Miracle polymer

Cynthia Wolff’s Waiting for My Miracle earrings look as if they’ve been dredged up from the wreckage of an undersea ballroom. Then she adds this tantalizing verse to her Etsy offering:

My efforts sometimes are futile…I am clumsy, I am inefficient…I fail more often than I succeed. But everyday I show up…and hope for a miracle.

These earrings are a cumulation of all my skills thus far. The making of my own beads, certainly a chapter in itself, has changed me once again.

I am not the same…I am moving and evolving….and sometimes I want to quit…because it doesn’t come easy to me…but sometimes.

These earrings sum it all up…two years of work…showing up…they are filled with me.

Though this California artist has been collecting bits and making jewelry for years, Cynthia just picked up polymer in July. Friends around the globe gave her tips and showed her the ropes. See how she’s moved and evolved on her Pinterest board, her blog, and her Etsy shop.

Polymer funny things

Australia’s Debbie Crothers starts the week with some Funny Things. Together her series of wrapped natural items becomes a mixed media wall installation.

Debbie’s been experimenting with faux ceramic effects, wrapping white polymer around natural coral and palm fronds. Forged artistic wire and rounded cane slices accentuate some of the pieces.

Flip through Debbie’s pages of work to see how she’s progressed, improving her skills, circling back and bringing funny things to a whole new level. Anna Winter sent the link and encouraged me to look at Debbie again.

IPCA Awards

Beginning October 1, you may submit photos of your art into the IPCA’s Polymer Clay Awards, the world’s largest juried contemporary polymer art competition. The awards will be presented at the 2014 EuroSynergy in Malta in May.

Full disclosure: I’m one of the three judges and we want to dig up the best art possible. We’ll be hounding you from now until the submission deadline in January so you might as well get used to clicking on this call for entry icon.

Polymer hibiscus

Heather Powers calms our jitters with her Hibiscus Buds, part of the class offerings in her 3-day Inspired by Nature retreat in Michigan this October.

Her delicate polymer flower buds hug their petals around themselves. Topped off with leaves and wrapped with wire, they become pendants or charms to be mixed with an array of metals and bead components and gathered into autumn treasures.

Heather is a busy blogger, author and artist with sites on illustration, earrings and more. Her Art Bead Scene interactive blog has been around since 2007, celebrating the work of a group of jewelry designers who use art beads of all materials in their work.

Heather's sites are full of polymer creations, all inspired by nature in a way that reminds us to slow down and cherish the beauty around us. (These Midnight Garden Wafer Beads are a summer favorite.)

Wired polymer

Ponsawan Silapiruti has been playing with positive/negative space as she makes wire brooch and pendant forms. " I use bigger gauge wire to make the form, then use smaller wire to wrap around the big wire and in the middle. When I put on a sheet of polymer to fill it up, the clay grabs onto the wire," she explains.

You can see how Ponsawan has progressed with her wire working on her Flickr site and get even more details on her Facebook page. One of the wire forms below became this polymer-filled brooch.

Breezy polymer

On a hot day, the graceful, spare designs from Ohio’s Grace Stokes are like a cool breeze.

Grace says that her work with polymer was born out of frustration. "I did not want to be limited by the color or pattern or size of a stone," she says. " Polymer allows me the versaility to create elements and qualities exactly to the specifications that I want for my designs."

Time for a mint julip!

Polymer for dancing

This blog post from polymer newbie Kimberly Rogers about bad days and new beginnings may make you smile.

She’s an Alaskan lampwork and mixed media artist who easily transitioned to polymer when she bought Ginger Allman’s tutorial on rustic beads.

Kimberly used the red, white and blue polymer that she had on hand and diguised the color with paints following Ginger’s instructions. And then she danced!

Read more

Donna Greenberg’s homage to artist Morundi. Fabulous polymer-covered bottles.

Free tutorial from Anke Humpert by signing up for her newsletter mailing list.

Beach party polymer

How kind of you to do online research for me while I’m on vacation! Chris Kelsey sent in this link to Florida polymer painter Debortina, Deborah Groover.

Your eyes will flit around like these Beach Party birds, checking out the wealth of patterns and colors pieced together into larger images.

To give you a size idea, the work shown here is 22″ x 32″. The process comes closest to applique.

Deborah explains, “Once my clay is heat set, I cut apart sheets and reassemble them into a polymer collage. I then add color and washes, use sgrafitto to remove color then add more color, and on and on until I am satisfied. The backgrounds are not clay (except for the small ones). I use layers of ink pens and paints to create the texture.” Experience the whole shebang on Flickr.

Vacation is lovely! Class begins on Monday and maybe I’ll try polymer painting!

Intense polymer

Put on your sunglasses to enjoy Dusdee Chotipruk’s small sculptures, hangings and jewelry. This picture of her work area shows how she immerses herself in color.

Thailand’s popular Dichan magazine featured Dusdee in its June issue. “I am a very low profile person but my creations may be loud,” she says.

She mixes crocheted rounds, bright polymer canes and glass beads into an updated ’60s fashion statement.

Taller polymer

Illustrator Doreen Kassel’s usually squat, rotund polymer characters (made over glass ornaments) are sprouting skinny necks and spindly legs as she gets ready for for a busy schedule (scroll down her home page to see the dates).

These sculpted and painted Blended Beasts will make their class debut next year. Her preparations for teaching have unleashed a flurry of creature (plus totems and shrines) that must have been brewing in her brain.

Flickr’s new big format pictures makes Doreen’s animals brighter and more boldly bizarre. Go have a look on her blog, on Etsy, on Facebook – they’re everywhere! And she’s won another Niche Award this year!

Garden polymer

Cornelia Brockstedt’s Morning Dew bracelet recalls the dew shimmering on spring moss. Her polymer clay and silver creation is part of a recent garden-themed series that includes City Garden, Shelter and Street Life and shows vegetation thriving unexpectedly in earrings and brooches.

Conny was trained as a goldsmith and has worked as a designer for years. Polymer allows her to combine her talents. “As much as I love black and white, I love all shades of green – and dots,” she says.

She likes to look at her subjects intensely and is fascinated by repeating forms. You begin to understand how her mind works as you flip through her Flickr photos and you will see why polymer fits her vision perfectly. Thanks to Donna Kato for the link.

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