Reveal the World
June 30, 2013
Ponderings
And just how do we do that?
By making the world people know appear new, maybe even unfamiliar, or by allowing people to discover and perceive things they didn’t know existed. The business of art is to open the world a little wider and, with any luck, have others see themselves and just where and what they are in this vast world of ours.
This doesn’t have to be monumental. Sometimes this goal is just making someone smile on a bad day or feel beautiful when they are feeling dull. But it can also be so revealing as to change their lives. We aren’t so in control of that outcome, but we are in control of how we present the world to others, and that is what makes it art. If it is the right time and place, the art will make them see what they didn’t see before.
Visual Reveal
June 29, 2013
Inspirational Art, Tips and Tricks
Most things that are hidden are behind, under, or otherwise obscured by other matter. In polymer craft, what is hidden is usually under more polymer; but what if it’s not buried, but just hard to see, blending in with its surroundings?
This may seem a little off theme, but sometimes what we have done with our clay is barely noticable because its subtlety is hard to see. If you texturize the surface of your clay and the pattern is not standing out the way you would like, there are ways to “reveal” the pattern that can add color and contrast along with additional interest and complexity. (Yes, I know I’m stretching the “reveal” theme, but this is fun stuff so I’m sure you’ll forgive me!)
The most common way to make your pattern stand out is to brush paint into the recesses and wipe away the excess paint from the raised surface. But there are so many variations on that basic brush and wipe technique. Different colors, different types of paint, powders instead of paint, colored liquid polymer … basically, if it can be applied to the surface and then wiped off, it can be used to highlight the pattern on the surface of the clay.
In a limited demonstration of what is commonly known as “antiquing”, Jan Geisen played with different paints, colors and other products on these sample tiles a few years back to demonstrate how a little variation can result in markedly different outcomes.
Even though this is often called antiquing, I wouldn’t call it that. Such a term limits its potential. What if you wanted to add a bright red or a metallic blue to your impressed design? That wouldn’t look so antique, but it could look very impressive. Do whatever you like to reveal your design and bring its beauty to the forefront.
Outside Inspiration: Photographing Hidden Nature
June 28, 2013
Inspirational Art
For most of us, there are patterns, colors, and textures enough throughout nature to keep us inspired for several lifetimes. But, within the forms we see in the natural world is a whole other realm of possible inspiration hidden within it.
Take flowers, for instance. They are beautiful and obviously quite inspirational as we find them presented out in nature. But there is more hidden within a flower. This image by microphotographer Ray Nelson is actually the base, or ovary, of a flower. Yes, its been enhanced using stain and special lighting, but the pattern and texture is all Mother Nature.
Mother Nature’s work can be stunning even when unenhanced. Here is the cross section of a bell flower ovary with beautiful soft colors and kaleidoscope patterning.
Isn’t it just fantastic that we can step outside our door and find hidden beauty in so many things? When you’re feeling uninspired, a walk outside is highly recommended for clearing the mind and recharging your batteries. And while you’re out there, you can look at cross sections of various plants, rocks or other natural work for new colors, patterns, and textures to help you fire up your creativity.
Exposure: Deep Underneath
June 27, 2013
Inspirational Art
So why is it that we are fascinated by things revealed, seeing things we know or suspect were once hidden?
This nearly universal allure has to do with discovery. Like digging up a buried treasure, seeing a colorful new bird in the backyard or pulling out old photos from a box you found in the attic, discovering things we didn’t know existed gives us a thrill and feeds our inherent curiosity about what we don’t know or see.
When working in polymer, the excitement of finding something that was hidden is commonly the experience of the artist and not usually the viewer of the art. But I think the viewer will often unconsciously register that special quality, that extra depth the material had to have in order for the artist to come up with such intriguing designs or imagery.
That is why it may not matter at all if the design presented actually comes from revealing the depths of the material or not. Having the sense that something may once have been buried should still give us that little thrill, even if it wasn’t. I’m pretty sure Cate van Alphen embedded the colorful swirls that show in the concave spaces on the surface of this pendant; but it might appear at first glance (or to someone unfamiliar with the material) that carving out the indentations revealed the swirls within the lentil bead.
