Bowling over yourself

LA’s Nomi Isak (nomiisak) combines inclusions and translucent, layers and colors, rough edges and cutouts into a delightful bowl. Rather than carefully exploring each ingredient on its own, she gives them a whirl all at once and it works.

Nomi gets out of her own way. Sounds easy but for some of us, it isn’t.

This week’s StudioMojo is about that same concept. Now more than ever we shuffle fires, storms, wars, worries, and to-do lists into the background. How do you shove all that aside to play? Join us as we find a way.

Life lessons in polymer

Seana Bettencourt welcomes May with a new attitude on PolymerClayDaily.com

Ontario’s Seana Bettencourt has come through some health concerns and it looks like her creativity has been pumped into high gear.

These pendants (and more on FB) were made at a spring guild conference. Seana has taken bits of techniques she’s recently learned, mixed them with hard-won life lessons to make her own distinctive and stunning pendants that let her own spirit shine through. Exciting when that happens to us.

Outback polymer

Western Australia’s Debbie Crothers is venturing farther and farther into the outback. Or so it seems.

These are some of her latest polymer creations using all sorts of inclusions and something familiar but unnamed. What are you guessing?

Some of the beads are carved, painted, textured. The shapes vary and the colors are pure Aussie.

Debbie says that the more grungy the beads get, the better she likes them. She’s unearthed them for upcoming Art in the Outback workshops.

Study them more closely on Facebook, Flickr and see what she’s teaching on CraftArtEdu. She’s pinned all over the place on Pinterest.

Sculptural effect from inclusions

Big hollow polymer beads with inclusions are the latest creation from Christine Dumont who is also the founder of the popular European Voila Web site.

In the new beads small fluted “ossocopia” are embedded in the clay, with the tips of their horns protruding or with concave saucers recessed into layers of color, the newest twist in her sculptural approach to polymer beads.

Christine has been teaching workshops online and in several countries. Her butterfly beads flutter all over Europe. She’ll be teaching at Polymer Pamper Play in the UK in March. I hope your weekend is filled with lots of pamper and play.

Haunani’s spring pod

One of my favorite polymer clay pieces for spring is this pod/sprout from Lindly Haunani. It’s quintessentially spring with natural colors and shape. The texture comes from sand mixed into the clay. You can read about Lindly’s inclusions here.

But even better than the pod itself is the memory of the Shrine Mont conference perhaps ten years ago when lots of us wore them in celebration of the season and for the fun of it. Wearing it today brings the celebration back again and makes me smile.