France’s Laurence Pelee (Deco_laure) makes delightfully complicated hearts with a Mexican twist. They’re beaded and layered with wings and flowers and trinkets on shapes that swerve slightly.
Laure uses all her tricks on these small brooches – canes, mokume gane, stencils, paints, beads. It’s all there in lively and energetic colors.
UK’s Helen Cruickshank shows her love of cats in this project for a Valentine’s Day fundraiser (Colchester Caring for Our Cats Fundraising). She created one design of a cat in a heart shape and repeated it using a variety of veneers and canes.
Her way of repeating designs is perfect for those of us who quickly tire of making the same thing again and again. February 1 is Groundhog Day you know (the movie popped into my head).
Ever the clever girl, Helen has just published her second book, Polymer Clay for All Seasons, which contains a menagerie of 13 delightfully varied projects.
When Katie Way (BullsEyeStudioArt) moved from Alaska to Oklahoma to Texas she had to rethink lots of things. Downsizing, city life, climate change.
It was a natural time to shift her artwork too. This year’s valentines have a distinctly fresh look. Some city vibes, updated shapes, grunge, new colors, links.
These big changes are coming from her tiny home studio. She shares photos that will appeal to the gypsy artist that lives in a little corner of our hearts.
Hey, wanna see how other polymer artists live and work? We’ll poke our noses into messy back rooms and sleek studios in Saturday’s StudioMojo. Wanna peek?
Make three small curvy blends (white to orangy pink, orangy pink to darker pink, pink to nearly purple) then wrap them in thin black and pinch them so they bend around each other. There’s something special about these conjoined hearts from Lindsey of VividClay.
If you’ve seen Lindsey’s paradox cane tutorial on YouTube you know that she has a knack for manipulating blends in eye-catching ways. These hearts entwine in similar mesmerizing ways.
48,283 – That’s the number of hearts that Ron Lehocky has created for his Kids Project since 2005. Year by year he moved the goalposts and predicts he’ll crack 50,000 in 2021. Each heart raises $10.
When Ron put out the word, scraps from artists far and wide started arriving. He transforms scrap into heart brooches. This scrap is from Canada’s Susan Andrews. Ron rolled, twisted, and textured her cane end into all these variations.
“I certainly have enough “remnants” from generous and supportive fellow polymer artists to help me reach the goal,” Ron says. Happy Valentines Day to our King of Hearts.
“And the 500?” you ask? This Saturday’s StudioMojo is my 500th edition of the weekend insider’s newsletter. Hard to believe where one step after another will get you! I’m turning 500! Come celebrate with your StudioMojo friends.
North Carolina’s Kathryn Reid (PendulumStudios) tiptoes up to Valentine’s Day with these carefree heart pendants.
She gleefully sprinkles mini-beads on the surfaces of her modern collaged cutout hearts. The designs are random and carefree. Perfect love tokens.
The last time Kathryn was on PCD was 2009! Welcome back! Here she is on Facebook and Flickr.
Georgia’s Anita Kennerly creates tattered heart earrings for the season. The frayed dark polymer edges frame her earthy cutouts and make a bold outline. The cutouts hang from a baked-in wire loop.
Anita’s hearts have a childlike charm that overrides the tatters and makes us see love and beauty.
Kansas’ Carol Beal (beadunsupervised) was an illustrator and greeting card designer for Hallmark for many years.
If I’m reading right, Carol painted acrylic on polymer for these beauties. They’re loose and fluid. I can’t quite picture how she combined her illustrating skills with polymer to achieve this effect but I love it.
Carol’s hearts are a refreshing and romantic departure from canes, blends, and kaleidoscopes. There are many ways to speak of love.
Slovenia’s Marijana Grubic heads us back to Valentine’s Day with these shapes silkscreened with love and topped with teensy hearts. Here she is on Facebook.
By combining two veneers bisected by a band of silver on domed shapes, Marijana makes an unusual pendant and earrings beyond the usual hearts and flowers.
It was all about love and caring as we began our fundraiser for Lindly yesterday. Didn’t you feel proud of your art community as they turned out to help Lindly without hesitation?
Keep spreading the love. Thank you for your generosity!
A splash of red from Ohio’s Pat Bolgar (AccessoryArt) rounds out the week.
Pat perches a tight bunch of delicate pods on silver circles. Their balance and fine details make them a perfect lead in to Valentine’s Day.
Let the reds and the hearts begin! Here’s Pat’s work on Instagram.
How did we get to Friday already? We’ll parse the developments that rocked the polymer world over at StudioMojo tomorrow morning. Join us!
