Going around in circles

Loose, colorful, happily twirled polymer beads popped into view this week.

Kathryn Corbin’s necklace starts with big textured peach-colored tubes on a thick cord.

In the center, bigger loops of random surface textures in springy colors overlap and crowd against each other. It’s a fresh and spontaneous look that kept catching my eye in Claire Maunsell’s weekend surface techniques class in Boston. What a great use for the samples we were accumulating in class!

Then Jean Rutka posted pictures from a weekend group event in Morrisburg, Ontario.

One photo featured thin extruded polymer strings that Lyn Tremblay twirled into flat round disks and strung into a fabric-like necklace. On her Facebook page Lyn shows a number of other fun designs that come to her when she lets the clay “speak to her”.

Is this fascination with easily twirled bits of clay a trend or just a reflection of the exuberance of spring?

Musical polymer

Leonini makes music on PolymerClayDaily.com

Look closely at the flipped up edges of the circles in Cecelia Leonini’s necklace. The curls tease and taunt us like the flip of a woman’s hem in an old movie. They offer a peek at something more.

Cecilia’s hot, bright colors come from growing up in Tuscany and living in Sienna, Italy. She taught piano for many years until she ran into a Skinner blend on the internet.

“I found in polymers the same vibrations, sounds and colors of the earth and music. For me the clay is the synthesis of all the arts that I love,” she says.

Cecelia offers an array of energetic, asymmetric jewelry on Flickr, Facebook and Instagram which she sells on FoltBolt and Etsy.

If your art made music, what would it sound like?

Simply loopy polymer

Blackburn bangles on PolymerClayDaily.com

Ever since I took a class with Carol Blackburn in Santa Fe, I’ve had an art crush on her impossibly fastidious patterns and the way she makes it all so simple.

Carol will teach some of her clever tricks at a 3-day Purses, Bangles and Beads workshop at Galerie Freisleben in Germany in June. What a dream that would be!

In the meanwhile Carol keeps coming up with more head-slapping designs like this Loopy Links necklace. Of course these softly blended oval shapes would fit into each other.

Blackburn's Loopy Necklace on PolymerClayDaily

Why didn’t we think of that? Spring is a great time to let your own loopy ideas take shape.

Everyone is Irish today

Elena Sevva is from Ukraine and lives in Israel but everyone is Irish today. Her polymer necklaces have a dark, woodsy, organic look.

Many of Elena’s pieces on Flickr are loosely strung on twine. You can picture a barefoot sprite in a gauzy dress dancing in the woods wearing this.

Perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, right?

Makes you want to pull out your favorite beads and start knotting.

Join us on StudioMojo on Saturday morning for a look behind-the-scenes and a gentle nudge toward the week ahead.

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?

Cascading polymer

This Cascade necklace by Russia’s Tatiana Parshikova (seventh-heaven) is a feast of pattern and color. Eight strands of folded polymer beads are sumptuous and naturally eye-catching.

Tatiana has added the right mix of colors and patterns, a dash of sparkling crystal beads and touches of shimmering gold on the surfaces which take the piece to the next level.

I would not have chosen the blue of the model’s sweater but the color accentuates the beads perfectly. Tatiana has a knack for drama.

PCD featured her gold-flecked mokume gane bangle last year and it was one of the year’s most popular posts. You can catch up with her work on Instagram.

Join us on Saturday’s StudioMojo for more sumptuous and delightful behind-the-scenes finds.

Off to Baltimore

Maine’s Bonnie Bishoff and JM Syron are off to this week’s ACC show in Baltimore. The wholesale/retail show begins on Wednesday and features more than 500 artists.

This necklace, called The Plenty is one of their new offerings. The smooth pieces are thin and glide over each easily. Though the beads are thin, they feel solid and elegant with a stunning array of colors and shapes. See the couple’s other new designs on Facebook.

Polymer is well represented at the Baltimore show. These are the artists I found. Let me know if you spot others. Let’s wish them a great show!

Mystery scrap

JScreations scrap idea on PolymerClayDaily.com

Johanna S (JS Creations) hits on all cylinders with this bright necklace that she calls Dust to Dawn. In the first place, the flat disks appear to have been cut from scrap clay (and we’re always chasing scrap clay ideas). And further, the colors are bright enough to warm the most wintry day.

So even though we don’t know who or where Johanna is, this simple necklace is a winner. She only shows up on Flickr. If you can unravel more of this mystery, let us know.

Meanwhile appreciate another cool use of leftovers.

Pared down heart designs

Dimitriadi pares down designs to their essence on PolymerClayDaily

These delicate polymer hearts on a strand of small beads give us a youthful, innocent view of hearts.

They’re from Eri Dimitriadi, a Greek architect and polymer artist. See her on Facebook and Pinterest.

Her spare, minimalist architectural sentiments merge with an attraction to smooth, curvy natural forms. She takes simple techniques and gives them power with spare and elegant design. Don’t miss her wall pieces featured on her Etsy site here.

Wrong side out is right

Argentina’s Flavia Miranda puts flat cane slices (Cernit) together in an unusual way. As you fly through photos on the web, sometimes a simple, carefree piece stops your eye.

It’s her playful, unselfconscious construction that intrigues. Isn’t that wrong side out? Why is the thread showing? The disks overlap and bunch.

As you can see on Flavia’s Facebook pages here and here, bunching the beads and integrating the stringing materials are all part of her vibe. How great she looks wearing a similar piece in her profile picture.

When your eye yells Whoa!, it pays to stop and investigate.

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