Mardi Gras dancing polymer

Laura Tabakman wins the prize and gets the party started with her Mardi Gras on PolymerClayDaily.com

Pennsylvania’s Laura Tabakman won both Best of Show Members’ Choice and
Best of Show Jurors’ Choice prizes in this year’s IPCA Awards competition.

Entitled Mardi Gras, Laura’s pieces are carefully balanced so that the slightest breeze brings the party swaying to life.

The 16 separate units each have delicate polymer vessels 1/2″ to 1 1/2″ tall which are suspended on steel wires drilled into islands made of flooring material.

The units take up a 20″ x 16″ x 9″ space but the grouping can be reconfigured in many different ways.

Over at StudioMojo, we take a closer look at these and other outstanding works that inspire us. Plus we’ll cover tools, trends, and classes aimed at nurturing your creative spirit and pursuing your unique and crazy ideas.

Arm candy

Ingrid Ulrich constructs dramatic polymer bracelets on PolymerClayDaily.com

How much of these bracelets is polymer is anyone’s guess. Germany’s Ingrid Ulrich deftly mixes her media. The bracelets with their dramatic focal pieces make graphic puzzles for the eye and the arm. Look at them closely on Instagram.

Ingrid has challenged herself with polymer bracelet construction for a long time. The bracelet gallery on her website gives bracelet makers lots of ideas to start the week.

Better than hearts

Candid moments in polymer from Maria Saracino on PolymerClayDaily.com

The polymer sculptures from Canada’s Maria Saracino will melt your heart in this week of romance.

This couple is part of a 10″x24″x6″ sculpture on view at Montreal’s Shane Gallery. Through her figurative sculptures, Maria tries to trigger a memory or feeling in the viewer.

Having started her career in illustration, Marie says that it was Norman Rockwell who influences her most as she tries to capture candid moments in time.

Her commissioned works will warm your heart. Follow her on Instagram.

Covered for the cold

Sarah Wilbanks covers for a cold winter on PolymerClayDaily.com

Seattle’s Sarah Wilbanks mixes her media so I’m only guessing that these earrings are polymer. She often starts with translucent and adds metal leaf.

Sarah says the frosty colors of this pair reminded her of winter. The outer strips hang over the underlying cones like a warm sweater.

Go look at her Instagram and see if you can identify her materials. I’m usually irked when artists don’t name their media but in this case, it’s as if the material is beside the point and I’m cool with that.

Painted pod necklace

Doreen Gay Kassel's pod necklace will turn heads on PolymerClayDaily.com

Since riotous colors have emerged as this week’s theme, we’ll revisit beads that New York’s Doreen Gay Kassel made for a swap.

After the swap, Doreen created another batch of pods, ruffles, and berries and combined them into this sumptuous necklace. She builds the beads from white clay shapes and then with an illustrator’s practiced eye, paints each one in beautiful colors.

The riot of color and shapes becomes a party necklace that will make heads turn.

Inclusions add a cosmic touch

Marina Rios mixes lots of ingredients into her cosmic rocks on PolymerClayDaily.com

Chicago’s Marina Rios (FancifulDevices) creates rustic, Victorian, tribal style mixed media assemblages. Her antique and vintage materials are heavily altered and combined with artisan components to create evocative objects.

Marina adds sand, ground and dyed oyster shell, embossing powders, pre-baked and chopped polymer and more as inclusions in the beads that stack up into this Regolith totem.

After firing, she begins painting – back-painting, resist, dry brushing, glazing and more to give this 3.4″ stack of beads its history and mystery.

If you like it when cosmic collides with tribal in polymer, check her out on Instagram and Etsy.

That’s what the contact form is for

Linda Martin leans into her first wall art and is surprised on PolymerClayDaily

Michigan’s Linda Hoffman Martin bravely submitted her first piece of wall art to PCD via the contact form.

This lovely wire and polymer leafy shadow box reminds me of how grateful I am when artists like Linda take a risk and send a link.

She first put the piece up on the FB Hooked on Polymer group because she was proud of it. When hundreds of others agreed with her, she was surprised and emboldened to try for a wider audience.

If that little voice in your head says, “You’ve got something here!” take a chance and spread your work around. The validation can do wonders for your mojo.

Yes, that’s my cue to tell you that StudioMojo, the weekend newsletter, is another way to push yourself in new directions and shore up your enthusiasm. We’d love to have you join us.

Layers of polymer ruffles

Victoria Mkhitarian shows us new ways with her ruffles on PolymerClayDaily.com

New Zealand’s Victoria Mkhitarian’s newest framed art makes me want to run my fingers across its many layers of pale polymer, copper and acrylic paint. She calls her series Ruffles and this closeup on Facebook gives you a better understanding of its construction.

Her Flickr photos also give you a good look at her delicate and luminous works.

The layers in her Ruffles1B (right) incorporates the same thin strips of polymer arranged vertically. In this piece, the layers are tinted with alcohol inks and she omits the copper layers.

Victoria frames these delicacies in deep shadow boxes. Yep, I’m gushing over ruffles!

A riot of summer colors

This big summer polymer painting is from Deb Groover (Debortina) who’s at the Art Fair on the Square in Madison, Wisconsin this weekend.

Basic polymer shapes are applied to a large raw wood panel. Then flat polymer flowers and patterns in riotous summer colors are added. She paints in the background after the figures have settled themselves in. There’s such good energy in her paintings that Deb and Tina have attracted a large and loyal following.

To appreciate the size of her art, look at photos on Instagram and Facebook.

Saturday’s StudioMojo will hit the high spots and give you the rest of the summertime polymer story. Join us by signing up at StudioMojo.org.

Mini polymer paintings

Leanne Fergeus creates abstracts in polymer on PolymerClayDaily.com

Melbourne’s Leanne Fergeus makes you believe you’re looking at a painting on a small canvas in her most recent series of polymer and acrylic brooches and pendants.

As her 100 Day project winds down she’s just hitting her stride with a whole series of acrylics.

Go to Instagram to look closely at the rich canvas texture of these mini-paintings. She paints thickly on a larger sheet and cuts the polymer into pieces that she backs with a thick black layer.

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