Pay it forward polymer

When Scotland's Melanie Muir won the top polymer award with her Reggae Necklace at this year's Bead and Button Show the award came with a $300 gift certificate from Fire Mountain Gems.

Melanie feels that the recognition is enough prize for her and she is raffling off her gift certificate on behalf of Women for Women. Craftcast's Alison Lee jumped on the bandwagon adding a $100 class voucher. PCD couldn't be left behind! We're adding two copies of Polymer Clay Global Perspectives to the raffle.

Entering is easy. A £5 donation becomes a virtual raffle ticket. Buy as many as you like. For instance, if you donate £20, your name goes into 'the hat' four times. (We'll let Melanie work out the £/$ mathematics.)

Melanie has already raised 35% of her goal so jump in and take a chance. Any way you look at it, you can't lose.

The satin smooth finish on Melanie's beautifully crafted work is amazing and you'll find her latest creations (and raffle updates) on her Facebook page.

Sulky polymer

France’s Sonya Girodon’s Boudoir necklace has a softer, more romantic way with designs and doodles. Sonya explains that boudoir means, “Little bedroom or study adjacent to the lady’s main bedroom of the castle – a place to hide away and be alone amongst the things she loves. Bouder means to sulk in French.”

Sonya takes Sutton-slice accented pieces of polymer and rolls them into dimensional tube beads. The coral and beige colors add to the sulky mood and the square metal bezel adds intrigue.

Sonya usually gravitates to ethnic designs and you may enjoy her pages on the EthnicJewels ning site. Here’s her Rain Dance necklace where she carves designs into polymer. You might have guessed that she grew up in South Africa. See the range of her strong and unusual designs on her Flickr site.

Updated ethnic

I was captivated by Svetlana’s faux ethnic beads two years ago when I posted this and her methods still excite me. Luckily her tutorial is still there for you to study.

Svetlana Gracheva from Donetsk, Ukraine embeds what look to be jump rings into her faux ethnic polymer beads with a stunningly realistic effect. The jump rings become bezels for small imitation turquoise and coral pieces.

Other metal is sandwiched in the middle of faux amber and turquoise beads. You can see examples of the techniques in her Lhasa and Nagrang Tibetan-style necklaces.

On her Tibetan bead class description page, Svetlana offers pictures (scroll down her page) that show how she performs her sleight of hand. In that class she finishes the beads with mosaic inlays. What a treat for those of us searching for new faux fun.

Vacation post from the archives

April in Polymer

If you’re dreaming about April in Paris, you’ll love Laure Bonnet in Rennes. Her playful polymer bouquets are sold in trendy galleries all over France like this one (Dumauvobleu, Mathilde Colas and others sell there).

Laure’s dark-edged disks and ruffled petals are wired together in a riot of colors and shapes to form bright baubles for fashion divas. There’s more at this site which represents several galleries and in her photo galleries.

Winners

The five winners from Monday’s From Polymer To Art magazine giveaway are: Lanette Holland, Leila Bidler, Bonnie Kreger, Valda Belyeu and Glo Weimern. Marjon and Saskia will be in touch with you. Congratulations!

Wrapped up polymer

My suitcase sits by the washer mounded with dirty laundry and my husband forlornly admits that he’s eaten all the pot pies in the freezer. I’ve been on the road too long and must attend to the homefront today so I’ll make the Synergy wrap-up brief.

The two presentations that Judy Belcher and I gave at the conference (How to How to and The View from Higher Ground) are available. Keynote speaker Harriete Estell Berman has posted the handout listing references from her speech, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly in the Age of the Internet. Her talk evaluates the good of the Internet, some bad trends, and a few ugly behaviors that threaten the healthy growth of crafts.You can follow Harriete’s entire slideshow here. Other presentations will soon be up on the IPCA site.

I am most grateful that I did not catch the cold that ran rampant through the stressed and sleepless crowd. This snapshot shows the pile of therapies on my Georgia friends’ kitchen counter. Thanks to the IPCA committees that soldiered through sniffles and snafus to bring us Synergy3.

Heartfelt thanks to all of you who donated your money and good wishes to the Samunnat building project for the ladies in Nepal. By the end of Synergy you had exceeded the goal. We’ll follow along as Samunnat realizes the dream and I’ll share pictures right here as the building goes up. We are over the moon with gratitude and the ladies are astonished at the generosity of their friends a world away. Thank you, thank you.

