Ponsawan Sila uploads her latest experiments to Flickr (and Facebook). Here she shows us Pardo translucent stretched over a steel wire armature, colored with watercolor pencils, and highlighted with gilder’s paste.
“Two years ago, I join the group called Ring A Day and we finished 365 rings in one year. My rings were exhibited and in a book, and I sold many of them,” Ponsawan says. This year she joined the brooch-a-day group (BAD) and she’s right on schedule.
Polymer artists like Kansas’ Christina Butler (Polygolems) are using the new faux aged metal finishes so well that my job has gotten harder. Is it metal? Is it polymer…or something else?
You’ll have to look closely to figure it out. Christina makes it even harder by mixing real metals with her faux. The small pieces are copper – I think.
There’s more to oggle on her Facebook pages and in her Etsy shop.
You’d be hard pressed to identify the polymer techniques that Washington’s Pam Sanders uses in her Paul’s Gift neckpiece. There’s some caning, some carving, some sculpting but the real strength is in Pam’s composition and in its strong, dark rawness.
She makes all the copper findings that carry the theme throughout her Urban Artefacts Jewelry line. “I love bizarre art,” Pam says on her profile. “Myth, magic, ancient cultures and fantasy novels are the inspiration for the art I create,” she says.
Be sure to check the photos in her Facebook gallery as well as on her website.
My shoulder aches because of Christine Damm’s sumptuous style. Let me explain.
I’m silhouetting much of the artwork for my upcoming Global Polymer book (August 2013), removing the backgrounds in Photoshop like I do every day for PCD. This weekend I was sailing through the long list of assignments from the publisher until I hit upon Christine Damm’s photos.
The wires, the twists, the textures! Her beauties are dense with details that have to be outlined and carefully cut out on the computer. I’m taking a break, giving my mouse hand a rest and showing off my/her work.
You may enjoy Christine’s most recent post where she talks about her style and how it developed. “When you begin to dedicate substantial time to your artistic work, whatever it is, your style begins to emerge, no matter where your creative experimentation takes you,” she explains. ” Before I began using polymer as my primary medium, I felt that I really didn’t have a style,” she says. There’s no mistaking Christine’s style now and her pieces tell great stories.
If you need a little sparkle on Thanksgiving, check out Barb Jarman’s polymer and druzy media mixes. Druzy is the name used for the natural crystals that form on other rocks.This pairing with polymer may give you lots of ideas.
Barbara comes from a painting and mixed media background which is reflected in her pendants that look like small wearable canvases. Carol Dresben was inspired by a class she took from Barbara in California and sent us the link.
I’m thankful for you readers who send in links. You make my job easier and widen our circle of artists and friends. Pausing to appreciate what you have? Here’s a list of 60 things to get you started.
What look like pieces of broken Delft pottery in this Scherven Brengen Geluk are modern polymer good luck charms from the Netherland’s Linda Ezerman.
On the beaches and in the rubble of cities Linda finds her mixed media version of centuries-old remnants from a life that still shapes people today. Here’s an earlier PCD feature.
This month Linda’s earthy, edgy beach mixes look right at home in the middle of Amsterdam’s Sierrad International Jewelry Art Fair. Enjoy the photos and her impressive show portfolio. The link came to PCD from Annie Pennington.
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Sarah Wilbanks uses images of maps, photographs and ephemera that she transers to polymer clay and sets in silver. “I just love finding images with history, story, line, color, texture and putting them together to create narrative,” she says.
The grackle is perched in her bird-themed gallery.
Sarah’s pieces are made of recycled sterling silver in her Seattle studio/apartment. She’s unveiling her new production line at her first retail show November 23-24. Her work is also at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) store and she’s opened an Etsy shop. Her Facebook page offers the best spot for browsing through her studio and her new line.
Missouri’s Dawn Stubitsch has started mixing her media in a new jewelry series that combines polymer with metal clay.
Dawn has been known for her super realistic polymer cake toppers and her tame and tidy graphic pendants. These recent energetic combinations of patterns, layers and materials represent a new direction.
Look more closely at Dawn’s work on her Facebook page, her website, and her Etsy shop. Libby Mills, who just finished a metal clay workshop with Celie Fago, brought the Dawn’s new geometry to our attention.
Bonus points are awarded to polymer artists who make work that looks good with the PCDaily colors! Today’s mixed media Phagocytosis from Annie Pennington is surely a winner. Annie’s also Associate Editor at Art Jewelry magazine.
Her brooch combines sterling silver, copper, polymer, handmade wool felt and colored pencil. The richness of her strokes on polymer will have you digging through your art supplies for your long-forgotten pencils.
Polymer mokume gane has been around for so long that it can become, well, boring. But I couldn’t take my eyes off Rebecca Geoffrey’s latest take on the technique. Her polymer billet is made from layers of Skinner blend jelly rolls laid side by side and flattened.
Look at this picture to get the idea. These pictures may have you heading to your studio to figure out how it’s done. More pix here.
What looks like a cookie cutter in the second picture is actually Rebecca’s handmade silver bezel (and the round tube is the bail). It adds up to a stunning mix of media.