So, even when you aren’t creating visual texture or imagery by slicing across or into your polymer, you can make a piece appear to have an exposed interior which can flip that switch in a potential buyer, intriguing them with the thought that you revealed the secret core of the clay, the hidden treasure and things otherwise unseen.
Revealing in the Round
June 26, 2013
Inspirational Art
Much of our layering and exposing of those layers in polymer happens on a flat surface which can then be applied to any number of forms. But take that usual work surface and put it in the round, and a you can get quite beautiful results that way too.
For you scrap clay technique connoisseurs, we have another one here for you! These beads were made by Belinda (Birnco on Flickr). There were created from extruded canes (which are a great way to use up scrap), coiled around a base core of raw clay with bits sliced off the coiled surface using a wavy blade.
I know these beads are a little dark but I do like the variety shown using this exposed coil approach. Belinda has a number of examples of these on her Flickr page, so you can jump over there and see the brighter varieties and other variations on this.
You can of course use tube, ovals, lentils or any other shape and then go at it with a straight or wavy blade to see what might be revealed. The thing is, the small round form allows for revealing layers in bits and pieces without the reshaping of the layers the way you do in mokume to get variation on what is exposed. I just thought some of you out there might like to explore a little revealing in the round. It has intriguing possibilities.
Beyond the Mokume Gane Reveal
June 25, 2013
Inspirational Art
When I think about how polymer revealing works, the mokume gane approach is what first comes to mind. I remember layering clay and metal leaf for the first time, punching and squishing and hoping whatever was going on in the middle of my beat up block of clay would result in something useful. Then there was that first slice. That disappointing one when you realize it might take a few slice to see what is really going on. Then I hit it … that first really gorgeous slice with rings and waves of translucent clay revealing the dull shine of buried silver foil. It was like finding a hidden treasure. Oh, who are we kidding … it was a hidden treasure! It was like doing magic or mining or gold panning. It was so cool to see those patterns emerge out of this ugly mushed-up block of clay. I was hooked.
Since then I’ve experimented with the layer and slice approach to working with polymer in dozen of ways. It never gets old. The reveal is always so very exciting because the process is partly done blind, so you can’t be certain just what will pop up when you start slicing–which is why this piece on the right here was so eye-catching. The organically occurring composition of a mokume gane slice is layered over a very controlled stripe pattern in such a way as to suggest the mokume layer is revealing the striped layer … chaos giving way to order, chance revealing the control beneath. What a great metaphoric composition.
If you didn’t immediately recognize the artist, these pendants are the work of Julie Picarello, who is rather a master of mokume and other ‘revealing’ polymer techniques. Her book, Patterns in Polymer, includes quite a few of her approaches to revealing the depth that polymer clay can go. She also has a very rich gallery of work on Flickr you may want to meander through for further revelations.
Revealing Polymer
June 24, 2013
Inspirational Art
Polymer is a very different craft material for a number of reasons. Of course, the biggest advantage to polymer is undoubtedly its versatility. I mean, it has versatility within its versatile possibilities. What other material allows you to create forms embedded with interior imagery? Of course you will assume that I am talking about caning, which I am — sort of. Caning is just one way of working with polymer that can’t be done as easily or with such versatility with other craft materials. It’s our ability to layer and build with polymer from the inside of a form out, to reshape and manipulate it not just on the surface but within the interior of the forms we work with that gives us so many possibilities.
This layering and building allows for hidden imagery and visual texture that we can fully control. How cool is that? I though this week, we’d look at the various ways polymer can be used to bury and then reveal our visions planted within them.
This bracelet by Silvia Ortiz de la Torre is what got me thinking about this particular aspect of polymer.
This piece is caning of a sort … at least in the initial build with the polymer. But instead of caning used to create a surface design, the cane is formed into cones with an outside layer developed to be a primary element and the cane cross-section showing as a revealed interior. This use of a cane celebrates its three-dimensionality. It’s not that we don’t realize that the images we make from canes come from a roll that the image follows all the way through its length; but the end product of a cane is usually as a two-dimensional surface design. The depth of the imagery is not a consideration when used this way.
