Polymer Clay Daily

Our lady of the pandemic

Laurie Mika loves crowns so the corona figures prominently in her new art on PolymerClayDaily.com

California’s Laurie Mika has created a whole body of new mixed media work that she calls During the Pandemic.

Her polymer mosaic shrines are heavily textured, encrusted with found jewels, and stamped with prayers and sayings.

Laurie is a lover of crowns so coronas figure prominently in her shrines which have names like “Our Lady of the Pandemic” and inscriptions like the Latin “Momento Mori” (remember, we will all die).

“This pause in our lives has been one of reflection, self-discovery, re-evaluating what’s important, and finding new ways of coping,” says Laurie.

Read more about her newest creations in her newsletter and on her Etsy site. Has the pandemic affected your art?

Armed and ready

Cynthia Toops pays homage to the virus in micromosaic on PolymerClayDaily.com

Seattle’s Cynthia Toops pays homage to our current reality with her latest small micromosaic brooch.

Her “Armed and Ready” cowboy wields a yellow tape lasso for 6′ social distancing, a mask, nitrile gloves and sanitizer in holster. He wears a covid brooch instead of a sheriff star.

Cynthia bakes very fine threads of polymer which she embeds in an unbaked layer and cures again. All this in a cast sterling bezel by Chuck Domitrovich.

Over at StudioMojo we’ll thread our way around current events and look at all the creativity this crisis has spawned. Join us!

Easter heirlooms

Deb Hart shows you how to make an heirloom for Easter on PolymerClayDaily.com

Texas’ Deb Hart gets a jump on Easter with her polymer mosaic eggs. Deb has an unusual way of filling in around her central elements and defining the spaces with thin border canes and fine repeating patterns.

No time to make them? Deb offers 50% off her own finished eggs or her tutorials until April 13. (Use promo code Easter2020.) Her workbooks are all 50% off through the end of May while we keep our families safe at home.

You’ll also find Deb’s polymer designs with a southwest flavor on Craftcast and Facebook.

Meditative repetition

Tanya Mayorova meditatively covers pendants with slices on PolymerClayDaily.com
Tanya Mayorova meditatively covers pendants with slices on PolymerClayDaily.com

Russia’s Tanya Mayorova suggests her labor-intensive, mosaic-style Planet pendant design as a good project for those with time on their hands.

She lines up small cane slices in sections on the outside of four-layer domed pendants. Aligning the slices looks a little compulsive, rather soothing and totally stunning.

See her designs on her Instagram. She sells a tutorial but I couldn’t locate it.

What will 2020 look like?

Nadia Elkina points us toward the future of polymer on PolymerClayDaily.com

Will 2020 polymer look more like Poland’s Nadia Elkina’s mosaic brooch? Dimensional, mixed, polychromatic?

It’s hard to tell which elements are which medium. And who really cares? It’s the overall snap, crackle, and pop that makes this piece compelling. Look even further ahead on IG here.

Join us this weekend over at StudioMojo where we’ll have our eye on new and interesting directions we can expect in polymer 2020. Who can predict? We’re gonna try. Come on over and add your two cents.

Alluring or menacing

We recoil but can't dismiss the beauty of this brooch from Anna Nel on PolymerClayDaily.com

Your reflexes may make you flinch but the colors will make you look twice at this brooch from Poland’s Anna Nel.

The snake is covered with slices of a mosaic-like cane in stunning blues, rusts, gold, and white. Its head is covered with a slice that’s matched in a Natasha bead style.

It’s menacing in the most beautifully alluring way.

Polymer mosaic entry

Bobbi Fraser Davis enters a local exhibit with her tiger lilies on PolymerClayDaily.com

Kentucky’s Bobbi Fraser Davis finished this lovely entry for the Louisville Artisan Guild Annual Exhibit. She shows a grouping of tiger lilies in pinks and rose colors mosaicked on a 5.5″ square shallow polymer dish in rusts and tans.

It’s time for guild shows and fair exhibits. Go ahead, jump in with your work.

Changing perspective in polymer

Susie Baim lets loose with an alcohol inks and mosaics tile on PolymerClayDaily.com

Enjoy the spirit of this 6×6-inch polymer clay mosaic mounted on MDF board by Illinois’ Susie Baim.

“I’m still having fun with Debbie Crothers‘ alcohol ink technique! I used it on the tiles and the heart,” says Susie.

Having fun with a technique and adding her own spin on it comes through delightfully.

This series of non-jewelry expressions shifts our thinking to polymer art.

Mosaic eggs

Klio Tsaliki ends the holiday with a basket of color on PolymerClayDaily.com

This basket of Easter eggs can’t wait until next year. Let’s keep the holiday going one more day to show off the bright lovelies from Greece’s Klio Tsaliki.

She’s wrapped the egg shapes in strips of clay covered with mosaic-like bits of sunny colors. File this idea away for next year’s decorations.

Improve your writing

MaryAnne Loveless mosaics pens with cane slices to improve writing on PolymerClayDaily.com

Can you imagine the stash of small canes that Utah’s Mary Anne Loveless has at her fingertips when she starts to assemble her covered pens? And the coordinated tops are slightly flattened beads.

Little delights like this around the house bring smiles for years to come every time someone jots a note. See the rest of them on her Flickr page.

All this begins with an inexpensive Bic pen and some small canes.