Your Morning Book
June 30, 2019
Inspirational Art
Monika Duchowicz’s Slavic Village polymer journal cover
Have you ever gone to a foreign country and found yourself talking like them after being there awhile? It might just be the phrasing but perhaps you take on accents or hand gestures as well. It’s natural to adopt accents and ways of speaking when you are around it a lot. That’s how you learned to talk as a baby and your brain doesn’t completely turn off that learning from what you hear around you.
This phenomenon can happen with things other than language too. As fashion and décor changes around us, we may find our tastes get tweaked along with them. When we peruse social media sites and see artwork online, we may adopt a tendency towards certain types of design, colors, and forms. This can happen over time or even over the course of a day. That means that what you see online and around you can effect what you create.
So how do you keep your own voice and your style unaltered? Well, you can’t, really. Our aesthetic is formed from our interaction with our world but we can do something about the dominance of other influences over our own unique and personal voice. But it’s like muscle memory and that takes regular practice.
Ages ago, I read a book written in 1920 (whose title and author I have shamefully forgotten) on how to be a writer. The author had one line that really struck me. After stating he explained that a writer must get up every morning and, before doing anything else including getting out of bed, he or she must write at least a page of what we would now call free-writing, because this was the only way to insure the writer would wrote with their own voice later in the day. The section ended with him saying, “If you cannot get up and write a page every morning, then you are not a writer.”
At that point, a writer was all I wanted to be, so, fearful that I would not prove up to the task and therefore, I’d never be a real writer (I was rather young and impressionable then), I took that line to heart and I wrote every morning, no matter what, for what was probably about 10 years. Getting married and having a family kind of threw me off the habit but I do try to go back to it each time I stray.
When I don’t do this exercise, I do find that my day to day interactions find their way into my creative work. I found out early on that if I didn’t write in the morning, or tried writing fiction or poetry after a long day of reading academic books or writing training manuals, my writing would feel awkward or stilted. It just didn’t sound like me.
I think this influence of other art we see during the day can similarly affect the art we create as well. So, as part of my morning ritual now, I write for 10-15 minutes and then sketch for about the same amount of time. It is a very pleasant way to wake up and, in the process, I flex my unique voice and get my brain geared up for creative work. I don’t always have time to work in the studio but at least every day I am flexing that visual creative muscle and, I find, it makes my creative time easier to get into when I do get to go play.
Even if you aren’t able to spend productive time creating every day, I think you would find that a morning sketch, a quick “clay doodle” (just sitting at the studio table, playing with your clay for 15 minutes), or just journaling about design ideas will go a long way to concrete you personal voice. It will also show you what you are drawn to or might give you some really unique ideas for new designs. It’s something I would highly encourage.
So, would you be up for that? If you choose to write or sketch in the mornings, you can increase your motivation by creating a beautifully covered sketchbook or journal. And since polymer clay lends itself so well to decorating just about anything, why not make a beautiful cover for a blank book, and then keep it by your bedside? With a gorgeous tome to work in, you’re sure not to miss out on a very useful and fulfilling bit of creative exercise.
A Book and It’s Cover
The first person who comes to mind when talking of polymer covered journals is Aniko Kolesnikova aka Mandarin Duck. She does some of the most interesting and detailed journal covers you can find in polymer these days. And she doesn’t do just the front. She covers the back quite often, like on this one here.
If you are the sculptural type and want a ton of ideas to get you going on a cover design of your own, check out Aniko’s Flickr photostream. If you want more than just ideas, go to her Etsy page for tutorials, including one for that gorgeous peacock cover that was featured in Polymer Journeys 2019.
The other person that comes readily to mind for polymer covered books, and is one of my early influencers, is Chris Kapono, who, like Aniko, also has an affinity for the word Mandarin for some reason, her shop being Mandarin Moon. Chris’ covers are a riotous mixed-media decoration of polymer with glass cabochons, metal charms, beads, and, sometimes, hand-drawn decoration, as you see in the border of this book below.
Books are a perfect canvas for Chris’ style of decorative polymer. She shares her process as well, through tutorials on her Etsy site and in publications such as her tremendous contribution to the Polymer Art Projects – Organics book.
