Page McNall provides a chipper Monday with her folkart bird as I fly home. Her 2″x4″ polymer sculpture is formed over an aluminum foil armature and then inked and painted. She placed the bird on a Stroppel cane-covered base. Page talks about her latest works (check out her designer rat) on Flickr and sells them on Etsy. You can see what’s inside her head on Pinterest.
I’ll be catching up and back to work tomorrow! Thanks for helping me out during my fabulous vacation.
If you were one of Leslie Leving’s polymer beastlies, which one would you be?
There are loads to keep you guessing.
Vacation posts from another part of my Internet brain
France’s Celine Roumagnac specializes in quirky worlds in polymer. From mushroom cottages in the forest to mountain villages captured under glass, she shares her colorful, happy worldviews.
Celine’s Au Pays des Rêves (Dreamland) provides a perfect setting for me as I leave for England and France. I feel a bit like this explorer chosing his path. The hardest part has been to narrow the tools I’m packing to just a few necessities. Sorting has been a good exercise.
I look forward to joining Dayle Doroshow’s group for a week of playing and flea marketing. The area looks luscious on her blog, doesn’t it? I’ll try to stay in touch with you. Enjoy Celine’s world travels on her Flickr site and her shop.
Vacation posts from the archives.
I’m dipping into the archives while I’m on vacation. We first talked about these polymer postcards in 2008! At workshops it was great to make polymer postcards to send home. Fun to make and they make terrific souvenirs.
The U.S. mail will accept the artwork if it’s within their guidelines. Tory Hughes may have started this mischief and she still teaches postcard creation in her classes.
I’ll be taking a class while I’m away so I’ll try to come up with some postcards from my journey. Vacation posts from the archives
Leslie Blackford doesn’t think much about photographing her extraordinary small sculptures but I can’t resist snapping pictures of them.
The segmented fish and smiling alligator wiggle and writhe on the cords that run through them. I snagged these recently as Leslie was preparing samples for the Las Vegas Clay Carnival where she’ll be teaching with a great cast of characters in late August.
Leslie grew up in the woods of Kentucky and Tennessee and she has an affinity for snakes and birds and other woodsy creatures. She dresses her versions in costumes and puts them in baffling situations that charm and delight. Here’s a reclining bird, a deer in camoflage, a girl with a bucket of snakes, and a wine glass that might give you pause.
Yesterday’s broken link to the PolymerClayGlobal site has been fixed. Thanks for letting me know.
Put on your sunglasses to enjoy Dusdee Chotipruk’s small sculptures, hangings and jewelry. This picture of her work area shows how she immerses herself in color.
Thailand’s popular Dichan magazine featured Dusdee in its June issue. “I am a very low profile person but my creations may be loud,” she says.
She mixes crocheted rounds, bright polymer canes and glass beads into an updated ’60s fashion statement.
Camille Allen’s polymer babies are not made of soap or marzipan or chocolate! They’ve been the subject of many internet myths and viral hoaxes. Camille uses her polymer originals to create a less expensive line of resin molded babies. The originals are rare and very pricey and most everything on her site is soldout.
It is extremely difficult to create a lifelike baby in polymer at micro size and Camille does it very well. Here’s an early PCD post about her. We’re expecting another grandchild in July and I gravitate to babies in preparation for our own tiny miracle.
Illustrator Doreen Kassel’s usually squat, rotund polymer characters (made over glass ornaments) are sprouting skinny necks and spindly legs as she gets ready for for a busy schedule (scroll down her home page to see the dates).
These sculpted and painted Blended Beasts will make their class debut next year. Her preparations for teaching have unleashed a flurry of creature (plus totems and shrines) that must have been brewing in her brain.
Flickr’s new big format pictures makes Doreen’s animals brighter and more boldly bizarre. Go have a look on her blog, on Etsy, on Facebook – they’re everywhere! And she’s won another Niche Award this year!
What are June brides choosing to top off their wedding cakes this year? There’s incredible variety! Like these polymer kissing fish from Indigotwin (Cortney Rector and Kirsten Arundt). The duo include birds, robots, whales, lobsters, apples and much more in their wedding toppers and favors.
For a more traditional approach, check out Spain’s Noemi Hurtado‘s Flickr page. She copies every ruffle and ringlet for her polymer toppers. Or try Dawn Stubitsch, or Elizabeth Bonura (she did a lifesized one), or Italy’s Mary Tempesta or Sophie Skein’s animals.
Polymer toppers have gotten so popular that you can launch yourself into a weekend’s worth of research by googling the term. I just wanted to put you in the mood for June!
White popped up today so let’s run with it. Barcelona’s Sona Grigoryan disregarded the color in Gaudi’s architecture and concentrated on the famous architect’s shapes that she interpreted into a polymer cuff.
Wendy Malinow took the color out of flowers and bones and applied them as a background on the platform of some summer sandals she’s working on.
Sometimes you can disregard color, focus on form instead and end up somewhere entirely new.
