Why is it that when you can’t actually get your hands on polymer for one reason or another, watching someone else complete a project is especially engrossing?
We’re all on the sidelines shouting, “You go, girl” to the UK’s Bridget Derc and her complex mandala tabletop.
She took photos of every cane, every measurement, every step of the way and uploaded them to Flickr for you to enjoy vicariously.
This Spring Sprang Sprung table by Maine’s Bonnie Bishoff and J. M. Syron started small and grew bigger.
Bonnie explains that, “The table started as a request from a client to make a board room table and she wanted us to veneer the surface with a design inspired by a tryptich wall piece about 40 inches across.”
The polymer artist/furniture maker duo had already made several large fantastical pieces for the client.
The design concept showed an 8 ft table that would be 9 times larger than the original wall piece and would require 12 pounds of clay.
Bonnie shared a number of in-process photos that will give you an idea of what is required for a piece of this size. (I’ve slid her photos over from Facebook so that you can see them all at a glance.
Bonnie works in jewelry as well as furniture. Visit Artful Home, Bonnie’s shawl pin site, Facebook and their website to acquaint yourself with the wide span of their work. Start your week big!
Why yes, I believe that Germany’s Mareike Scharmer embellished even the potty with polymer. Here are the photos of the rest of the guest bath installation at the new Galerie Freisleben where inspiration will follow students from the classroom to the washroom.
The knobs and trim are polymer additions to the fancifully painted cabinets and mirrors and…well just about everything. Read about Mareike’s polymer work on her blog.
The facility is nearly ready and Ariane’s dream looks fabulous. Pore through more pictures of the gallery on Flickr. Claire Maunsell will teach in August and Loretta Lam is scheduled for October.
If you can’t travel to the east coast this weekend, allow your fingers to virtually roam through the CraftBoston show to see some very cool polymer like these Karen Noyes cane slice bowls and this birch and polymer chest from J.M. Syron & Bonnie Bishoff.
Artists in these prestigious shows are often too busy to update their own websites with new pictures and you have to visit their shows to discover their most current works. (Click the images to see more.)
Be sure to drop by the booths of Louise Fischer Cozzi, Ford and Forlano, Mary Filapek & Lou Ann Townsend.Let me know if you bump into anyone else. Note that Kathleen Dustin was last spring’s best in show winner!
Kathleen Dustin reports that this weekend’s opening reception for Sculpting Color: Works in Polymer Clay at the Fuller Craft Museum drew the second-largest crowd the museum has ever had. “I am thrilled at how nice the show looks, and how well it is being received. This is a large step forward for the medium of polymer clay as an expression of fine art,” she says.
Kathleen curated the show and added a few tantalizing snapshots to her Facebook page. I’m sure we’ll soon be seeing more. A few of them are posted below for those of you who haven’t taken the Facebook plunge. The teapots above are by Rebecca Zimmerman.
The opening festivities included a panel discussion with Kathleen, Bonnie Bishoff, Jeff Dever, Elise Winter, and Grant Diffendaffer. A synopsis of the discussion will be published on PolymerArtArchive.
The exhibit continues until November 22 at the Brockton, MA museum.
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| Kathleen Dustin and her 4’x3′ Nature Fix, Jeff Dever’s flowing forms, Grant Diffendaffer and his rayguns, Bonnie Bishoff’s Meander Credenza. | |
I’m cobbling together a post from your emails since I’m on vacation and laptop time is limited.
In response to yesterday’s post, Patty Barnes describes how she makes her Kemper cutters organized and portable.
“Since I have many sets of Kemper cutters and I like to take them to classes and meetings, I used a metal tin to hold them.
I pressed scrap clay inside the bottom of the tin so that it was about ½” thick. I cut out each shape with the cutters and baked the entire tin. Coating the cutters with cornstarch or ArmorAll and leaving the cutters in place during the baking helps. Polymer clay shrinks a tiny amount and leaving the cutters in place during baking makes for a better fit.”
Kylee Milner (Lunes Bijoux) sent along the link to some versatile, inexpensive pendant bails she found on Ebay.
Art Jewelry Magazine has two articles about Melanie West in their current issue. One is a look at Melanie’s solar-powered home and studio. The other is a tutorial on bonding seamless polymer over aluminum cuff armatures.
Today’s photo is from the Artful Home catalog where I searched on polymer clay and came up with four pages of mouthwatering jewelry and furniture. The credenza entitled Bending Birches by J.M. Syron and Bonnie Bishoff is covered with polymer clay marquetry. Here’s their home site.
