Ghost Shift polymer

Sue Corrie works with polymer on the Ghost Shift, when her family is settled and it’s dark outside. “Of course, Dr. Who fans know that the Ghost Shift was also the period when mysterious forces were able to seep into this world across the void,” she admits.

Sue has a mysterious force with color, putting together calming combinations and soothing palettes that invite further exploration. She shifts gears from fall’s rich dark colors in this leaf pendant to a brighter palette in this Natalia bead bracelet. Take a look.

Gone Fishing

SandrART’s Croatian summertime polymer playthings remind us what fun in the studio is all about. Forget serious and studied. Let your fingers do the walking and play.

Her bright colored fish on strings are simple and childlike. Her graduated band of layered polymer winds around to create an aerodynamic sealife pendant.

SandrART’s site is full of experiments that show a joyful approach to clay that we sometimes forget. Go fish!

Finnish fun

Look over the shoulder of the Finnish polymer clay artist, Raija Korpela who writes the blog, Turha Luulo. Using mostly simple shapes and clay cutters, she combines blends and cutout designs in unusual ways. A strong color sense brings sophistication to her design exercises.

You can tell that she’s exhuberant about polymer’s possibilities and her enthusiasm is contagious. Here’s her Flickr page.

If you can find her name, send it along. My Finnish is rusty. Eva Menager sent the link along.

Mills collaborates

Libby Mills just pulled this beauty out of the oven and it has comes to you with a story.

The color palette she selected from her Moo cards! She selected 50 Colourlovers palettes that she loved and had a set made to use for inspiration and later to use as jewelry tags.

It’s a traveling personal paint sample set. Pick a card from your deck for instant inspiration. (These snapshop colors aren’t accurate but you get the idea.)

Libby’s background textures came from tablemate Laurie Propheter who uses textured fabric swatches to impress into clay. (Laurie has a great selection that she sells on Etsy.) A few extrusions later (see the canes) and Libby’s perked up her palette.

Slutsky’s circles stack up

Simple designs like these polymer disks from Israel’s Victoria Slutsky (visart-dali) stack up to sweet simple pendants.

Graduated circles of textured clay in muted shades are accented with pigment powders and topped off with a glass bead. How effective simplicity can be! See Victoria’s new collection on her Etsy site and her Flickr page.

Quilted polymer

Because my vacation mates are serging and sewing I’m drawn to France’s Cathy (Dumauvobleu) whose pendants resemble quilted and collaged fabrics. Here’s her Etsy shop.

Cathy textures layered and collaged canes and strips of colors to achieve a sunny mix that blends into a cohesive design.

The link comes to us from Betsy Baker. Betsy’s published some new work and a couple of tutorials that you’ll want to examine.

Perfection in imperfection

The inscription inside Marlene Brady’s polymer and bead journal project pendant reads, “If malice or envy were tangible and had a shape, it would be the shape of a boomerang.” The quote is by Charley Reese.

Marlene was frustrated with the way the transfer smeared and blogged about her dissatisfaction with her art. Her readers had a different reaction. Reading their comments is a treat. They were struck, as I was, with the color and liveliness of the pieces that convey Marlene’s heartfelt sentiments so effectively.

She says, “My Bead Journal Projects are my way of giving myself permission to process negative feelings in a positive way.” Marlene’s inspiring pieces are a lesson for all the recovering perfectionists out there.

Paths to color

Belgium’s Nicole (NiQui) brings us chunks of color to jolt us into a new week.

Germany’s Margit Bohmer starts us off with a graphic polymer necklace dotted in primary colors that she says is an easy one to make.

France’s Céline Charuau (GrisBleu) startles us with a bright polymer and metal poppy.

There’s no escaping color this week even if the snow is all around us. Thumb through these three artists’ sites and you’ll how they share a love of color and take three very different approaches to making it part of their designs.

Faceted polymer beads

I was distracted yesterday. First I was drawn to these faceted polymer beads from Lynn Lunger (UnaOdd). She bought herself a belt sander to be able to achieve that flat-sided effect.

She even has a rainbow version and more in her Etsy shop. Oooh, the possibilities. Would my husband notice the polymer dust on his belt sander?

Then I decided to tinker with the guts of this web site. Diving into the belly of the blog is a sure way to grind things to a halt. Bingo! All of this left me speechless (hence yesterday’s terse post). I thought those lovely hearts would speak for themselves but some of you thought I was ill or irritated. Not so.

It’s thinly disguised avoidance behavior. Finishing my Synergy slide presentation is looming large and everything else but that calls to me. Back to PowerPoint today. Wish me luck (and clairvoyance) as I predict the future of polymer.

Haitian polymer art

Moro Baruk is a polymer clay artist living in Haiti. He’s posted a couple of pictures of how the earthquake damaged his building and shook its occupants. “I am afraid to open the metal doors for fear the walls would collapse on me,” he says.

“My wife and I moved to Haiti in 1979 to help strengthen a Bahá’í community. We own and run a craft factory and we export throughout the Caribbean, the USA and France,” he explains on his site.

His pictures bring the disaster closer to us. Start your week by counting your blessings and helping when you can. The link was sent to us from Saskia Veltenaar in the Netherlands.

First Giveaway Results

The lucky winner of the Judy Belcher earrings is Arizona’s Marlene Brady. The giveaway was fun and you’ll have another chance to win soon.

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