Free folded tutorial

Helen Breil’s new free video tutorial is so clear and concise that it leaves you thinking, “Oh sure, I could do that!” It will start your week on positive note.

The first Folded Bead Tutorial shows you the basics. Part 2 shows you how to add a surface effect and Part 3 explores design possibilities. Simple and straightforward yet stunning.

A clean work surface, manicured nails, a calm voice – Helen presents a pleasant interlude and a thoughtful approach to clay even if you hadn’t considered folded beads previously. Here she is on Facebook.

Kazuri West (where Helen’s books and texture stamps are sold) is offering a free giveaway with purchase.

Polymer headpins

Looking for diversion? How about polymer headpins like these rustic, antiqued ones from Missouri’s Ginger Davis Allman?

Ginger even offers a tutorial for her headpins, connectors, charms and other beads if you want her insider tips. She moves between grungy and romantic looks, abusing the beads until they look just right.

Ginger gave a clear explanation and comparison of translucent clays in an earlier PCD post and you’ll want to catch up with her more recent faux glass experiments.

Be warned, she’s having so much fun and writes so well that you may end up spending more time on her pages than you anticipated. Of course you’ll want to check in on her Facebook and Etsy sites too. And best of all, her husband offers a handy photo template for that troublesome new Flickr layout.

Indigo polymer

These test squares from France’s Isabelle Larose/Atelierlilaroz were the results of her playing with Pavla Cepelikova’s batik tutorial. Yummy! The indigo colors had me drooling. These are my favorites from her samples here. It won’t surprise you that Anne is also interested in watercolors.

Can I squeeze experimenting with batik into my play at the conference next week? This is where Pinterest comes in handy. By skimming through my favorite board (Be Still My Heart), I’ll remind myself of the patterns, colors and emotions that ring my chimes. That will keep me on track and help me integrate these batik finishes into the work I love. Don’t worry, you’re coming along and we’ll play together. Lots of photos and tidbits.

Spring crop of tutorials

Spring is the season for growing and there’s a promising crop of polymer tutorials popping up. Here are three that could broaden your options and save you lots of trial and error time.

Finishes are all the rage – ceramic, enamel, raku, crackle, batik. No new equipment is required, just pull out the inks, powders and tools that you probably already have on hand. These surface treatments could give your designs added oomph.

The tutorials’ authors are not the first to try these processes but each teacher has each come up with new twists and clever tricks that may make the information helpful for you. All are delivered electronically and some have videos. While they each offer projects that you can follow, applying these finishes to your own signature work is what will make the information valuable.

Hilla Bushari and Iris Mishly – Israel – Ceramic, stoneware, enamel finishes
Pavla Cepelikova – Czech Republic – Batik looks
Nikolina Otrzan – Croatia – Drawing on polymer, ceramic finishes

Test samples from one student caught my eye and have me itching to play in the studio. Come back tomorrow to see. If you’ve found other interesting tutorials, let me know. The ones that I like to feature on PCD are those that offer new and/or easier ways to work with polymer.

Start with a tute

Will a little tutorial help jumpstart your week?

Maria Petkova has been refining what she calls her Painted with Mokume Gane technique. The painted look of this Violets on My Window Sill pendant shows the appealing backfilling technique that simulates hand drawing on polymer. She shows an entire gallery of examples on her website.

Here’s her latest free step-by-step tutorial that shows the process quite clearly. Her earlier tutorial was intruiging but harder to follow.

In these In the Jungle earrings Maria takes the technique to a higher level of refinement. She pushed herself to create them as she was completing her How To Become A Better Artist course with Christine Dumont on Voila.

Strata strategy

These interestingly shaped hollow beads from Elena Fadeeva from Belarus were made using the free Strata tutorial by Claire Maunsell in Quebec. The symmetry of the beads is enhanced with subtle patterning and hole detailing.

Elena’s rough geometric stamps are homemade and a wash of paint or patina makes her work look ancient modern. Her pieces are for sale on the Fair Masters site and there’s lots more to oggle on Flickr.

Polymer clean up beads

These scrap beads from Virginia’s Rebekah Payne (TreeWingsStudio) may give you new ideas for what to do with cane ends and leftover blends. Rebekah shows you how she chops and then rolls the leftovers in paint.

The free tutorial is part of a post she wrote on ArtJewelryElements. She gathers the painted bits into any pleasing bead shape. Then she facets the shapes, slicing off the top layer of paint to expose mosaic-like beads. See more examples in her Etsy shop.

Her method offers a more satifying use of wonky, useless pieces that would otherwise end up mixed into unexciting bead cores.

Clean up your studio and have mosaic beads to show for your effort!

Tickling your cane brain

These two recent cane offerings may appeal to your cane brain – the part that enjoys figuring out how a pattern is assembled. Would you have guessed how Meg Newberg constructed a houndstooth cane before you saw her visual tutorial?

Wanda Shum covered a “Who’s da bomb?” form with tumbling block cane slices. She shows the hexagon canes she started with and her color palette on her blog. It takes some staring at the basic triangle and diamond shapes to get the gist of it.

This cane exploration and catching up online kept me entertained during long waits in airports yesterday. It’s good to be back home.

Off-center polymer

Nat Gernigon posted this very fun Cane Scribbles tutorial on her website as a New Year’s gift to polymer artists. Her photos make it easy to follow along even though the text is in French.

The concept is one of those clever, simple ideas that was hiding in plain sight.

As you cruise through her archives and photo pages you’ll see that Nat is accustomed to being different and she likes designs that are off-center. Thank you, Nat, for helping us start 2013 with a new trick.

Striped trend


Diane Keeble	Margit Bohmer	Lynda Moseley

Diane Keeble has been playing with Lynda Moseley’s Controlled Marbling tutorial. So has Margit Bohmer. Then I spotted a few others. Do you smell a Monday trend?

Polymer artists will stampede whenever someone shows them how to make good use of the pile of ugly scrap they’ve accumulated. And Lynda’s write up mentions that her blending method includes using Pardo translucent (another trend, right). Keep your eye on these soothing stripes.

Wood and polymer

Da Muse shows Tatjana Raum’s wood and polymer sculptures in her Saturday post. Don’t miss it.

‹ 1 … 5 6 7 … 9 ›