Outside Inspiraiton: Pumpkin Head
October 31, 2014 Inspirational Art
‘Pumpkin head’ is one of the most often heard pet names around the house. And, I mean for the pets. I have no idea why I started calling my dog and cat ‘pumpkin head’, and I never really visualized what the phrase meant. But, now I have!
This all too cute and beautifully painted pumpkin headed creature comes straight from the imagination of sculptor, illustrator and toy designer, Chris Ryniak. The paint work on this is really detailed, and the expression is fantastic. Don’t you just want to cuddle and comfort those poor little guys beside him. What faces!
Although, I couldn’t find a reference to the materials used in this particular set, resin and epoxy painted with acrylics are the most commonly listed material in other similar items I found by Chris. He has a lot of similar work he shares on his website and Flickr pages. All of it is incredibly adorable. If you are up for some ohs and ahs, click through and enjoy!
So a very spirited Halloween, Day of the Dead, Samhain, All Saints Eve, or whatever it is you do celebrate today. Enjoy it and stay safe!
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Frightening Elegance
October 28, 2014 Inspirational Art
I love spiders. Not very girly of me, I know, but I just find them to be some of the most fascinating creatures on earth. They are beautiful and graceful fellow crafters who just happen to be so absolutely terrifying at times. Poor, misunderstood things.
Regardless of the terrifying moments, spiders really can be fantastic inspiration, not just from the patterns they weave, but their own inherent elegance–the long, slim legs, the way they delicately hang and negotiate their webs, the graceful way they reach out and weave their silk. Well, that last may remind you too much of dinner time in the web, but nonetheless, the spider’s structure and movements are beautiful.
I imagine this is what drew Céline Charuau to create work like the piece you see here. She calls this Fleur Araignée or Flower Spider in English. And with that title, she has drawn a simple equation between what is considered one of nature’s most beautiful creations with one of its most frightening. If you think about it, there are also deadly flowers and harmless, but gorgeously colored, arachnids. For being such completely different types of organisms, they actually have a lot in common.
The drawing of equations between seemingly unrelated things is nothing new in Céline’s work. Man-made with organic, mineral with animal, hard with soft, and lots of other unexpected combinations in her images and titles like Embroidered Eggs and Canned Chromosomes. I honestly am not sure if I enjoy the titles of her work or her craftsmanship more. See what I mean by taking a leisurely jaunt through her Flickr photostream with more insight to be found on her blog, Gris Bleu.
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Gorgeously Dark
October 27, 2014 Inspirational Art
This week counts down to that one very dark and ominous day (or fun and frolicsome, depending on your approach) sometimes known as the All Saint’s Eve, Day of the Dead, Samhain, Allantide among other things, but most commonly known as Halloween. It’s that day when, in many Christian-based religions as well as pagan and European folklore, we either have a chance to speak to loved ones passed on and/or we must hide from the demons and other creatures that have the opportunity to walk the earth the one night when the veil between the worlds of the living and dead are thinnest. That makes the holiday seem rather dreary, but truly, it’s more of a celebration of the lives that have lived. Death and the things of the dark exist in contrast to the vibrancy of life and the light. Without the dark, how would we appreciate the light? And even the dark things can be quite beautiful.
So this week, let’s look at the beauty of dark things. I promise it will not be all spooky and ghoulish. But, okay, we’re going to start off kind of on that end. If you are familiar with the movie Aliens then you would likely then recognize the imagery of Swiss sculptor, painter and set designer, H.R. Giger who designed the alien and extraterrestrial environments for that movie, in the work of Aniko Kolesnikova that you see here. This journal cover is a display piece that Aniko uses to show off her hand tooled polymer sculpture techniques. The melding of Aniko’s skills and the Giger imagery makes for gorgeous lines and intriguing textures as well as being an combined example from two different artists of how beautiful the dark renditions of the imagination can be.
