Doodle delights

Continuing our doodle theme, Germany’s Margit Bohmer doodles on paper and then transfers the drawing to raw polymer.

The fun continues as she uses inks or paints or colored pencils to color in the design. The results are formed into bangles or sliced into earrings, brooches and such. (Note that the transfer would actually be mirror-imaged but the animation looked more believable this way.)

Get the whole scoop on Margit’s Flickr page or friend her on Facebook. On a hot day, this might be a painterly way to play with sticky clay.

Polymer as canvas

Florida’s Christina Cassidy (Chevre Feuille) gazes out her window and draws what she sees on polymer (fired first, I assume) with India ink.

This Fleabit Grey Horse Pendant is drawn with India ink on glitter-speckled clay. The background was ink-washed.

Christina explains that, “Working with India and many colored inks, colored pencil, watercolors or different colored clays, I sculpt, draw, or etch my ideas on the surface of each piece.” She adds a sealing finish as the last layer.

Christina worked with horses for many years and they remain her muses. Have an inspired weekend.

Polymer craze


Ariane Freisleben	Rebecca Geoffrey	Page McNall

This month polymer pieces from Italy’s Ariane Freisleben (Magic Toscana), Canada’s Rebecca Geoffrey, and Virginia’s Page McNall show some new variations on crackling and crazing over polymer patterns. Previously crazing came from a layer of heavy paint that cracked to show the underneath color in the crevices. The results looked good but had limited application.

Newer methods allow artists to show dark cracks while revealing the caned, inked, printed or blended designs underneath. Ariane and Rebecca both mention Tina Holden’s tutorial as their starting point and Page is probably using something similar. Some clever new twists are taking hold and I see a craze craze starting.

Chalks and inks

Virginia dentist, Page McNall rolled out a sheet of ecru polymer and added a few scrap clay pieces made using Maggie Maggio’s watercolor technique.

Then she colored the flat surface with alcohol inks and liquid chalks, textured it and embedded Mykonos ceramic beads for accent. She calls the resulting polymer assemblage Currents.

From this flat sheet, Page cut out pleasing shapes that became brooches and pendants. These two she calls Faux Stone Dentates (tooth-like, of course).

Her soft painterly chalks and inks are deftly applied. Page’s beautiful results may have you heading back to your inks to try again.

Tackling scrap polymer

Lynda Moseley makes simple pieces from her polymer scrap every so often saying, “There is something very cathartic about marbling, isn’t there? It’s not technical, not complicated, just a few minutes of fun grouping together color combinations to see what you get.” She cuts 2-inch squares from the best results, often stripes, and turns them into finished earrings.

Of course, her leftovers include a mixture of what she calls her “comfort clay” colors. She admits to having a separate Butt Uglies Jar for reject colors.

“I would be happy with a roomful of translucent clay and alcohol ink. Really, I could live the rest of my life just using those; and as long as Ranger doesn’t run out of walnut stain distressed embossing powder, I’m set,” she admits. Look at the tricks she performs with those few supplies here and here.

Is this your week to use up, clean up and pare down?

Bashing ideas

Carissa Nichols’ Ultralight Sculpey pendants caught my eye at Ohio’s Buckeye Bash (my pictures here) in Dayton. She sculpts the pieces in white clay, bakes and then colors them with alcohol inks and seals them with a spray. Inking the chalky surfaces allows for a bright, frilly effect.

The marshmallowy ultralight requires more gentle handling than other polymer clays. Once baked, however, its soft texture, makes for easy carving and it can be used as a strong armature for large pieces. (See Sarah Shriver’s big beads and Melanie West’s biobangles, for example.)

Carol Simmons was the Buckeye Bash’s visiting artist this year and the room was abuzz with teams creating kaleidoscope canes and slicing them deli-thin on her prototype slicing device.