Nothing says Valentines Day to me more than old-fashioned conversation hearts. Arizona’s Barb Handy (barbiesbest) makes an exact copy in polymer that’s hard to resist.
They’re perfectly simulated from the chalky colors to the pink ink to the typeface. Her charms are made 1/4″ thick and drilled either vertically or horizontally. Barb has it down perfectly.
Happy Valentines Day!
We might as well stretch this holiday weekend for one more day with Leila Bidler’s Kokopelli, the Native American trickster god. Leila’s carved imitative stone gives New Year’s a touch of tribal. The how-to pictures on her Instagram show her methods.
Party’s over. It’s time to get busy again but no reason you can’t slip a memento like this in your pocket to remind you of what good times you intend for the year.
The UK’s Claire Wallis builds a cane pattern, backs it with white and shapes it into an imitation cone shell. A bit of weathering with paint and sand paper completes the effect.
Claire loves to simulate nature. PCD has featured her water cane, her faux agate, her polymer knitting and now shells.
Mother Nature must be flattered with all Claire’s imitations.
It’s no secret that crackle has crept into polymer art. There was fine and faux, painted and pulled. All kinds of variations. And now maximum crackle from Serbia’s Ursa Polak appears.
If you’re a crackle fan, you probably love it all. Ursa’s version glints with gold and has a distressed relic feel about it. You’ll have to guess how she did it. Look her up on Flickr and her blog.
How cracked up are you feeling?
A pretty tangle of polymer flowers from Greece’s AnarinaAnar rounds out PCDaily’s week.
Her pieces have a distinctive look with ceramic-like speckled finishes and dark edges that provide contrast. These flowers bobble on thin wires.
There’s a spontaneous quality about her work that starts the weekend on the right foot. Check Flickr, Facebook and Etsy if you need to soak up more of her cheeriness.
When you can’t get into the studio, looking at what others are producing is especially inspiring. “Yes, that’s what I’d be doing if I had my taxes done,” I tell myself.
Look at how Angie Wiggins layers silkscreens over a juicy blend of colors. But Angie can’t stop there. Her inner embroiderer has to add a few bits that look stitched on. Oh, I’d much rather look over Angie’s shoulder than add up columns of numbers.
Or maybe I’d rather follow Nadia (NadVals) lead and whip up some imitative turquoise. Those strands of tiny faux beads embedded in the middle of the pendant give the stone a more arty and authentic edge.
You go look, I’m pretending I’m a bookkeeper today (sigh). Some days are like that.
Madrid’s Elena Fernandez has a wandering eye and she uses polymer to explore and recreate ethnic designs in contemporary jewelry. For this mixed media necklace, she reinterprets an African design adding seed beads on felt that hang from a deeply inscribed and weathered focal bar and dark simulated stones.
Ethnic designs have long appealed to Elena and you can follow along with her collections of tribal works on Flickr and see her collection of inspirations on her Pinterest page.
Polymer’s ability to imitate other materials lets us explore cultures and imagine travels from the comfort of our studios. Where would you like polymer to take you?
Who doesn’t need a Stash Jar like this one by California’s Brandee Blank?
She’s covered a lidded glass jar with imitative succulents in polymer. The wide lip of the pot camouflages the top of the jar and makes it a perfect hiding place for whatever small treasures you’d like to hide.
Brandee started making them for her friends who admired her live succulents but couldn’t seem to make the real ones survive. What a terrific holiday gift for garden-challenged friends.
See more of Brandee’s hiding spaces on her blog, Etsy, and Flickr.
Stephanie Kilgast didn’t intially reveal where she was headed with her collection of polymer crystals. She offered a great little YouTube video of how she made these other-worldly minerals. She usually creates incredibly realistic miniature foods. Crystals pointed to change.
Her clusters of cave growths reappeared mounted to a dimensional canvas trailing a blue wash of color. Stephanie explains her sculptural painting and talks about her burst of creativity on her site. She hints at more changes to come.
See what other big steps Stephanie is taking on Patreon and Instagram. They’re brave and inspirational steps!
Black and white bullseye bubbles float in imitative wood polymer to create lightweight earrings that have a retro, vaguely scientific and quirky appeal.
They’re from Virginia’s Liz Hall (lizardsjewelry) whose gem-like mosaic and silver bangles and brooches are well known.
“My work combines precious metals, polymer clay, stones, plastics, glass or whatever shiny object catches my eye,” says Liz.
She ventures into non-jewelry items as well. Here’s a polymer-covered flask from her Etsy site. See all of her signature moves on Facebook and Pinterest. Don’t you love the way she embeds ball chain in polymer for an eye-catching detail?
