Polymer paintbrush guy

Alice Stroppel’s Brush Man is part of a new series of Found Object Character classes at her Studio 215 in Florida. Repurposing objects is not new to Alice. Who can forget her Alice tea service?

Alice has been hosting more and more events in her facility. She credits finishing ideas learned in Doreen Kassel’s Pods and Flowers class at Studio 215 for enlivening her characters.

Looks like this might be Character Week on PCD. Don’t you have weeks when your eye gravitates to a style? See one and then see them everywhere? Why fight it? Is there a brush in your basement waiting to be rediscovered?

Wild ride to Niche Award

Maine’s Linda Leach’s journey through polymer reads like a 13-year odyssey through classes and guilds and experiments in her own multi-media style. Linda’s voyage and this necklace brought her a 2017 Niche Award in the Polymer Jewelry category.

She created the necklace for #39 of last year’s weekly polymer challenge. Linda called it, “…a wild new piece that I know is over the top, but I love it anyway.” The necklace incorporates leaves bound in brass strips and brass wire with polymer clay cane work as well as her liquid clay/alcohol ink over etched copper technique. The cane repeats the design on the etched copper.

You can watch her step-by-step work in progress on her blog. Learn more about Linda on her site (Dancing Dragonflies), Facebook and Etsy.

Kudos to Linda and what she’s accomplished. Where is your art odyssey leading you?

Colors for a vintage year

What you’re looking at is Virginia artist Angie Wiggins’ wrapped and stacked polymer palette for 2017. Each year Angie starts by choosing her colors and mixing a big batch.

“I cleaned out my half of our tiny crawl space attic and found a piece of fabric from drapes that my mom had made back in the 1950s. It had sat in the sewing room/spare bedroom for six months before it dawned on me to start researching the colors of the mid-century,” she explains in her blog post.

Angie has spent weeks mixing her vintage palette and now she’s ready to launch into her art.

Her methodical, focused yet serendipitous approach is something many artists aspire to but few achieve. Even the way she neatly wraps and stores her stash is impressive. It looks like a box of chocolates!

You can see Angie’s mixed media bowls and polymer pretties on her blog, Facebook and Instagram. Her Pinterest boards lead you through her process even further.

Between our eyes

Portland polymer artist Meredith Dittmar has appeared on PCD many times, initially for her small sculptures, now grown into the show, Between Our Eyes, at Mirus Gallery in San Francisco from January 20 to March 3.

The gallery describes Meredith’s work as human-animal-plant-energy relief-like amalgams that contain threads of common elements and colors to express deep levels of union across themes of biology, technology, and consciousness. The characters are frequently involved in quiet expressive moments, or lounge facing an audience, sharing their inner space. Dittmar believes it is this space we recognize in ourselves, and through convening in that space, the interconnectedness of all things is revealed.

The gallery’s exhibits are edgy and modern and Meredith’s paper/polymer works are dynamic. If you’re not quite sure about the fantasy/technology/biology scenes that you’re looking at on Meredith’s Instagram, Facebook and Flickr, relax and enjoy the mix of paper and polymer, shapes and color on these large works. Let them hit you between the eyes.

Polymer mixed media redux

Kim Korringa purchased two great-looking ceramic birds from Etsy artist Natalya Sots. She loved them.

But the space on Kim’s kitchen wall begged for something more. So Kim designed this polymer pot of leaves and flowers for the birds to fly over. Kim posted the entire (now 3-piece) art on Facebook.

Kim started assembling this collection last fall. She had brought real-sized photos of the birds and her design to a retreat. But the mountain winds were blowing when Kim put her first try in the oven. The outside ovens spiked turning Kim’s bright dimensional blossoms a charred brown.

Try, try again! Kim’s kitchen is complete.

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Magic carpet polymer

Madrid’s Elena Fernandez has a wandering eye and she uses polymer to explore and recreate ethnic designs in contemporary jewelry. For this mixed media necklace, she reinterprets an African design adding seed beads on felt that hang from a deeply inscribed and weathered focal bar and dark simulated stones.

Ethnic designs have long appealed to Elena and you can follow along with her collections of tribal works on Flickr and see her collection of inspirations on her Pinterest page.

Polymer’s ability to imitate other materials lets us explore cultures and imagine travels from the comfort of our studios. Where would you like polymer to take you?

Festive polymer

New York’s Joan Israel celebrates Chanukah with this polymer menorah on canvas. Joan has a stash of caned, colored and textured polymer ready and waiting.

Once she finds a shapely glass bottle, she layers on slices of canes and turns them into sculptural gardens. Lately, she’s applied the same technique to canvases, painting in the background and then embellishing with polymer, inks, textures and metallics that create a rich and festive scene.

Her works are featured on her site, Instagram and Flickr.

May your holidays be filled with warmth and color.

Polymer in delicate balance

The delicate balance of this 16″ polymer mobile entitled Nara from Santa Fe’s Tory Hughes makes its mid-air dance look easy.

But the suspension of the varying colorful shapes and the distribution of their weight is tricky and precise. It’s part of Tory’s newest series and she finds the challenge exciting. “We all love to look up, enchanted by the light and air above us,” she says.

The mobile comes in several colors and you can see more examples and designs on Facebook and her website.

Cutting up

If you’re interested in what may be a next big thing in polymer clay art, join me on Craftcast this Saturday and we’ll explore the possibilities of cutting raw clay precisely with a Silhouette cutting machine.

The online class begins at noon on Saturday and will be available for download.

Tolerant polymer

The spectacular physical beauty of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque inspired Heba Bazari to create polymer art that celebrates islamic design elements. Fantastical flower designs are inlaid in the floor and the columns of the mosque.

The flower sculptures symbolize love, tolerance and mutual understanding and are a fitting feature for International Tolerance Day which is celebrated every November 16.

An American-Syrian artist Heba is a metalsmith and polymer clay artist with a Ph.D. in molecular biology. After living for thirty years in Virginia, she is currently an assistant professor of science working and living in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Heba spoke at this year’s EuroSynergy in France and received the 2016 Crafthaus/Arrowmont scholarship. Read more on Facebook and Instagram.

Juxtaposition in polymer

Jeanine van der Linde's big angular beads, aluminum and polymer

The Netherlands’ Jeanine van der Linde (Argilo) makes her big dark polymer beads look warm next to the chunks of aluminum tube in her latest work.

The polymer has a rich mottled patina that contrasts with the hard aluminum spacers.

Is it the jaunty angles bumping into each other that gives the necklace its energy?

Go to Jeanine’s Flickr and Facebook pages to follow her. She likes to experiment.

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