Limited and Bright
February 19, 2014
Inspirational Art
I thought we’d at least go bright and fun for our mid-week limited color theme. Here we have Sophy Dumoulin working with a limited palette, as she often does, but with all the great patterns and full saturation of the colors, you don’t really think about it being a limited palette, but it is just blue and green, two analogous cool colors, with a few patches of white. The look is playful and the shapes are neatly placed. The pins all have a feeling of restraint, but the approach works. There is comfort in keeping things on the simpler side sometimes.
Sophy’s work can be found online on her blog and she also teaches classes at CraftArtEdu.
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Graphically Designed
February 18, 2014
Inspirational Art
Talk about color accenting! This bracelet plays with everything else before that cane of purple even begins to register. The wonderful shape of the beads, the contrast in value (which is all black and white are), the visual and tactile texture and the negative space where the beads cut away instead of butting against each other makes for an intriguing and dynamic bracelet.
Of course, this is a Bettina Welker bracelet, so well engineered and designed. Her graphic design background is really showing it’s best side in this lovely piece.
Of course, Bettina is the queen of bracelets. If you haven’t gotten your copy of her lovely book Polymer Clay Bracelets, you really should, even if you don’t make a lot of bracelets. She has some wonderful tips just on working with polymer and on engineering jewelry, not to mention that the layout and photos are gorgeous.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
The Advantages of a Limited Palette
February 17, 2014
Inspirational Art
So last week, we looked at work that used every color in the rainbow, or close to it and looked at how to use a lot of color without looking chaotic. This week, we are going to look at minimizing color using limited palettes where color is an accent. I know … I hear that collective sigh, knowing that brilliantly colored pieces will not be showing up here this week, but I promise, you can be stunned by pieces that use very little. Wait and see.
Yes, many of us are polymer fans in large part because of all the color we can play with but the versatility in form, texture and application is really unmatched by any other medium, far more so than the color aspect. So if you limit or take away color as a primary design element, what do you work with? Well, you are forced to pay close attention to everything else. It is pretty easy to let color support the design and impact of a piece, so if color is your design ‘crutch’ (and I don’t mean that in a negative way … color is important and is quite valid as a focus) try moving away from it and explore form, texture, line, composition, repetition, negative space, etc. It’s a great exercise that, when you return to wider ranging color palettes, will take your pieces from rather pretty to simply amazing!
Eva Thissen‘s brooch here has an incredible impact, not only with little color but with brown–of all single colors to choose–as the dominant hue. And yet, it’s absolutely stunning. The texture and detail make the piece visually rich so that the small dots of subdued color are seen as accents rather than color supporting the design.
Enjoy perusing Eva’s Flickr pages and her enchanting pieces for to get further ideas about putting color in the background while using texture and composition to carry a piece.
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Retro Rainbow
February 16, 2014
Inspirational Art
Sorry we’re late getting this out today. I think our computers are burning out from all the work this week and were just not cooperating earlier today. But in any case, here is a little last bit of rainbow color and a neat little idea you might be tempted to try next time you are in the studio.
Apparently its going to be Extruded Sunday this month. We had random extruded colored frame beads last week. This week, let’s take a look at a version on the pixalated retro cane in a full rainbow of colors. I’ll see if I can keep up the tread next week or not.
This tutorial is on the blog of Amber Elledge also known as Starless Clay. Since we’re so late in the day, I’m going to let her tutorial do the talking, pictorially speaking. Just go to her blog post for all steps of her Rainbow Daisy Pen tutorial.
Amber’s love of rainbow colors can also be spied in her Etsy shop if you would like to see more!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Sherbert and Spring
February 15, 2014
Inspirational Art
Winding down our color week, I thought we go out a bit on the soft side. As we demonstrated on Thursday, you can use a lot of color without it being bright or loud. Here is a sherbet colored necklace by Leah of Léa aime les fleurs, with all the colors of Spring. With the cold and snow so many have been experiencing, I thought a bit of Spring would be nice on a Saturday afternoon.
The airy nature of the way this is strung adds to the overall “light” feeling in visual weight and color and, I would assume actual weight as well. I thought the scattered nature of the design also fits the Spring theme as I always think of the arrival of Spring as that sudden pop of color coming up randomly in my flower beds and across the fields in the foothills where I trail run. I am so looking forward to it!
If you like Leah’s loose work and colors, she posts about her work on Canal Blog and sells in La Boutique.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Outside Inspiration: Stitching Color
February 14, 2014
Inspirational Art
I first saw this piece you see here on a tiny Pinterest pin and thought “Wow. That’s some serious polymer clay work.” Only it’s not polymer. It’s a quilt! But wow … wouldn’t that make a gorgeous polymer wall piece?
The quilt is by the very gifted Carol Taylor. She balances a full spectrum of saturated color with consistent, yet rambling patterns in many of her quilts. I just keep trying to imagine just how stunning they must be in person!
Her patterns, layout and colors would all be quite inspiring for any polymer artist by I think they would make caners in particular just gush. Treat yourself to a stroll through her online gallery today.
