Layering Fabrics and Florals
November 9, 2015
Inspirational Art
I’m riding the coattails of last week’s theme, layers on simple forms, and segueing into a week with a focus on combining with other materials. I thought this particular idea shown here, using organza as an overlay onto polymer, was a fantastic idea, both for visual and tactile texture. It also could be a great alternative to silk screening or stencils when you are looking for graphical or well-defined additional imagery for your piece.
The generous artist sharing this little tidbit is Marcia Tzigelnik, a masterful caner that hails from Israel. She wrote up a tutorial for Polymer Clay Central some time back, but I think it’s time to pull it back out and see what more we can do with it these days. It seems to me, from this tutorial, that you could use any kind of sheer fabric, thin lace, tulle, and other fabrics that will allow the layer below to show through. Additionally, using the liquid polymer on top gives you an instant finish to work with.
I might add to her notes that you will want to work with a clean bit of cloth, free of any kind of dirt or debris including lint (try running a piece of masking take over both sides to help). Every little possible floater you have can mar the finish on the liquid polymer. Alternately, if you have a fair amount of experience laying out thin layers of translucent clay, you could use that too. Just be sure to burnish the cloth into the translucent clay and then burnish it onto the raw clay form to eliminate any air pockets.
Take a look at the full tutorial here. You can find more tutorials, and Maria’s beautiful canes, in her Etsy shop.
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Mysterious Layers and Views
November 6, 2015
Inspirational Art
So, I’ve been staring at this piece and the several other views of it, as well as similar pieces by Lorraine Vogel of Wired Orchid Jewelry, trying to figure out what she might have done to achieve this effect. The layers are both in the slightly raised form of the imagery as well as in the application of color. I can usually figure out the basics, but I’m a bit stumped. Is it stencil? Purely impressions on clay? Did she use liquid polymer for the translucent effect, or oil paints, perhaps?
I think what I like best about a piece like this is that the look transcends the material, so you are admiring the look long before you stop to consider what it is made of or how it was accomplished. My brain jumps to how it is done pretty readily, no matter what the piece, but work like this makes me stop a moment before I go there. As always with Lorraine’s work, I’m first struck by the quiet, rather unassuming beauty she imparts in her pieces. This is aided by muted tones and limited palettes, as well as simple forms that just happen to be canvases for intricate applications.
Lorraine also has a very interesting eye for photographing her work. Take a tour through her collection on Etsy and on Flickr and look at the angles and set-ups she uses to show off her pieces. Her photos alone are pretty inspiring, but take a close look at her work and you’ll notice that flawless finish on every piece. There is something so admirable about an artist who considers every aspect of their work down to how us online viewers get to see it.
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Dreaming of Spring
November 4, 2015
Inspirational Art
Today’s beautifully layered pendants come from my dear friend Nevenka Sabo, who is quite the exploratory soul. She is always trying something new, so it can be hard to pin down her signature style, but her work is always fashionably detailed and beautifully finished.
These unseasonably fresh Spring earrings (it is Spring down under, isn’t it?) are a nice departure from the Fall-moving-into-Winter look that we’re seeing everywhere here in the states. It’s another, but very different, example of layering for this week. There may not actually be a lot of layering here; it’s hard to say. But between the alcohol inks and what might be stamps or image-transfers laid one over the other, the details look to be buried in the translucent clay.
One way to find out would be to jump over to her Etsy page and buy the tutorial. Personally, I am refraining from doing just that at the moment because I have too much to do to get the Winter issue ready to get out to the printers, but why don’t you give it a try?
Nevenka shows off her fashionable goodies on her Flickr pages, her Facebook page and in her Etsy shop, where you can find other tutorials to pique your interest and keep you busy as we slide into Winter still dreaming of Spring.
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Layers of Interest
November 2, 2015
Inspirational Art
This past week, during my usual hunting excursions for fabulously interesting pieces to bring to you, I noticed I was seeing a lot of beautiful applications created in clean, simple pendant and earring forms, primarily in the area of layering.
