2013 top ten

These photos from 2013’s most popular posts prove that PCD readers can’t resist a clever polymer trick. Each of the top 10 posts offered a shortcut or a tutorial that revealed ways to make polymer do more than you thought possible. Knit it, batik it, glaze it to make it look like ceramic or fabric or metal and more.

Whether they developed their methods by happy accident or through careful research, what polymer artists share on PCD represents years of dedication and a willingness to share. Thanks to these top 10 and to all of you who have generously contributed your works to the blog. Have fun reviewing these favorites:

Rubiks scrap

I bet you have a pile of holiday scrap mounting up in your studio waiting to be turned into something wonderful. France’s Pinklily (Sandrine Arevalo Zamora) has just the new trick you need and her pictures are so complete that you won’t need any translation. She calls it the Rubik’s Cube Effect.

No fancy tools or solutions required. Assemble your most colorful scrap, some screening, netting, or needlework canvas (she uses “gardening mesh”), black clay and you’re set.

Maggie Maggio first pointed this out to me and I take that as a stamp of approval. Enjoy! Here’s Pinklily on Facebook.

Playful polymer

Here are three artists who can help reacquaint you with your inner polymer child. Look at the playful way Austria’s Eva Marion Schulz experiments and dabbles with clay.

If you scroll through her Facebook photos you’ll see that she paints with polymer, sculpts with it and even gives it wings and feathers.

In the vase at the left she takes leftover canes, flattens them, backs them with scrap and cuts out ovals. Starting at the bottom of a glass vase, she adheres the ovals using her hand inside for support.

Want to play more? Two free tutorials popped up that are so simple and quick that you won’t be able to resist them.

Watch Iris Mishly’s video about how to make a holiday whirligig from a stack of narrow strips of polymer. Hang it and watch it spin gracefully.

Heather Powers shows you how to make merry little owls with just a pinch and some paint. You’ll feel like a kid again.

Raising a ruckus

Raising the Roof has raised a ruckus thanks to you. Your generosity is amazing. Remember that a donation here makes a great gift that you can print (here’s the donation card) and slip into an envelope to present with a slight bow and a quiet, “Namaste.” (The light in me honors the light in you.)

Polymer Deco

These art deco polymer earrings from Germany’s Bettina Welker make me want to run and build graduated canes. These beauties are samples from a class that Bettina teaches on CraftArtEdu (which happens to be available on a 25% off sale until Thursday night).

Bettina’s website, Etsy shop, FB page, Flickr and Ipernity sites are classes in themselves and lately she’s been percolating with loads of new ideas.

Country connections

I have to walk down the lane to the small adobe wifi hut this month while I’m vacationing out west. I have to carefully schedule (and limit) my online time. Which is my way of saying, don’t be surprised if my email responses are slow or posts show up late.

I find that my head is full of polymer ideas and my hands are itching (in a good way) to get to work. But I haven’t forgotten my faithful readers.

Manicured pendant and free tutorial

We end the week with pumpkin-colored pendant that comes with a Friday freebie tutorial.

Galina Grebennikova shows how she achieved this neatly textured pendant with no molds, no stamps. The tool she uses looks like something you’d find in a manicure set or a toolbox.

The trick is repeat, repeat, repeat and then highlight with dark colors. Here’s the photo tutorial.

Galina’s from Moscow and lives in Irvine, California. Small world! She offers some texture variations on her blog here. PCD has picked up some of her other tricks in these past posts.

Easy peasy payback

Polymer artists have helped pediatrician/artist Ron Lehocky reach another milestone – 24,000 hearts sold with all the proceeds going to the Kids Center in Louisville, KY

Ron’s celebrating by donating a Friday Freebee. These hearts were all made using his Easy-peasy Extruder Cane Technique which he offers as payback.

When Ron asked for scrap, artists responded with heaps of unloved canes and designs gone wrong. He figured out ways to turn them into fundraising fashion statements.

You might enjoy his video story here and his past features on PCD here. He’s been a powerhouse behind the Nepali project too. He doesn’t have much time for social media, as you might imagine, but you can reach him by email if you want to buy some hearts or send him your scrap. Heartfelt thanks, Ron!

Refrigerator shrine

Amy Christie is a maker and a mom. She offers a quick free tutorial on how to transfer kids art to polymer, add magnets and make what I think of as a refrigerator shrine.

Darling doodles and sweet scribbles deserve to be kept as a reminder of innocence and pure play.

When I said that my grandson’s drawings looked like Willem de Kooning’s work, my daughter-in-law rightly said that the reverse was true. De Kooning worked hard to recapture the grace of children’s brushstrokes, color and composition. We’re all trying to get back to our unaffected, free selves.

Do you have drawings that you’d like to enshrine?

Faux collection

Luxuriate in the colors and patterns on Lynda Moseley's newest group of faux turquoise polymer pieces. She's sampled a variety of colors and experimented with all kinds of cracks and crevices. This sampler pendant combines snippets from lots of test pieces.

"What I had originally planned as a faux turquoise tutorial has morphed into a range of faux finishes using the same technique," she reports. It looks like her Faux Master Collection will be ready for prime time at the end of the month.

Lynda has a reputation for researching and refining her techniques into deceptively simple steps that make you wonder why you didn't think of that. See more of her work on Flickr, on Facebook, and watch her Etsy site for the new info.

Integrating tutorials

Lorraine Vogel's polymer pendants and earrings glow with graceful shapes and layered colors that make me envious. Look closely and you may spot tricks she's learned from tutorials by Lynda Moseley and Ginger Davis Allman but the stamps, the carving and the colors are distinctly her own. She uses tutorials in the way they were meant to be used, quickly integrating them into her signature style.

A graphic artist from South Florida, Lorraine brings a keen eye for balance and harmony to polymer. She has a couple of Etsy shops and you can find her on Facebook. Her Flickr photos will give you a wider look at her eye-pleasing creations.

Need a freebie?

Don't miss Margit Bohmer's step-by-step photos of her doodle transfers for some free weekend fun.

Sister site

Let me send you off to PCDaily’s new sister site, Polymer Clay Global. It’s the companion site for the brand new book, Polymer Clay Global Perspectives, and was created to help you find out more about the artists in the book.

Enjoy a look at the 13 featured artists. Try the free tutorial from Kim Korringa and explore the links to over 100 artists featured throughout the book which arrives in bookstores in July.

We’ll be adding to Polymer Clay Global regularly. The new site will provide enhanced resources beyond what’s offered in print. Pre-ordering online will get the book to you hot off the presses. Don’t forget to meander back to PCDaily!

Fixed the link!

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