And a very happy Valentine’s Day from myself and Cleo (she’s the cat in my lap making typing more of a challenge than it should be today.) Big furry hugs to all our readers!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Blended Rainbows
February 13, 2014
Inspirational Art
Using a lot of color doesn’t mean creating a piece that is bright and bold. Colorful can also be subdued, antiqued, pale, dark or work with any number of alterations to the elements of color. They can also be nicely blended to tone down the graphic impact like Anarina Anar does here in this blended polymer Scarf necklace.
Anarina’s work is all about color with a rough, organic yet light-hearted style. She does a lot of blending of color which allows her to be so colorful yet retain that organic feel. Just open her Flickr photostream to get a serious dose of color and texture today.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Stack ’em Up
February 12, 2014
Inspirational Art
Stacking layers of polymer clay can be a new way of looking at this material sculpturally as well as way to combine and reveal color. Spain’s Natalia García de Leániz (known as Tatana on Flickr) makes these chunky polymer beads by stacking the sliced clay and making bold bracelets with these large design elements.
As Nataila says, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” She works with her husband, Daniel Torres, in an “artnership” where they share ideas and yet they work in different, complementary or even opposite styles. Natalia makes all of her work in polymer clay, frequently working with textures and paint effects on clay. There are some tutorials on her website (and of CraftArtEdu) as well as a lot of additional photographs of her work. They plan to be at EuroSynergy in Malta this year, and if you want an excuse to travel to Madrid, Spain, the couple holds workshops in their studio and throughout Europe!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
What Color Lies Beneath
February 11, 2014
Inspirational Art
With the 22nd Winter Olympic Games being held in Sochi, Russia right now, it seems like a perfect time turn our focus to art work from the area. Oxana Volkova, a mixed medium artist with a serious love of color living in Moscow. She calls these bracelets Color Splash 2 for what is probably an obvious reason.
The kaleidoscope of colors here works well due to the relative simplicity of the design. I know, it doesn’t appear simple but there are only the elements of texture and color being used and in a limited way. The colors and lines of texture both run across the width of the bracelet but the variation in color and the unevenness of the texture give the surface a bit of tension and energy.
Oxana loves bold, brilliant colors and likes to mix media. She mixes her mediums so expertly, it is sometimes hard to tell where one stops and the other begins. For more color and texture ideas in a variety of mediums, take a look at her Flickr photostream when you have a break today.
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Polymer clay as a medium gives you so many choices as to color, texture, size … it really is one of the most limitless mediums. But unlimited options are not always a good thing. Limitations can force you to work more creatively. For instance, we have here British Artist, Henry Lanham, a jewelry artist who works with wood. If he wants to show off the beauty of the wood, there is a very limited palette. If you have few color options, as we saw last week, you have to lean on other design elements. Here, Henry resorts to shape and symmetry with absolutely stunning results.
Henry is a design sculptor who creates jewelry and body landscapes made from hand carved and fabricated wood pieces. Not only are the pieces visually stimulating to look at, but they also make an interesting and pleasant cacophony of sounds when in movement. To see his art as a performance, take a look at his YouTube video, “Landscapes of Time.”
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This “Necklace for a Wild Mood” by Corliss and John Rose (also known as the 2Roses) is about abundance and consistent, balanced symmetry. At first glance there is a harmonious sense of beautiful proportion and balance. The slightest variation in the marbling of the clay, shape or length of the beads helps to avoid a static feeling. There is a fine balance in which the corresponding beads are not necessarily exact but very similar. The colors in this informal symmetry give the piece undertones of luscious extravagance.
Corliss and John Rose are a fascinating couple, each a master craftsperson in his/her own right. In edition to art jewelry, they produce work in commercial and industrial design, tool and die making, painting, photography, lithography, sculpture, holography, furniture, fabrics, engineered plastics, leatherwork, ceramics, lapidary, and gem cutting. I’m exhausted just thinking of all that work. Check out their website and Flickr pages to find our more about this intriguing partnership and be inspired by their art.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
The work of Laurie Mika is rather mesmerizing. You can sit and stare and find new things for many long minutes as well as every time you return to a piece. And most everything she creates is built off a centered composition with balanced shapes if not textures and motifs on either side. This is in large part due to the shrine format that is the basis for much of her work.
Laurie is a mixed-media artist with a passion for combining and overlapping a variety of mediums to create her easily recognized style. If you would like to learn this technique, she teaches at ArtFest, Art Unraveled, Art and Soul, Raevn’s Nest and Hacienda Mosaico in Mexico. You can also check out her book, “Mixed-Media Mosaics: Techniques and Projects Using Polymer Clay Tiles, Beads, and Other Embellishments,” or her YouTube video. Or just wander through the couple dozen pages of her art on her website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
This came up on Pinterest and was too excellent an example to pass up. Whoever originally posted this as their inspiration did not tell us who created it. After a little research, we found this piece was created by Melanie Muir. She explains that she made this piece as a challenge to herself as well as to submit to a show. This is a striking example of symmetry that is precisely and dramatically applied.
