Sculptural Thoughts
July 31, 2014
Inspirational Art
It’s hard to have a week about sculptural wall art in polymer and not bring up Meredith Dittmar. Her work is often very complex with a lot of symbolic imagery, and unlike the work we’ve been looking at so far, it is not comprised of a series of smaller, similar pieces or canes, but uniquely sculptured components. However, if you are looking to see how her techniques relate to your work when you create your jewelry or decor, just look at this piece, which is a relatively abstract example of her wall sculptures. Can you see this as a pendant or the lid to a beautifully rendered box?
It is the composition, the color palette, the shapes and the juxtaposition of them that make the work so vibrant and interesting; all concepts and examples that can be translated to other polymer work. Well, any kind of art at all, really.
Meredith’s work may be even more inspiring to you if you create creatures of any kind. Some of her wall art includes endearing animals, and then she has her “guys”, which are her art toy figurines. Her website which has her main portfolio has a nice overview of her wall art while you can find her “guys” tucked away in a different website dedicated just to them.
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.
An Adventureland of Ideas
July 30, 2014
Inspirational Art
A more traditional approach to wall sculpture, but keeping with the use of smaller parts to complete a larger and whole part, would be something like this fantastical piece by Layl McDill. Her wall sculptures are composed of a wide variety of cane slices, beads and sheets of marbled or surface treated clay.
The entrancing thing about Layl’s work is just how wildly playful it is. This work is not about finish, precision or any particular technique. It’s about the story and a child-like ability to let the imagination roam freely.
This piece entitled “Blingo Flamingo Adventureland” has to be my favorite piece of hers to date. Every part of this piece either reaches out or swings back, and used alongside the high-energy of the colors and cane patterns, creates this frenetically kinetic composition. Such fun!
Layl is the co-owner of Clay Squared to Infinity, a shop for handmade ceramic tile as well as Layl’s polymer sculptures, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Layl also posts her work on Flickr for a full, all-at-once visual dose of her child-like abandon.
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.
A Wall Collective
July 29, 2014
Inspirational Art
I think a lot of clayers may avoid trying wall art because working on a larger scale may be imposing. But most wall art in polymer is smaller parts put together. We saw that yesterday. Today, we have an even more specific example of it.
This is a collective work of multiple polymer tiles by Dan Friedlander. As you can see, the whole installation is a series of smaller tiles arranged as a larger piece. Although, at about 6″ square, the tiles are larger than most of us work with to create jewelry. However, think of each tile the same way you consider each bead or element you put together when you create a necklace, and you are using the same approach needed in order to construct a wall sculpture like this.
From this perspective, does creating wall art seem imposing at all?
Dan’s work is all about texture and contrast. His pieces involve tiles or components that would ideally work as a collective as they show off the subtle difference in their compiled forms, which is the basis for his textures. It’s rather hard to describe, but it’s much easier to see and experience. Take a quick jaunt over to his website to see what I mean. On his Shows page, take a look at the large porcelain installation “Isotope Breakfast” for a rare look at his integration of color. This is another great example of gathering individual components in order to create wonderful wall 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.
It’s Coming Out of the Walls!
July 28, 2014
Inspirational Art
I wanted to look at wall sculpture this week. This is actually where my own exploration has been headed. Wall sculpture can utilize just about every technique we have developed in polymer clay. From surface treatments to inclusions, to painting and even, yes, sculpting of all things! They tend to be rather big and time consuming projects, but they are also highly expressive forms in our medium. Even if you are purely a jewelry or miniature artist in polymer, wall sculpture can be an enormously inspiring source of ideas because what is a pendant or bracelet, but the same thing reduced and arranged to hang on the body rather than a wall?
Can’t you see this piece as a pendant if done in miniature? Well, I could, but I am glad it is wall art. It being just for hanging and contemplating is what really separates wall art from jewelry or decor arts. It has no purpose beyond being created to express and to be viewed.
This intriguing piece was created by Dorothy Siemens. It is titled “Colony” for what is probably an obvious reason, but the base for each inhabitant of this colony may not be so obvious. If you sew, you’ll know right away. The forms and colors look like they might be inspired by sea creatures, but perhaps it really just started with the bobbins and grew from there. Dorothy’s work does often make you stop and wonder where these unusual forms came from. What is it that Dorothy sees around her that inspires such unusual shapes? You can check out more of her polymer sculpture as well as her other work in other mediums on her Flickr pages.
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.
Mixed Elements
July 26, 2014
Inspirational Art
Alright … one last thought about pushing necklace design. Because we love our polymer so much, many of us may think almost exclusively in terms of polymer elements in our designs. But reaching out and grabbing other mediums can be the very thing you need to push your work in a fantastic new direction.