This pendant popped up on my Facebook timeline just last night. It’s by Eriko Page who has been toiling away trying to perfect her crackle technique with, what I believe is, Kroma crackle. She mentions Jeanette Kandray’s Kroma Crackle tutorial on the Polyform website in a comment attached to another similar piece on her Facebook page and it does look just like it. I like how she uses the gradient colors and texture as a background for a simple caned tableau for this pendant. There is actually a lot going on that would catch and hold the eye on this simple, organically formed rectangular pendant.
Eriko hails from California and, according to her Facebook page, from Tehachapi of all places. Tehachapi is also home to Christi Friesen and Karen Lewis (Klew). That’s a lot of polymer talent in a town that is all of ten square miles and sits out there on the edge of the vast Mojave desert. What about that breeds such immense talent, I’m starting to wonder?
Well, while I am pondering that mystery, you can search out more of about Eriko and her work scattered throughout the web but most notably on Fire Mountain Gem’s website, Sonoran Beads where you can find her beads for sale and on her Facebook page.
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There is a new series of books on the way which myself, as the editor, and the rest of the board involved are very excited about. Polymer Journeys is set to be an annual or bi-annual retrospective gallery style book that aims to present and record the best and most innovative work in polymer as well as take a look at polymer trends across the globe. We are doing this to record what is happening in polymer as well as, hopefully, impress the world with the variety and quality of polymer art and its artists. And, of course, it will be a beautiful and revealing book to peruse for all polymer and fine craft enthusiasts.
Did you receive an invitation? Invitation emails may have been spam filtered for some people or the board may not have the most recent contact information for all the artists they are hoping will contribute. So, if you have not seen an invitation but believe your work is important, innovative, or can help create a full and accurate picture of the impressive and wide-ranging talent in the world of polymer art in recent years, please check your spam folder or write to the board using the form on this page of the project’s website.
If all goes well, the book is due to come out in February. If you want to be notified of discounted pre-sale opportunities to buy the book and announcements about its publication, you can sign up for that on this page which describes the book in more detail.
While you are contemplating that news, or not, let’s look at some artwork that was deemed to be some of the best in the craft world, not just polymer. This piece, which looks so much like silver, is another all polymer piece by the amazing Wiwat Kamolpornwijit. Wiwat has been a Niche Awards winner or finalist for I don’t know how many years running. The Niche Awards celebrate the best in United States and Canadian fine craft in every major craft discipline and form. Polymer even has its own category, making this just one more place that recognizes polymer as a major player in the world of fine craft.
We hope to help keep that trend going. Hopefully Polymer Journeys will give it another good nudge in that direction. Let’s see what we can do.
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On the last page of the Winter 2015 issue, we have a very, very special Muse’s Corner article. It was brought to us by Anke Humpert, who had the good fortune to connect with a polymer artist who may very well be the first published polymer pioneer, unknown to most all of us. The reason we may not recognize the cover of this book, or the author, is probably that it was written in German. Which makes sense since that is where polymer clay was invented and first produced commercially. But how have so few of us even known of dear Sigrid Smolka?
Here is the thing that so shocked Anke (and, later, myself) when she first found out. This book was published years before Nan Roche’s seminal book The New Clay. Now, we aren’t talking 3 years, or 5, or even 10. This book was published 17 years before, not too long after the clay actually hit the market. Isn’t that amazing?
All on her own, Sigrid developed techniques and processes that we will all find familiar and common today. I guess that really shouldn’t be a surprise. The clay can leads us to obvious conclusions even now. But it was just so early on and she did this all on her own and so hidden from the rest of us. But not anymore.
You can read Anke’s whole story about Sigrid Solka in the Winter issue. Get your copy ordered, if you haven’t already, so you can read this and all the other wonderful contributions your fellow polymer artists shared with you in this issue.
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Another absolutely fascinating article in the newest issue is the one by JoLecia Crowe on hidden front clasps. I think she must have tried every possible hidden clasp there is and she shares a ton in this variation article.
