New Mexico teacher Gael Keyes says she can’t get away from schools, even on vacation.
Gael has developed her own method of book-matching bits of scraps. Even small remnants of canes make elaborate and unique patterns. They dive under and around a found branch, happy to be back in school.
New Mexico’s Gael Keyes finds wood scraps, adds polymer sculpted hands and faces, and dresses the emerging angels with bits of Southwest patterns that turn salvaged elements into art.
She tucks a test tube into each construction and gives it new life as a wall bud vase.
Gael has encountered fantastical bugs, birds, mushrooms, angels, and more along her polymer path. Each uses scrap in increasingly inventive ways. This one, ” Suficiente”, reminds us that we have enough.
A discarded 11″ x 27″ cabinet door leaning against the garage wall called to Kathy Koontz (Flowertownoriginals). The door begged for a second chance and Kathy was in a mood to grant it.
She painted the door and scooped up all the scrappy polymer bits lying around.
Stems and leaves grew first. Then the scraps organized themselves into jolly layered blooms.
The playful process made Kathy remember how much fun wall art can be.
Weary of earrings? Done with slabs? Nothing better than a scroll through Susan Crocenzi’s mosaics for a breath of fresh air.
Look closely, she combines glass and polymer in ways that make it hard to tell what’s what in the riot of color. And her pieces are big and bold. They will lift your mood if you’re feeling timid and uncertain.
Feeling lazy and unproductive? Good! And when you’re looking at the clouds and swaying the hammock, you’ll be surprised at the ideas that pop up.
Join us over at StudioMojo for a Saturday morning dose of surprise and delight.
Michigan’s Jess Erickson (cryingheartcraftco) and her young daughter show off the scrap flowers they cut out to decorate her bedroom.
I get misty thinking about how my daughter and I discovered polymer together as we made cakes and pizzas for her dollhouse.
There’s no better way to boost a kid’s confidence than to decorate their space with bright happy memories of creative times together.
Minnesota’s Sherstin Schwartz (lifeofapaintbrush) admits that she’s an alien.
She sculpts flowers, pods, mushrooms, and other vegetation in eye-popping colors and mounts them on square tiles.
Sherstin calls herself an alien floral designer and her exaggerated shapes and lush colors help you understand why.
The effect of her polymer gardens gathered on a wall will wake up your Monday.
Rather than wait for real blooms in her Connecticut yard, Nancy Nearing grabbed a 36″ branch lying in the melting snow and created some polymer blooms.
She reinforced the stick with Apoxie sculpt and wired on caned leaves and delicate translucent blue blooms. Lights may be next. She has just the spot above a corner window in her studio for her touch of spring.
PCD is getting ready for spring too and will post only two or three times each week. I’m cutting back and clearing my schedule to make time for more art and adventure. If you need additional inspiration, please sign up for the weekly StudioMojo newsletter that arrives every Saturday full of tips, talks, tools, and other juicy bits.
North Carolina’s Michelle Davis Petelinz helps us continue our observance of Black History Month with this sculpture called Munira, Ancestress of Radiance, part of her Ancestral Series
Michelle works in polymer and mixed media and has explored her African and Native American heritage in sculptures, tiles, wall art, bowls, and other mixed media pieces.
She describes her work as a fusion of art, spirit, and culture.
Spain’s Fabi Perez Ajates gears up for next year’s classes with a trio of layered polymer rounds (16″. 10.5″ and 7.5″) that work together.
The three circles brighten the corner of the room with their swirling color palette and engaging textures. Your eye is pulled into the variety of patterns circling around small hearts at each center.
Gift yourself a grouping that will brighten a corner in your home.
This is the final 8″x8″ wood panel in a series of four from Italy’s Alessia Bodini.
The mixed-media grouping is called “The Genesis of Euphoria and Discouragement: Circular Work in Four Squares “.
In the final square, the extruded strips come undone, unraveled…but in a joyous, freed way. The surfaces of the extruded strips are shaved to reveal more depth of color.
It’s kinda like our lives right now….coming unraveled in what we hope are interesting ways. If you search Alessia on PCD you can track some of the unusual, quirky ways she plays with clay. Here she is on Instagram.