This necklace by Marlene Brady has the simple, but dramatic addition of felt, which is both a functional element and a contrasting design element. The soft, fuzzy felt gives one of the few textures to this piece that polymer cannot duplicate. The black and the soft edge of the felt contrasts heavily with the white, chiseled beads. Marlene also pushes the design by allowing the felt and heishi beads to fall very long down the front of the wearer. There is no dramatic engineering of the necklace here, but the choices make it unusual, and that gives us a few points to consider towards the stretch of a more traditional design.
Marlene has been exploring the mix of fiber and polymer for a few years. You can see more of her unusual necklace compositions and other ideas on her Flickr page and her blog.
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: Composition of Old
July 25, 2014
Inspirational Art
Okay, this isn’t terribly old, but let this illustrate that pushing the construction of a necklace isn’t a contemporary idea. This piece below was created 60 years ago. Note the openness of the construction and the careful balance of the compositions – things we’ve talked about already this week. They aren’t that new, but they aren’t that common either.
- “Patina” neckpiece 1955
This intriguing piece was created by Art Smith, a Cuban born American. It is all silver with some surface texturing and some careful planning in order to get the balance right. I can easily see something like this in polymer. Who is willing to push a piece to this level of engineering? It is something to consider if you are playing in the studio this weekend. I’ll try to dig up one more idea or challenge for pushing your idea of necklace construction for tomorrow. It will be quite warm in much of the US as well as other places around the world, so why don’t we all just stay in and push ourselves a bit?
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.
Staging Simplicity
July 24, 2014
Inspirational Art
Pushing the construction or composition of a necklace doesn’t have to be overly complex. Simplicity is sometimes the best path to unusual pieces.
With this composition by Russian artist Oksana Aleksandrovna Vedernikova (she works under the name Silverpepper), the rather stark presentation really helps us focus on the delicate details of these of the gorgeously crafted polymer beads. The uneven drop length keeps the composition from feeling stagnant and gives each bead a separate height from which to be admired.
Oksana rarely creates in typical or classical composition. If you enjoy the idea of pushing construction and presentation of your polymer within the art jewelry form, you will find further inspiration within her other creations. Just head on over to her Flickr pages.
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 Simple Hinge
July 23, 2014
Inspirational Art
This necklace isn’t so off the beaten path when it comes to composition, but it is a bit different in its construction. The hinge construction is somewhat of a trademark for Louise Fischer Cozzi; although, I have wondered why this kind of simple way of connecting hasn’t been seen more. The metal wire goes through one shape into another in order to form the hinge upon which they are connected. This allows the flat beads to move and rotate while on the wearer. This rotation hides and reveals the surface of the shapes as the wearer moves.
I love the simplicity of this type of construction, but I also think this could be pushed, using that hide and reveal result, to allow unexpected images that come and go. This would create compositions at the point where the surface textures meet up. Yes, this would take a bit of planning, but how fun and intriguing a piece it would be!
To see more of Louise’s hinged jewelry, along with her other beautiful decor and quilts, take a look at her website here.
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.
Barely Met
July 22, 2014
Inspirational Art
Let’s look at the simple idea that necklaces don’t have to be a complete, fully attached, encircling item nor does the closure for it have to be at the back of the neck. If the point at which the necklace opens can be integrated into the design, it can be placed anywhere on the piece. And if you have a firm, but pliable structure, it doesn’t even have to connect.
Olimpia Corvino used this approach with a number of her designs. This necklace breaks the usual standards of using wire as structure. This breakaway from the norm allows for a front entrance and two large pieces of polymer to just barely meet in the middle. That “barely there” touch is fantastic as it causes tension and a point of focus. I really enjoy that she has used wire work to break the swathes of polymer at a point that would have normally been the center had the necklace used a standard wire structure in order to join it. It’s another subtler point of tension, but these near connections do a lot to enliven the design.
For now, Olimpia’s designs seem to exist only on Facebook, but as it is a business page, you can actually access it whether or not you have a Facebook account. Take a look at her wide range of pieces, which are sometimes nontraditional, sometimes standard, but always bold in color, texture or approach.
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.
I have to say that necklaces are both my favorite and most dreaded form to create. I love the wide ranging possibilities but because of that I tend to come up with some really difficult design ideas that I then can’t help but try to engineer and probably fail in doing so successfully about half the time. That’s the dreaded part, knowing I won’t always be successful and getting frustrated by that. But, when it works … it’s just such a great feeling of accomplishment!
Pushing necklace designs beyond stringing beads is a challenge we may not all be up for, but I do encourage you to consider trying some challenging designs every once in a while. It can add to your skill set and give you great confidence in your abilities to design and execute each time you do have a great success. So this week, let’s look at a few unusual necklace designs to get you thinking about the ways in which you can stretch your ideas of how to create a neckalce.
This piece is not so far off from the classic multi-strand designs usually created with chain, pearls or other small beads. But rather than working with a flexible set of elements, Claire Maunsell created these continuous organic shapes that, although they will not move and sway the way chain does, do give a sense of soft, flowing movement.
