Down-to-earth polymer from Nepal

All this talk of galleries, and museums and awards makes me hungry for something down-to-earth. Take a look at AColourfulJourney.com

The ladies of Nepal’s Sammunat Project tug at my heartstrings and remind me of other meaningful lessons that polymer clay can offer. Their fashion items become income, education for their children, food, medicine, and hope for a brighter future.

Australia’s Wendy Moore (these are her polymer dolls) has been spearheading this remarkable project with a group of Nepalese friends. The project assists abused women by teaching them beading and business skills. On the blog, they eloquently recount their own stories. (Disclaimer: I put the website together for them. The content’s all theirs.)

“We hope that each woman will understand that she is not merely a victim of violence but a talented, capable and valuable woman with strong inner resources and access to external resources,” says Wendy.

Please sign up for their email list so that you can be notified when they get through the bureacratic hurdles and hoops in the way of their online store. Clicking on the donation button will help too. Their tag line says it all…look good, feel good, do good.

Dever in other Niche categories

Jeff Dever belatedly checked his email when he saw that others had heard about their Niche Award status and found that two of his works have been selected. This one, Nestled Repose, is a finalist in the teapot category. It’s on display through November 8 at the Fuller Craft Museum.

The second, a basket called Tidal Ephemera, is in the running in either the mixed media or recycled category. Jeff felt that it was a good sign to see polymer artists, “….making inroads into categories that are not polymer clay exclusive.”

If you missed the Fuller Craft posts, check here. View Jeff’s video of his Edensong Reverie installation here.

Segal’s small set designs

Thyrza Segal of Vancouver arrived at polymer clay after ten years in set design and costuming. Now she works on much smaller sets. Her plantscapes combine terrariums, vintage glassware and polymer clay sculptures into miniature organic dioramas.

Thyrza gathers glassware and ceramics from local thrift stores and fills them with succulents, minature tropicals, mosses and air plants. What brings the plantscapes to life are the sculptures – alien figurines and fantasy plants sculpted from polymer clay.

This combination of green-conscious, recycled, fantasy and sculpture is one terrific example of the future of crafts that experts envisioned at the conference I attended last week.

Schiller’s polymer in a nutshell

Dawn Schiller (OddFae) was last featured on PCDaily two years ago. I’d lost track of her site and she’s been busy with her woodland creatures tucked in nutshells, in pocket watches, in seashells and now with needlefelted bodies.

Dawn explains that, “Chrono Seidh can be very helpful in watch repair, as they can repair the tiny works without need for tools.” The other one, called Xmas Stockings, blends Christmas and Halloween as he waits patiently for the holidays.

Dawn is on Flickr and Etsy and other sites. Following links to her and her friends will keep you quite busy. Thanks to Randee Ketzel for pointing me to this artist again.

Note: I finished my walnut bowl with polymer inlay. My husband has to sand and polish it to a sheen before I feel comfortable showing it to you. Maggie Maggio was in town visiting her parents and signing books. She stopped by my house for tea and gave the bowl’s colors an approving nod. Whew!

Stubitsch’s polymer likenesses

Dawn Stubitsch made her first polymer clay sculpture in 1983. Now customers book their figurine orders a year in advance and Dawn only commits to six a year. Her site contains a marvelous selection of her lifelike figures and very clear instructions on the kinds of photos needed to help her create good likenesses.

Dawn began her polymer career making Thumbprint Kids. She no longer makes the kids but she continues to enter polymer-covered mini cars in racing contests. Her 2009 fish entry is shown here.

Thanks to Jana Roberts Benzon for the addition to our growing list of cake topper/portrait artists.

Blackford’s hands on synergy

If, like me, you overlooked the hands-on classes that have been added to the Synergy2 lineup, be sure to look again. There are some gems being offered before and after the Baltimore conference.

The trick is that you have to contact the instructor directly (or his/her website) to get in on the deal.

Check out these whimisical narrative sculptures from Leslie Blackford’s “Off With Your Head!” class on the Tuesday before the conference. Their heads are built over small lightbulbs and you can change their head/body combinations to suit your mood.

If you’ve never seen Leslie conjure up creatures from a heap of polymer clay scraps, you’re in for a treat. Her spontaneous, direct way of bringing an idea to life will light your imagination. Here’s her Deviant site and here’s her email.

It’s rare to have access to this many top-notch teachers. The rest of the hands-on class roster includes: Seth Savarick, Tracy Holmes, Bettina Welker, Dan Cormier, Robert Dancik. Add to that the Cabin Fever Clay Fest workshops and their long list of experts. Take a class and your head will be spinning like the ones on Leslie’s sculptures!

Harris’ polymer for life enrichment

Christine Harris is an art therapist whose polymer clay tableaux are dense with myth, meaning and introspection. She’s created a site where she hopes to talk about using polymer for life enrichment. You can join that conversation here.

Christine’s images suit me just fine after a family wedding weekend that stirs up old memories while new ones are being created. I’m winging my way home from the west coast today.

I also direct you to Susan (Da Muse) Lomuto’s site today where she may delve into my myth and meaning on her High5 series of posts.

Scarey autumn trends

Fall is Lance Perry’s (Crescent Hill Designs) season. His polymer clay sculptures are equal parts cute and scarey. Almost, but not quite, predictable with just enough spooky and strange to keep things interesting. See his work on Flickr and Etsy.

I can’t decide if Joo-Joo’s ghosts (Afsaneh Tajvidi) or Heather Powers’ gnomes suit me better. I’m a sucker for glow-in-the-dark but Heather’s gnomes have that dash of weird that I can’t resist. And her acorns and mushrooms look totally trendy for fall.

The Creagers are immersed in their element too. Jodi and Richard offer a few gothic pins (like the ghost above) and other small artworks on their Etsy site. I give up! It’s fall.

Baldwin’s party animals

These party animals from Virginia’s Denise Baldwin (OddImagination) were built over burned out lightbulbs.

We looked at Denise’s bugs three years ago but then I lost track of her until she was prompted by last week’s post about lightbulbs to share some of her own work built over recycled bulbs. Denise’s recent work is large and sophisticated but, true to her name, still odd.

She has a blog and an Etsy gallery as well as a rich pbase site of older work.

Spiesser’s cane critters

Sabine Spiesser from Melbourne calls herself a digital artist and she has only two pictures of polymer clay work on her Flickr site. But even from this small sampling you can tell that she’s unleashed her inner polymer artist.

Created for an Australian guild competition, the caterpillar was composed of cane ends. She credits Vancouver’s Wanda Shum as her inspiration. I’m hoping that Sabine’s cheery bugs will bring a smile to your face this Labor Day Monday.

I’m off to shop an art show and enjoy the bonus day of summer’s last long weekend. Thanks to Lorrene Davis for the link.

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