This black and white necklace from the UK’s Angela Garrod was in the Synergy gallery and I couldn’t get the idea of its extrusion-wrapped cones out of my head so I’ll leave it with you this weekend.

Floating around the hemispheres

Techniques float in the wind currents around the globe, don’t they? Donna Kato posted this Natalia hemisphere necklace on her Facebook page in mid-February – well before PCDaily caught onto the flat disk craze.

But then Donna claims that she was just giving her African twist to Natalia Garcia de Leaniz’ design from a while back. PCD followed with this post and then this one.

Though we don’t know exactly how the fad started, you can see that decorating the edges of flat disks has become a popular fashion trend this season.

Donna finished her piece by adding a clever clasp. The flat disk has a groove cut in its edge. A rubber buna cord circle slips into the groove. “It works really well, the clasp doesn’t turn and it’s comfy, plus it’s the right scale! I was very pleased with that – had to think a while about the mechanics but then it all came together,” says Donna. More sample designs on her Facebook page.

Colliding polymer trends

Big hole beads and flat disk beads are catching my eye. These red beauties are from Armenia on Silk from Armenia. I can’t tell you a thing about them except that they’re super textured and very cool. Good on you if you can figure out the site and tell us about them. (Check her info in the comments.)

Thanks to Maria Petkova here’s a link to Hasmik Soghomonyan’s Facebook page too!

Then Australia’s Wendy Moore shows up with these flat disks with decorated edges. She was inspired by Natalja Ivanková’s forget-me-not beads from last Tuesday’s post. Wendy made hers look like a version of Nepali Rai beads.

Hang on as we whirl from Russia to the US to Australia with a stop in Nepal. Put your own spin on this very wearable style.

You have helped the Samunnat ladies in Nepal raise $6,000 of the $10,000 they need for their building. Several guilds are holding fundraisers to keep the momentum going. Every bit helps and you can still donate any amount by clicking the donate button.

Your buddies from around the world will be at tonight’s free online tools party at Craftcast.

Unforgettable polymer

Is it too early in the season for these forget-me-nots from Slovakia’s Natalja Ivanková? The clumps of colorful blooms seem to be woven together but it’s actually a more clever and simple construction.

Natalja has covered the edges of flat white polymer disk beads with tiny petaled flowers. The flat sides of the disks are stacked and strung to achieve the effect of a rope of flowers. Look carefully at her page and you’ll get the gist. The challenge will be to give the concept your own unforgettable style.

More spring possibilities

From Kopila Basnet, Samunnat program director – Since a very long time we have been working in Samunnat and thinking of a building but before it was always a dream. But when a local man said he was interested to give us land for our building, even then we thought it was impossible because it was too long for us to collect money for the building. But what we have learned now is that even when we thought it was impossible, EVERYTHING is possible because we are connected to you all.

Now we understand that Samunnat is not just in Birtamod but it is all over the world. It is in every people’s hearts. I’d love to thank everybody who has given us so much directly and indirectly to make Samunnat’s power grow and double. We will always feel you in our building. Contribute to the fund here.

Showing simple shapes

Can’t make it to the American Craft Council Show in Baltimore? Then prowl online to see what’s new. Kathleen Dustin showed one of her new necklaces on Facebook to tempt us. Strong shapes and simple design make a big impact.

Mary Filapek and Lou Ann Townsend make the most of color and simple shapes too. Googling around I found some of their most recent work that centers on circles floating on a solid color captured in silver bezels. Check here too.

There’s a surprising amount of polymer at the show but these busy artists aren’t very good at updating their web sites. You’re more likely to find their newest works on the photo sites.

Send your valentine

Thank you for your continuing donations to Samunnat. The ladies are dreaming of ceiling fans, reliable electricity and a flush toilet. We take so much for granted, don’t we? You can donate here or visit their newest bead sale site.

Squiggles in polymer

I’m out of town and out of time so I’ll lean on Ford and Forlano to bring you some Monday cheer with their Squiggle necklace from this season’s Artful Home catalog (always a sure thing for serious browsing time).

Wrap it, tie it, knot it! This polymer necklace can be twisted into lots of configurations.

Thanks for letting me play for another day. Happy New Year!

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