The beautiful piece shown here didn’t make it into our pages only because she sent so much and magazine space is limited. So, yes, there is a clasp in that bunch of flowers somewhere. Even after reading, editing, and working on the layout of that article, it takes a minute to figure out where the clasp likely is as it is so well hidden. Can you guess?
JoLecia also has a brand new website and store where these beautiful pieces can be admired and purchased. And, if you still need to get your copy of the Winter issue so you can read up on her great techniques, you can do so with us online here.
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The Winter issue of The Polymer Arts was released yesterday, to much fanfare and much relief from myself and the crew. Thank you so much for the many kind comments and compliments you’ve already sent in. It’s always great to know we’ve done well for you. Digital access was sent to everyone who subscribed or pre-ordered prior to yesterday and all the print issues are in the mail or will be as of this afternoon.
If you don’t see the digital issue you expected in your inbox, check your spam folder, and if it’s not there, write Kat at connect@thepolymerarts.com and she will look into it. If you don’t have your copy ordered or an active subscription you can do so on our website here.
I was so thrilled to have the genius of Ellen Prophater in this issue. She doesn’t post her work online, which I keep forgetting, but I’ve had the fortune of getting to see a lot of her work, both finished and in progress, at Creative Journey Studios and at events we’ve both attended, so it feels familiar to me. I thought I’d share a little Ellen that I own today while we wrap up things over here.
This is Ellen’s mokume, but it’s a Ron Lehocky heart pin (like you couldn’t guess that!) and the only reason it’s available is because it happens to be in my collection, a kindly gift from Ron. This is an example of my favorite of Ellen’s mokume methods where she uses embossing powder to create a beautiful granite-like look. She has so, so many methods and combinations for mokume, though. And we are such lucky kids that she shared nearly two dozen of her ideas in the Variations in Mokume article in the new issue. It’s not a step-by-step, but after the three sections that precede it – important secrets to great mokume, a very detailed tutorial by Angela Barenholtz on creating contour line mokume (sometimes referred to as impression mokume), and the new wild and twisted mokume Anke Humpert created a tutorial for – you’ll pretty much be ready to venture out on your own and try Ellen’s methods by recipe.
If you aren’t familiar with Ellen’s biggest creation, Creative Journey Studios, which she runs with the very kindly Sue Sutherland, do go over and take a look at all they do and have for you. They are a polymer supplier, but they also have one of the largest retail collections of filigree findings, and they are an absolute must as a place to visit on any polymer person’s bucket list as the studios house the most extensive retrospective collection of polymer art in the world. It’s amazing. If you are ever anywhere near Buford, Georgia (just north of Atlanta), you have to go there. It will knock your socks off. Or, you can make it a destination … they also do workshops all year long with some of the biggest names in the community, so take a look at their schedule and start planning!
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How about creating and exploring your own translucent beads this weekend? These beads you see here are from a video tutorial by Sandrartes.
The translucent beads were created with liquid polymer and colored with markers. The video is pretty thorough, showing you how to create a form from a wrapped ball of cotton, covered in a simple air dry clay slip, all the way through making liquid polymer caps embedded with headpins to hang your beads. There’s no accompanying documentation or verbal instruction, just a few text screens to further instruct, so you need to pay careful attention to the visuals to catch everything she does.
Click here or on the image to see the video. These beads are actually quite different for her. Everything else she posts is of figurines and cutesy decor. But she is very generous with her tutorials, so if you are in the mood for something fun and light to play with this weekend, check out her YouTube channel.
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Here I found an artist testing the possibilities of translucents in what looks like some fairly classic applications, but with the added complexity of coloring for depth.
Françoise Hecquet, aka Bounette, creates a wide variety of beads, but I think her translucent pieces really stand out in her collections. I’m not sure what she was attempting here, although I think they were successful unto themselves. All she has in the text that accompanies this post is “Je sais pas si les couleurs…” which translates as something like “not knowing about the colors”. But that’s all she says. So, we are left to wonder what she was trying but at least we can admire the crystalline-like effect of the way the translucent was mixed and colored.