Most of Aniko’s work is not that dark, she just embraces this as part of all that is beautiful in this world. Or that’s how I see her work. I mean, her moniker is “Mandarin Duck” (I don’t know why … ) and commonly refers to her blog readers as “honey bunnies”, so she’s definitely not all about the dark side. See more of her varied work on her website and more journals on this Pinterest board.
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The Future Faces of Polymer
October 25, 2014 Inspirational Art, Polymer community news, Polymer issues
This is Sean Mitchell. He’s 12 years old, home-schooled, and the youngest person to ever take a college-level polymer clay course.
Wait … is Sean the real news or is it the fact that this past year, the first college-level credit course in polymer art was actually accepted and implemented at an accredited American institution? Well, they are both news in their own way, aren’t they? Both Sean and the class are bright lights for the future of polymer art.
The class, “Art 200: Polymer Clay” was taught at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin by Diane Levesque who was also the curator for the exhibit at the H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art at Carthage College, A Re-Visioning: New Works in Polymer. Diane presented her overview and thoughts on the course at the Polymer 2.0 Symposium along with inviting a number of students who took the class to attend the presentation and symposium that day. Sean was one of them.
At 12 years old, Sean isn’t quite of college age and is not one of those kids skyrocketed into a university education at an early age, although I have to say, after hearing his participation in our discussions and talking with him myself, I think he could have been. He’s exceedingly bright, curious and well-spoken. It was fortunate that special circumstances and the need for a creative option in his home school curriculum landed Sean the opportunity to take this class in which he excelled. He brought this sculpture to share with us. That piece alone was pretty impressive.
So, I had to ask him … “Do you see yourself continuing to work in polymer?” His answer was yes, but he did confess that he was actually interested in going into industrial engineering. So, we may lose him to another creative area, but nonetheless, Sean as well as his fellow students, were very enthusiastic about their experience with the medium, which brought up the question, “How can we introduce polymer as an art form to more of the younger generations?”
Well, we can start with the kids in our own life. I’ve had quite the year of introducing the many facets of polymer clay to the young people in my family and beyond. I now have at least one niece that seems to be inextricably addicted to it, and she introduced it to her friends as well. Word of mouth works well in spreading the love of creating as well as in business! And, of course, if we can continue to push for college-level courses and maybe even introduce it into high schools and after-school programs, polymer can continue to expand its range and the world’s view of it as art, not just hobby craft. Wouldn’t that be exciting?
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Outside Inspiration: Bead & Fiber on the Verge
October 24, 2014 Inspirational Art
Before I write up a blog, I search what I’ve posted over the years to insure I’m not showing the same artists over and over, and that it’s been a while since I’ve posted their work. It’s a way of spreading the love around, so to speak. I don’t usually have to worry about that with posts from artists working in other mediums, but I was afraid I’d already shared the stunning work of Amy Gross and maybe shouldn’t be sharing it again. But, to my surprise, I never have! I don’t know how that happened. However, since her work was in the Racine Museum of Art’s (in)Organic exhibition I saw this past weekend, I can now correct that.
Amy is so one of my very favorite artists in the realm of mixed media art. The richness of the textures and colors are what draw you in, but it’s the imagery, both realistic and implied, that holds you there. At least it does me. It helps that I have an interest in both the growth and decay that is the cycle of nature. Amy’s work filters what she sees in this cycle through her own personal experiences as she notes in her artist statement on her website:
“My embroidered and beaded fiber pieces are my attempt to merge the natural observable world with my own inner life: I’m trying to remake nature sieved through my own experiences. I’ve always been attracted and frightened by things that are in their fullest bloom but on the verge of spoiling. There’s such beauty and sadness to them, heightened by the undeniable inevitability of their ending.”
I was so immensely thrilled to see her work in person for the first time at Racine Art Museum–I had read her work would be in the exhibit–that I was having a hard time containing myself. But, jumping up and down or squealing with glee is not museum-appropriate conduct. So, I am happy I have a chance to to do so here. The first image is one I was given permission to take at the museum. I really wanted to capture the colors in that top leaf in contrast with the darker colors below. The second photo is from her website and gives you more details of the lower half. See even more shots of this and other pieces of Amy’s in her website gallery pages.
