Ornamental/elemental polymer

Yes, this cut and folded ornament was made in polymer by London’s Carol Blackburn. Based on a clever paper or felt geometric pattern, Carol proves that the same design can be done in polymer. Her gold and silver metallic blends pump up the drama.

See how she assembles even more pieces into larger wall art in this picture on Facebook.

Ornamental/elemental classes

If Carol’s precision is too much of a challenge, ease into new ideas with one of this week’s Craftcast classes. How would one of Doreen Gay-Kassel’s jiggly jointed characters look dangling from your tree? Join Doreen’s class tonight (Nov 30) at 8:00 ET.

You say you’d rather use your brain for jewelry? Jump into Lorrene Baum-Davis’ class on Saturday, Dec 3 at 12 noon ET. Using Skinner blends, brain canes and other tricks, you’ll learn tricks to create consistent sizes and add rich new looks to your work.

Happy holiday

A Christmas Day example of handmade heartwarming polymer from Eriko Page who shares her clear glass ornaments draped with polymer poinsettias. See more of Eriko on Facebook and enjoy your holiday.

A tutorial under your tree

Dr. Ron Lehocky apologized for being late in sending PCD readers this free holiday tree tutorial. He explains that he’s been busy making over 1100 heart trees since November. He’s turned his signature heart upside down and added some bling in keeping with the season.

Ron offers the tutorial as a thank you gift to the polymer community who have so wholeheartedly supported the heart project and the Fimo 50 effort which both benefit the Kids Center. He’s also celebrating having made 33,150 hearts. (Can you imagine?)

Ron extruded so much green polymer that he tired of the color and created a blue Frozen series of trees. They sold out quickly. Unwrap your present from Ron at this link. Follow him on Facebook where you can see his fans decked out fashionably in hearts.

Ornamental diversions

With no children visiting this holiday we’ve gone minimalist in our decorating. Maybe that’s why I find myself lingering over ornaments and admiring the neatly sculpted and brightly colored tree decorations from Missouri’s Kay Miller (JoyfulMoments).

If you haven’t hit holiday overload yet, take a look in her Etsy shop. No worry, her shop is closed so you can’t be tempted to buy,

Kay is a multi-media artist and you’ll find her cards and gifts equally compelling diversions. Take a moment to smile over her quaint visual treats.

Time for easy ornaments

No reason we can’t make a few ornaments for the tree this year. I’ve collected easy snowflake features on PCDaily each year and wistfully yearned to make my own. Now’s the time to get busy.

Heather Power’s newest holly cutout ornaments make it looks easy and she shows how.

If that’s not enough here are three past PCD features that use flat clay and mini cutters in the most clever and fun ways. Pick one or try them all.

Camille Young created these layered geometric ones in 2009
Jan Montarsi uses small image patterns in unusual ways (and there’s a tutorial)
For a more upscale look, try Kladiva Kurrent’s sophisticated metallic ones

Stacking snowflakes

The holidays are mostly over but let’s take one last look before all the ornaments are put away. Slovenia’s Klavdija Kurent starts with snowflake cutters in stepped down sizes (I’m guessing here).

She colors the polymer cutouts and then adds textures and stacks them, adding more color and metallics for emphasis. There’s more of her distinctive style on her blog and her Facebook site.

You can see that Klavdija has some tricks up her sleeve and she’ll be sharing them in her Let’s Twist Again workshop at Eurosynergy in Malta. Contact her by email to register.

Hyde’s polymer angels

Discussions about holiday spirit wouldn’t be complete without mentioning another of my polymer clay favorites, Seattle’s Susan Hyde. She sent these two examples of her latest angels dressed in her signature colors with extruded clay slices as accents. Those colors are pure holiday eye candy.

Her fabric tutorial (a Skinner blend with shreds of contrasting color mixed in and stacked into plaids) is one of the best for polymer clay color lovers.

Sahl’s polymer clay gingerbread houses

Nothing gets me more in the mood for the holidays than Sharon Sahl’s polymer clay gingerbread houses. She made only 10 for sale this year and there are just a couple left. Click on the large versions of her photos to see how detailed these beauties are.

“I buy and measure candies and cookies and gum and make them 1/4 sized with whatever clays best match their opacity. Trees are built from green star shapes, baked and then layered with white clay icing. For the cookies, I make an original with as much detail as I can fit onto a 1/2 inch disc, make a mold, and then pull every cookie from that mold. Gumdrops are coated with very fine glass beads and really look like gumdrops,” Sharon explains.

Her “Christmas Kids” ornaments are created with equal attention to detail. Sharon has moved back to Ohio and we’re happy she’s returned.

Hunt’s stacking polymer trees

Australia’s Amanda Hunt has created cheery polymer clay ornaments/pendants made of graduated disks that will make a perfect pro

ject for the young artists in my neighborhood who stop by to make something for the holidays.

Creating simple yet sophisticated designs is quite a trick and Amanda’s done it well. The way she translates her doodles and drawings into polymer clay pieces is intriguing as well. Take a look here and here.

Perry’s candy cornaments

Let’s tiptoe over to the darker side of Halloween and begin with these slightly frightening polymer clay “Candy Cornaments” from Lance Perry of Crescent Designs.

“I like to think that my work can ease one’s growing pains by taking them back to their childhood, if only for a moment,” Lance says of his art.

He shows and sells his wares on Etsy, Flickr and also hangs out at SpookyTimeJingles where their tagline says “sweet ‘n spooky commingle.” That should get you in the spirit.

I’ve been batting aside the spooky cobwebs in my attic. I’ve avoided tossing and sorting up there for ten years. This year my husband wouldn’t accept “working on the blog” as an excuse and I no longer have a job to insulate me from attic duty. Taking family portraits out of their frames and scanning them (see my early avatar) has been a fun and time-consuming side benefit.

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