If you feel a little let down that she hasn’t hinted at the mysteries behind these pretty test pieces, she does share a pretty cool technique with opaque dots and translucent clay, which has a really beautiful effect. You can find that tutorial post on her blog here.
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The latest issue of The Polymer Arts is at the printers and I’m a bit of a zombie still. You know what I mean … after a big show or custom order is finally off and out, you usually just want to take a break from it all. Strangely, this time, all I’ve wanted to do is get in the studio. My studio also suffers from that deadline chaos so I first need the energy to clean it, but in the meantime, I have been researching translucents since many of the designs in my head will be focused on that kind of clay. I have to say, there isn’t a lot of crazy stuff being done with translucents still, but just as I was lamenting a lack of new translucent pieces to oogle, I came across this bit of fearless jewelry making.
I am pretty sure that Agnès (aka Primatoide on Flickr) used Cernit translucent and neon clay colors in creating this piece she calls Invasive I. She had made a comment in an earlier piece about wanting to explore the neons more and I think this must be one of her resulting explorations. Some of these beads look to be built on forms, others look to be hand-shaped, but all the forms are organic and aquatic. And bright! I can’t imagine it would not catch your eye on any wearer, especially if caught in the sunlight. I would love to see it back-lit, too, because light is what translucents are really about–allowing light to penetrate to reveal more depth.
Agnes explores translucents as well as the more disturbing and degenerative aspects of nature. Right up my alley. Take a look at the wide range of forms, colors and approaches she uses by visiting her Flickr photostream and her blog.
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We saw a beautiful combination of leather and polymer on Wednesday, so I thought today we’d dovetail into that with a look at what some designers are doing with with leather alone. Well, with some the help of some very special inks.
What you see here is only a momentary shift in color on a leather jacket. This leather is imbued with a heat responsive ink. And yes, that means what you think it means… there is an ink out there that changes color as it warms up. Pretty freaking cool.
Now to lay to rest the first question I am certain is popping up in many a head out there reading this: Can this be used with polymer? The answer looks to be yes, but with a huge caveat–the equipment and expense of using this “thermochromic” ink is beyond what any individual craftsperson can afford to do. It’s rather specialized and requires special equipment and treatments to be applied and stabilized. So, it’s not a product ready for polymer prime time.
As for the other possible question out there: Is this related to mood rings? And the answer there is also yes, but this is like mood ring technology for the new age. So, now that we have those burning questions out of the way, let’s simply enjoy the beauty of this garment.
This sculptural leather, with its feather look and scale shapes, covered with this heat responsive ink is what the artist Lauren Bowker calls fabric manipulation art. In this case, it’s a piece that reacts “to the movement of air, changing colour as environmental conditions shift in varying climates and when people come close or walk past … The summer environment will create a brightly coloured jacket that will dull in the wind to become black again, whereas in the winter the pieces are black until the wind hits them then revealing the colour shift.”
I am having to refrain from saying some other version of “Isn’t that so cool!” If you are as awed by this as I am, head to this page with a series of posts on Lauren’s work and poke around for yourself. And, if you really want to own one of her pieces, pull all your pennies together and go shopping on “The Unseen” website.
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I’m a little sleep deprived this morning so don’t mind my short write up here.
I found this last week while searching for layered polymer pieces. Such a chic and contemporary look in this purse by Miryam Garcia. I didn’t think it was polymer at first. But she says this Bolsa de Cuero is all handmade from the leather of the purse itself down to the mandala-like polymer insert. I’m not a purse girl, but I’d sling that on.
Okay kids … back to polishing up the final files for the Winter issue. I’ll confirm the release date on Friday when I should have confirmation myself. In the meantime, go have some fun checking out the variety of work on Miryam’s Flickr stream and her blog.
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