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Behind an Installation
October 23, 2014 Inspirational Art
One of the most impressive works we saw over the weekend in Racine was at the second exhibition we visited. Laura Tabakman’s On the Trail was a large installation piece set up at the H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art at Carthage College as part of the exhibition, A Re-Visioning: New Works in Polymer.
The installation is a wonderful little field of these colorful pods and balls standing on the tops of thin wire that swayed slightly as you passed and interspersed with bright handmade tassels, some in the pods, some fallen to the boards below them. It’s a bright, yet quiet and peaceful, piece that draws you in to look closer at all the variation in detail between the polymer elements.
Aside from being drawn in by the beauty of the piece, as polymer artists we gravitated to it as an unusual type of work that few of us have had experience in creating. There were a lot of questions about the planning and building of it, as well as the shipping and installing of the work. I guess Laura was queried enough to post the process on her Facebook page here. You have to read and see what she did to her living room for the sake of her art! She is a dedicated lady!
See more of Laura’s installation and smaller works on her website as well as on her Facebook pages.
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The Long Exploration
October 22, 2014 Inspirational Art
Unlike Dever’s work as we saw yesterday, Maggie Maggio exhibited work that is a continuation of her exploration of structure in polymer. Her wrap bangles and neck pieces are growing ever more bold, as well as bigger.
Here is the piece that just mesmerized me. As Maggie explains it, “Grow III represents the interweaving of the animal and plant world by blurring the lines between snake and vine.” She adds, “I will need a larger oven as the pieces grow and grow!” This is a bit of reflection on the success of her exploration as well as the size of her pieces. To understand just how big this issue is, take a close look at the necklace modeled on the exhibition card you see on the far right of this photo. (You can click on the photo for a larger version.)
Maggie had several pieces in the Racine Museum of Art’s (in)Organic exhibition, (there until February 1st, 2015. Get out to see it if you can. It is amazing.) including a piece that evolved into something quite different as she created it. Read her post about her process of exploration and one of those welcome accidents that led to a satisfying, but unexpected piece on Maggie’s website.
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We are really rather lucky to be working in polymer, especially those of us who are so in love with color. There are many other craft mediums that offer primarily monochrome palettes and others have a limited range, especially compared to what we have available. But, this just means that they focus on other elements, which is what this week of gray contemplation is really all about.
In metal work for instance, you have the colors of metal as the main or starting color. Silver work is nothing but grays unless you patina the silver or add other materials to it. So, silversmiths use value, form and texture as the primary methods of expressing their ideas, accenting with other materials when desired.
This composition you see here is actually a set of rings created by an artist that goes by nothing more than Spiralstone. There are minimal layers here, but the form and the texture allow for light to play across the surface and reflect back varying degrees of gray. The colorful cabochon stones look especially brilliant in the landscape of each ring due to the lack of competition with other colors.
I also thought these rings would be great inspiration for polymer rings. The shapes and layering would be a great approach for polymer in grays or in color.
If you like these rings, you should really look at her other work made from 100% recycled metals. Check out the other amazing rings sets and various other jewelry on her Flickr photostream and through the links on her website.
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Read MoreI am traveling today, so I apologize for the brevity here. I was sent this lovely wallpiece by Fran Abrams after she saw what the theme was this week. The piece is called “Six Degrees of Separation”. It’s wall art that is 18″ x 18″ and created using only black clay and white clay mixed in varying proportions.
I simply like that Fran went for a pure study of value here. It created an unusual challenge for the artist and a canvas. The form and contrast are all there working to draw you in. Although it is simple, it keeps drawing the eye back to take one more look or compare a couple more grays between squares. Just imagine being the one creating it. Or maybe, create a study of grays for yourself.
Visit with Fran and her other ‘studies’ on her website.
