Polymer seasons ahead

Heather Powers shows us how handy the falling leaves can be. “I used translucent clay and stained the polymer with color so they glow in warm fall hues when held up to the light,” she says of her newest collection.

Check out the similar headpins she made as well as her other nature-inspired designs.

If it’s almost fall, you know that the holiday season can’t be far behind. The ladies of the Samunnat project have already created polymer creche scenes dressed in Nepali finery. Wendy Moore will temporarily abandon her post as shipper for the Samunnat Etsy site and head for Nepal soon. So start your shopping now! And have a festive weekend.

Urban urchins

Montreal’s Vickie Turner makes Urban Urchins that are hollow and graffiti-covered whereas Lynda Moseley’s from last week were the green sea variety. What is it with urchins?

Vickie’s polymer sea creatures have migrated to the city. Her blog tracks her plans and sketches and you can follow her journey from the beach to the city. She’s still playing with the shape.

It’s instructive to look over her shoulder as an artist mulls over work in progress. Watch as she labors on Labor Day.

I’m off to an art fair.

Faux sea urchins

Lynda Moseley’s Faux Sea Urchin Spines were inspired by a necklace in Heather Powers‘ new book, Jewelry Designs from Nature during a weekend of experimentation as Lynda cleaned out her inspiration box.

She found a sticky note on page 82 in her copy of the book. “Find some of these,” it said. “I had never seen the spines in olive, and Heather’s are also a lot bigger than the ones I have,” Lynda explains. She made a new batch in polymer.

Lynda’s experimenting is often fruitful as you can see from her Etsy shop. On her blog she explains other designs she’s dug out of her inspiration box.

Unknown specimens

“Borrowing from the familiar forms of fungus, lichen, and mold, I invent and sculpt fictional organisms that graft onto manufactured domestic objects and infest the nooks and crannies of architectural spaces. Challenging notions of synthetic and organic, real and imagined, these sculptures and installations allude that through the passage of time these spaces and objects will become overtaken,” says Texan Jasmyne Grabill of her mixed media sculptures which rely heavily on polymer for their organic appeal.

Jasmyne’s works were featured in the luscious August/September issue of American Craft. In an article called Fungus Among Us, Monica Moses tracks this visual theme and finds fungus-themed works in metal, paper, fiber and food.

As I read the article my mind automatically started listing other examples of this trend that you may already know. Let’s see: Melanie West, Rachel Gourley, Kim Cavender, Ronna Weltman, Laura Tabakman, Wendy Malinow, Kathleen Dustin, Angelika Arendt, Jillian Moore. And that’s just for starters!

Send me your candidates and I’ll compile a list to send to the editor. ACC should know what we’ve been growing in the PCDaily laboratory.

Polymer pansies

Eri, an artist on Etsy, brings an architectural sense to her simply sculptured polymer necklaces. In the Pansies Between Pink Corals necklace she places groups of rounded polymer disks off center between small pink beads.

Her work is filled with references to flower petals (lillies, pansies, tulips, water lilies) as in this Meadow Around Your Neck. Her other inspiration comes from sea creatures (limpets, sea anemones).

What we know about Eri is that she’s a full-time architect in Athens, Greece and that she has a way with clay.

Going clayzy

Montreal-based artist and illustrator Raku Inoue feared he had that dreaded viral clay disease. He’d gone clayzy! Nope, it was just his art manifesting itself in polymer. Read his biography to get the full scoop.

Raku was born in suburban Tokyo in 1983. He spent his early childhood watching anime, reading manga and discovering living creatures, especially insects. He immigrated to Canada when he was nine. He bounces between illustration, sculpture, photography and never strays far from polymer.

Look at these closeups of some of his lush polymer sculptures.

Polymer and Prismacolors

Colorado’s Maria Clark shows us how a limited toolbox can force you to dig deep into your creative resources and try something new.

Maria had some time on her hands because she was traveling. She purchased a package of white clay, a small set of colored pencils and a bit of burnt umber and gold metallic paints. Her only other tools were pens, pencils and a crochet hook she’d brought along.

Who knew you could get such deep colors with Prismacolors on polymer? (See Tuesday’s post on Libby Mills to see another example.) Thanks to Marian Hertzog who sent Maria’s link along.

Polymer plume

France’s Celine Charuau (GrisBleu) starts our week with her another of her sinuous, alien polymer and silver constructions. This one is called Fleur plume rouillée which translates to Rusted feather flower.

The perspective shown here zooms in to study the polymer. You may be surprised to see the actual size of the pendant and how it is intended to be worn.

Celine’s ethereal pieces are often based on exotic species as in this Brachystelma angustum based on the Flickr picture here. I can’t decide if Celine’s a botanist or an engineer. She brings a wonderful blend of sensibilities to her jewelry. There are few clues on her site. What would you guess?

You can see her body of work best on her Flickr, DaWanda and Facebook sites.

May Day polymer

Rosica Mohamed from Sofia, Bulgaria brings us a branch of spring buds realistically sculpted from polymer. I’m guessing that this was part of her May Day attire. Can’t you just picture a maypole dancer wearing these blossoms as she weaves a streamer over and under?

Rosica’s updated blogs and Facebook page make it easy to watch her progress to increasingly refined work and experiment with putting a Bulgarian spin on standard techniques.

Platypus polymer

These platypus beads from Lena Fadeeva in Belarus take their shape from the small Australian animal with a distinctive bill.

Such an intriguing shape! Inspiration for new bead shapes can come from unlikely sources.

Lena’s blog is in Russian so you may want to try your own translation (and correct me if I’ve blundered). She’s been sharing her work on Flickr and in her sales gallery for a couple of months and this new direction looks very promising.

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