The cutout disks are ready to slide into the extruder tube. Ronit combines the resulting shapes into canes. She offers her color and stacking advice for free in this post.

Find out what Ronit makes with the extruded results on her Flickr and Etsy sites. Give yourself a time limit before you check out her Pinterest page or you could happily wander for hours. She adds her accidents and brainstorms to Facebook.

Polymer chips

Russia’s Maria Belkomor is drawn to disks too. Hers are usually thin and flat (unlike yesterday’s Bagels) and her most recent versions have chipped edges that increase their tactile quality. It would be hard not to play with these when you wore them.

It takes quite a supply of disks to make this East Lemonade necklace (that’s what the translation called it) which ends with carved beads and a matching button closure.

The best place to see Maria’s stackable creations is on Pinterest. She has more on Flickr and her blog, including a lovely way of knitting with extruded strings. Thanks to Eva Menager for the link.

Lots to nosh on

Thank you for all the notes wishing me Bon Voyage. I’ve left a few goodies in the blog freezer that will automatically emerge now and then. You won’t starve and there are plenty of morsels in the archives if you get peckish. (Scroll to the bottom of the right column.)

Dots, strings and squares


Karen Brueggemann – 1st prize – Mokume gane strings	Marilyn Dobris – 2nd prize – Rare Tropical Polka Dot Flower	Carole Monahan – 3rd prize – NYC Taxi cuff

Here are the three winners in the Spring Push extrusion contest! Strings, dots and squares!

It was gratifying to see a variety of extruded shapes in all the entries and to have examples from artists who otherwise don’t show us what they’re up to.

Follow the links to more examples of the winners’ polymer extrusions. The suggestions for new Global Studio Tools disk designs were terrific too. Thanks to all who played along with us. Have a playful weekend.

Icing on the cake

Galina Grebennikova’s extruded beads show a positively brilliant modification of devices. She uses icing tips to get the effects she wants. Look at what she does with this ruffle tip.

Galina’s discovery got me wondering about what other clever ideas and shapes are out there.

Spring push contest

How have you used my Global Extruder Disk patterns? The dot patterns and interlocking tiles found on the disk are popping up in fashion this spring.

Snap a picture of your item that used my extruder patterns or some combination you came up with on your own and enter the Spring Push contest. The art must consist of mostly extruded polymer. Pretty easy, eh?

Attach your photo to an email and send it in. The deadline is April 16 with winners announced April 18. Is there a pattern you’ve been missing? Let me know and we’ll try to include it in our next set.

The top winner will win a $50 gift certificate from Global Studio Tools. Second prize is a copy of the book, Polymer Clay Global Perspectives and third prize is Protect Your Memories sealant. Winners will be featured on PCDaily and pictured in our next ad in The Polymer Arts magazine. Strut your stuff! Email your entry.

Significant others

Did Ron Lehocky think we’d celebrate Valentines Day without featuring the King of Hearts? Not possible.

His production of polymer heart brooches reached 25,801 yesterday and if you multiply that by ten you’ll have calculated how much this Kentucky doctor has raised for kids. You helped him by donating your scrap.

This year he also set his sights on helping the Samunnat women in Nepal and he was relentless. He knows how art can make a difference in lives and how the significance of bit of effort ripples out as others join in. Love to all who were part of that effort this year.

Ron used Lucy Struncova’s extruder disks to make this special edition of heart patterns. He has finally jumped onto social media and shares his methods and his news on Facebook.

Retro geometry

The retro cane from Bettina Welker takes a new shape in this Ombre Pyramid pendant from Kseniya Iokhna (SolarBird) from Belarus.

In fact Kseniya displays a number of crisp geometric variations on extruded patterns. Her faceted cuts make for even more dimension and a fresh look. Sometimes she cuts across the pattern exposing the striped sides.

Her earrings have a sleek profile and she’s partial to color blends that look as if they’ve been dip-dyed.

See more on Facebook and on Flickr.

Bubbling polymer

Lucie Struncova tantalizes us with these Bubbling Pebble polymer beads. This Czech Republic artist and entrepreneur alludes to an ebook but I couldn’t find it and I suspect that it hasn’t been released yet. (Let me know if you locate the tutorial.)

In these pebbles she combines unusual colors and patterns into a fresh graphic pattern. The yellows and grays update color combinations that you may remember from the ’50s. Lucie shows darker, distressed versions of her bubbles on sample beads here.

Still a teenager, Lucie (with the help of her father) has designed a new extruder and a slicer along with her own brand of clay for sale in her shop. All this in addition to an impressive collection of designs and tutorials. She brings an energetic youthful vision to our craft and you’ll want to keep your eye on her.

Her products are available through Kimberly Idalski here in the US.

‹ 1 … 4 5 6 … 14 ›