Mischievous polymer

Ryan MacLeod is a self-taught polymer sculptor who sets his dragons down in the midst of the most unlikely and mischievous predicaments – from candy store to steampunk. His ornate miniature polymer piano was irrestible. American-born Ryan now lives in India with his wife and family.

His friendly dragons, like this recent Fire Dragon, will charm and delight you with his antics. This is a good way to warm up to the goblins and dark creatures that will be visiting PCD soon in honor of Halloween.

Perhaps the easiest way to appreciate all Ryan’s dense and complex creations is on Pinterest. You may also catch up with him on his website and on Facebook.

Susan Lomuto (Daily Art Muse) sent this link along. See what mischief she’s been up to with her new MAM and sample a free issue here.

Another Van Gogh discovered

Polymer-covered Altoids boxes logged nearly half a million views this week on Reddit. Another Van Gogh discovered!

A blogger named Qoth posted an album of his mother’s creations and they were an instant hit.

The footed boxes are heartfelt tokens made as gifts for family members. Small, humble artworks can still strike a chord in the hearts of online fans. Thousands were amazed at what could be done with polymer. The link came to PCDaily from Society of American Mosaic Artists trustee Sharon Plummer.

Polymer shrine for gamers

Inspired by scenes from the video game, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, this mostly polymer sculpture from Tucson’s Camille Young stands 5″ x 15″.

The piece, entitled Cross Section, was created for the Fangamer X Attract Mode show in Seattle. Video gamers love seeing their 2D characters brought to life in 3D by Camille and her sculpture represents a kind of modern shrine.

The Animal Crossing game allows players to build their own happy places and make the decisions that shape their lives.

These concepts may be completely foreign to us non-gamers but the audience for this artwork is huge and growing. Read about Camille in Polymer Clay Global Perspectives to get a glimpse of how and why this art is so important. She offers a 3D project for you to try.

Camille’s been sidetracked by her 6-month old daughter and it’s great to see her working (after Iris is in bed) again. Sample more of her work on Flickr and Facebook.

Upcycled triptych

Wendy Moore’s triptych is made from an discarded dart board upcycled with papier mache and polymer. It’s entitled Chautara which means resting place in Nepali. “This is a resting place for me; a place to reflect, meditate and reground,” says Wendy. See more of Wendy’s works on Flickr.

The shrine is part of her month-long show at the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery in Australia. Her works highlight the contrasts of living in the Outback and her frequent travels to Nepal where Wendy teaches women to create jewellery and objects to sell, enabling them to escape lives of poverty, trafficking and abuse.

Donations from the polymer community have helped the Samunnat project begin construction on a permanent home. Here’s their Etsy shop and their U.S. outlet on Kazuri West.

This week’s shrines show what potent places triptychs can be. Are you beginning to plan yours?

Polymer enshrined


Sing in me, muse, and through me tell a story. – The Odyssey	Mari O’Dell and Barb Harper enshrine their skills	Let yourself become living poetry.

Maryland’s Mari O’Dell, teacher, and Colorado’s Barb Harper, airplane mechanic, combined talents for this portable personal shrine. As you might expect, Barb engineered the hinges, the rod for the prayer wheel and other structural parts. Mari concentrated on the poetry and the imagery.

Neither would have accomplished such a complex and powerful polymer piece on her own and their success has prompted them to continue their collaboration. Two heads are often better than one.

Lap studio

Do you use your lap as your easel? At the retreat, Heather Campbell’s work space was crowded with the ephemera she used in her mixed media work plus tools and glue and wire and such. So she worked on her lap. She wisely wore an apron.

You had to wonder how the iron trivet, table knives, rhinestones, dolls and other repurposed items would fit on this 12″ x 12″ canvas. The trivet made an interesting design element but on my next visit, it was buried beneath polymer, paint and ornate trim.

Old table knives took on a new life wrapped in polymer and treated to a coat of paint with metallic highlights. More is much better in Heather’s vocabulary. This piece is entitled Peace Making.

Heather’s sumptuous style belies the unvarnished messages buried beneath her avalanche of ornamentation. See her sales page on Artful Home and her blog here.

Martha meets polymer

Gourd season is just around the corner. It’s rare to see a decorated gourd that incorporates polymer. Laurie Prophater featured gorgeous painted ones last week. Then this lovely polymer example from Oklahoma’s Penni Jo Couch popped up, part of her display at the Michigan Festival of Gourds where she’ll be teaching classes.

Penni Jo started making polymer miniatures in 1981 and after years in the giftware industry, started her own Best Flexible Molds business as she continues to travel and play with clay.

Voting Day

Voting begins today in Martha Stewart’s American Made competition. Let’s stuff the ballot box for polymer’s own Steven Ford and David Forlano who have entered in the craft category.

You have to jump through a few hoops (give your email) to participate but think of the fun of watching them win and take our craft to new places. Their entry page is a treat, complete with a video look into their studio. Go vote!

ALERT Two more nominees!

Thanks to Lynda Moseley who slogged through all the nominees to find two more polymer artists for your consideration in the Martha Stewart competition. Please check out contestants Loretta Lam and Corliss and John Rose too!

Polymer salad

About this time of year, we’re wishing the courgettes/zucchini piling up in our kitchens were the size of Vicky Guile’s polymer miniature versions. This UK artist’s veggies are only an inch long.

Vicky’s bowl of artichoke, aubergines, cauliflower and red onions looks fresh from the garden.

Those of us who started out making miniatures with our kids have a special fondness and admiration for those who can fool our eyes at 1:12 scale. See more on Facebook (NJD Miniatures).

Polymer funny things

Australia’s Debbie Crothers starts the week with some Funny Things. Together her series of wrapped natural items becomes a mixed media wall installation.

Debbie’s been experimenting with faux ceramic effects, wrapping white polymer around natural coral and palm fronds. Forged artistic wire and rounded cane slices accentuate some of the pieces.

Flip through Debbie’s pages of work to see how she’s progressed, improving her skills, circling back and bringing funny things to a whole new level. Anna Winter sent the link and encouraged me to look at Debbie again.

IPCA Awards

Beginning October 1, you may submit photos of your art into the IPCA’s Polymer Clay Awards, the world’s largest juried contemporary polymer art competition. The awards will be presented at the 2014 EuroSynergy in Malta in May.

Full disclosure: I’m one of the three judges and we want to dig up the best art possible. We’ll be hounding you from now until the submission deadline in January so you might as well get used to clicking on this call for entry icon.

Polymer I-Reliquary

If you love your electronic devices as much as I do, you’ll totally understand Georg Dinkel’s newest polymer I-Reliquary, a comfortable throne for your iphone.

This elaborate mixed media housing for an iphone is a shrine to technology (though Georg doesn’t own an iphone). He admits that his family uses ipads and Macs.

PCD featured his first shrine some time ago. He’s added more and more complexity to his pieces and skillfully documents how he builds the gilded fretwork out of polymer.

Georg was a photographer for Staedtler Products (the maker of Fimo) for years before he ever opened a package of polymer. You’ll also sense that he’s long been a student of architecture.

Georg’s work-in-process shots are fascinating even if you don’t know German. A 3-minute video shows his creations. Here’s one on YouTube. The in-process shots are on his website.

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