Polymer Clay Daily

Retro paint

Thank goodness that Croatia’s Nikolina Otrzan revealed her painterly polymer methods in a free tutorial that she uploaded this week. Her process is hard to guess but easy once you see it done.

Nikolina starts with a crisp graphic style that she later softens and blends for a retro effect. Thanks for the tute!

Her Flickr site is full of other examples including this clever cat design. She likes to doodle on polymer.

Spring cleaning

Thanks to the eagle-eyed Facebook fans who let me know that the PCD posts weren’t appearing in FB. I replaced the dusty old 2007 plugin with a shiny new one. I guess we wore it out!

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.

Carving tools and tricks

McNall carves

All your resistance to carving polymer will vanish once you thumb through Page McNall’s latest examples of her work and pictures of her tools.

McNall cityscape

Page shows how she often makes silicone molds of her carvings which simplifies creating subsequent similar pieces.

It helps that as a dentist, Page has plenty of access to drills, sharp tools and mold-making materials. She has a painterly way with color that’s stifled at her day job.

Appliqued stories

Soehjar_Red_Riding

When PCD first featured Eva Soehjar back in 2008, she mostly painted on polymer. Now she applies minuscule pieces of polymer to create illustrations on the surface of her pendants.

Soehjar - One Fine Day

She tells stories, like this Red Riding Hood, by applying small clay shapes with a sharp needle onto solid colored clay bases.

“I want to make people happy when they see my jewelry,” she says. It’s hard not to smile when you look at her delicate appliqued illustrations and her softly colored florals. Visit her work on Etsy and Flickr and have a happy weekend.

Polymer connections

Waddington_bail1

Susan Waddington of Polydogz does many things well. What I found myself stuck on as I cruised through her galleries was her ingenious bails for pendants, some from years past, some new.

Waddington_bail2

Integrating polymer bails into pendant design is quite a trick and Susan’s mastered it. She’s fond of using a paper-bead type construction which she camoflages with decorative coverings as in the shield shape with textured folded circle shown here. Layers of patterns form connections that fit seamlessly into her collages of polymer pattern.

You can see more examples on a sister site here and on Etsy here.

Innie/outie polymer

Massachusetts’ Roberta Warshaw creates her designs from a number of small stamps in a collection that she shows off here. Lately she’s inverted those assembled designs, creating an even more interesting effect as shown on the Faux Verdigris pendant here.

“I actually like the way they look better than the original impressed stampings. they have so much more depth this way. They feel much more like a small painting to me,” she says. See them all here and here.

When you don’t know which end is up, try making an “innie” an “outie.”

Energy like bubbles

Moeller-Smith pendants

A little texture, a little mokume gane, some shape and a whole lot of spring color make these pendants by Warren and Robbin Moeller-Smith into a bunch of fun. There’s more on Flickr.

Their textured bronze bails fold over the top edges to create perfect companions for polymer pendants. These artists/sailors create on a floating studio in the South Pacific.

In the tagline for their Artistic Energy series of pendants they ask, “Where does it come from? Like bubbles on the sea –sometimes there, sometimes not.” Where will your artistic energy come from this week?

Polymer as canvas

Florida’s Christina Cassidy (Chevre Feuille) gazes out her window and draws what she sees on polymer (fired first, I assume) with India ink.

This Fleabit Grey Horse Pendant is drawn with India ink on glitter-speckled clay. The background was ink-washed.

Christina explains that, “Working with India and many colored inks, colored pencil, watercolors or different colored clays, I sculpt, draw, or etch my ideas on the surface of each piece.” She adds a sealing finish as the last layer.

Christina worked with horses for many years and they remain her muses. Have an inspired weekend.