Polymer Clay Daily

Blossoming beads

Juliya Laukhina's beads blossom with color on PolymerClayDaily

Moscow’s Juliya Laukhina covers her dark round beads with dense delicate dots of pastel colors. Is she using mokume gane off-cuts? Or has she taken another path?

It doesn’t matter, of course. She mostly uses round beads of this size as her canvas and every time I check, she’s trying another method to decorate them.

Juliya must have a science background since she’s methodical in her experimenting, only changing one variable at a time. These tight dots look like spring blossoms. She’s on Instagram and Etsy.

Mokume gane escape

Mesmerizing pinks and very 2019 colors (with the sound of cheering college football crowds in my background) make me daydream about Australian classes.

If you need to escape sports games I recommend spending some time on Dani Rapinett’s The Whimsical Bead’ site. The site flows seamlessly among various media. They offer an array of workshops and it’s fun to wander around. Try Instagram if you want a quick overview.

Is this an updated variation on my Leslie Blackford’s Garlic Gane video? No matter, it’s soothing and just what I need.

Goodbye to 2018

Tory Hughes brooch entitled The Path from Nothing to Something hints at the themes of her works on PolymerClayDaily.com

In 2018 we said goodbye to Tory Hughes, one of the polymer community’s true pioneers. This piece entitled The Path from Nothing to Something hints at the ethereal, celestial themes that appeared in Tory’s works.

To close out the year, enjoy one more walk through her Santa Fe studio and savor the richness of her work. We will miss her.

Polymer roots

Shelley Atwood puts her own spin on scrap mokume gane earrings on PolymerClayDaily.com

Think of polymer techniques as having a lineage when you look at these earrings from Texas’ Shelley Atwood.

Kathy Amt taught Dayle Doroshow who shared it with me who showed a whole bunch of folks this scrap technique on video. Who knows where it came from even earlier or where it will go next?

It’s circled back around to Shelley who’s put her own spin on it on Instagram. Shelley layered thin bits of scrap and then carved her design, which revealed colors underneath.

It’s invigorating when we see new life in our roots.

Keep going

Meisha Barbee's pushes forward to a new retro brooch on PolymerClayDaily.com

California’s Meisha Barbee began this brooch with a slice of stripes in her wonderful colors. I might have stopped there but she wanted to push on.

She was fond of her silicone trivet with a bubble pattern (strange in-process shot) so she made a mold of it and used that mold to create a mokume gane pattern on top of the stripes which looked weird to my eye.

Meisha Barbee's pushes forward to a new retro brooch on PolymerClayDaily.com

Meisha kept going and added random balls with her Etch ‘n Pearl tools. Better, but I wasn’t loving it.

Stretch, make a border, bake over a lightbulb and wow! A retro pin is born…along with a lesson about following your vision.

So I’m back to daily posting, refreshed and wiser and following my vision thanks to a month of being with friends who know the importance of following theirs.

Mokume gane magic

Kay Burns discovers mokume gane in a Carol Simmons workshop on PolymerClayDaily.com

This big reveal is from Kay Burns (beadhappyshop), a student in Carol Simmons’ weekend class in Ireland.

Carol teaches her own distinct way of stacking and mark-making that results in dense and jewel-like layers. There’s something exciting about the first slice through the layers and then there’s the excitement of figuring out how to make use of every lovely bit of magic.

Polymer brainstorm

Shannon Tabor paints through the storm on PolymerClayDaily.com

Shannon Tabor’s (CharlestonClay) series of squares shows her abstract paintings combined with polymer to great effect!

Were her swirling images inspired by the storm? She’s from South Carolina and I’m hoping she’s dry.

The polymer mokume gane pieces are mounted with lifts that make them appear to float above the canvases. The triptych will be sold as a set. See them on Instagram.

Shannon’s brainstorm enlivens her paintings and shows us a tantalizing twist.

Settled and safe creating

Juliya Laukhina's cosmic mokume gane on PolymerClayDaily.com

This cosmic-looking mokume gane brooch from Moscow’s Juliya Laukhina stopped me in my tracks. Turns out, a while ago Juliya’s home caught fire and she and her family moved to another place. She’s finally feeling settled and safe.

“The tragic mood has already passed, everything will be fine. I will sculpt here, but it takes time while we settle down. A beautiful night like this I wish to all. Sculpt, create, create! It is not so important that others buy or not, appreciate or not, it is important for the tranquility of the soul to create something,” she says.

Juliya’s Instagram and Etsy are full of pieces that reflect her gratitude and tranquility.

In a NY-minute from Moscow

Galka Vasina reveals her graphic tricks in a NY minute on PolymerClayDaily

This superfast video from Moscow’s Galka-Vasina starts the day with a most welcome kick in the pants!

I had admired how foggy and amorphous her graphic-patterned terra cotta beads looked. One glance at the video and you’ll be smacking your forehead like I did. Nuff said!

Looks like they’re soon doing a live online event about these methods if you care to figure out the time change.

Playful experiments

Alessia Bodini weaves strips of her favorite scraps into a brooch on PolymerClayDaily

A browse through the photos of Italy’s Alessia Bodini is like skipping through her brain.

Alessia experiments and turns the pieces that speak to her into designs that please her. She shapes and reshapes until her eye is happy.

Alessia Bodini's earrings orbit a center bead on PolymerClayDaily

The blue extrusions were just her colors so she wove them into a brooch. The earrings are pleasantly off kilter. Thumb through her Flickr and Facebook photos to remind yourself how it is to play.