Beware, Afi Tajvidi’s polymer characters are sweeter than Easter candy and just as addictive. This Toronto artist has a delicate voice and a soft touch completely in sync with her palette and her stories. Check out Hippopo shown here or the romantic Igie and JellyBelly.
Her dainty, fine characters are sometimes available on her Etsy Joojooland shop where she also sells her illustrations and jewelry. They’re nicely grouped on Flickr.
Dayton’s Anita Behnan packs her 1″ polymer bugs full of smiles. Putting personality into a small lump of clay is quite an art. She knows how to give her creatures endearing expressions as she surrounds them with little caned flowers.
At this point in the season, all the bugs in the garden look as harmless as these. She sent along this very sweet rabbit as well. You’ll have to check Facebook to see more of Anita’s work.
Gera Chandler has packed up her muses and sent them away. After visiting her studio for months they’re off to galleries and Gera’s Etsy shop.
These 12″ willowy wall-mounted polymer sculptures have thick fiber hair and gleaming gowns. Gera etches and scratches designs into her fabric-like polymer much like we saw on Claire Maunsell’s work yesterday.
You can see the whole glowing group on her Flickr pages. Heading for new homes, the muses are sure to inspire and delight.
Thanks for following along with this April fool all week. Collaboration at the Outer Banks has been exhilarating and exhausting and I highly recommend the process. Find a group that boosts your confidence and stretches your mind.
Leslie Blackford made these necklaces for our group. It was a generous gesture that we will treasure. She knew enough about each of us to make a character that touched on a bit of truth. Can you identify one or two? I’ll publish a key on the weekend.
Please hang on while I get back to your emails in the next few days. I’m off to the hot tub! Have a hot weekend!
Here’s our silly group picture to help you.
This polymer-covered sugar spoon with its cautionary warning caught my eye at breakfast.
Judy Belcher explained that when Leslie Blackford was a house guest, she stirred her morning coffee with the sugar spoon and returned it to the sugar bowl…in violation of house rules. Judy’s husband brought the breach of etiquette to Leslie’s attention.
To atone for her gaffe, Leslie sent the Belchers a special spoon immortalizing the occasion so that others wouldn’t make the same mistake. It’s a charming, funny story and it certainly is effective.
Do you have polymer art that tells a tale or makes you smile? That can be one of the best uses of our art. More silly stories from the road on Monday. Have a great weekend and mind your manners.
Vancouver’s Joan Tayler likes to make polymer art that is both decorative and useful. It’s not surprising that she’s recently turned to inro covered with cane slices. This refreshing blue and white series shows how much interest and variety can come from a repertoire of patterns in a simple color palette. “My favorite patterns are greatly influenced by the eight years I spent in Japan,” she explains.
She shares a poignant moment when as a child she proudly sculpted a perfect horse sculpture. Joan’s elation was immediately followed by disappointment when she realized that the soft play clay wouldn’t survive.
You can imagine her pleasure when, years later, she discovered polymer clay. She says, “Polymer clay, like most visual art mediums, attempts to freeze a moment. For my purposes it does it very well; it makes me happy.” Joan still makes horse sculptures.
Can you relate? Why do you work in polymer?
Need to let loose on a cold Monday? California’s Anne Klocko says her polymer girls are a wild and colorful bunch. This is her “Class of 2010.”
Anne has worked for 20 years creating 3-dimensional framed polymer pictures like this one.
She started out studying ceramics and sculpture, skills that helped when she was drawn to polymer’s color possibilities. You can see her figurative sculpture on her web site and at the Etsy shop she recently opened.
This polymer sculpture from Berlin’s Angelika Arendt fits with my Arizona surroundings today.
We’ve been steeped in holiday themes and buried in beads lately. Angelika’s sculptures provide a freeform diversion that may give you a new outlook for 2011.
If you’re looking for reading material, let me direct you to recent meaty posts by Lindly Haunani, Tory Hughes and Christi Friesen while I continue in babysitting mode.
This polymer creche from Nepal’s Sammunat project shows us how connected we are. The characters are charmingly styled. Note that this Joseph carries a traditional khukuri knife and Mary wears a sari, bindi and beads. (This post on their blog tells another “small world” story.)
The power of the internet still astonishes me. Through it artists in the US, Australia, and Japan have developed friendships with the ladies in this project and helped their programs grow. Their fashion items become income, education for their children, food, medicine, and hope for a brighter future. I plan to visit there next November.
If you’re looking for the perfect gift for the polymer artist who has everything, a donation to the Sammunat project in his/her name would help artists a world away. Special Sammunat Christmas beads are available through Australia’s Over the Rainbow store.
I have a new grandchild, our first! We’ll have to Skype a look at our grandson for the first few weeks until we can head west for a visit.
What better time to remind you to look at Camille Allen’s marvelous new polymer micro babies? Her tiny lifelike infants have attracted an amazing following of swooning grandmothers and serious collectors. Camille lives in British Columbia and eight years ago learned to sculpt dolls in polymer from her grandmother. Her miniatures range from $99 for a resin copy to $5,000 for a polymer original. I’m captivated, of course.
In my anxiety I overlooked several details last week. Judy Summers should have been listed in the Niche finalists. One of her horses is in the running! And I meant to include Vickie Hallmark in the list of electroforming experimenters.
