Australia’s Belinda Broughton (polymerbelinda) could have stopped right here. She applied pan pastels to a sheet of polymer. Then she scratched through the top layer of jagged triangles (technically sgraffito) to make an even more dynamic design.
Pop that baby in the oven and hang it on the wall!
I saw a painting but Belinda had earrings in mind. Either way, it was fun to watch and may make you reconsider pastel possibilities.
Australia’s Belinda Broughton has gone too far. Paint, powders, inks, crackle. You name it, she wants to try it on polymer.
The farther she goes, the more crazy, juicy, color-soaked patterns Belinda brings to life. Here she has a Thelma and Louise moment and drives off the cliff. It’s a joyous moment and she’s got the earrings to prove it.
Surface design is not for the timid. It’s going to be that kind of week. Hang on.
When I discovered polymer clay in 1992, I was driven to learn everything I could. But my attention/intention changed when I attended Making History, the 2008 National Guild’s conference that was the brainchild of Steven Ford and that focused on applying techniques and approaches from other media to work with polymer clay.
At that conference that I found Tim Andrew’s book on raku and became fascinated with surface design. A few years later, at Donna Kato’s urging, I followed an article I’d written on my testing of inks and paints on polymer clay with my book on surface design techniques.
I still do surface design work, but now it’s in the service of many other fascinations.
Posted by Ellen Marshall, former president of the National Polymer Clay Guild
Don’t you love the mysteries you encounter as you deconstruct a polymer piece like this one from Michigan’s Christi Uliczny (cabinefeverclay)?
“Which came first?” we ask ourselves. Interestingly light colored polymer textured ovals with baked in metal eyes were first. Then what? Color? When did the crackle go on? And then more layers of colors?
It’s dizzying to walk it backward when there are so many layers interacting with each other. You need skill and serendipity to create faux ceramics like Christi’s. She offers more clues to her favorite tools on her Instagram.
