First contest for the girls next door in the Netherlands

Karin Breukelman’s faux jade embroidered cuff took top honors in Dutch Polymer Clay Forum’s oriental contest. This was the group’s first contest. The variety and quality of the entries surprised them.

Karin’s design was based on a Chinese coin replicated in polymer jade with faux coral accents. Lanterns, fans, geishas, bamboo and cinnabar inspired participants’ imaginations. Nicole van Engelen’s ring plays on the contours and colors of rice fields.

The other top winners were Marij de Bruijn, Saskia Veltenaar, and Paula van Veen. Enjoy this glimpse of the orient by way of the Netherlands. You’ll find some interesting tutorials on the group’s Girls Next Door site too. I particularly like the idea of faux pearls.

Cavender emerges with moss

Kim Cavender has emerged from hibernation covered in moss! After several months of quiet, she’s added some new work that includes faux moss clinging to her polymer sticks and stones.

My polymer pebble mentor, Kim has expanded her forest finds to include nuts, vines and pods that she’ll be teaching at the Ohio retreat this weekend. (Let’s hope the snow stops.)

Kim’s rocks are beauties. Take a look at her new ones.

Miniature polymer abstracts

In these new beads from Berkeley’s Selena Anne Wells the color comes from small surprise vintage glass cabochons embedded in black or faux ivory polymer, stained and buffed to look aged. Her mastery of simple and intricate sculptural and texturing techniques is impressive.

Digging deeper into her Flickr history gives you a peek at her other interests – masks, faces, kaleidoscopes. Though she doesn’t reveal much in words, her art tells an engaging story.

She calls her small pieces miniature abstract wearable art.

Following the polymer muse

Lynda Moseley (DivaDesigns) turned to polymer’s faux techniques when her creativity hit the doldrums. “I did some research and discovered there are six colors of natural jade – black, red, green, yellow, white and lavender,” she reports. These softly glowing specimens are the result of her research.

Funny how the right side of the brain (where the muse lives) gets freed up when we revisit the left (where the scientist studies). You can see more of Lynda’s experiments here.

Construction dust

I’ve been tapping into my inner code monkey, creating a new fan page and adding Twitter to smooth our communications and sort my non-polymer family from the art addicts. Forgive the tests and duplicate requests, the result of over-anxious fingers that run ahead of my brain.

Please join the adventure by clicking the appropriate buttons. Let’s try some new stuff. PCDaily will be right here if you get lost in the shuffle.

Faceted polymer beads

I was distracted yesterday. First I was drawn to these faceted polymer beads from Lynn Lunger (UnaOdd). She bought herself a belt sander to be able to achieve that flat-sided effect.

She even has a rainbow version and more in her Etsy shop. Oooh, the possibilities. Would my husband notice the polymer dust on his belt sander?

Then I decided to tinker with the guts of this web site. Diving into the belly of the blog is a sure way to grind things to a halt. Bingo! All of this left me speechless (hence yesterday’s terse post). I thought those lovely hearts would speak for themselves but some of you thought I was ill or irritated. Not so.

It’s thinly disguised avoidance behavior. Finishing my Synergy slide presentation is looming large and everything else but that calls to me. Back to PowerPoint today. Wish me luck (and clairvoyance) as I predict the future of polymer.

Set in stone – Tinapple’s faux pebbles

These polymer clay tab and slot faux pebble beads are a new design for me. In fact, they’re a first effort and I’ve been test driving them to make sure the pebbles aren’t too delicate for wearing in real life. They’ve passed the test nicely.

In the upcoming online class at Craftcast with Alison Lee I’ve promised to tell everything I know about polymer pebble making. That sent me back to the studio to figure out just what I do know. Uncomfortable situations often provide the spark I need for creative solutions.

This is my newest trick and I can see using for lots of non-pebble applications as well. Join me and Alison on December 2.

Campbell’s faux batik buzz

One of the techniques that built a buzz at the IPCA retreat in Chicago was the faux batik method that Heather Campbell demoed. Faux batik fits perfectly with Heather’s complex, gilded and textured style and looks in sync with the approaching fall colors. She’s uploaded some new samples to her blog.

I missed the Chicago event in July so I’ve spent the afternoon trying to research a bit more about the process. The closest I’ve come is Judy Belcher’s method in her Creative Traditions book.

I’m not sure that’s how Heather is achieving her effects, but either way my mind is reeling with ideas. Already variations on this theme are popping up on the web. Thanks to Lindly Haunani for pointing out what I missed.

Modern medicine woman

Wendy Malinow was decked out in claws, teeth, and femurs (all polymer) when I met up with her in Denver. She looked like a modern day medicine woman with her antler armbands, skull earrings and fringed leather sandals.

It’s the sculptural quality of the bones that attracts her. She’s researched scientific sites and delved into the world of bone scavengers to come up with designs that tweak reality and reinterpret how primitive people adorned themselves.

The Nature’s Ladder neckpiece is part of her continuing exploration of bones as adornment. The long design drapes down the back as well as the front. It will appear in an upcoming book in the Lark masters series.

Thanks for your patience. Speaking of sculptural inspiration, look at Jeff Dever’s video link in the right column. Wow! Maggie Maggio pointed me to it.

My faux slate sleight of hand

As a way to get myself off the computer and into the studio more, I’ve decided to post about my own work every week or so (blush, blush). Hence my Friday faux slate switchplates.

A local woman’s expensive kitchen renovation with slate backsplash fell flat because first things that caught your eye were the generic switchplates. She read about my faux stone and we decided to give it a try. All six plates are different colors and configurations. You can read more about how I made them here.

Treasurefield’s fee fi faux

This sunny Rosa Amarilla polymer clay necklace and enamel-look swallow pin from Alisa Treasurefield look sunny and just right for the first post of the week.

Alisa specializes in unusual faux effects – wood, enamel, bakelite, ceramic, metal and more – in the items in her Etsy shop.

It takes a keen eye and a deft hand to use the clay so convincingly. In an earlier post we looked at her faux faceted wood gems and now there’s much more to look at.

Distractions

Here are two tutorials I found this weekend as I tried to distract myself from other chores that were calling me. Both the faux agate cane and the twisted wire/polymer ring look interesting and need little translation. If you experiment with them, I can get back to work.

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