Start with a tute

Will a little tutorial help jumpstart your week?

Maria Petkova has been refining what she calls her Painted with Mokume Gane technique. The painted look of this Violets on My Window Sill pendant shows the appealing backfilling technique that simulates hand drawing on polymer. She shows an entire gallery of examples on her website.

Here’s her latest free step-by-step tutorial that shows the process quite clearly. Her earlier tutorial was intruiging but harder to follow.

In these In the Jungle earrings Maria takes the technique to a higher level of refinement. She pushed herself to create them as she was completing her How To Become A Better Artist course with Christine Dumont on Voila.

Mokume gane knitting

Russia’s Maria Belkomor finishes our week of textures with her faux knitted polymer in soft colors. She sands the tops of her knitted circles (made from extruded strings) to unearth more colors, a sort of knitted mokume technique. The beads look like scraps salvaged from a faded favorite sweater.

Maria shares how she added bails to the backs of the beads and strung them on a suede cord with a button closure. The rustic closure adds to the easy, laid-back comfort of the piece. Have an easy weekend!

Picarello polymer

Julie Picarello sent out a spring newsletter filled with her updated palette of colors and mokume gane designs. Her book, Patterns in Polymer, is in its second printing and being translated into German. Customers swooped in to buy from her online shop so you’ll have to settle for just enjoying a look.

I found these soft soothing lovelies in her galleries here and here and a few more on Flickr here. Her tell-all video is a huge favorite.

Party tricks

Wednesday night at 8:00 stop in at another popular and free I love tools party over at Craftcast. Patrik Kusek, Robert Dancik, Barbara Becker Simon, Christi Friesen and Robert Diamante will perform tricks with their favorite tools. Did I mention the prizes and coupons? Sign up here.

Polymer with hardware

Julie Picarello mixes new icy colors for her latest glacier-inspired
polymer beads. In her popular YouTube video she explains her basic process.

Julie prowls the hardware stores for some of the odd metal accents that she embeds in the clay.

She’s been including tinted epoxy resin in her recent pieces at the suggestion of fellow hardware lover Robert Dancik. The two shared a table as they worked on collaborative projects for the Polymer Clay Master Class book and the creative sparks flew.

Jelly roll mokume gane

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.

A sunny start

Sometimes mokume gane in the right colors can just turn out perfectly. (Odile simply sands the baked clay to reveal patterns.)

Enjoy the sunny results from L’atelier de Dilcrea (Odile Marchais) to perk up the start to your week. Short and sweet.

Slipping disks

This splash of color from Toronto’s Dorothy Siemens jolts us into a new week. Flat disks of polymer in turquoise, gold and cobalt are interspersed with spheres and a focal lentil covered with mokume gane. A graphic artist, Dorothy leans toward primitive, tribal and bohemian designs with lots of asymmetry.

The color continues on her Flickr site where you’ll see how Dorothy’s knitting skill meshes with her polymer creations. She makes buttons and scarf pins, of course!

Real textures

Victoria James‘ texture sheets are a favorite of mine because most of them replicate stone, wood, plants and other real textures. It’s helpful that for most of her designs she shows polymer examples. This one caught my eye. The pattern comes from her shingle cracked growth ring texture sheet.

Victoria explains that, “PearlEx was lightly rubbed on the out-y part of a silicon texture sheet and the clay was impressed. This textures the clay and transfers the mica powder at the same time. Next PearlEx was rubbed directly onto the out-y part of the clay surface. The clay was then rolled flat.” Super easy mokume gane!

Back to class

A great class can help build your skills and sharpen your design eye. I’m traveling to join a wonderful group this week (we’re just getting set up today). If travel isn’t in the cards for you right now, there are loads of other amazing opportunities.

Two new online classes from Craftcast bring the UK’s Debbie Carlton and Melanie Muir to a computer screen near you. Check out Debbie here and Melanie here.

Can’t attend on the day they’re scheduled? No sweat, you can purchase the recordings (including mine) and listen again and again.

One nice thing about learning at home, you don’t have to haul your tools. I’d better go choose my seat and get unpacked!

Champagne polymer

This Champagne Pendant by the UK’s Nadege Honey looks appropriately festive for a Friday. The mokume gane bubbles rise to the top to celebrate the weekend.

Nadege is a French silversmith living in the UK countryside and working in polymer. You can sense her delight as she jumps from one idea to the next in the polymer project pictures on Flickr and Etsy.

I’ll be floating off to Virginia this weekend for a gathering in the hills and a week of fun. You can ride along and share in the fun from the convenience of your own computer. Join me here next week.

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