Polymer paydirt

Tucked in among the oxidized silver, bronze and copper chains, pendants and earrings in Greg and BJ Jordan’s booth at the local art fair, a blast of color jumped out at me. Paydirt! New polymer!

BJ and Greg are from Fort Wayne, Indiana and have been metalworkers for 30 years. BJ creates the polymer sheets and inlays the fired patterns into the bezels.

Her bold colors and graphic patterns compliment their strong primitive metal designs.

I had to have a pair for my collection (business expense, right?) and you can find them online at Etsy here. For their most current activity, check their Facebook page.

Polymer at CraftBoston

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!

Wood/polymer in new venue

Thursday night was the opening of our town’s new art center which featured an exhibit of art made from local wood assembled and sculpted by Dorothy Gill Barnes (see more about her here).

My husband, Blair Davis, has assisted Dorothy for several years. He thinks of himself as a cabinet maker/woodturner/engineer and Dorothy insisted that he receive billing as an artist. He’s the bearded guy in the hat in this page of pictures I quickly assembled. Dorothy is the white-haired woman.

One of Blair’s wood turned bowls with my polymer clay inlay was included in this show (here’s a brief in-process video). I was pleased that tonight two public gallery directors asked me about having polymer group shows in their spaces.

If you haven’t been a polymer artist for long, you may not understand that it is music to my ears to be asked to set up a polymer show. No more explaining or defending polymer clay as art. It was a lovely night. Have a lovely weekend.

Liedtke’s polymer clay leaves

I keep running into reminders of fall like these polymer clay leaves from Judith Liedtke of Dortmund, Germany. I like the spare, minimalist design. You’ll like some of her canine cane work as well.

Here in the US it’s Labor Day, our symbolic end of summer holiday.

Perhaps you’ll enjoy some pictures of the project I’m working on, a last minute entry into a local gallery show. My engineer husband created a wonderful system for firing polymer clay inlays. The system uses two paint stripping guns, a bench vice and the wind-up turntable from our aging microwave. Ingenious.

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