Seeing the design in a cross section makes one consider how deep the design must go. It made me think just how much actual depth polymer often has and how really cool it is that we can use this to create visual textures and patterns, both planned and unexpected, for the work we make. So this week, we’ll just have fun checking out the different ways our fellow clayers reveal this particularly versatile aspect of polymer art.
Movement takes Action … & the Giveaway winner
June 23, 2013
Ponderings, The Polymer Arts magazine news
In other words, do it rather than just think or talk about it, whatever it is. Perhaps you’ve been thinking of trying a new technique or form, sprucing up your Etsy site, starting a website or blog,or going to a workshop to hone your skills and boost your enthusiasm. Whatever it is, if you keep telling yourself you’re going to do it and haven’t, its time to stop and just do it. Do it now! Get on it, or schedule it out or buy what you need to get started. It will feel so good to take action.
Action was taken this past Monday when I asked for your help to spread the word about the magazine. I really appreciate all your enthusiasm and all of you for taking the time to post about the latest issue. Now to choose the winner of the giveaway:
So, to choose a winner for this giveaway, I use dice. Comments and emails are assigned a number from 11 on up according to when they came in and I roll two dice to get two digits for the winning number. This time … snake eyes! (An 11!) That means our very first comment and enthusiastic emissary of the digital flipbook, Sherrie Jo of Beary Tiny Treasures wins four print copies of her choice of The Polymer Arts. Congrats!
We’ll do more giveaways soon. They are certainly fun and I love getting your comments. Just keep reading and keep claying!
Movement in Form
June 22, 2013
Inspirational Art
Although I didn’t emphasize this, yesterday’s glass artist was big on form as a means of expression, and the sense of movement she conveys is rather dependent on the forms she chooses. I find this to be true with polymer artist Jana Roberts Benzon as well. She creates a sense of flowing, staccato, or ebbing visual movement by building forms that change through the space they occupy in undulating or precise steps
Jana is well known for her laser cut technique, which can create an enthralling texture as well as a visually active form. Her pendant, Zorro, shows how the laser cut texture is used to create change across the surface of the piece, giving it a lot of energy. The technique also allows her to create a very active form, building the zig-zag through the shifting of slices already needed to create the texture.
It doesn’t hurt that there is also a progressive change in the dominance of colors from the top to the bottom. Any kind of gradual change will relay movement because that is what movement is perceived as: a series of related changes.
Enjoy more of Jana’s moving work on both her website and her Flickr pages.
Sculpture works with all kinds of subtle and not so subtle textures, often both visual and tactile. Fantasy sculpture in particular offers some wonderfully inventive textures that can be pulled or used for inspiration for all kinds of other polymer work, not just sculpture.
There is no authority to say what skin, scales, wings, or anything else on a fantasy figure should look like, so the suppositions of the artist creating them can result in all kinds of fantastical colors, textures, and patterning you might not have seen before or might not expect. I love the effect Celia Harris created on the tail of her young fairy mermaid here, and the wings are quite lovely as well. But such effects don’t need to be relegated to wings and the slick skin of aquatic creatures.
Can you imagine some light earrings with the sheen and maybe even the punched out holes and ragged edges of the wings? The visual texture of the tail would be charming on a pod shaped pendant, or as a contrasting layer of texture on a vase covered in pearl clay.
For tactile texture, I don’t know if there is anyone that works in fantasy sculpture that can quite compare to Virginie Ropars. I really enjoy how well the texture shows without heavy competition with color. The honeycomb of perforations and the flow of sculpted lines on the chest and in the hairline are lovely and translatable to almost any other form, if you find yourself drawn to that kind of texture.
Bottom line: look at the components of sculpture — or any artwork — for inspiration, rather than the whole of a piece, and let your creativity translate it into whatever forms you prefer to work in.
Read MoreFigurative sculpture, of course, doesn’t need to be literal. In fact, with polymer, you have this wide open invitation to play with shape, color, texture, etc., and just go wild because… why not?