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Read MoreTake a look at this pair of earrings by the very talented Sonya Girodon. What are some of your first impressions? What strikes you as most attention grabbing, or what are your eyes drawn to? As you look over the pair, does it even occur to you that there is no color here? Not to say that you don’t know that its all grays with black and white, but rather that the lack of color is completely irrelevant, to the point that it is not at all part of your first impression or the things that came to mind as you looked it over.
You know you have a successful piece when you’re limiting your options and that limitation is hardly noticed, if at all. The thing with these earrings is that the texture and forms, along with strong accent points, grabs your attention so fully you don’t miss seeing color. In fact, I think color would ruin the austerity and drama of the set. Its gray palette allows the other elements to stand front and center without the distraction of color.
This is not the first or last piece Sonya has that deals with a lack of color. Her focus on form and texture allows for a lot of wonderful exploration in this area. You can see her journey with this idea and others on her Flickr photostream.
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Read MoreGray is not what we may think of as a particularly exciting color palette, but this non-color has quite the design concept to teach us all. I say “non-color”, of course, because gray has no color hue, not as a concept. Many grays we use actually do have a recognizable cool or warm tone due to have a very, very slight hue in the medium we are using, but true grays are simply a position between pure black and pure white. They are, in actuality, measurements of value, which is one aspect of a color.
This is the basis of what grays can teach us in terms of design. If you create in grays, you are creating only with value rather than with color. Variations in value can illustrate emotion and atmosphere based on the level of contrast and the balance of grays to any other color that might be used. If you are working solely or primarily with gray, you are depending on the contrast to help relay the feeling of the piece as a support of the form, image, lines and/or textures you are working with. That makes working in grays a fantastic exercise in the importance of value and contrast. Grays can also make some amazingly striking and emotive work.
These earrings, for example, one pair out of what looks to be a series by Poland’s Tishaia, displays variation in gray in the texture in the leaf vein patterns whose light value contrasts against the black clay which, due to the limitation of the pigment density of the clay is not actually black but a very dark gray. This contrast along with the dominating bold lines, make for a strong, contemporary feel. The lack of other colors make the blue stones really stand out. The mid-range values in the stones also brings a kind of bridge in contrast between the light silver and the black clays in this highly value dependent set.
You can see the interesting forms Tishaia creates in this series on her Deviant Art page and more on her work in her Etsy shop and on her Facebook page.
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Read MoreI have a treat for you today. When I asked around for artists that wanted to guest blog, I got an enthusiastic “Yes!” from the energetic Randee Ketzel. I thought she would find and comment on a selection of work based on a theme as we do here every week, but instead she decided she would like to interview a few artists for us. I was thrilled. This will be the first of those interviews. We’ll get out these special posts by Randee every couple of weeks or so for as long as she’ll send them along!
Wendy is definitely one of a kind. What else can you say about a workshop instructor who shows up in a Mad-scientist lab coat, rainbow leggings and a faux bone/bird skull tiara? Plus, when she pulls out the giant polymer radish who grins impishly at you with REAL human teeth–well, you know this is going to be an interesting class. But, beyond the mischievous showmanship is a serious artist with some serious talent. That talent will be on display at the Carthage College exhibit, “A Re-Visioning: New Works in Polymer”, through the end of October.
Art was in her blood; coming from a family of artists, she has been working in polymer since the late eighties, creating her signature bone and skull jewelry. She had known about the medium, but seeing a full page article on the work of Pier Volkous sent her into the hunt. Her work with ceramics–and frustrations with it–made polymer a natural fit. Earlier in her career, she had been an in-house illustrator and art director for a graphic design firm (she has a dozen books to her credit), and her work is informed by that experience. Wendy has a BA in both Art and Business and feels that it is a mixed blessing. One professor told her that he worried she would not stick to just one path, and fortunately for us, she didn’t. Her wild, thought-provoking combination of many media is precisely what makes her work so unique.
