More funny things

Julie Eakes helps keep our Funny Things week going with a class sample and a funny blog post. “It’s a cross between an organic piece and a framed piece,” Julie says. She hasn’t decided.

Her Las Vegas Clay Carnival class centers on Delft-like patterns. “You know Delft pottery,” she says, “that blue and white pottery that makes you think of tulips, wooden shoes and the boy with his finger in the dike.”

Her challenge is to use only blue and white polymer and very few canes. The variations come from taking slices at different stages of reduction and recombining them. You can see more of her samples and read the hilarious descriptions on her site.

Don’t you wish you were going to learn about this one-cane wonder? Me too.

Garden polymer

Russia’s Tanya Mayorova tightly winds thin strips of polymer round and round until their layers of muted color form a dense flower-like composition that is accented with dots of metal.

She pairs these polymer cabbage roses with rough cords, leather or even scarves for a very romantic and sophisticated look.

Tanya is such a trickster with texture that even when you zoom in on her work on Flickr, it’s hard to figure out how she could have packed them so densely. Have a lovely weekend.

Polymer on the farm

Christine Damm has uploaded a new batch of her distinctive polymer art. These paddle-shaped modern relics dangle provocatively from a curled wire.

Christine lathers on the color, adding and subtracting layers until it suits her. She divulges her coloring process in my new book (yep, it's in the stores).

If you want to catch more of her boho spirit, she'll be teaching at ArtBLISS outside Washington, D.C. in late September. She's also decided to start teaching twice a year at her Vermont farm. Her next small intensive Vermont workshop is scheduled for October.

Picture yourself in her Bonnybrook Farm studio with Battles Brook running nearby and think about fall in New England. What a great vision to start the week. Here she is on Flickr too. Oops, had a broken link...here's Christine's blog.

Polymer hibiscus

Heather Powers calms our jitters with her Hibiscus Buds, part of the class offerings in her 3-day Inspired by Nature retreat in Michigan this October.

Her delicate polymer flower buds hug their petals around themselves. Topped off with leaves and wrapped with wire, they become pendants or charms to be mixed with an array of metals and bead components and gathered into autumn treasures.

Heather is a busy blogger, author and artist with sites on illustration, earrings and more. Her Art Bead Scene interactive blog has been around since 2007, celebrating the work of a group of jewelry designers who use art beads of all materials in their work.

Heather's sites are full of polymer creations, all inspired by nature in a way that reminds us to slow down and cherish the beauty around us. (These Midnight Garden Wafer Beads are a summer favorite.)

Doodled polymer

Pennsylvania’s Staci Louise Smith doodled on white polymer after she was inspired by a favorite painter’s new work. Her doodle beads made her feel better about not buying the painting.

When you visit Staci’s studio you will see how doodling is deeply embedded in her art brain. It may make you consider painting your floor!

In the same post she talks about salvaging a batch of black polymer beads by carving doodles in them. Staci works in metal clay, sea glass, wire – you name it.

Most of her polymer beads show up on her Artisan Accents site and she’s a force in the Love My Art Jewelry group. Yesterday’s Kimberly Rogers is also part of the group.

Polymer for dancing

This blog post from polymer newbie Kimberly Rogers about bad days and new beginnings may make you smile.

She’s an Alaskan lampwork and mixed media artist who easily transitioned to polymer when she bought Ginger Allman’s tutorial on rustic beads.

Kimberly used the red, white and blue polymer that she had on hand and diguised the color with paints following Ginger’s instructions. And then she danced!

Read more

Donna Greenberg’s homage to artist Morundi. Fabulous polymer-covered bottles.

Free tutorial from Anke Humpert by signing up for her newsletter mailing list.

Garden polymer

Cornelia Brockstedt’s Morning Dew bracelet recalls the dew shimmering on spring moss. Her polymer clay and silver creation is part of a recent garden-themed series that includes City Garden, Shelter and Street Life and shows vegetation thriving unexpectedly in earrings and brooches.

Conny was trained as a goldsmith and has worked as a designer for years. Polymer allows her to combine her talents. “As much as I love black and white, I love all shades of green – and dots,” she says.

She likes to look at her subjects intensely and is fascinated by repeating forms. You begin to understand how her mind works as you flip through her Flickr photos and you will see why polymer fits her vision perfectly. Thanks to Donna Kato for the link.

Testing polymer colors

Lindly Haunani is working on a new tropical bracelet that uses her signature juicy colors with new shapes and ingredients. The edges of the petals pop with slightly lighter shades and texture variations.

Even as I watch her work, her way of creating seamless gradations baffles me. She checks and rechecks her colors before putting them into the long multi-color canes that she needs for production (see her test strips). It’s hard to keep my eyes on my own work surface when these colors are exploding at the next table.

Botanical polymer

Two polymer artists, Jeff Dever and Annie Pennington advance polymer’s reputation by appearing in The Nature of Jewelry:Botanical Design and Symbols exhibit at the Peninsula School of Art in Fish Creek, Wisconsin.

In the show twenty-nine notable jewelry artists from throughout the US, Ireland and Canada display a sampling of process drawings and reference materials to trace the creative process for their works.

“They thought I’d add a bit of color,” says Jeff. He sent us larger pictures (gathered here) so that you could witness the color. This exhibit was a spinoff of the RAM’s Terra Nova and it runs until July 13.

Hollow echoes

This week big, rough, natural-looking beads kept popping up all over the world. We’ve got Anna Krichevskaya (left) from Russia, Kseniya Iokhna from Belarus, and Danièle Moucadel in Italy all catching the same vibe. All different, of course, but with an emphasis on light and hollow (or with big holes which is similar).

Anna calls her necklace Jeans Forever and she sells her big, earthy, informal jewelry here.

Danièle (right) refers to her heavy cord as jump rope (or that’s how it translated). The heavy cord works well with this jumble of big rings. If you can get to her Facebook page you’ll see even more in this vein.

Kseniya (Xenia) Iokhna goes under the name of SolarBird and she lives in Minsk. She calls these hollowed out round beads Druid Stones.

Xenia pinpoints her influences – the architect Zaha Hadid and paper artist Jeremy May. It’s easy to see the echoes in her work. Whew, there’s so much to look at these days. Have an inspired weekend.

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