Polymer Clay Daily

Polymer in progress

Wiggins desk

Mixed media artist Angie Wiggins is almost panicked about her inventory for the September 15, 43rd St. Festival of the Arts in Richmond, Virginia.

The in-progress shot of her desk (above) has me checking the map to see how long a drive it would be. Wait ’til you see the mouthwatering photos on her Facebook page of her huge Skinner blends, her layered silkscreens on polymer, her handmade paper bowls.

Her eggshell mosaics fit right in with polymer and her felted bowls stand on polymer bases. In her hands the media mix like old friends.

Wouldn’t you love to stroll through her booth on a crisp fall day?

Unknown specimens

“Borrowing from the familiar forms of fungus, lichen, and mold, I invent and sculpt fictional organisms that graft onto manufactured domestic objects and infest the nooks and crannies of architectural spaces. Challenging notions of synthetic and organic, real and imagined, these sculptures and installations allude that through the passage of time these spaces and objects will become overtaken,” says Texan Jasmyne Grabill of her mixed media sculptures which rely heavily on polymer for their organic appeal.

Jasmyne’s works were featured in the luscious August/September issue of American Craft. In an article called Fungus Among Us, Monica Moses tracks this visual theme and finds fungus-themed works in metal, paper, fiber and food.

As I read the article my mind automatically started listing other examples of this trend that you may already know. Let’s see: Melanie West, Rachel Gourley, Kim Cavender, Ronna Weltman, Laura Tabakman, Wendy Malinow, Kathleen Dustin, Angelika Arendt, Jillian Moore. And that’s just for starters!

Send me your candidates and I’ll compile a list to send to the editor. ACC should know what we’ve been growing in the PCDaily laboratory.

A polymer rabbit that teaches

This 3-inch lop bunny from Oregon’s Sophie Skein is sculpted from white polymer blended with iridescent glitter.

Her explanation may ring true for you today as she says, “Rabbits are gentle, shy and fearful. Rabbits have taught me how to be gentle with myself when I am afraid. People tend to dislike the fearful parts of themselves and others, but almost everyone likes rabbits. It helps me to remember that we can have the same compassion for our fearful selves that we naturally do for rabbits.”

Perhaps this group of groundhogs is more to your liking. It’s easy to find some critter in Sophie’s Menagerie of Inscrutable Magic that will lift your spirits. She grew up next to her family’s vet clinic which gave her a special understanding of small orphaned animals that comes through in her polymer creations.

Going clayzy

Inoue butterflies

Montreal-based artist and illustrator Raku Inoue feared he had that dreaded viral clay disease. He’d gone clayzy! Nope, it was just his art manifesting itself in polymer. Read his biography to get the full scoop.

Raku was born in suburban Tokyo in 1983. He spent his early childhood watching anime, reading manga and discovering living creatures, especially insects. He immigrated to Canada when he was nine. He bounces between illustration, sculpture, photography and never strays far from polymer.

Look at these closeups of some of his lush polymer sculptures.

Southwest mysteries

The southwest influence is clear in these mixed media art dolls from Albuquerque artists Mary and Doug. I wish I could tell you more. We’ll have to wait for information to seep in through the back channels. Susan Lomuto pinned the link on her board first.

The doll bodies are made of various fabrics with stylized and painted polymer heads. They stand 15″ tall. There’s a whole Etsy gallery of interesting designs!

More mystery

If your first efforts in polymer are discouraging, you may want to click on the photo below to see who started out making basic beginner beads just like everyone else. His beads have improved considerably. See what happens when you keep trying?

Polymer Tone Shrine

Germany’s Georg Dinkel has looked at polymer for many years in his job as a photographer for Staedtler, the maker of Fimo. This year he picked up a couple of leftover blocks and he was hooked.

Except for a wooden frame and the electronics, the rest of his Tone Shrine is polymer. Three speakers and an ipad are housed inside the structure which took three months to complete. He started with a smaller ipod nano shrine for his seven-year-old daughter. For his “zaubertafel” ipad the project grew bigger.

Growing up surrounded by German Rococo and Baroque architectural masterpieces, Georg knew how to speak that visual language in polymer.

With a simple display change, the shrine can resemble Big Ben, cathedral windows or any other appropriate icon. Enjoy these photos and this video of his ornate celebrations of technology.

Big eyed polymer

You may have seen Heather Campbell’s The Eyes Have It on the cover of the recent PolymerArts magazine. What you might not understand is the size of Heather’s pieces. The photo below shows the same piece as it was hung at a gallery opening.

We get so used to the scale of earrings and pendants that we forget that some artists work in a much larger format.

Heather calls the style of her lush mixed media assemblages Bohemian Nouveau. The piece at the left, Enlightenment, will be at Utah’s Springville Art Museum through July.

Polymer MindMancers

Meredith Dittmar includes 32 sculpts and 7 wall pieces in this latest set of MindMancers for a June exhibit. The other set shown below is part of her Agents of the Mystery for the same show.

This Portland, Oregon, artist studied computer science and moved into a successful career in digital design leaving all that behind to focus on creating what she once called her psychepolymereganic tableaux and installations. She’s made thousands of her “guys” which are rapidly snatched up by collectors.

You might think that with her young twin boys she’d be slowing down. But her Facebook page shows the opposite. The pictures of her studio are a total treat. Last year she had a major show in Mexico City.

“I discovered polymer clay in ’93 when I worked at a bead store. Not too much was being done with the material at that time as it was pretty new to the market. I wouldn’t say the clay is difficult to work with, it’s just very deep and can be very technical to get certain effects. You can get pretty crazy with it if you want. Really I think I’m not even using one tenth of the knowledge base out there,” she says.

Peace out polymer

With her slingshot, black eye and peace sign, Dinka is a charmer. The translator tells us that these polymer creatures are from Olesya, a young artist in St. Petersburg. Olesya brings Dinka to life, dresses her in quirky fashions and makes her into a completely believable scamp.

The eyes of her baby seal beg for protection. If you’ve ever tried sculpting with polymer, you’ll appreciate how hard it is to build these small endearments into the clay.

Follow links to more of her characters and to her sales site. The terms of her sales site with its cash-only payments and convoluted delivery terms will make you realize how spoiled we are with our slick systems.

Try a studio dig

The faux ivory beads, buttons and pendants from Selena Anne Wells could have been carefully unearthed from an archaelogical dig but they’re polymer and were dug out of her Berkeley, California studio.

Selena’s beads have a cyber-tribal resonance and a Mad Max appeal achieved with just a few cutters and basic shaping tools. Some are set with cabochons.

She’s posted a whole batch of faux ceramic and metal buttons with the same ancient feel on her Flickr site. Poke a bit of clay to see what treasures emerge from your studio this weekend.