Can you think of other possibilities for necklace design that either incorporates a continuous piece of polymer encircling the neck or that can also convey a sense of flowing movement in polymer that doesn’t require a string of beads? Just something to ponder.
Claire is quite the master of implied and visual movement not to leave out her amazing organic textures and colors. She has a number of websites, shops and blogs to take in her work from. Start with her Flickr photostream to get a idea of the breadth of her work then, go to her Flickr profile page for the list of other sites for more art and information on Claire and her work.
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.
It’s time for us to start planning our issues for 2015!
This year we thought we’d get YOUR input on what type of articles you’d like us to research and write for you. 
You can contribute by giving us a theme word or phrase, describe a concept, or just tell us what kind of subjects you’d like us to cover. Any ideas that describe or even just lead us to a theme idea will be eligible to win a little something to show our gratitude. We’ve set aside (4) $20 Gift Certificates to The Polymer Arts to award to the readers with the winning themes/concepts, or in the case of multiple similar suggestions, to award to four people based on a random drawing. All you need to do is contact us at connect@thepolymerarts.com with your ideas. Here’s how we usually determine a good possible theme:
- Themes should address design concepts, issues, and/or trends in the polymer community.
- The single word or phrases we use for themes enable us to encompass any number of broad possible ideas that we can base articles around. For instance, the present issue’s theme “Light” encompasses such topics as illuminating light, light weight or visual light effects like shiny or reflective.
- Suggestions can even be previous themes, but with suggestions on how we could look at the theme differently or add other types of articles to it.
If you can, please explain a little about the theme or concepts that you are suggesting and why you think they would be a good idea. Any article suggestions are welcome! So, get any and all your ideas in by the end of the day on July 27th for a chance to shape the subjects you’ll get to read about in 2015, as well as having a chance to win a $20 Gift Certificate! Want to see all the themes we’ve done in the past? You can see them and all our articles listed on this page: http://www.thepolymerarts.com/TPA_TOCs.html
Read MoreI was thinking about the many ways that we use to establish our variations when I came across this interesting selection of wall hangings created by melting crayons. That’s when I realized that one of most obvious ways in which we achieve variation is by letting randomness and chance have a say. We’ve all had that moment (or 20) when we were messing around with the scraps on our table and a whole new idea arose. Well, you could do that intentionally with the components you have for certain pieces that you have in mind by letting your mind and fingers wander until something wonderful emerges.
Here, the various ways the crayons melt, as well as the colors, look to be the inspiration for each of the silhouetted subjects. That same approach can be used to renew, revive or reinvent a line you’ve been working with for a while. Be spontaneous and play to see what that clay suggests.
I couldn’t find the creator of these pieces, but I did find out this is ‘thing’ in the home craft world. Much of this melted crayon art is not very well done, but these three are great examples of what can happen when it is done artistically. If anyone, by some strange chance, knows who made these, I would love to give them credit. They are another victim of unattributed Pinterest pinning that ended up on a blog with the online storage URL being the only information that came with it.
Even if you just pin for yourself, at the very least, please do the creators the well-deserved favor by putting their name in the comment section. Or pin to a private board. Otherwise, these things get picked up by random people, spread around and the origination of it becomes lost. That just seems terribly sad.
Be sure to check in tomorrow for a contest we’re now running in which you can help shape upcoming issues of The Polymer Arts as well as win a little something for yourself!
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.
It’s certainly not going to be news that if you want to create variation in a piece, it can be done by strictly using the clay itself. Polymer is perfect for creating all types of color and textures! Here’s a straight-forward example by Nora Pero using various colors, translucency, visual texture, and color blending to create variations in her pinched petal form.
Lining up all these necklaces together leads us to another idea we can explore that we don’t see here, and that is the combination of the various petals into one necklace. Maybe those blues and greens together on one necklace, or a trio of the red, gold and fuchsia/yellow petals that alternate across around the neck. That sounds kind of yummy!
Petals:
Although Nora has been wonderfully focused on some glass and beading options of late, her Flickr pages have plenty of images showing further variations in mokume, crackle, and extruder cane decorated beads. In addition, you can get a tutorial on how to create these various petals in her Etsy shop. Fun stuff!
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.
If you are ever in need of an inspiring push to get out of a creative rut, the classroom is the place to go, especially those that encourage variation in the end result. Fabiola Perez Ajates, (known simply as Fabi) encourages a broad range of expression in her classes, and she photographs and posts collages of them on her wonderful blog Con Tus Manos (With Two Hands). Just last week she posted many shots like these of her students’ little trinket bowls.
