Russia’s Karina Formanova has created flocks of small bird brooches in a huge variety of colors. You can see from her Instagram focus that Karina has studied her birds.
She distills their colors and shapes down to combinations of subtle Skinner blends and delicate canes that make her birds seem to flutter on the wearer’s collar.
Follow her works in progress on her Facebook and see the range of colors in her shop. The brooches are nicely packaged in nests of matching papers.
This brooch is part of a new line from Spain’s Natalia Garcia de Leaniz. It’s slinky and wormy and makes you want to smile and run your fingers across the crenulated Skinner-blend surface.
Can’t you imagine bending the snakes into other shapes or making them into tube beads?
Natalia and Dani often come up with head-scratching shapes. What could she have used to make this one? We’ll have to watch (Flickr and Facebook) to learn more.
This is version #3 of Lindly Haunani’s latest bell bead experiment. See earlier iterations of her ideas on Facebook.
Now Lindly’s working out the mechanics of assembling these beads that fit into each other as they chase the design around your neck
Those beautiful blends are explained in Lindly and Maggie’s seminal color book, Color Inspirations.
The two belles of color, Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio, will both teach at Synergy4. You have a rare opportunity to hear their theories and learn their latest color tricks.
Creative Journeys Studio posted a yummy video of another color technique bracelet that Lindly has developed for upcoming classes. A hit of luscious color starts your week on the right foot.
It’s your week at the beach with polymer. Today JoAnne St. James replicates Connecticut sunsets and beach scenes. She translates the sky colors into beautiful Skinner blends. It’s a short step from a blend to landscape.
A handful of shells, some sand, sun touching the water – JoAnne gives the scenes finishing touches and then turns them into wearable summer memories.
You can witness her magic on Facebook and Etsy and catch more beach bits on Pinterest. Her about page tells you her story.
Perhaps we should call the first posts of the week Matchy Mondays because it’s on Monday that I’m most drawn to polymer works that coordinate with PCD’s colors.
Consider these beautifully graduated and sharply creased beads from the Czech Republic’s Dana Phamova. She plays with the light and shadow caused by the bent surfaces. Here’s another of her light/shadow experiments.
Her beautiful Skinner-blended colors are accented by a few judiciously placed light colored dots. A close look shows that the texture is created with hand-applied pin pricks. She shows a work-in-process shot here.
Dana calls this series Dreaming Cucarachas. Cockroaches? That title breaks the zen mood, doesn’t it? You can catch the vibe again (lots of polymer scratching and distressing) on Facebook and Pinterest.
Cecilia Leonini’s necklace has a holiday air about it. Like a garland you might string around a tree.
The long Skinner blended tubes are matched by round beads of varying sizes. The balance appears haphazard but hangs in a most appealing way.
Cecelia has been working on balancing elements as you’ll see on Flickr and Facebook.
These swooping Cernit brooches from Russia’s Olga Ledneva use beautiful blends and particularly graceful smooth shapes.
Think of them as punctuation, grace notes for the end of an otherwise hectic week. You’ll find more from Olga on Flickr and Facebook.
Emilie Bouillie provides our Monday wake up call with these Skinner blended stripes. Touches of pure white provide the contrast we need to snap us into a new week.
We tend to think of blends as muted but Emilie shows us another way with her bright lentils.
Need another jolt? Look at Parole De Pate’s teapot challenge. This hot colored entry is from Lila Reve
Carol Blackburn came to polymer through knitting and you can see how she has thought through her work. Her brain stacks and repeats and combines patterns and shapes that appear both engineered and organic.
For several years her strips of color have marched next to each other in increasingly interesting formations, most recently in this Striped Shell Necklace.
In her new Waves series the components now dance and flow more smoothly.
You can witness how she has evolved and moved through the process by looking at her site, at Pinterest, at Flickr and Facebook.
A shot of orange might brighten your day! This dose of color is from Russia’s Maria Belkomor.
She punches out circles of polymer from a thin sheet of Skinner blended color and stacks the baked heishe-like disks into a beautiful ombre strand. Have you calculated how many she needed to cut out for these bracelets? Time consuming? Yes. Beautiful? Yah!
In a recent post Maria explains how she designed a similar necklace in a cockatoo palette – from sketch to stringing.
Her colors sing and she has unending patience for repeating patterns. The best overview of her work is on Pinterest and you can see even more on Flickr.
