Fashion and polymer attract crowds

Dayle Doroshow's panels and polymer take flight in Florida on PolymerClayDaily.com

Florida’s Dayle Doroshow was surprised at the success of her solo show at the end of 2020.

The show was held at the library, during a pandemic, after a year of disappointments and too much Netflix.

Dayle doubted herself, felt uninspired, and grieved the loss of a summer in France.

But by December over twenty fabric panels up to 5′ long filled the library atrium. A wearable polymer element was integrated into each design. The birds on her Take Flight were big sellers in the jewelry cases.

In a chatty 10-minute StudioMojo video this Saturday, Dayle shares her motivators and the self-care she had to employ to get her works finished and sold. Ready for a good story with a happy ending? Subscribe and join us.

Monday head scratcher

Melanie West joins fabric and polymer in new ways on PolymerClayDaily.com

Maine’s Melanie West posts daily on Facebook about an astonishing array of artists that she’s discovered.

She rarely reveals what she’s working on. But in a July feature, she shows a new series brooches that she calls Fabric Rocks. Polymer is involved but she’s done a sleight of hand so that it’s difficult to tell what’s fabric, what’s textured polymer, and how the pattern is created.

She’s probably proudly smirking at having stumped us with her new tricks on a Monday. What’s your guess?

Garden elements

Cecile Bos will combine these elements into a garden scene on PolymerClayDaily.com

You probably have some questions about how France’s Cécile Bos (11prunes) creates these delicate canes.

How big are the original canes (these seem impossibly small), what’s her inspiration?

Cecile intends to mix up these canes. The white background surrounding each of them ensures that she can combine the elements into a larger botanical image.

Here’s a previous similar cane to give you an idea where she’s headed. Cecile brings a fabric designer’s sensibility to polymer. We are used to kaleidoscoping and repeating designs. These are complex canes from a different perspective.

Pattern repeats make a polymer fabric

Cecile Bos turns little canes into repeating patterns on PolymerClayDaily.com

Aren’t you tempted by these in-process photos from France’s Cécile Bos (11Prunes)?

Cecile made 17 or so small canes with distinct geometric elements, all with the same high contrast color in the background. She assembled them into a larger complex cane.

The resulting pattern repeats and gives the cane a fabric feel. The beads made using this method have a delicacy that pulls the eye in to examine.

Put this on your to-do list. We’ll be seeing more of these.

Mix and match scrap

Seattle’s Susan Hyde’s Madonnas (7″ x 3″) aren’t technically from scrap but her textiles are stunningly vibrant and she reconfigures her canes in a variety of ways to extend their usefulness. She mixes and matches endlessly and drapes slices of her fabrics so that they become ethnic dress on this compelling symbol of motherhood.

Her method is a variation on a theme that Kathy Amt taught us years ago and in Susan’s hands, it still looks fresh and contemporary.

Susan’s online presence is on Facebook and her site. She was scheduled to demo her skills at Collective Visions Gallery next weekend but was sidelined with a broken arm this week. Get well fast wishes to Susan.

Lam’s leaves

Loretta Lam keeps me coasting on photos taken at last week’s conference. These lightweight sculpted leaves are not-quite-finished samples for an upcoming European class.

Even unsanded the shapes were silky smooth. Loretta lays thin fabric-like veneers over FIMOairlight bases.

Thank you for your comments on yesterday’s post that taught me another meaning of the word goolies. While the creatures in the Christi Friesen post are cute, some goolies are certainly better kept not so free!

Collages to wear

Doroshow's fabric/jewelry wall art on PolymerClayDaily.com

Florida’s Dayle Doroshow will exhibit six mixed-media wall hangings in a popular restaurant (Le Tournesol) near her summer home in Durfort, France.

Each collaged fabric panel is 5′ x 2 1/2′ and is embellished with polymer. Each contains a brooch that can be removed to wear.

Doroshow's fabric collages with polymer on PolymerClayDaily.com

I can almost hear the sighs of students who have experienced the charms of a week of classes at La Cascade. Karen and Ann Mitchell, Dayle, Doreen Kassel and Loretta Lam will all have polymer workshops there this summer.

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Monday mashup in polymer

What would happen if last week’s elephant met up with a kangaroo? In Susan Hyde’s mind we’d have a Kangarat/Eleroo like this 10″ one she’s constructed from polymer.

Susan has joined a gallery in Bremerton, Washington. For poetry month, she and her fellow artists illustrated poems by local poets. The one Susan chose, The Bainbridge Zoo, chronicles an elephant and kangaroo affair.

Another poem called Gypsy inspired this 12″ piece filled with the great polymer fabrics that Susan is known for. Here’s her old fabric tutorial that I have to drag out again because it’s my favorite.

Coarse weave polymer

This newest faux polymer experiment from France’s Sylvie Peraud may take you back to the 80’s. Didn’t you own a sofa made of this material? With roman shades to match?

It makes me smile to think that the coarse weave is back in fashion and that Sylvie has mastered it in polymer. When you zoom in, you’ll swear it’s real.

Go to her site and her Flickr pages. I think we’ll be seeing more. Have a nostalgic weekend.

Chandler’s polymer experiments

Gera Scott Chandler's lantern experiment

Gera Scott Chandler fearlessly fuses polymer clay with digital photography, canvas, silk, inks, acrylics and found objects to create textured three dimensional interpretations of the mood and spirit of her west coast Canadian landscapes. Gera often incorporates beachcombing ephemera into her compositions.

It was her Arbutus mixed media collage on canvas in the Synergy exhibit that helped fuel recent experiments by other artists in combining liquid polymer and fabrics. Her research and development is constant (the lantern at left is a recent example).

Gera has moved on to combining polymer and resins and offers the results of her experiments for comparison shoppers. She has a way of bringing remarkable colors to polymer and she’s working to enhance those colors further with resin.

Following Gera’s work is like being on an adventure that leads from the beach to the garden to the studio.

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