Polymer Clay Daily

Well heeled polymer

Doroshow on PCDaily
Doroshow on PCDaily

Using sheets of patterned clay, bits of fabric and hardware finds, Dayle Doroshow satisfies her craving for shoes.

She hunts for historic patterns or fashionable footwear that appeal to her and then lets her imagination take flight. With the addition of a pin back, the shoes become brooches. Dayle shows the basic process on this free video tutorial.

Doroshow on PCDaily

See more of Dayle’s enchanting work and find out where she’s teaching on her blog and on Facebook. She’s at Maureen Carlson’s and at the New York guild in May.

Tool party tonight

Be sure to join the online party at Craftcast tonight. It’s the 5th edition of I Love Tools and you’re going to love this one.

Rolled polymer

This is the way Albuquerque’s Barb Fajardo rolls. She gathers thin striped polymer snakes into a bunch and suspends them from a ball chain to make a fashion statement.

She’s also adept at rolling snakes from bits of Skinner blend and then forming them into sinewy floral earrings and pendants. Barb hunts for bargains on bamboo placemats that she disassembles.

She builds her earrings on the salvaged bamboo tiles using the Skinner snakes in a southwest palette and adding texture and paint to the polymer leaves and blossoms.

Fajardo on PCDaily

On her Facebook page you can see the way she’s found to imitate knitting with her rolled Skinner bits. The snake shape suits her so well that Barb can’t help but explore its design possibilities.

Do you make a shape that feels like it’s all yours? Have you explored it fully?

Polymer twists

Wiggins on PCDaily

A new twist on an old shape from Angie Wiggins is sure to capture our attention.

Bits of canes are textured and topped off with a companion bead and strung on the ends of buna cord with o-ring findings. She makes mixing and matching look so easy.

Wiggins on PCDaily

Then Angie moves to her specialty vessels. Sand from Scotland mixed into the Skinner blend gives the piece extra depth. The striped stubby legs are a signature touch.

You’ll love studying how she comes up with these compositions. All you have to do is look at her worktable pictures on Facebook.

Mother lode of polymer

Pero on PCDaily

Texas’ Nora Pero likes to bead around her polymer creations, using them as focal pieces. She hit the motherlode of imitation stone beads when she tried Lynda Moseley’s new tutorial. Nora says she’s obsessed. See more of her beaded results on Etsy.

Nora can make her cabochons any shape and color she wants, imitating natural stone or creating her own reality. Just look at the supply she made for herself as soon as she read the instructions.

Pero on PCDaily

Here are Lynda’s samples. She often turns her versions into turquoise-like mosaics.

If you’re a rock hound like me this tutorial could save you time. Let’s enjoy some experimenting this weekend.

Deadline reminder

Remember this awards competition you thought about entering? You have a few days left to fill out the online application, submit your photos and feel good about checking off another goal on your 2014 list.

Embedded beauty

Laurie Mika embeds whatever she likes into her lusciously colored polymer mosaics. If you look closely your eyes will dance over bits of glass, jewelry, beads and ephemera that come together to tell her story. Of course many of the tiles are stamped, textured and painted polymer as well.

This is a sample for her March class in Detroit. Below are some of the virgins, saints, angels, gypsies and mermaids that were created by students in a recent class. And here are pictures from an earlier Treasures from the Heart class at the Institute of Mosaic Art.

She alludes to a class in Detroit in March but I don’t see it listed in her upcoming workshops.

Here she is on Facebook with more to inspire you on Pinterest and Etsy. Total yum!

Mika on PCDaily

Polymer confetti

Foss on PCDaily.com

There’s a bit of leftover New Year’s celebration in these flashy polymer pieces from Connecticut’s Kristie Foss. Glitter flakes and micro marbles are suspended in resin layered over Skinner blends. She captures the party confetti in mid-air.

In another recent post, Kristie shows off her imitation opal which she achieves with a slurry of iridescent flakes, alcohol inks and translucent liquid polymer over metal leaf on polymer.

Prowl through Kristie’s site to give your Monday a boost of inspiration. The link came to PCD from Katie Oskin.

Mixed media is back

Mayorova on PCDaily

Tanya Mayorova’s mixed media combo will appeal to anyone who has been wondering what to do with a stash of unused beads. She wraps a mix of beads threaded on wire around polymer big-hole beads which have been stamped and given a metallic sheen. The effect is primitive, ethnic and very fashionable.

Tanya is from Russia and now lives in Spain. You’ll find lots more of her rich mixes of color and texture and media on Flickr.

Whew! PCD is back!

Starting the year with a clean slate, a new server and a promise to back up regularly. After a couple of harrowing days of outage, we’re ready to face 2014.

Folk polymer

Berryman on PCDaily

Jannelle Berryman‘s Santa has already changed into civilian clothes and I hope you have too.

Berryman on PCDaily

Jannelle has moved onto steampunk robots, monsters and polymer characters with a valentines flavor that you can sample in her Etsy shop where her originals are sold.

Since 1997 Jannelle has licensed reproductions of her works which are sold in giftshops. She started with a graphic art company, moved on to painting ceramic pots, and landed in sculpture and giftware. Though she dabbles in jewelry her main focus is her Pumpkinseeds Originals creations. She’s part of the Spooky Time Jingles crowd of folk art lovers as well.

Unsupervised polymer

Beal on PCDaily

Doesn’t the name, BeadUnsupervised, intrigue you? The thing is, Carol Beal’s work looks unsupervised in the most delightful way. She mixes her media (fiber, felt, glass, wire and more) with abandon and she isn’t shy about color. She uses whatever materials and colors strike her fancy.

Carol’s background is in illustration and design and she is able to make lots of unlikely colors and textures play together nicely even though you wouldn’t think they’d get along. She gathers her samples on her Flickr page and sells on Etsy.

Supervised shopping

Need some suggestions for your last-minute shopping? May I recommend some of the excellent polymer books that have come out this year? Like Polymer Clay Global Perspectives by Cynthia Tinapple – you knew I’d say that, right?

Some other newcomers that offer good work plus valuable tips and tricks include:

And they can be under your tree by Christmas!

Immaterial polymer

Dever on PCDaily

Jeff Dever’s mixed media Violet Midnight necklace made of silk flower petals, wire, polymer and a ping pong ball will be part of the 19th annual Craft Forms show at the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, Pennsylvania for the coming month.

Jeff’s necklace was part of a series of jewelry he made from found materials as he developed his Immaterial lecture series. Flip through the Craft Forms catalog online to find the polymer and silver work of Carolyn Tillie in the show as well.

Last month Jeff’s works were on view at the SOFA Chicago show at the Hedone Gallery where he is represented. Here’s Jeff on the first night of the show surrounded by his graceful sculptures that look like they’ve just landed at the event. More pix on Jeff’s Facebook page. Note how well Jeff wears his own work at shows!

Dever on PCDaily

Open hearts!

We are closing in fast on the Raise the Roof goal, hoping that our weekend readers will take us over the top. With funds coming from supporters around the globe, tabulating the amounts gets complicated and we’ll have a firm number soon.

Our hearts are bursting with gratitude. This heart’s from Ron Lehocky who will add cow-shopping his list of holiday activities!

Thanks to all who clicked on links until you found ones that worked. We appreciate your persistence and encourage you to keep on clicking to send the tally through the roof!