Houston’s Sally Kirk (BlossomandClay) pours her heart into jewelry for herself that honors her late father.
Her father’s EKG from 1989 provides the graphic for transfer to the earrings and pendant she wore to receive her master’s degree in August…a year to the day after her father’s death.
She memorialized the day with jewelry that she’ll always treasure and wear knowing that he’s proud of her.
Italy’s Monica Rotta features family members in this mixed media framed keepsake.
Black and white photos are transferred to pastel-colored polymer and then carefully textured and embellished. She backs each with a contrasting layer and mounts them on a painted page.
The Rumi quote that illustrates the piece reads, “Love is from infinity and will remain until eternity.” There’s a powerful story here.
The loving and thoughtful touches that Monica has added assure that this assemblage will become an heirloom.
We’ll be talking on StudioMojo about the power of doing what you love as Monica has clearly done. How do we go about finding and following that thread of deep interest? We’ll talk about a couple of upcoming events that center on just that. Join us!
Alisa Levy’s jaunty necklace caught my eye at Synergy. The jumble of circles and stripes looked a little Hundertwasser-ish as it sparkled brightly at the opening Synergy4 reception. I snapped a picture.
I’ve learned that the patterns are from a design transferred onto glitter clay. Alisa then colored it cleverly and the effect was perfect fun for the party.
The simplest shapes and techniques dazzle the eye and help make a party festive. I’ll tantalize you with a few more goodies from Synergy as the week progresses. I have to corner Alisa to learn more about her other business called Embrace Your Space.
Heather Millican (Swoondimples) beams and shows her dimples as she explains her methods in a free tell-all video tutorial on YouTube.
Heather reveals where she found the perfect brushes (makeup ones from Target), the best glue and wax, her choice for transfer paper and stamps. She leaves nothing out.
The polymer charms and pendants sell briskly on Heather’s Etsy shop not only because of the techniques that she’s developed but also because she brings gentle words and an openess to her pieces which make what she creates all the more irresistable.
You can see more of her on Facebook and Pinterest. You may end up like me saying, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Debbie Jackson rolled out her new polymer Shibori Workshop in our hometown Columbus, Ohio this month. We in the midwest are used to being a test market and two different weekend groups put Debbie through her paces.
Always a textile artist, she’s been experimenting and developing her ink-to-polymer ideas for years. You can see from the class pictures on Facebook that her students “got it” and a new way of working is about to begin.
Don’t these polymer samples from the class look like flowing summer caftans and seaside afternoons? Keep your eye on this technique. Debbie is easiest to follow on Facebook..
Syndee Holt took a favorite family snapshot, converted it to a sketch, printed it and transferred the image to polymer. (There are lots of sketch apps that can help those who don’t draw.) She added color with oil based pencils.
Cotton balls added behind the clay under the cheeks and the palm of the hand gave her son’s portrait soft dimension. “I wish you could see it in person, you can literally pinch those cheeks,” Syndee says. The sculpted photo was then layered onto a backing of torn-edged clay and displayed on a stand.
Is your phone full holiday photos begging to be turned into fine art?
We can all thank Donna Greenberg for masterminding the Artchain that has grown like wildfire on Facebook (#PolymerArtChallenge). Each artist posts five works and nominates five others to do the same. The exercise has started our 2015 with a big bump in the number of formerly unseen polymer works from around the globe. Like this one!
See more of Syndee on the Sculpey site, her blog, and Pinterest.
This must be the week for innovations. I’d heard rumblings about a new transfer process that Bali’s Jon Anderson is working on. He’s keeping the process under wraps for now but you can see what he’s up to (and purchase works) on his lovely new site.
He transfers the image from his polymer canes to fabric using a secret elixir. He’s getting consistent results while he works out colorfastness and other issues. You can put your name in for your own JSA boots and be a trendsetter.
The site is chock full of goodies including an interview that explains his history in polymer art. Keep up with Jon’s progress on his site and his Facebook page. Jon was voted the members’ favorite in this year’s IPCA Awards.
Maryland’s Kelly Russell crackles, paints, transfers, stamps and leafs and she does it so well that it’s hard to say what the material is. But what you can say it that it’s beautiful and you can bet there’s polymer involved.
It looks like Kelly has abandoned her website and only puts photos on Facebook. She has a huge Pinterest site but none of her own art is there. She makes us work to find her.
You can click on these photos to get larger versions but you’ll have to go to Facebook to see other shots that show their intricacy and dimension. The pendant below has surprising dimension (the polymer cameo is quarter-sized) and a glass bezel.
The colors and the crackle make the pieces look ancient. Kelly has spent the last few years refining her PMC skills and we welcome her back to the polymer neighborhood.
Continuing our doodle theme, Germany’s Margit Bohmer doodles on paper and then transfers the drawing to raw polymer.
The fun continues as she uses inks or paints or colored pencils to color in the design. The results are formed into bangles or sliced into earrings, brooches and such. (Note that the transfer would actually be mirror-imaged but the animation looked more believable this way.)
Get the whole scoop on Margit’s Flickr page or friend her on Facebook. On a hot day, this might be a painterly way to play with sticky clay.
These Frida Kahlo and Zora Neale Hurston polymer portrait pendants come from Massachusetts artist Laura Curran. For years we’ve only been able to feature bits of Laura’s work because she had little exposure on the web. That’s changed and here’s Laura’s new website. High fives all around!
These photo transfers of historic women to polymer send a strong message. Read about the history of portrait jewelry on Laura’s research page.
Thanks to the participants in my Craftcast class! Send me pix of your creations. Next up, a doll head sculpting workshop with Marlaine Verheist on Sunday. Take your sculpting to a more professional level with this award-winning artist.
