Blackford’s sideshow

Leslie Blackford is breathing a sigh of relief as she finishes her first major batch of orders for galleries. The tagline for her “carnies” series is “Damn everything but the circus.” The theme continues through the sculptures to her imaginative packaging.

Pendant cords travel up through the top of her boxes through a slit that holds each pendant in place. Stacked together they form an impromptu fun house display of her sideshow characters. Her catalog is printed as a circus flier.

Leslie’s companion packaging and promotions amplify the impact of her intensely personal and engaging work, an edgy combination of dark and whimsical.

Leslie’s theme is based on an e. e. cummings quote that may resonate with you on a Monday, “…damn everything that is grim, dull, motionless, unrisking, inward turning, damn everything that won’t get into the circle, that won’t enjoy, that won’t throw its heart into the tension, surprise, fear and delight of the circus, the round world, the full existence.“

WOW polymer

Wowcharmers.com show us how younger artists are using polymer, even if we’re not World of Warcraft fans. The site’s author is secretive about the designers and it looks like these elaborately dressed characters originate in China. You’ll find larger pictures on the Facebook page.

One of the early favorite polymer character artists is Bulgarian Dinko Tilov. His dinosaurs and monsters predate the gamer figures. Check out Dinko’s tutorials here. Dinko and his brother Boris recently put out a new book, Sculpting Mythical Creatures. Dinko gives tips on how to make his sculptures on his blog and video tutorials here.

The cartoon and gamer-based polymer toy crowd speaks a language all its own and they are a growing global force.

Young’s katamari

Enough with pretty polymer jewelry this week. Time for a change and I love the idea of Camille Young’s katamari ball. Camille built this sculpture on the fly, responding to calls from FanGamers during their online officecam show.

The ball is based on a puzzle-action video game. The game’s plot concerns a prince on a mission to rebuild the stars. This is achieved by rolling a magical, highly adhesive ball called a katamari around various locations, collecting increasingly greater objects until the ball has grown large enough to become a star.

Camille shows what accumulated on her polymer version of the ball in the video to the right. Here’s hoping that your personal katamari picks up polymer accomplishments through the week.

Riotous polymer

Harue Fujikawa’s polymer vegetables are corny. And since it’s Friday and tomorrow we shop at our farmers market, his laughing bi-color corn looks just right.

Harue has pages of lively vegetables, dolls and Japanese characters.The translator isn’t much help but his site is a visual riot.

And while we’re on the subject of riotous, check out les p’titsmobiles, strange polymer sea creatures made by a French girl in Denmark. I found her on the readers’ link page (put yours there).

If you have any phobias about vegetables or sea urchins, you may want to sit this one out. The rest of you have a riotous weekend.

Technology and polymer

Several readers have recommended the polymer Jiggly Wiggly Robots by Florida’s M. Held who is an illustrator as well. I’m tickled that she converts her robots into fabric at Spoonflower and creates illustrations for stock image sites. She also offers a clever tip for reducing fingerprints on polymer. (Christie Wright and others sent the link along.)

And as long as we’re talking clever technology, take a look at Betsy Baker’s online Lookbook. It’s a catalog of her latest work that she uploaded free through Issuu.com. Read how she did it here. Nice marketing!

Gourley’s Core Sample exhibit

Next Thursday marks the opening of Rachel Gourley’s Core Sample show at the Craft Council of BC in Vancouver. Her colorful collection of self-supporting hollow polymer tubes stand 30″ tall looking like modern totems.

Rachel’s first explorations for this exhibit began when she developed back problems. Awaiting treatment, she would intently study the diagrams of the human spine in the offices of doctors and physiotherapists. Since then Rachel says, “I have thought a lot about the spinal column and how the body supports itself.”

Initially she titled the exhibition Vertical Vertebrae but she realized that the scope of her work had expanded beyond the human spinal column. She found herself investigating the structural core of organic forms and began to see parallels between spines, trees and columns in their ability to support a larger mass.

You can see more of Rachel’s exploration with natural forms in earlier PCDaily posts here and here. The show runs through September 5.

Giveaway winner and your suggestions

Jan Montarsi was the winner of the Friday book giveaway. Thanks to Jan and the more than 500 of you who took time to fill out the survey I can more accurately read the pulse of the PCD community. The number of responses bowled me over and your enthusiasm was a hoot. Thanks for all the suggestions and the compliments. You’ve helped greatly.

Katz gets her head on straight

To mark the end of her fifth decade and the beginning of her sixth, Washington’s Sue Ellen Katz resolved to create a polymer head each day for a year. She’s completed 197 and ends her year in October.

Explaining the exercise she says that, “Each new head will help my own to sit more squarely on top of my shoulders.”

On her 365TalkingHeads blog Sue Ellen adds pensive quotes and captions to each head and she gangs them for a “say cheese” group photo at the end of each month. Repeating an exercise 365 times is bound to bring changes. Don’t you wonder what she’s learned? (Thanks to Ronna Sarvas Weltman for the link.)

Second Haab book giveaway

You readers are anxious to help me lighten the load on my bookshelves. Our randomly picked winner is Connie Nall from Omaha, Nebraska. Congratulations!

Incidentally, I have a second copy of the same book with DVD. I was going to hang onto that one but decided you’d enjoy it more. Take the PCDaily reader survey and enter your email at the end. You’ll automatically be entered in next Friday’s giveaway!

Realtime polymer sculpture from Camille Young

Camille Young made this fan art pin out of polymer so enthusiastically that I had to figure out just what a Flapjack SkyMaid was.

SkyMaid is pretty sweet, a super heroine who travels from under the sea to up in the sky with a bit of an edge and an attitude. Go take a look!

Camille offers a straightforward step-by-step of another of her polymer video game-inspired creatures on her Flickr page. Follow along here.

She creates characters in real time in response to viewers suggestions on Fangamers Camilleart Fridays. (You have to skip ahead about 45 minutes in the video to watch Camille sculpt on demand.) Here’s the result.

Red, white and boom polymer

Perry's Snap, Crackle and Pop in polymer

Two guys today! Boys and fireworks for the Fourth of July holiday ahead. Both guys subscribe to Picasso’s quote, “Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

Lance Perry draws his inspiration from children’s stories, nursery rhymes, childhood nostalgia and anything that might create a smile. He builds his sculptures over wire armatures and adds color with acrylics.

Mike Devine says of his polymer characters, “I finally found something to quiet my noisy mind and allow me a real escape from then angst and drama of working in NYC.” Mike’s “Miss Forever” was a winner in this year’s Progress and Possibilities competition.

Zlatkis’ illustrates on polymer

Geninne Zlatkis’ painted polymer bird mobile was immediately claimed by her son to hang above his desk in their new home in Mexico. Pictures on her beautiful blog show how the 3.5″ birds were sculpted in fimo, baked and then painted with acrylics and given a coat of matte varnish. It’s Geninne’s remarkable detailing that makes these birds sing.

I’ve long been a fan of her illustrations and designs which have been widely published and picked up by retailers like Urban Outfitters. She occasionally works in white polymer (see an earlier mobile here) which provides a canvas for her signature drawings.

Her studio and her homes designed by her architect husband have gotten increasingly dramatic and serene. The views from the house they’re building now (their fifth) are breath-taking.

You can find her illustrations on Etsy and read her featured seller interview there.

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