Vancouver’s Joan Tayler makes butterflies that will bring help when you need it. Her slim black polymer whistles are given wings and used as pendants or zipper pulls.
Blow on the bottom and help will arrive, predators will run away or people will just wonder why you’re making such a fuss.
In any event, they’re fun and great to hang on book bags.
Joan teaches you how to make your own in this tutorial or you can buy a plain whistle and decorate it yourself.
Seanna Bettencourt (thepolymergarden) is churning her scrap into summer fashions.
Seanna credits this free YouTube tutorial from Fiona Abel-Smith for inspiring her to upcycle the last bits of canes. Fiona offers both an extruded version and a hand-rolled version of her method to make it easy for all.
Marie Segal uses the tiniest bits of Cernit to create her pudgy Christmas tree.
Her most recent free small-scale experiments reel us in. Mix a small circle of pearl with a smidge of color and see what happens. No advanced 65-page detailed instructions to plow through.
Trying out her mokume gane mini-tutorial might just convince you to try something new…or not.
Truth is, I’ve never mastered the technique. Maybe I should try again.
Did you know that Marie Segal is credited with first using a pasta machine in 1983 to flatten polymer? She knows a thing or two!
This video from Bonnie Bishoff introduces you to ASMR meditation and Bonnie’s version of polymer marquetry.
Totally chill, no words, watch Bonnie work and you breathe deeply, your brain goes all ahhhh with relaxation and then there’s a sudden buzz of “Oh, I get it.” Inwardly you squeal and clap.
This is Bonnie’s way of luring you into her CraftBoston.org store (click on Bonnie’s name) and her own shop where you can continue the bliss. You will leave feeling refreshed. (Here’s the link if it doesn’t show up in your browser.)
Scotland’s Valerie Anderson (bedeckedbeads) has played and played with Sonya Girodon’s free tutorial. With this latest brooch, Valerie puts her own spin on the process with deep watery colors.
And if you look at the side view you’ll see how her curved strips add another departure. When you put your own “stink” on a technique and take off in new directions, you make it yours. Here’s Valerie’s shop.
I’ve run across such an astonishing array of new work that we will have to ponder what’s happening in this week’s StudioMojo newsletter. It’s as if you’ve been unleashed! Are you feeling it? Come see where polymer is headed.
You don’t need to speak a word of Russian to understand Juliya Laukhina’s pod tutorials that she offers free on her Instagram. Just watch closely.
She makes creating this black and white one look oh so seductively easy and fast.
Juliya has covered wonderfully colored bead bases with cane slices for years. Now she’s moved to larger pod shapes.
It’s generous of her to share their construction with us to start the week right.
Today’s end-of-the-year video treat comes from Ohio’s Carissa Nichols.
There’s nothing quite so soothing as her way of taking bits of scrap and creating a swirled lentil or bicone bead.
In this tiny tutorial from StudioMojo, Carissa helps you get the hang of the body movements required for a creative and meditative trick.
For the last few days of the year, PCD will feature some favorite interviews and tutorials from 2019 editions of StudioMojo, the weekly insiders wrap up.
When I spot an interesting work in progress I often ask, “What are you doing?” If the artist agrees, I take out my phone and lean over for a short and sweet look as in this demo from Florida’s Lynn Yuhr.
Lynn sparks all kinds of ideas for using liquid clay in this 2019 quickie.
Finding a memento for my husband when I travel is sometimes difficult. Joan Tayler’s horse whistles make the perfect addition to Blair’s collection of polymer jewelry.
Joan sells thousands of polymer whistles in her Granville Island Public market booth each year. They’re online here and on Etsy.
We could tell when Joan was producing whistles at our mountain retreat from the test tweets that signal that a whistle is done. If you’ve always wanted to decorate your own polymer whistle, download her tutorial.
Russia’s Anna Oriana quickly creates a bright beautiful bird on Instagram.
Anna’s videos of miniatures are wildly popular and she shows impressive skill in her tiny artworks and her YouTube tutorials. For a quick shot of inspiration and color, try her tutorials.
