Zigzag polymer

Even though you can detect the echoes of teachers and tutorials in Kathy Cannella’s polymer jewelry, her own voice comes through loud and clear. She puts her juju on each piece, zigging when you thought she’d zag. It’s a cool trick to retain your own aesthetic when you’re following someone else’s instructions. Kathy shows us that it can be done!

Kathy crackles, veneers, textures and distresses with confidence. It appears that she has a background in sculpture. She keeps a low profile and all we know is that she’s from New Jersey. There’s more to come so keep her on your radar.

Mimicking stone

Italy’s Ilenia Moreni fools us with her imitative labradorite. Labradorite’s gleaming layered colors are bisected with tricky lines. I’m glad I fell for her faux and bought the tutorial. She makes me want to explore stone imitations again.

Ilenia plays tricks with clothing as well and is able to replicate any era and follow any fancy. Follow her on Flickr and Facebook.

Be an April fool and enjoy all the secrets and tricks in her Etsy shop.

Polymer imitates enamel

Valeria Myrusso from St. Petersburg fools the eye with her Art Nouveau polymer jewelry. Her work easily passes for enamel or porcelain as shown by the Jardin de Mémoires and Porcelain Chrysanthemums here.

Valeria uses pastels and paints along with stones, pearls and metals to achieve her alchemy. Look closely on her website, Instagram, her Russian site and Facebook to get the full impact of her works.

A shout out to Lisa Hutton who spotted these works and sent the link to PCD.

Sombre Wednesday

Lina Takhautdinova (Wildhorn) introduces us to the world of dark dressers and stylenoir. Goth meets high fashion in St. Petersburg. Lina pairs upcycled leather, coarse fabric, and aged silver with her own polymer antlers and imitation stones.

She refers to her colors as sombre and you’ll note hashtags that range from avantgarde to postapocalyptic. A short interview on StyleNoir.com gives you a better idea of Lina’s aesthetic and worklife. The best place to see her work is on Instagram and Pinterest. Keep up with her latest news on Facebook.

If you were overwhelmed by the color on Monday and Tuesday’s PCD posts, this should cleanse your palette.

Digging up artists

Margarita Repsiene (from Lithuania now in Singapore) developed her own batik methods for the sea urchin earrings and on the fabric-like belt buckle on the right.

Batik is definitely on the rise again and this version bounced around the world and landed in my lap via Irena Lapasinskaite, Margarita’s friend.

You’ll find a whole bunch of intriguing items on her Flickr, Etsy, Pinterest and Facebook pages. I studied them and kept asking myself, “How is she doing that?”

If you dig up a polymer artist who rings your chimes or piques your curiosity, please send her/his name to PCD. You readers are my eyes and ears in the crazy, huge internet/social media world. I can’t possibly keep up on my own and I count on you. Thanks!

Polymer beach finds

Sandra Deyoung Niese’s (DandyBeads) imitative beach finds look appealing on her Etsy site at this time of year. She lives in Michigan but her heart and her polymer designs live in a warmer climate.

This 2″ wire-wrapped pendant is painted with sea blue and sand acrylics and delicately distressed with sea urchin patterns.

If you need some sun and sand to brighten your day, look at Sandra’s beautifully wave-washed polymer pieces on Facebook and Pinterest. This one’s sold. I’m wearing a pretty piece of beach on a cord to ward off snow. It’s not working but I don’t care.

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