Manchester’s Alison Wren (White Larch Designs) stamps a cryptic bit of text into polymer and suspends the pendant at an off-kilter angle. She says Scandi style (Scandinavian) and nature influence her minimalist bent.
Alison’s a newbie on Instagram and her first effort resonates.
Minnesota’s Jennifer Patterson (QuiltedInClay) has been busy creating wares for her upcoming Duluth show.
You’ll have to look more closely to get the full effect of the layers here. You’ll discover the translucent bee wings that show the petals below. Remarkable.
Jennifer is famous for her extruded quilt patterns and disk sets. Here she veers off course for one-off pieces that are good for her heart and her mojo.
Oh yes, speaking of mojo, join us for Saturday’s StudioMojo where we’ll be dealing with what turtles teach us about anxiety and traveling.
The UK’s Fiona Abel Smith is fishing for something on Instagram. This is no ordinary polymer fish pendant. Fiona added the details over a Skinner blend-covered sculpture. The stripes are patterned cane slices inlaid into the blend.
Fiona’s fish has personality and sparkle and believable tropical colors. She’s had some practice. Look at this school of fish she made a while back. Practice makes perfect.
Florida’s Lynn Yuhr created this Gone Fishin’ as one of her class samples for 2019’s Bead and Button. In her post about deadlines and creativity, she wonders if the two concepts are compatible and concludes that the two are at odds until you jump in and start.
Lynn listened to feedback about her fish and even though the piece looks complicated, she based a new class on these basic shapes and beginner canes.
Her advice is particularly good for a Monday. Time to jump in and get started.
Maybe this complex piece from Russia’s Olga Lednova appeals because it mirrors the weekend. There’s a lot going on! Houseguests, friends, family, work!
Note the textures, colors, graduations, patterns, layers and a slight shift in size. If we’re very lucky, all the things we balance in our lives come together as well as Olga’s.
See more of Olga’s balancing act on Instagram and Flickr. She’ll be teaching at this year’s Polymer Week.
Smile-worthy polymer from France’s Caroline Cornic Isola (Klick-art) feels awfully good.
Stripes, dots, a big mug and swinging legs. And what about those orange ears and mean teeth on her Happy Wolf?Caroline knows just how to tickle our fancy and start the week with a smile. Follow her on Facebook and shop on Etsy.
Caroline is an illustrator and comic artist who translates her art perfectly to polymer. What do you draw that could be translated?
Ireland’s Fiona Herbst combines utility and drama with a simple closure. The dotted and bead fits perfectly. Maybe Fiona will tell us how she keeps the bead from pulling through.
The look is very modern. See the rest of her line of trendy pieces on Facebook and Instagram.
The layers of Prague’s Jana Honnerova’s Wavy Ball fold over each other in a languid motion that pulls us into the week.
Look at the designs that she’s been trying. Which is your favorite? Her prototypes are mostly on IG and haven’t made it to her Etsy shop yet.
There’s a brooch or earring version on Flickr. Perhaps there’s a tutorial in the works.
Chicago’s Marina Rios (Fanciful Devices) ran out of good rocks to wrap. She’s been trying Japanese basketry ornamentation over smooth river rocks. She weaves cane reed over the center and then subtly inks it for dimension.
With no more suitable smooth rocks to work on, Marina had no choice but to make her own art pods. She covers a foil form with polymer and then goes to town with silk screened, inked, crackled, faceted and gold leafed veneers. The pod hangs on a hammered and oxidized steel ring.
On Etsy and Instagram, Marina’s mix of media has a wonderfully calming effect.
Need more calming effects? Join the StudioMojo crowd on Saturday mornings where we dig below the surface to explore the behind-the-scenes discoveries that don’t fit on the daily menu at PCD. The odd, the new, the questions and the trends we’re dealing with. Fun stuff.
Something cheery has moved Germany’s Jana Lehmann in a new meandering direction.
Jana extrudes strands of marvelous color and builds modern designs by carefully laying them next to each other.
She adds extremely small dots of color as accents and surrounds the piece with a black and white frame.
The heart is made similarly with flat, graduated ribbons of polymer. These require dexterity and a love of small detail but they exude a joyousness that’s infectious and ready for spring. More on Facebook and Flickr.