It’s obvious that Fabi encourages brave color combinations and individual ideas. Take a close look at the various choices the students made. The pieces are basically the same form, but color, textures, canes and the sculptural additions such as stands or handles are all handled quite differently. Find some applications that you like, and ask yourself if you could aim for something like that in some of your creative endeavors. Seeing the wide open possibilities in a group of unique, creative minds can really stretch your own creativity.
You can also see how she uses collaged images to promote her classes in this post here. If you want to skip the blog information (it has to be translated from the Spanish if you don’t speak it), you can see many of these same images on Fabi’s Flickr pages.
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.
Another collection of work for your consideration of examples in variety are these brooches by Betsy Baker. She takes similarly treated sheets with variations in color and texture, cuts them in an assortment of shapes and layers them to create compositions with different effects and impact.
You could do the same thing with some standard pieces you have been making. Vary the form, imagery, combinations and composition to see what you can come up with. Betsy actually does this quite a bit and shares her results in collages and close-ups on her Stonehouse Studio Flickr pages.
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.
I’ve been seeing a lot of collage and photos of groupings of people’s work. These images are a great idea especially for sales materials and websites–it can show your breadth of work as well as give customers ideas for custom pieces. For us artists, it’s a great way to compare similar pieces side by side and get ideas about how to vary the same forms, techniques, or applications.
These donut focal bead bracelets by Gema Belinchon are a great example of taking a few small changes and recombining them to come up with a wide variety of finished pieces. She had six basic things she’s recombining–color, different canes, two types of leather cord, the number of cords she uses, crystal accents and three types of silver slider beads. I can’t figure out the math, but I know that could be hundreds of combinations.
Can you identify one bracelet as you favorite? Can you say why? Would you make a different combination of elements to create something more to your taste? Why do you think you choose those? Asking these kinds of questions can help you understand your own taste and what kind of look can be derived from a change in combinations.
I like the one with the three crystals, but would prefer it in that wonderful lime green Skinner blend bead next to it, and I’d go for unbraided leather so the cane texture is the only busy texture. The cane would really stand out that way while the rest of the bracelet would appear smooth and subdued, which would add a touch of sophistication versus casual and fun. But, that’s just me. What are your preferences?
Gema goes by Belserart on Flickr where you can find more variations on the same types of pieces. They aren’t all in one image, side by side like this, but they are definitely worth a stroll through them.
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.
Maybe you’ve already saw this in our newsletter a couple weeks ago, but many of you probably did not. And it certainly fits the current theme, for what are fans, but dimensional triangles? I know, I’ve been pushing the theme a bit hard this week, but it was fun, wasn’t it? Now it’s time for you to have more fun with the ideas we talked about this weekend. If you need a push, I would highly suggest grabbing a copy of Helen Breil’s new digital book, Fan Fold Designs. Just look at the cool designs you can learn to create just on the cover alone.
As Helen explains, “This design-based book is the result of my exploration of the design possibilities of folding clay. I was inspired by the paper folding and origami arts as well as the fabric arts of silk Shibori scarves and ribbons. The strong design element of the fold lines seem to naturally invoke a bold and dramatic look.” Agreed. I already have my copy, and as busy as I am, I just couldn’t help but stop in the middle of my day when I got it in order to try out a few things. These techniques are easy and fun and have so many possibilities.
And speaking of our newsletter, if you don’t already get it, you can get by signing up on our website on the left hand side of our main page. It comes out just twice a month, but includes news on classes, products, events, and conversations as well as reporting on what’s happening here for The Polymer Arts magazine. Every issue also includes useful tips and lists the most popular blog items seen the last couple weeks with additional insights and words from our readers. Just another way to get your polymer fix!
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.
I am really pushing the idea of what a triangle is in today’s offering, but I had to think up some excuse and quick to share this incredible work with you. This piece you see below is all paper. Intricate, perfectly cut and layered sheets of paper. Check out the detail shot below it before I go on to explain what this has to do with triangles.
This paper art is laser cut and then meticulously assembled by Eric Standley. It relates to triangles because there are many triangular shapes and suggestions of triangles, but no actual triangles that I could find. All these triangles emerge from the overlapping of other shapes, primarily circles and squares. Since he creates these in primarily circular, mandala like designs, it’s no wonder triangles are emerging everywhere. What is a cut up circle but a bunch of pie slices, which are essentially triangles. Triangles are also natural in a circle when you have overlapping circles equidistant from the outside edge. Squares also create triangles in some of his pieces for a similar reason, although, triangles aren’t always the result when squares overlap. Sometimes you just get more squares.
That is all to say that you can create multiple shapes in a piece by overlapping larger shapes. Its nothing fancy, but the resulting intricacies you create can make a piece look far more involved than it might be. In the case of these paper sculptures, they are already very intricate to start with but more so for this approach.
I found Eric’s work on a site called Web Odysseyum. The images on this page of the site will give you a much closer look at his work than his website, but visit them both if you are as amazed at this as I am.
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.
- « Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- Next »