Gera Scott Chandler has become one of my favorite artists in recent years because of her very unique style, sense of playfulness, and rather emotive work. These muses below appear so optimistic and benevolent due to the facial expression and stance, with a joy and liveliness radiating from the mix of color and texture. It’s quite the metaphor for moments of great inspiration.
This kind of work is a brilliant (pun intended!) example of how techniques and approaches in polymer can cross over from jewelry or decor to sculpture. There is a freedom in this kind of sculpture that, if you haven’t already, you should try. You can even use your favorite jewelry or decor techniques. You don’t have the engineering of how a piece of jewelry will hang or the restrictions of the functionality or form of a piece of home decor. And if you usually do more realistic sculpture, taking a stab at this looser approach will allow you to let go of the reality of forms so you can just play. Its just pure art and pure expression, which you may find to be a wonderful way to get your creativity to get up and stretch a bit.
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(Because a couple people were concerned about the appropriateness of nudity in a piece I presented in a post last year, I am giving fair warning that the sculpture here is topless, although without any easily discernible details. I cannot eliminate artwork that includes tasteful nudity from the examples here if this blog is to fairly represent the breadth of our art form, but I do understand some people aren’t comfortable with it, so I will give a heads up when present.)
We have spent a lot of time on jewelry the last couple weeks so I thought we’d switch it up and focus on another popular polymer form: sculpture. A lot of you will think, oh, this isn’t going to apply to what I do. But if there is any form of polymer art that can be said to apply to the broadest spectrum of polymer clayers, it would be sculptural work.
We work with a sculptural material. Our initial manipulation of polymer will be sculptural, if only at the most base level of creating and cutting, punching or otherwise changing a smooth thin sheet of clay. It is still three-dimensional manipulation of a material and therefore sculptural. The tools used in figurative sculpture, consideration for how to handle the clay, textures, development of forms and mixing of color are applicable to nearly all other type of polymer artwork.
The first idea I wanted to chat about is the figurative element in sculpture — the beauty and inspiration you can take from the human form. The components of the human body come in such a variety of shapes, textures, colors, and structures; and because we are working in a material particularly suited to recreating whatever the imagination can think up, we aren’t really restricted to even the wide myriad of choices we have in reality.
Forest Rogers‘ voice in sculpture, especially as it is in our medium, is so vibrant, dynamic and unique, and her work plays almost exclusively off the human form. The breezy, almost organic transformation of this figure’s legs in this piece, Sea Maid’s Music, echos the movement of flying, merging the human figure with the feel of wind (a visual metaphor for the music alluded to in the title, I would presume).
Even if you don’t create sculpture, the gradation of colors, the textures in the wings and the sea creature’s scales, and the patterning on the base are inspirational and translatable into any type of polymer work. And if you sculpt but tend to be more literal, does this not give you ideas about pushing representational work a bit beyond reality, or adding more motifs and movement to your work?
Although I don’t create a lot of sculpture, I do return regularly to Forest’s pages for inspiration as well as a good heavy dose of amazement and beauty. She has a new page up, with some of her most recent work ready to click through on the right hand side. Enjoy a little time with her work and the constant question that will undoubtedly arise: “Where did the idea for that come from?”
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The same could be said of the beauty of art work. You make someone stop, smile, ponder, appreciate … and what are all the functional, purposeful items in the world, compared to a moment of being stunned by the beauty or message of a true piece of art? It is an experience versus an object. An object can be lost or set aside, but an experience you will have all your life to build on and cherish.
Read MoreSo, yes, the other day I encouraged the idea of simplifying your color scheme and focusing on the shape of your floral work. Not because simple is better, but because it is an option you might want to consider to express the ideas or beauty you want to convey. Sometimes, you want anything but simple.
There are certainly times when complex and glitzy is exactly what is called for. Peelirohini makes some very showy pieces using polymer embroidery, filigree pieces, and beads with lots of rich colors and contrast.