If you would like to create a cover with a more painterly approach, you might aspire to the work of Monika Duchowicz. Her polymer paintings are masterful but she kindly shares process shots on her Instagram account and was so kind to create a tutorial for her style of polymer painting for The Polymer Arts in the Summer 2017 issue.
Here’s another painterly polymer artist, Zhanna Bessonova, who likes to go really large. I just didn’t want you to think it had to be a small journal or sketchbook. Pick the size of the book you want to write or draw in first, then decide the cover.
I know, I know … the work of these very talented ladies might be intimidating to some people but remember, the whole idea is to make something that can help you find and/or hold onto your unique voice so you certainly don’t need to make covers like these—make them your way! Whatever you can create on a flat sheet of polymer can become a journal cover. Create a cover with a mosaic of textured squares, tons of polymer dots, rhinestones, polymer ‘embrodiery or, heck, canes will do, of course! Strangely enough, I couldn’t really find anyone doing cane covered books. I thought clayers had hit everything with cane slices! They must be out there somewhere! (If you know of some, share the links to them in the comments at the end of this post. Click the header if you are getting this by email.)
Also keep in mind, your cover doesn’t have to be complicated. And it doesn’t have to be polymer. Use whatever you like and do as much or as little as you like on it. Look at this lovely but simple book by a French crafter who goes by shop name alone – Avenuedes Fantaisies. It’s just a polymer honeycomb background and some fun rhinestone bees that were probably pins at one time, but it feels joyful.
You really can attach anything you want to your book cover. It’s for you, so if you are up for the challenge, make it yours!
New Issue of The Polymer Studio, coming late July
If you haven’t seen the new cover roaming about social media, here it is! Debbie Crothers’s acrylic on polymer beads grace the front for issue #3. We also have tutorials by Christi Friesen, Anita Long, Beatriz Cominatto, Kathy Koontz and Nika Nakit. There is also a fascinating interview with Beatriz, Brazil’s premiere polymer artist with a branded line of polymer clay, and a peek into the studio of master miniature artist, Angie Scarr. Plus much more.
Start or renew subscriptions or pre-order a copy on the website here.
Painter for a Day
I am off to paint a bathroom today then back to polishing the next issue. We might have a fully functional bathroom by the end of the day Monday but only if I can get this part done today. It’s not that the contractors couldn’t paint it but, well, I’m cheaper—I just require some yummy baked goods and a good audiobook or podcast and I’ll work away! And, honestly, I will do a better job. When it’s your place, you just take extra care with things. So, I am off. Enjoy your Sunday and have a beautiful week! I hope you get up every morning before your mind is otherwise influenced, and you write or create something just for yourself. You deserve it!
High On Art
June 23, 2019
Inspirational Art
Just flew in from Australia yesterday so I’m a bit jetlagged still but I wrote up some thoughts on the plane and pulled some pretties to demonstrate some more ideas on passion in your art, so here goes.
If you are reading this, chances are, you are passionate about art, either creating it or supporting its creation. Can we take just a few spare seconds to admire and be amazed by that passion of yours? I’d suggest that you stop at this moment and really let the emotion of that passion of yours come to the forefront, letting it blossom in the memory of what drives you to create or be supportive of creativity. Can you feel it? Close your eyes if you don’t feel it yet and just give it a few seconds to come to the surface so I can pose a few questions while that emotion is coursing through you.
Got it now? Okay. So, tell me … what color is your passion? Close your eyes if you need to and see what color blooms in your mind.
Then ask, does your passion have a temperature? Is it cool and constant or warm and rolling? Or something else entirely?
What does it act like? Is it like a soft, persistent wind, or a crashing ocean or something in between?
It doesn’t matter what metaphors you come up with for the feeling, you just want something concrete to hold onto. With those sensations and images in mind now, ask yourself, is that feeling there when you sit down to create? Does that passion spill out onto your worktable and direct your work? Does it drive you to come up with ideas or search out and soak up great art and other inspiring sights and sounds?
With all these metaphors and answers in your mind, I want to ask the core question that just couldn’t be put forth until you were in the right mindset:
Do you like what you create and why you create?
