Polymer Clay Daily

Polymer garden delights

Inspired by Christine Dumont’s hollow bead online course, Kukel10 has built a big bead garden ornament that becomes even more interesting up close.

Ruffles, spikes, dots and disks, sit atop stripes and poetry. This piece will spark many conversations in her garden.

As long as we’re touring the garden, take a look at Shay Aaron’s polymer clay beets, radishes and other vegetable delights to wear.

There’s even more food jewelry on his Etsy site. If you have a hankering to grow something polymer, follow one of Shay’s tiny veggie tutorials.

Polymer Americana

School’s out! Jenn McGlon knows what’s coming up next! She and her friends over at SpookyTimeJingles are already gearing up for the Fourth of July with an offering of Americana art like these painted polymer Luettes.

The Spooky folks have jumped ahead to their favorite fall holiday as well.

Updates

A new, air dry polymer clay? DeCoRé is quite pricey but might be just the thing when you want to add inclusions that can’t take the heat of baking. Read more. Ronna Weltman sent us the link.

Julie Picarello’s new book, Patterns In Polymer, is a joy to read and to learn from! The copy is engaging and the techniques are dynamite.

The Green issue of the From Polymer to Art quarterly magazine has arrived. For U.S. readers, PolkaDotCreations carries this Netherlands publication.

Welcome distractions

These polymer sprites from Italy’s Barbara Oppizzi remind me of how charmed and distracted I am this week by a visit from my own munchkin grandson.

Barbara’s sprites’ poses match Oliver’s when he’s happily at play on the floor. Her polymer flowers could have been plucked from a sumptuous garden.

My toy strewn living room looks like it was hit by a baby bomb. My studio is closed for the week while this very small muse teaches me a few things. Luckily I can sneak off to the computer while he naps.

Polymer on the beach

California’s Dawn Schiller cautions you to keep an eye out as you head to the beach this season.

“While walking the beach, I happened upon a sea seidh (pronounced “seed“), one of the tribe of little folk that used to live in the forest but have emigrated to the sea. These tiny fae dwell in abandoned shells of all types — much like hermit crabs — and live on dark moonlight and the breath of fishes,” she explains.

About face in polymer

Inveterate polymer experimenter Dee Wilder created these new story beads using Maureen Carlson’s new small face bead molds. Here’s the back of Dee’s creations. She made not only beads but a series of rings as well.

These somber looking faces can be embellished and manipulated to make their story serious or silly or something in between.

One of Maureen’s original beads totems stares at me from the kitchen window sill. Now I can make more to poke up out of the garden. I was thinking of whipping up these plant stakes in polymer too. (I’d much rather do that than spread mulch!) Enjoy your weekend in the garden or the studio.

Royal couple, polymer style

Joan Israel’s vision of the royal couple may not match those in the news headlines but her 17″ polymer cane slice covered bottles have a very regal air. She’s been on a bottle jag that’s fun to study. My favorite is her scotch bottle.

We looked at Joan’s painting-by-the-slice creations earlier this year and she’s added tons of work to her Flickr site in the meanwhile. I can’t imagine the stash of canes required for this body of work!

Have your royals ready for Friday’s events!

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Sweet polymer

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.

Freezing a moment with polymer

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?

Join the class!

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.

Micro babies

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.

Ditzy moves

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.