Circling back to simple

Anouk Stettler bends simple clay into charming shapes on PolymerClayDaily.com

Switzerland’s Anouk Stettler (Habetrot) looks like she’s having fun as she bends and twists ropes of polymer into earrings like these.

She explains, “I make costume jewelry. I do not use gold, silver, and gems. I am not a goldsmith. My works are made of polymer clay, leather and brass – beautiful to look at and memorable for its wearer. Its value lies in the individuality, the creative process and the time I invest in each piece.” Get Anouk’s full effect on Instagram.

After pushing ourselves toward increasingly complex shapes and techniques, it’s good to circle back to simple and delightful ideas.

If you’re looking for more info about the quirky and weird paths your fellow artists are taking, join us at StudioMojo on Saturdays where we gather the most interesting ideas, tools, and trends I run into so that you can round out your polymer education. Join us!

Earrings just for fun

Breezy and bright from Barbara Jarman on PolymerClayDaily

These colors, favorites of California’s Barbara Jarman, speak to us this Monday morning.The blues and purples remind us that spring violets and bright dandelions will soon burst out on the lawn.

Barbara spent twenty years as a commercial artist and the last ten as a multi-media jewelry artist.

How unworried and unselfconscious Barbara’s compositions are! No matchy-matchy. Nothing precious and perfect. Her breezy lightweight polymer earrings are created to delight the wearer.

Salads and polymer

Jane Cox turns simple wooden kitchen utensils into special gifts on PolymerClayDaily.com

The UK’s Jane Cox (JaneLovesCreativity) turns simple wooden kitchen utensils into special gifts.

She winds comfy colors of extruded polymer strings around the handles, smooths the clay and polishes it to a shine after curing.

Imagine a friend smiling as she stirs dinner or serves salad with the spoon that reminds her of you.

There’s plenty of time to create these before the holidays, right?

We’ll be peeking into Tory Hughes Santa Fe atelier this week on StudioMojo. See how she surrounds herself with samples of luscious colors before she begins. Join us!

Complex simplicity

Michigan’s Sandra Niese (DandyBeads) eases us into Monday with a simple pendant. On its own, the spiral would have been too simple.

By embedding those metal pins into the edge of the design, Sandra makes us stop and take in the texture and the metallic finish and ponder the piece.

The dance between complexity and simplicity is a tricky one. See more of Sandra’s organic and slightly grungy works on Facebook, Pinterest and Etsy.

Fashionable geometry

Sydney’s Jayne Flanagan (nellsdottir) shows us another simple approach for 2015.

Jayne combines chunky, smooth, matte-finished shapes balanced by long tube beads. She paints repeating dots, stripes and checks on some of the beads using color and texture in spare and thoughtful ways.

Her bracelet designs mix a sturdy flat bangle shape with fat beads that look meant for teething.

No fancy tools or techniques are required for this fresh and trendy blend of color and geometry. You can see the whole range of Jayne’s designs on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Picbi and study some stunning larger pictures on her photographer’s portfolio site.

Simple gifts

As long as we’re talking gifts, we’d better think about the kids. These poseable pieces from Australia’s HollyJayne are so cute and simple (she has a 2-year-old son). Of course Holly’s mastered the devilish details that can make simple spectacular.

Holly shows the pieces and parts on her Facebook page and she sells them on Etsy. See all her creatures on Flickr.

Speaking of simple, don’t you just love these little striped Christmas trees from Ukraine’s Masha Shupova? These are just the thing for that sylish, minimalist friend. Here’s her Etsy gallery.

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