This is really quite the opposite approach from the beautiful work we saw on Thursday, but it’s equally gorgeous. I would say, for me, the subdued earrings with minimal color are more my style, but there are a few people I would love to see wearing these colorful earrings here. Whether to make a piece subdued or a bit over-the-top comes down to what you want to say, the impression you want to make, or maybe even the person, outfit, or room you would like to pair it with.
Sometimes, what you make just comes down to who you are. As artists, we are always putting a little of ourselves out there, so work that represents us tends to be fulfilling. There is no right or wrong way to approach the work. except maybe closing yourself off from considering a direction you don’t usually take. It’s like pushing yourself to go take dancing lessons when you don’t think you can dance. You won’t know if it’s something you enjoy until you try it. So I say, try a little bit of everything. Go subtle. Go wild. Art is an adventure.
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This week’s outside inspiration is not really about the “art work,” as what I’m bringing up is mass produced, but it has so much potential for the polymer artist looking to stretch beyond their jewelry or standard decor.
The thing is, these wall decal decorations are kind of a neat idea. but are truly not all that exciting. Its not just the two-dimensionality of them; the color choices and graphics are not at all what they could be, either. However, just think of how gorgeous a wall of polymer flowers would look?
Between the three-dimensional interest it would add, better and bolder color combinations, and the potential surface effects you can add … wow … what a wall that would be! Granted, these won’t be removable/repositionable stickers, but Fun-Tak (mounting putty) or small tacks (or embedded tacks?) should be enough to hold polymer flowers up and allow for rearranging with little or not damage to the wall. Anyone else besides me having ideas running rampant in their head?
Read MoreWhen we think floral, we tend to think of colorful arrangements. But a large part of the beauty of flowers and all types of nature’s decorative plants is the form they take–the slim stems, the folding leaves, the delicate thinness of a flower petal. Even colorless, they would be beautiful.
These lotus flower interpretations by Zuzana Liptáková of the Slovak Republic have such an elegant complexity to them, with a focus almost wholly on form. I think holding back on the colors is exactly what was needed here to show off the carefully crafted, folded, and layered petals.
When it comes to flowers, going a little wild with the color is a natural inclination, and rightly so; but sometimes, pulling back will allow us to further appreciate the beauty in the other characteristics of Mother Nature’s masterpieces.
Read MoreComponents of springtime art work often include the pretty petal. There are, of course, many variations in petals, which might make one conclude that many a cane must be made to build a decent collection of possibilities. But this is not necessarily so. This display of both traditional and not so traditional petal forms and patterning is a sample set by Lynne Ann Schwarzenberg. This image was put together for a class in which Lynne put students through what she called “petal mania”.
Her photo note on Facebook says the canes are “reduced, shaped, torqued, and recombined to make a seemingly endless array of elements that can be used to make all sorts of wearable art. Hearts and spirals, complex petals, wisteria and lotus blossoms are all found along the petal path.” Apparently in the class, students also exchanged canes so they could continue working on variations. Just imagine what you could do with just a handful of canes in your own studio!
I couldn’t find word of any upcoming classes Lynne is conducting for this; but if you push yourself, maybe using some of the ideas above, I bet you could come up with a dozen new petal ideas of your own. So go shape and torque away!
Read MoreWorking in floral is a license to go all out with color. Springtime flowers are bright, vivid things, competing against all the other bright and vivid colors of the season. You can take a lesson from their boldness: if you are going to get colorful, don’t hold back on just how bold or striking your color combinations are.
This necklace from 2 Good Claymates (Carolyn and Dave Good) has an fairly limited palette, but the saturation and contrast of the color are quite striking, don’t you think?
This is just one example of being bold without having to overdose the viewer with color. Being bright and bold is not about how many colors you use, but how they work together. Think contrast when you are after brilliant color–the darker blue against the bright of the turquoise and the lighter yellow is where this color combination in this piece gets its punch. If you have accents or backgrounds to go along with your bold components, consider toning down those colors so they don’t compete too much. You can see how that works in this necklace, with the leaves here created in more muted greens. They allow the bright flowers to really pop.
I can’t imagine a piece like this not grabbing some serious attention at the next garden party, even amidst nature’s own work!
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