Virginia’s Angie Wiggins takes advantage of every scrap of silkscreened polymer at the end of the day.
Sorted into colorways and backed with a layer of solid color clay for strength, the tiniest leftovers become useful and decorative napkin rings and coasters.
You’ll be surprised at what polymer clay can become in the hands of the experts we cover in this week’s StudioMojo. Discover awesome possibilities in what you thought were your most flawsome efforts.
I’ve been gaga for polymer-covered sticks for years. Mine are more slapdash than these carefully covered twigs from Detroit’s Linda-Velas-Helton.
Scraps, a schmear of liquid clay as glue, tiny cane bits, lots of this and that add up to a glorious trip down memory lane. The wood will tolerate the heat but you may have to use a big oven.
Before you know it, you have a bouquet of past projects to display and decorate your home. Isn’t it amazing how a theme, a palette, an aesthetic emerge from all those diverse projects?
New Mexico’s Gael Keyes finds wood scraps, adds polymer sculpted hands and faces, and dresses the emerging angels with bits of Southwest patterns that turn salvaged elements into art.
She tucks a test tube into each construction and gives it new life as a wall bud vase.
Gael has encountered fantastical bugs, birds, mushrooms, angels, and more along her polymer path. Each uses scrap in increasingly inventive ways. This one, ” Suficiente”, reminds us that we have enough.
Barbara Nalepa (Barmisal) pretty much captures how we feel here in the US on the day before Thanksgiving.
How to shove working, shopping, and cooking into one short day?
A few scraps of black and white canes express our potato-mashing, turkey-basting, table-setting exasperation.
Eventually, we’ll take a breath, sit down and remember how thankful we are for this wild and crazy life. Happy Thanksgiving!
Utah’s Mary Anne Loveless shows us how she makes Thanksgiving guests overlook even the most generic and predictable Thanksgiving cuisine.
Have you got some orange/brown cane ends? Some muddy scraps (who doesn’t)? You’ve got all the ingredients for your own Gobble til you Wobble recipe.
Don’t worry, yours won’t look like Mary Anne’s. The object isn’t copying. We’re only trying to bring some smiles to the table. Thanks to Mary Anne for showing us how. Follow her, she’s full of good ideas.
Speaking of news you can use, trot on over to StudioMojo. It’s the Saturday newsletter for art-makers at any level who want to ignite their creativity and bring more of what they love to their art.
A discarded 11″ x 27″ cabinet door leaning against the garage wall called to Kathy Koontz (Flowertownoriginals). The door begged for a second chance and Kathy was in a mood to grant it.
She painted the door and scooped up all the scrappy polymer bits lying around.
Stems and leaves grew first. Then the scraps organized themselves into jolly layered blooms.
The playful process made Kathy remember how much fun wall art can be.
Seanna Bettencourt (thepolymergarden) is churning her scrap into summer fashions.
Seanna credits this free YouTube tutorial from Fiona Abel-Smith for inspiring her to upcycle the last bits of canes. Fiona offers both an extruded version and a hand-rolled version of her method to make it easy for all.
Michigan’s Jess Erickson (cryingheartcraftco) and her young daughter show off the scrap flowers they cut out to decorate her bedroom.
I get misty thinking about how my daughter and I discovered polymer together as we made cakes and pizzas for her dollhouse.
There’s no better way to boost a kid’s confidence than to decorate their space with bright happy memories of creative times together.
No messy dip-dying for South Carolina’s Kathy Koontz (flowertownoriginals).
Her Easter eggs are covered with polymer scraps turned into stripes and then taken a step farther.
Kathy offsets the stripes to make a bargello veneer. Her resulting zigzag pattern is hypnotically, obsessively detailed.
Now what? Veneers are fun to make but it’s not always clear how to use the results. Eggactly!
If making bargello is new to you, watch this YouTube tutorial from Australia’s Jessama.
Texas’ Myranda Escamilla uses what she has onhand as she slaps together rough-hewn textures and stone color mixes for a bold fashion look.
“I’ve realized brown is usually available for purchase or at the very least, easier to find than other shades, and to save what precious clay I have, I’ve had to make-do,” she explains. The exercise pushed her out of her color comfort zone and into what turned out to be a trendy collection.
See more on her second Instagram page. The look is very 2021.
