Guess who polymer

Recognize this artist? You won’t find this polymer Baby Groot on the Etsy or Ipernity or CraftArtEdu pages of Bettina Welker.

This Guardian of the Galaxy character (it’s the highest-grossing superhero film of 2014) was tucked into Bettina’s Facebook sculpture album. Her superhero sculpts are a guilty pleasure and I’m guessing they’re collaborations or commissions from her young son.

Sometimes it’s fun to stretch a different art muscle. Sculpting obviously tugs at Bettina’s creative heart and she’s good at it. Have you ventured out of your comfort zone lately?

Queen of Hearts polymer

Virginia’s Melissa Terlizzi reminds us that Valentines Day is around the corner with her Queen of Hearts sculpture. Melissa set out to make something dark and creepy with Tim Burton edginess but ended up with a wide-eyed innocent.

“I decided to go with it, and completely lost myself in the project. Even the Queen of Hearts must have been sweet once, right? Before she had her heart broken a few times, and started lopping off people’s heads,” she explains. See Melissa’s sculptures on Flickr and Facebook. It’s time to start considering hearts of all varieties.

White wallflowers

Starting 2015 with a limited palette may appeal to those artists who want to approach the new year with calm and care.

California’s Angela Schwer rarely ventures beyond the white polymer she uses for her organic wall art.

Made to resemble the rare Corton Olympic dahlia, this 7″ bloom was arranged petal by petal on a base and created to hang on the wall. She also makes a 12″ version.

Angela explains her process and her choice of subject matter in this interview.

A stay-at-home mom, she sells on Etsy. In the past couple of years she’s moved into larger commissioned installations. You can see more in-process shots and new monogrammed letters on her Facebook page.

Starting small

Russia’s Ekaterina Gamayunova begins PCDaily’s 2015 with this tiny polymer couple who commissioned versions of themselves who will live inside a small glass jar diorama to remind them of a special time.

It’s fascinating to see how Ekaterina mimics details down to the wrinkles in their jeans and the texture of their sweaters using only her fingers and needle tools.

How will you start the year? Big and expansive? Small and intense? Or somewhere in between?

Mixed media village

Barcelona’s Fabi Ajates has cooked up a mixed media house-building class. This style is her Arabian Nights version which is 24″ by 14″. Made in one piece, the background is painted and then trimmed with polymer, textures and trinkets.

Knobs and hooks used in the design make the wall piece double as a handy hanger for jewelry or keys.

Fabi admits that making these cottages is addicting. “I love the free form of the houses which are in various sizes and somewhat deformed. This gives a the row a cheerful grace. Constructing them becomes a relaxing exercise.” She’ll be teaching the class in Madrid in late January.

See more examples and styles on her site, on Flickr and on Facebook.

Polymer journals

Thinking of making a journal for the new year? London’s Aniko Kolesnikova (MandarinDuck) excels at creating finely textured sculpted polymer tiles. When baked and then glued onto blank book covers, the humble journals speak volumes.

The Indian elephant piece to the left is the early, unpainted version of the tile. Layers later, washes of paint and highlights of color make the image much richer. Nothing Aniko has shown before has captured so much attention she says.

You can watch a terrific timelapse of her making a floral journal on YouTube and she hints that a tutorial about the elephant will follow.

Aniko shares her inspirations online on Pinterest and sells on Etsy. See more in process shots of this piece on Flickr.

Dancing polymer

Susan Hyde’s madonnas and angels are part of my holiday attire. That’s an angel pin I bought years ago at the right. This year she added 4″ dancing women whose bright swirling colors add to their sense of movement. The round stands they dance on contribute more color. You can see them in her Bremerton, WA gallery and on Facebook.

My grandsons are coming for a visit so I’m getting myself in the mood for angels and movement and celebrating.

Sculpted wood sprites

This haunting 5.5″ wall piece is sculpted polymer with bark and other inclusions. Wooden Spirit Amira was made by Tatjana Raum (Chopoli) in Germany. Her woodsprites bring with them bits of bark and leaves from the forest and smell slightly of moss.

Tatjana says she has always been fascinated by faces, painting and photographing them until she discovered sculpting. She creates art dolls and what she calls wooden spirits using either ceramic, paper or polymer clay.

See Tatjana’s whole cast of characters on Etsy and her site. ‘Tis the season for elves and sprites. Some have become ornaments.

Black Friday polymer

Black Friday sounds ominous. Let’s ward off evil with these small polymer monsters from Sardinia’s Alessio Busanca. These mini-dragons are named CloudJumper and Bewilder Beast.

Alessio began as an illustrator and comic artist and likes his dragons small. This picture helps put them in perspective. They’re a mere 2″ tall and full of small scale scariness. Sorry, the last of them sold on EBay last week.

See more of his creatures on Facebook, Pinterest, Flickr, and his Deviant site. This earlier Goblin piece looks like a bad day of shopping. Let’s hope you avoid this crowd today.

Polymer adelies

It’s penguin season according to Scotland’s Ines Fonseca. “This is the time when most penguin species gather with their colonies to nest and it is amazing what they can endure for survival. Adelies gather on rocky areas where they can build their nests far from ice and they spend a lot of time going back to the sea for krill.” A colorful scarf can do a lot to improve your mood in the cold.

Ines’ says that playing with polymer is like being a kid again and her bugs, birds, fish and animals have a childlike quality that you can appreciate better on Flickr, Facebook and Etsy.

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