Seed beads in polymer

When I say seed beads and polymer you probably envision small beads woven around polymer cabochons. Connecticut’s Peggy Dembicer thinks differently.

Here she embeds seeds beads in polymer to create a mosaic portrait. She was inspired by a 1940s photo of her mother-in-law. It measured 8.5″ by 11. Even though the beads are pretty widely spaced, they read as a soft, moody photo. Look more closely here.

For this cover of ArtNews magazine she cut out large areas of polymer to make the background of the mosaic. Cruise through Flickr to see more.

Peggy mixes her media using her background in textiles and fiber arts to present a modern take on traditional techniques. She reinterprets her world in fiber, beads and polymer. Let’s hear it for mixing your media!

Mixing media

Polymer slices baked right on frosted resin beads. What a great idea from California’s Karen Lewis (Klew). She embellishes glass beads using the same technique.

This layered look is Klew’s trademark. See more of her on Etsy and on Facebook.

There’s a free how-to video about her sculpted accent beads on her site for your weekend enjoyment. And here’s a self-care snippet from Klew (with Sarah Shriver) from a few years back.

The IPCA crew is flying into my home town for the retreat and Klew is among them. This is the first time Ohio has hosted such a big time event! News from the retreat coming your way next week. Have a big time this weekend.

Polymer confessions

This post is late because I’m vacationing out west. I confess!

These couple of frames are from the newest Facebook video from Georg Dinkel. He again addresses our religious and technological lapses in a piece appropriately called The Sinner. It shows a blogger flogging herself with her laptop (that’s my interpretation).

If you can’t access the video, take a browse through his website to experience his remix of architecture and religion in polymer. I’ll be a better person tomorrow!

Two-headed polymer

Canada’s Helen Breil can fold, fan, shape and stamp polymer like a champ. Her two ebooks explain how to make beautiful undulating shapes and she’ll be demoing her methods at the IPCA Retreat in Columbus. Helen knows her geometry and is able to fold simple flat cutouts into surprisingly elegant forms.

Collaborating with Annie Pennington for this piece gives Helen’s folded designs an even richer and more complex dimension. Annie, an Associate Editor at Art Jewelry magazine, works in felt and metal along with polymer. Her brooches were IPCA Award winners this year.

Helen sent Annie the blue overlapping folded forms. Annie added the copper setting, the felt center and the round accents proving again that two heads are better than one.

Ipolymer winners

Georg Dinkel’s I-reliquaries and shrines captured the hearts of the EuroSynergy audience in Malta. A long time photographer, Georg’s first shrine housed his daughter’s ipod.

The shrines grew bigger and more complex. His latest elaborate creations won best of show honors in the IPCA Awards challenge.

Georg grew up surrounded by both religion and architecture in Germany. Using polymer, salvaged materials and wood he began building ancient-looking constructions that pay homage to today’s important icons – namely Apple products.

Georg’s presentation at Malta was stunning, amusing and inspirational. He makes his own tools from what must be an amazing basement full of odds and sods. His extruder was fashioned from an outdoor spigot handle, a length of pipe, a long screw, and a metal washer. His iphone shrine was built over the skeleton of a lamp salvaged from the trash.

He plans to edit his Malta presentation into an online video that he’ll upload to his site in the next few weeks. In the meantime, you can see his winning entry here. In this silly photo Donna Greenberg crowns the ever-irreverant Dinkel with her polymer tiara.

The other top winners include Fran Abrams, Laurie Mika, Angela Garrod, Cornelia Brockstedt, Annie Pennington, Penne Mobley, Claire Fairweather, Joyce Cloutman and Emily Squires Levine. The winning works are posted here.

Euclidean polymer

It must be almost spring. After a couple of days visiting grandchildren, I return to find Debbie Crothers trying some alchemy in her studio. What do you suppose she’s using?

Sona Gregoryan is folding paper in complex ways and covering it for a kind of Euclidian polymer. I get back online and everywhere there’s something new in bloom.

There’s even a buzz about an upcoming clay product from Polyform first announced on PolyClayPlay. Seems the suedelike surface of the new Sculpey Souffle may fill the hole left by discontinuation of Sculpey Studio. Spring ideas are blossoming all around.

Wireworked polymer

Ponsawan Silaparuti knows how to turn storm clouds into lovely jewels. Wire forms have captured her attention and she’s discovered some tricks to sketching outlines by bending and twisting lightweight wire and then giving the image dimension by filling in with polymer.

The polymer is often carved, faceted and further embellished. She’ll be teaching this pendant in a Rain Cloud class that combines her latest methods at the June L’Atelier conference in Indiana.

Ponsawan’s productivity and drive are impressive and you can see the results on Facebook and Flickr. (Her Flickr site is also loaded with mouthwatering pictures of Thai food.)

Ponsawan’s tutorial site is a treasure trove of some of her earlier tricks and tips. You have to scroll back to find some oldies-but-goodies like her famous easy flower canes and bubble beads.

Hope your skies are clear this weekend!

Polymer to the rescue

Luann Udell made a discovery as she prepared for her big cross-country move. Treasures can bang and bump and break. A chip in this antique Roseville pottery bowl made her sad and she resolved to save it with polymer. She details her method in this free tutorial that contains some surprises. Bake the polymer first? Use an adhesive activator? These are tricks you won’t find anywhere else.

If you’ve ever fretted over a chipped tile or a cracked pot, you’ll thank Luann for taking the time to tell you the secrets of patching with polymer. You can see the artwork that Luann’s more widely known for on her site, Facebook and her blog.

Out of time polymer

Imagine my surprise when I picked these beads for today and then found that the artist, Kathy Richardson of Cincinnati, Ohio, had recently taken a class from Leslie Blackford (she was yesterday’s inspiration). Let’s call it great minds thinking alike.

Kathy was already a committed boho style, urban grunge, mixed media kinda gal. Leslie pushed Kathy to think about sculpture for her Out of Time Designs. The double entendre of her shop name makes you think, doesn’t it?

The polymer beads at the left are from another time when children played with wooden toys instead of video games. She applied colors, sanded and colored them again to give them the worn look of old toys. Peeling bark was the inspiration for the curled beads at the right.

Kathy says, “My shop started from a need to pay for this terribly addictive habit of making things to make people smile, make me smile and make the world a bit brighter in the process.” Take your time and smile as you look at her work this weekend.

Pastel polymer

Dancing Flowers is an appropriate name for this bunch of polymer flowers by Zuzana Liptakova of Slovakia. She mixes delicately edged translucent petal cane slices with crystals, metal chain, beads and findings, draping them with style.

To make them into earrings, Zuzana hangs small glitzy jewels on chain from the center of a circle of petals. The colors are perfect for spring with just a bit of what looks like embossing powder worked in for interest.

She’s been working in clay since 2010 and has already attended an impressive list of master classes. With her spring flowers you can see how Zuzana is finding her own distinct style that you can discover in her Sashe gallery, on Flickr and Facebook.

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