Spain’s Ana Belchi celebrates 500 blog posts with a shower of new work. Her Industrial Disease series shows Ana’s efforts at oxidizing polymer clay. Wires appear and disappear in these rough pieces that were inspired by the work of Montserrat Lacomba.
Her Cuerda Seca (translates as dry rope?) group shows ragged edged brooches made of blocks of color divided by deep black channels. Explore all of this and more on her Flickr site.
Ana will teach her oxidation class at the August GredosClayFestival in Spain. Visit the site for all the class listings.
No-fear polymer fashions from Moscow’s Oxana Volkova. Her love of color extends from a headband bubbling with colors, textures and patterns to makeup that continues the artistry. Are those mokume gane lips?
Bali’s Jon Anderson has been slow to warm to the social network scene and just launched a new website and Facebook fan page. Hop right on over there to greet this prolific polymer artist and make him feel at home online.
You’ll recognize Jon’s richly cane-covered animal sculptures which are carried widely in US gallerys and have ended up in the collections of such notables as Carlos Santana, Dave Abbruzzese, and Bill Clinton.
Jon creates massive complex canes inspired by Moroccan images and limits his colors to his favorite palette.Though we’re familiar with Jon’s work, his reclusive nature has made him something of a mystery in the polymer community. (You may remember his custom guitar designs from an earlier PCD post.)
We’ve been waiting since last fall when Canadian polymer artist and textile expert Barb Alexander scheduled a tour of Jon’s studio for her group of Bali visitors. Jon and his wife, artist Skid More, were working then to prepare the site.
This copper bowl, made from scrap copper telephone wire hammered by local artisans and covered with Jon’s signature cane slices, is part of his most recent collection. Browse and enjoy.
Vermont’s Meta Strick combines bits of wood, wire, beads and yarn on her art dolls. Then she dresses them in polymer. Often they carry inspirational messages. There are mixed media shrines, dolls, sculpture, buttons and more under construction here in Virginia. We’re not limited to jewelry.
Meta (rhymes with pita) is also a painter (see more here). An unexpected gift of Genesis heat-set paints prompted her to try painting on polymer this week. Turn this ragged-edged slab of polymer over and you’ll find a portrait that looks like an ancient relic. Painting on polymer could offer you a diversion next time you’re feeling exasperated with jewelry-making.
In the show twenty-nine notable jewelry artists from throughout the US, Ireland and Canada display a sampling of process drawings and reference materials to trace the creative process for their works.
“They thought I’d add a bit of color,” says Jeff. He sent us larger pictures (gathered here) so that you could witness the color. This exhibit was a spinoff of the RAM’s Terra Nova and it runs until July 13.
Maine’s Suzanne Anderson has souped up her Yikes! website to better feature her colorful polymer and multi-media jewelry. The new site offers a updated web presence that reflects her evolving work. It includes a blog where she shares peeks into her studio, her kitchen and her head.
The blog also allows her to talk about the enamel and metal clay work that she mixes with polymer.
Offering seasonal collections (like these summery starfish bangles) prevents her from getting stale or burned out and separates her lines into neat categories. Go prowl around in her site, track down her links and give the new site a test drive. Is it time for a spring cleaning on your site? We’re freshening up PCDaily behind the scenes. Look for changes soon.
Continuing with textures, we move on to Pennsylvania’s Stacie Louise Smith who mixes lots of media into her jewelry – wire, stone, sea glass, metal clay, and polymer for sculptured pieces and faux fossils..
Julie of Dixie103 combines men’s silk ties and polymer handles into this Indian Wedding Bag. This is her prototype.
Julie describes them, “The handles are quite a bit larger than a bracelet bangle and quite a bit thinner. I wanted them to easily slide over one’s arm. There’s a heavy wire going all the way through each handle and they’re double cured for strength. The seam, where the ends meet, is sewn together with many strands of heavy Nymo thread and covered with seed beads. These handles won’t break. I’ve tried.”
The design is her own after lots of research. Where do we sign up? See more pictures of the prototype on Flickr.
Smile, it’s Friday! Serbia’s Milena Babic and Miloš Samardžic (Tramps and Glam) give us a Friday happy face with their wire and polymer cubist brooch, Face It, Number 1. No canes, no layers, just wire and small bits of polymer assembled into a freaky Friday face.
More of their off-beat images on Flickr and Facebook to make you smile all weekend.
