Armed and ready

Cynthia Toops pays homage to the virus in micromosaic on PolymerClayDaily.com

Seattle’s Cynthia Toops pays homage to our current reality with her latest small micromosaic brooch.

Her “Armed and Ready” cowboy wields a yellow tape lasso for 6′ social distancing, a mask, nitrile gloves and sanitizer in holster. He wears a covid brooch instead of a sheriff star.

Cynthia bakes very fine threads of polymer which she embeds in an unbaked layer and cures again. All this in a cast sterling bezel by Chuck Domitrovich.

Over at StudioMojo we’ll thread our way around current events and look at all the creativity this crisis has spawned. Join us!

Simple or complex

Paula Kennedy decides how simple or serious she wants to be on PolymerClayDaily.com

It’s Memorial Day in the US. These red, white, and blue polymer flipflop earrings from Texas’ Paula Kennedy are the perfect accessory for the local parade.

Paula usually creates much more intense and complex projects (like this silver and polymer micromosaic feather necklace) but on a day like today, it’s hard to resist cute.

You decide how serious or silly, how simple or complex you want your work to be.

Polymer dancing shoes

Start your week with this polymer micromosaic dancing shoes necklace from Cynthia Toops. Her updated new works gallery shows these little slippers which you can also find on the Facere Gallery site.

Each shoe is listed as 1″ x 0.3″ x 0.2″ which seems impossibly small and totally Toopsian.

Cynthia continues her Metamorphis rolodex bracelet series. Her very small black and white illustrations on polymer are also recent additions.

Her Sleepless in Seattle necklace is part of the Dual Nature show at the Wing Luke Museum through January of next year. This Green Eyes necklace is made from polymer and glass.

If you haven’t explored Cynthia’s work for a while and could use some Monday inspiration, take a few minutes to click through her newest polymer treasures.

Micromosaics and metal clay

Just in time for Easter, Cindy Silas finished her micromosaic from our recent class with Cynthia Toops. Cindy’s leaping bunny is set in a metal clay bezel that she textured with photopolymer plates.

Here’s the in-progress shot in case you missed it. Baked, splinter-sized pieces of rolled polymer are set into unbaked clay, a tedious but meditative process.

I’m leaping to the west coast today for a vacation. If you see beach pebbles and sea glass creeping into PCDaily posts, you’ll know why.

Macro and micro mosaics weekend

The student work from Cynthia Toops’ polymer micromosaic class is a testament to both her teaching and the expertise of the Philadelphia guild. Here’s a small sampling of student work at the end of the weekend class (hastily assembled in my hotel room). Each student quickly reinterpreted Toops’ techniques into her own style.

It was an added bonus that we stumbled on Isaiah Zagar’s Magic Gardens in South Philly on Saturday evening. Zagar’s mosaic covered storefronts, alleyways, gardens and galleries provided a perfect counterpoint to Toops’ tiny formats. The micro and macro of mosaics! Meeting Zagar working in his studio was an unexpected treat.

My clumsy and colorful class bead shown here takes after the Zagar style. Thanks to our hosts, Martha Aleo and Ken Baskin, and to the great guild bunch. I’m on the way home after an invigorating weekend.