The high gloss solids atop the bold print base of the arrows along with the layout of the total design of the necklace show off the strengths of symmetrical design. Each bead on the left is matched to each bead on the right. To be further inspired by Melanie’s work, take a look at her website and Flickr pages.
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I have always been a bit of a rebel. In writing classes I was told “write what you know” then would proceed to write about a place that didn’t even exist. In my first art classes I was told “paint what you see” and I proceeded to paint only things that were in my mind. By the time I got into art school doing the opposite was almost a knee-jerk reaction so when I was advised to not create art that was symmetrical because it would be stagnant … guess what? I went on to irritate professors and classmates alike with my straight up the center compositions. Why? It really wasn’t a purely rebellious move. I believed in the beauty of symmetry. Not only that, I believed it could be dynamic and challenging and highly expressive.
I actually believe in the usefulness of all kinds of compositions but I would like to spend a week putting symmetry back on the pedestal where it belongs. We have an automatic draw to symmetry not because its easy but because its familiar. Our bodies are symmetrical, much of nature is symmetrical … well, almost anything that is alive is symmetrical. Symmetry represents balance and growth. Why would one want to avoid it in making art?
This symmetrical necklace is a creation by Lauren Abrams, a layered pendant that she describes in her blog as “over the top, but who cares?” She creates a lot of pieces that are symmetrical with a ethnic, tribal, bohemian feel to them. As she explains, “I love polymer clay because of the immediacy of it as a medium. It is endlessly challenging yet among the simplest of mediums to use. There are new techniques being developed daily and the excitement of trying new ones keeps it fresh and enticing. It’s great to be learning from other polymer clay artists (who are among the most generous of artists when it comes to sharing information) and a day does not go by when I don’t see something done in polymer clay that intrigues me….”
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Here we see another limited palette using gradients of the same color for the theme. Even though flowers lend themselves to this technique, you certainly don’t have to make a hyacinth flower with it. Of course, we can’t think about gradient colors without thinking of Skinner blends. The gradient used here is made by adding varying amounts of white to the base color, but you could also go in the other direction, and add blacks, which would darken the gradient. You could also try analogous blends, using a limited color palette of colors that are near each other on the color wheel.
The artist who made these grape hyacinth pins is Kellie Mowat. She has tutorials that make use of repetition and a limited color palette, as well as tutorials for lots of other mediums. She also has some tutorials posted on YouTube for all of you visual learners out there.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Here color is minimized but what little color is brought in, is subdued and blends into the composition rather than accenting the dominant copper browns. In Tammi Sloan‘s work here, the palette of browns provides a warm, earthy feel that draws you into the narrative sketched on the front. Using this limited color palette gives the piece a maturity that bright colors would not provide. Through this pairing of copper and polymer clay, she has created an effective juxtaposition between hard and soft materials. She created this piece by rolling a sheet of polymer clay and impressing it into the fired metal clay, so that it would come up through the holes.
Tammi, who is from Whidbey Island, Washington, has a passion for creating. She moves where inspiration takes her. As she explains it, “It is a moving meditation that brings me to a place of deep peace. When I create, I rarely have a picture in my mind of what it is I am going to create. There is a general idea,
but the finished piece is a melding of that idea, the feelings, and thoughts that are flowing through me at the time.” Take a moment and visit her space and become inspired.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
This antiqued silver pendant by artist Samantha Braund uses intricate textures, form, and unique shapes to tell a story with this Spider Conch shell design. Working primarily with silver limits the number of colors used in her, but embellishing with a lot of texture and shapes to invites us in to hear her story or to invent a story of our own.
Because of the way hte varied planes and edges are composed in this piece, emphasis is placed on the center where the shell opens up to us. The form could also be seen as a metaphor for the heart. The colors of the gems used here remind us of the turbulent emotions that flow through our own hearts as we travel along each day meshed in the highs and lows of life.
Samantha is a multi-medium artist with strong roots in graphic design, photography, and precious metal clay jewelry design. This necklace is part of her Spider Conch “Joy to Pebbles” series made with metal clay. For some more examples of her work, and to see her electroformed copper on polymer clay pieces, take a look at her Amadora Designs’ Flickr pages.
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With just black and silver and a subdued navy blue, these lentil beads would not easily be carried by the palette alone. However, the textured lines and floral transfers along with the break in the larger lentils create an intricate serenity. The positive and negative space of the large beads and the oval links in the oversized chain add a feeling of Art Deco style, while the size and design elements bring it back into modern art imagery.
This is the work of French artist, Olga Nicolas, who enjoys creating in limited color palettes, embellishing with intricate textures using transfers and foils. There is a richness in the colors chosen and the baroque textural designs on some of the beads give this modern piece some old world charm.
You can see more of Olga’s designs using limited palettes on her Flickr pages. Olga teaches workshops in France and has some online tutorials on YouTube.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
