Polymer Clay Daily

Balanced asymmetry

Chifonie has moved toward what she calls an ethnic fall mode with her polymer necklaces. Mixing dark textures and interesting shapes with contrasts and personalities she “…searches for balance in the asymmetry.”

The color palette is pure, delicious autumn. See more on her site, her Etsy and Flickr pages where she has a whole stash of ethnic goodies.

Sprucing up

You’ll note that PCD is sprucing up for the season too. There are big things coming this fall and we want to be ready. Let us know if we misplace anything as we rearrange the furniture.

Primed to learn

Nothing gets us jazzed for a class more than a heap of polymer samples.

Look at the pile that Fabi (ConTusManos) has layed out on this Flickr page and her site for students in Madrid.

Our eyes immediately search for clues about how she’s managed her texture and resin tricks. The extruded bails on her pendants kick your brain into gear and you’re hooked.

Fall is back to school time. I don’t know about you but I’m primed to learn something new this week.

Back to school polymer

Galina Grebennikova takes us back to school with the rest of the kids with a straightforward free tutorial for these beads on her Flickr page. A button, some water and a circle cutter are the only tools required.

Galina is Russian and living in Ireland. Her photographs are pristine and clear making it a smooth and pleasureable trip through her experiments, tricks and techniques.

Rugged polymer

Rugged beauty has a double meaning in Marlene Brady’s case. This heavily textured polymer necklace owes its roughness to an indoor/outdoor rug that Marlene purchased and used for a mold before she put it on the floor. She paired the rough bead with other deeply stamped pieces and added layers of paint.

Marlene’s going through that stage when everything you see is a polymer tool. You’ve been there, right? Check out her series of stamps from the bottoms of plastic bottles.

The clincher is the bag of metal pieces she thrifted thinking that she could surely cover them or use them as polymer tools. But there was another message in the bag.

Making polymer relics

Christine Damm reveals a bit about her Solstice Necklace in current and upcoming posts on her blog.

Her concepts have coalesed into a teachable format that she’ll debut at ArtBLISS in Washington, D.C. in late September. Her class is called Whimsical Blooms.

Christine makes molds of her favorite found items but that’s just the start. “The part of me that enters into the mix then is in how I color these copies and antique them and arrange them into wearable art. They are transformed by what I add to their history and their story becomes part of my story,” she says.

Today’s important tip, “You don’t have to use the whole image. You can use a mold you’ve made of an antique button but use a piece of polymer clay that’s larger than the impression so you have a “relic”– an irregular shape that looks like it has disintegrated somewhat in the aging process. You can flatten edges or texture them with a tool or a texture sheet. I like to thin the edges out to create the illusion of disintegration even more.” See this necklace and her experiments up close on her Flickr site. Thanks to Margit Böhmer for the link!

Tutorials unravel the mysteries

Rebecca Watkins unravels the mystery of her textured beads with a quick (and free) visual tutorial. Her methods and tools may surprise you. She shows more examples on her Etsy site.

You may also enjoy the step-by-step look that Tory Hughes offers on her most recent “Tahitian Flora” project. It’s educational to watch as she sketches her project before she begins.

Look closely and you’ll see that she forms the pieces into shallow cups in order to mimic the blossoms. She presses the flat pieces against her knuckle and bakes them on a paper cone to achieve a gentle shape. Tory promises another look at stringing as this project progresses.

Polymer doodling system

The symmetry of Barb Fajardo’s domed and textured beads brings calm and order to the day. The fourteen bead sets shown here measure an inch in diameter and represent two days’ work.

Her texture doodling system, flora beads and textured tessellations (not to mention several national awards) qualify Barb as one of the queens of texture on polymer. Her doodled textures are inspired by her southwest surroundings as well as ancient Henna and Mendhi tattoo art. They come alive with the addition of color.

The volume of work on Barb’s Flickr, Facebook and web sites illustrates how practice makes perfect.

Happy clash – trendsetting with polymer

Yesterday Laurie Prophater blogged about the Happy Clash trend (combining multiple patterns) that the Wall Street Journal says is occurring in fashion.

Laurie works in the decorating biz and she shares her insider’s view of fashion and design as it relates to polymer. Her links are a rich source of information.

As I continued my daily research, the next site that popped up contained this bright polymer mix from Madrid’s Silvia Ortiz de la Torre. The necklace screams, “Happy Clash!” Isn’t it fun to see polymer artists setting trends?

Look closely at Silvia’s beads and you’ll see that some have a very rough finish that’s also a popular technique. Roughing the surface changes the polymer’s plastic feel to something more pleasing to the touch, gives the beads a softer appearance, and adds another element to the riot!

Color burst polymer

The back and the front of Lynda Gilcher’s “Color Burst” necklace are equally intriguing. Examining polymer work in person allows you to enjoy the construction and the details. Take a look at the back.

The disks are cane slices textured in a specially created mold. They’re mounted on shanks that allow them to be strung on a cable. Lynda’s idea is efficient and the effect is both delicate and eye-catching. Kudos for cleverness.

Lynda offers the supplies in her store and shows more of her work on her group site. (Another late night….I can’t keep this up!)

Texture your trash

Dayle Doroshow’s oversized paper beads (these are each about 1 1/2″ wide) echo exotic, tribal themes.

Dayle admits they’re made from the tail ends of her polymer projects, simple tall triangles rolled onto a fat skewer and then flattened with stamps and textures. Paints and powders and whatever is handy add the final effect.

Since Dayle and I are playing together this week, we’ve decided to giveaway one of our Creative Sparks books signed by both of us. Dayle shares how she developed habits and tricks that tease her back into the studio when she’s stumped or stewing.

Leave us a comment and we’ll dash an autographed book off to the winner on Friday.