Moeller-Smith sail with polymer

Moeller-Smith polymer and sterling bracelet

Robbin Smith and Warren Moeller are artists, travelers, and sailors. They live with a parrot on a 43 foot sailboat, on which they have logged thousands of sea miles.

Robbin and Warren have designed and created several lines of jewelry using the natural elements that they have collected while sailing the South Pacific, often tying those elements together with polymer clay.

Moeller-Smith coral and polymer earrings

The influence of living and creating with the island people of the world for more than 25 years is represented in their work. They mix their contemporary sensibilities with those of the cultures around them. Don’t miss the accolade from Morgan Freeman on their site as well as their blog and Flickr pages.

Thanks to Betsy Baker for this lovely Monday diversion.

Polymer accumulation

Rachel Rader's blue lagoon mixed media bracelet

Fancy Gallery’s “Accumulation” exhibit features Seattle-based emerging jewelry artists who break the mold of what is expected. Rachel Rader and Dixie Darling both mix their media into magpie-like nests of beads and use polymer clay shapes to supplement color and vary shapes.

Dixie Darling's embroidered polymer and fiber pendant

Says Dixie Darling, “I take pleasure in the process of figuring out new techniques and translating them into a language of my own.” She sorts and arranges her finds, “…in order to stitch together the past and the present into these objects of my fictional world of beauty and borderline kitsch.” She embroidered and assembled the pendant at the right.

Influenced by The Little Mermaid, Rachel Rader’s pieces are heavily encrusted with jewels and drip with sea life from her fanciful Mermaid Empire. Her Blue Lagoon bracelet is shown here.

Thomas thinks outside the box

These polymer flowers with antique button centers were made by California’s Maureen Thomas for an “Outside the Box” show at PlacerArts center. She chronicles the progress of her project on her blog.

The flowers look so much like metal that I could hardly believe my eyes. Maureen gives a big hint about the technique she used in her blog post here. Clever girl.

Thanks to Randee Ketzel for bringing us the link.

Oops….I timed the post for the wrong time zone. I’m an April fool.

Recharging

Sophia Lenz’ polymer creature, found in the Synergy2 sales gallery with a bunch of his pals, is in the same robot mode that I’m in tonight.

It’s late and this hotel has terrific pillows that are calling me softly. I have plenty of pictures and lots of news but I’ve run out of steam and brain cells. Please check back later when I’ve recharged properly.

(Sophia popularized the lantern bead technique which she shared in a recent issue of Polymer Cafe.)

Winning streak

2010 Niche Award Winners in Polymer Clay

With four 2010 Niche Awards to polymer clay artists just announced, we continue our winning streak. Here’s the list of finalists and here are the winners including Jeff Dever (2), Melanie West and Sandra McCaw. The Niche site has been updated with some lovely larger photos. Thanks to Loretta Lam for alerting us to the announcement.

And as long as we’re tooting our horn. Did you see the polymer/metal clay work of Pat Bolgar on the cover of the most recent issue of Metal Clay Artist magazine? Her mixed media pin looks like spring.

Virtual Conference

The flurry of tests and silly pictures over the weekend was my attempt to get myself outfitted for the start of the conference on Wednesday. Can’t go the Synergy2 conference? Here’s the list of attendees. Join me and Libby Mills on the Crafthaus blog for your virtual version.

Kimle’s perfect pairings

I stumbled into some new works that continue our mixed media theme.

“I created these beads as an exercise in color and pattern,” says Iowa’s Patricia Kimle. “My goal was to skate along the fine line between ugly color combinations and a sophisticated palette that works.”

She used metal clay and hand drawn molds to create the silver feathers that are riveted to the polymer. The feathers create the focus and push the colors and patterns into the background. The beads are in an exhibit at her local art center. See more on her website and her Etsy page.

Kimle's polymer easter egg Iowa statehouse dome

Patricia will be teaching at the Bead and Button show in June and her second book, Perfectly Paired: Designing Jewelry with Polymer and Metal Clays will be released in April.

Taking a trip down memory lane and longing for spring, Patricia shares a picture of a polymer Easter egg of the Iowa Statehouse dome that she prepared for the White House in 2000. I couldn’t resist including it.

Mixing media

Mixed media enthusiast Pam Sanders got an idea from Tish Collins (via PCDaily, yay). As Pam looked at Tish’s work she was, “…very impressed by her use of her artwork in with her polymer clay work. I thought …DUH…why don’t I do that?”

Pam began bringing transfers of her own digital art to her polymer pieces and you can see how the move enriched her style. Pam’s polymer images also show up in her digital work, a nice yin and yang balance that makes a strong personal statement.

There’s been lots of talk about collaboration lately and maybe it’s time we started collaborating with ourselves, integrating other areas of our lives into our polymer art.

Tinapple’s clean slate

Integrating my polymer clay skills with my Photoshop expertise was on my 2009 list of resolutions and I’m happy to have made progress toward this goal with this vase which is my entry for the Synergy exhibit.

This 10.5″ x 8″ cherry vase was turned by my husband. I added polymer clay transfers of old photos of the women in my family. Maureen Carlson’s story necklace got me thinking about telling stories with my art.

The turning point in my experimentations was discovering Valerie Aharoni’s baking parchment paper technique for transfers. I used sepia here to make the photos a uniform tone but colors transfer well too. I fired the polymer with a paint stripper gun.

I promised to put more of my own work on the blog in 2009, didn’t I? The sound you hear is my scratching two goals off my list. I’m ending this decade with a clean slate. Read more in this interview I did with Eni Oken (ClayLessons).

Yuli-Ya’s polymer abundance

If you’d like to be dripping with jewels for a holiday event, take a look the polymer clay necklaces from Ukraine’s Julia (Yuli-Ya).

She subscribes to the “more is more” philosophy of jewelry design. Her wire and bead, polymer and crystal creations wrap the wearer’s neck in elegant abundance.

Julia branches out from her organic line and fashions complex Indian and Egyptian pieces in polymer as well. Her Flickr pages are full of diva gems. Thanks to Dee Wilder who sent the link along.

Toops in progress/Tajvidi’s leaves

You can look behind the scenes at Cynthia Toop’s latest polymer clay work by visiting the Flickr site of her Seattle jeweler/metalwork designer, Chuck Domitrovich.

His descriptions give you a sense of how the two collaborate and design their projects like this Summer Storm brooch which was part of a two-piece series.

Leaves

Raking the last of the colorful leaves in our yard today made me think of this recent delightful polymer/wood branch by Afsaneh Tajvidi (JooJoo). The piece provides a fall landscaping backdrop for her snail series.

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