Wendy is a driven artist. She describes her brain as a constantly simmering stew of ideas that must find some sort of expression every day and hopes that people either love her work, or hate it; the only thing she fears is indifference. In preparing for this post I asked Wendy to describe her passions and she responded in a very Wendy-kind of way:
“Hmmmm… running, skiing, snow, anything sparkly, animation, my husband’s music, my sons’ art, wine, good food, the sun, the water, anything transparent, rocks, biology, geekery, bones, chartreuse, neon (the lighting and the colors), anything woodland and candy…”
We all need a little sparkle in our lives. Thank goodness we have Wendy.
You can find more of Wendy’s work in her Etsy shop and on her Tumblr pages. Be sure to scroll down on the Tumblr page to see her incredible paper cut pieces!
Randee Ketzel, a life-long craft artist, previously worked in metals but is now a polymer enthusiast and co-author of “Polymer Clay Gemstones, the Art of Deception” a different kind of polymer book devoted to faux techniques and the reproduction of historical jewelry. Her book can be found on Amazon while her other tutorials can be found in her Etsy shop.
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Although earrings are commonly made as two of the same exact design, this is no steadfast rule and a little change up to this standard can be just what is needed to make a pair stand out on the wearer. Mirroring the design is a very simple and subtle way of doing this.
Simple and subtle is also the hallmark of enamel artist Angela Gerhard whose echos of both ancient and contemporary design are melded into quietly balanced, yet stunning pieces of art jewelry. These earrings with their mirrored design would frame the wearer’s face rather than simply being separate, but duplicate accents dangling from the ears. Mirroring in earrings allows for balance between the pairs while creating asymmetrical designs, effectively getting you out of the centered standard while creating a still matching pair.
Although Angela’s website was down due to a server move as of the writing of this post, you can find more of her work on her online store and more photos and news about her work on her Facebook page.
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.
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As I mentioned at the beginning of the week, mirroring is extremely common in nature, especially among it’s many creatures. From the tiniest insects to the largest mammals, most creatures start out as forms that split into two, becoming whole as two halves of the same original design. It’s kind of interesting if you think about it; there really aren’t any asymmetrical creatures until you get down to the microscopic level or go deep under the sea.
This mirroring in nature is both for survival purposes and it is kind of a shortcut. Or at least I tend to think of it that way. Nature can design just one half and then copy and repeat to make a whole, functional and well-balanced creature. Well, that same concept works great for craft artists too! Insects are fun and colorful creature to recreate or make up in polymer and can be created using the same elements on both sides of the little buggers. This beautiful beetle by the wonderfully fun and creative Joyce Fritz was created with cane slices cut and flipped to mirror the other side’s intricate patterns. A great shortcut for creating complex looking creatures!
Joyce makes all kinds of mirrored and not-so-mirrored creatures, but all with a similar level of intricacy. Find more of her little guys on her website.
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Read MoreI am really pushing the mirror theme here, I know. But, I have been in love with these bowls since I first saw them. It was during those first few magical months after I realized what polymer clay really was and what it could do. I was taking in everything I could find online. The images of James Lehman’s bowls were by far the most breathtaking for a newbie like me. The colors are amazing, the shine is unreal and the form and overall workmanship was unlike anything I’d seen. To this day, I think of them as being in a class by themselves that no one else has quite been able to match.
So, the imagery isn’t usually mirrored in James’ pieces, but the polish is mirror-like and because of the detail and attention he applied to both the insides and the backsides of his bowl, he had to take photos of them on a mirrored surface to show the full effect. So, humor me while I fit it into this week’s theme. Because this kind of dedication to the finish of a piece — this was nearly 15 years ago as well — is awe inspiring, if not a level any fine polymer artist would want to aspire to reach.
James still has a site with his work online here but has not done much in the community for a number of years. If you Google the guy and look at his other websites, it’s obvious that he is one easily distracted and fanatically curious fellow, and it’s no surprise he has gone on to further develop his skills in another area of interest. But, we will still have his amazing work to enjoy, appreciate and inspire us.
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