Polymer Clay Daily

Buzzing, skittering, crawling polymer

Allow the color to wash over you as you watch Jeff Dever’s Edensong Revisited – Buzz, Skitter and Crawl YouTube video. This 3-minute video chronicles the growth of Jeff’s piece through installations at the Fuller Craft Museum and later at the Racine Art Museum.

The closeups show sinuous shapes and gradations of color on lovely alien creepy crawlies. Jeff promises the debut of his website later this year.

Note that the Racine (RAM) polymer exhibit closes on February 5. The museum is offering a Kathleen Dustin mug and Terra Nova: Polymer at the Crossroads book package deal. Thanks to Maggie Maggio for the link!

No angry birds

Leslie Blackford’s polymer woodland birds perch just the way they should but there’s something definitely wacky and endearing about them. Pictures of the flock she created at a Philadelphia Guild workshop demonstrate the point.

One wears a crown, another a cowboy hat. One smokes a cigar, several have outlandish plummage and cheeky grins. It’s easy to identify the birds but hard to put your finger on why they’re so appealing. While Leslie’s style can appear deceptively simple and childlike, students soon realize how difficult it is to accurately capture an essence and then veer into fantasy with polymer.

Leslie grew up in the woods of Tennessee and Kentucky with a botanist father helping her identify, study and appreciate the wildlife. The shapes and characteristics of each species were clearly imprinted in Leslie’s head. Maybe it’s her understanding and kinship with animals that startles us and makes us stop in our tracks.

Enlivened lockets

While the idea of covering lockets with polymer has been around for a while, Sydney, Australia’s Rocky Antonio turns the idea on its head!

The necks on Rocky’s charming Matryoshka dolls are made from lockets turned sideways. Jumprings baked into their heads allow them to be suspended from chains as pendants or charms. Study more pictures here and start your engines this week with a updated, upcycled twist on an old idea.

Pantone polymer

Unaodd’s Lynn Lunger was inspired by Pantone and spring seed catalogs. She mixed her own Tangerine Tango, Pantone’s color of the year, and started developing her 2012 palette.

Lynn confesses to a crisper drawer full of extra flower seeds from years past. That doesn’t stop her from considering if she should buy some of the new ones offered in this year’s crop of February garden catalogs.

In an effort to resist giving in to seed acquisition, she started filling custom-made silicone molds with her new polymer colors. Imprints of last years’ blooms had been pressed to make the forms. The resulting polymer beads give us visual taste of spring.

What’s happening in Lynn’s studio usually reflects what’s growing outside and her blog is a good garden and studio read. Think spring this weekend.

A certain mentalitea

PCDaily hasn’t visited Nova Scotia’s Kate Church for two years and when she appeared on the DailyArtMuse, it was time to look again. Kate’s mixed media jewelry, like this polymer-faced Red Queen, resides in theatre boxes when they’re not being worn.

Her droll dolls and puppets may frown but they dance joyously. They have, as one show was entitled, A Certain Mentalitea that you can experience here.

If your art could use better online exposure, check out DailyArtMuse’s Artist Online classes.

Polymer joy

France’s Dorothy Vantorre photographed her step-by-step work on this polymer bearded collie sculpture making the story both funny and educational.

The piece was commissioned by her best friend as a gift for another person. The dog’s thick coat meshes perfectly with Dorothy’s preferred way of working in layers. You can understand Dorothy’s frustration when you look at her big pile of extruded dog hair pieces.

She captures both the look and the spirit of Joy, the dog. She even made a special show box for the gift. Dorothy has sworn off all future dog commissions saying, “I’ve been very pleased to learn that the person who received this gift was very moved! But I want to clarify that the next person who asks me to make a miniature dog will be immediately banned from my contacts.”

Check out Dorothy’s illustrations, cake toppers and sculptures. Her in-progress shots reveal a distinctive style that gravitates to friendly monsters, pink rabbits and hangman earrings. Her biggest trick may be making it all look so easy! Have an easy weekend.

Hot polymer, cool mom

How cool a mom is Jill Palumbo? Her sons each got electronic tablets for Christmas for which she had made polymer-embellished protective covers. (More pix here.)

The themed cases sported logos and icons from the boys’ favorite musical group and online game. (I had to look up Minecraft and Hot Water Music.)

Her design includes game pieces that turn the case into a stand for reading books or watching movies more comfortably.

Jill’s polymer ingenuity and thoughtful giftgiving need to be celebrated. Kudos!

Polymer Poupettes

Portland’s Sofie Skein describes her Poupettes as, “…spirited renditions of animals and mythical creatures in pure polymer.” She’s also a painter and grew up involved in the family vet clinic.

Her animals have realistic heads perched on simply stylized bodies that will make you laugh. See them all on Flickr including this picture that shows how she works from detailed sketches.

She sells her animal portraits (like this custom Egyptian Mau cat) on Etsy in her Menagerie of Inscrutable Magic.

Sofie is a new artist on PCDaily thanks to a link sent by Eva Menager.

Polymer that emerges with hope

“I’m loving this new project,” Heather Campbell said in October, “It’s so physical and messy. I guess a darker side of me needs to erupt and show itself before I can move on.”

The December result is Holding It Together, a large polymer and mixed media sculpture with a hopeful, healthy message for the end of our year.

Heather explains that, “Our strength is our ability to sew and hammer and bind, to glue and nail each piece of ourselves together, until the strength of our parts makes us whole again. Holding it together is our challenge, emerging with hope is our goal. We are survivors.”

The scale and power of this piece is remarkable. Watch Heather rip into a mannequin form that serves as the base. Scroll down to watch this big girl take shape.

Heather will teach others how to make a powerful personal portrait of their own at Maureen Carlson’s Center in May.

As a fitting start for the new year, she received word that her rustic, layered polymer necklace has been chosen as a finalist for a Niche Award! Visit the Niche site to see more finalists. Happy 2012 to all of you!

Sweet dreams in polymer

Washington’s Sue Ellen records the essence of her nightly dreams in polymer and lets those sleeping faces speak their truth. Her Dreaming Muse Series involves creating one sleeping face a day that reflect the images, feelings and words of her dreams.

“How will the dreaming hours effect the waking ones? How will the observation of the nightly, subconscious stories, help to create the conscious ones I live in every day?” she asks herself.

My vivid jet-lagged dreams reminded me of this project that Ronna Weltman mentioned a while back. Sue Ellen’s been an actor, speech writer, career coach, corporate sales executive and more. Her introspective art fits comfortably with her interests.

My dream images deal with the clash of cultures as I try to integrate what I’ve learned in my travels into my life.

Sue Ellen’s been running her experiment since October. Her faces, tinted with alcohol inks and tucked among the rocks and plants in her garden, are intriguing. Take a look and have a restful weekend. I’m nearly back in the swing.