That might sound like a strange question because who would continue to create art while not liking it? Well, many of us do. That’s been at the heart of several conversations I’ve had recently, all related to trying to make a living from creative endeavors. That need to pay one’s bills is not the kind of drive that we really want to direct our work if fulfilling our passion is at all a goal of ours.
The fact is, letting out your passion and letting it guide you feel risky because you are putting a bit of yourself out there into the world in that process. Or a lot of yourself sometimes. It’s scary, isn’t it, putting your latest work out, wondering what people will think, whether it will sell or whether the receiver will like it? But it’s thrilling too, especially when people respond to it, when they connect to your work and to you. It’s a serious high.
You deserve to get that high on art. Don’t you think?
High on Creativity
I bet you can spy those artists who do get that high on a regular basis, people who let their passion run wild and lead their work. Here are just a few of my personal favorites but start thinking of your own as I go through them.
One of the first people that comes to mind is Ellen Jewett. She has worked in polymer, epoxy, and paper clay, using no tools but her hands and a brush, and makes only what she wants to make. Here is but one of her mind-blowing sculptures.
Her work is born of a unique and driving passion. In her own words:
At first glance my work explores the more modern prosaic concept of nature: a source of serene nostalgia but this is balanced with the more visceral experience of ‘wildness’ as remarkably alien and indifferent. Upon closer inspection of each ‘creature’ the viewer may discover a frieze on which themes as familiar as domestication and as abrasive as domination fall into sharp relief. These qualities are not only present in the final work but are fleshed out in the process of building. Each sculpture is constructed using an additive technique, layered from inside to out by an accumulation of innumerable tiny components. Many of these components are microcosmic representations of plants, animals and objects. Some are beautiful, some are grotesque and some are fantastical. The singularity of each sculpture is the sum total of its small narrative structures.
I encourage you to take the time to read her full artist statement. You may be surprised by her approach and amazed by her insights into her own work and purpose.
I have found that many of insanely passionate artists are also similarly intense thinkers. Some of these passionate thinkers take their love of art a step further by sharing their passion through education as a way to spark and inspire the creativity of others. Christine Dumont is just such an artist, giving polymer and mixed media artists a place to push themselves and grow through her website Viola and its related projects.
Her own work comes about as a result of intense exploration. She does not create to sell, and I think this gives her a freedom that an artist dependent on their work for their income may find harder, although not at all impossible, to achieve.
Christine will actually be in Switzerland teaching this mix of polymer and metal September 14-15, 2019. If you are interested in joining the class, you can message her directly through her website.
As demonstrated by Christine’s passion for teaching, a creative passion doesn’t have to manifest itself purely in your art. Teaching, which takes a particular passion of its own, is just one alternate avenue to steer one’s creative passions. Giving back to others is another way. We had a whole section of community recognition for polymer artists who give back in our first edition Polymer Journey in 2016. We have so many giving and generous people in this community! One of those beautiful people is Wendy Moore who I had the unparalleled pleasure of staying with this past week in Canberra, Australia.
Her creative passion was intertwined with a passion to give back to others when she founded the Friends of Samunnat alongside Nepalese lawyer Kopila Basnet, to help support and give independence to women who were victims of violence. Wendy’s passion and empathy for others is seen directly in her art as well, including this piece I photographed at her home but which you can also find in the Polymer Journeys 2019 edition. It is a representation of her “confusion and angst relating to issues about how we move forward in relationships with Australia’s indigenous people.”
Wendy’s passion has not gone unnoticed outside the polymer community either. It was recently announced that she has been awarded the 2019 Order of Australia medal by the Australian Governor-General for her contribution to the international community of Nepal! This is one of a set of awards and appointments the Australian government uses as a principal way of recognizing outstanding citizens. Join me in a big congratulations to (a probably very embarrassed and blushing) Wendy Moore. Read more about the award along with her interview in this article here.
And you can also look forward to reading in depth about Wendy, her journey, her work, and her life in issue #4 of The Polymer Studio later this year, so keep up those subscriptions!
Here are a few pics from my time with Wendy. I’ll get more photos of the trip up on Facebook where you are welcome to follow me.
Wendy and I contemplating the insanity of this immense tapestry which recreated a much smaller painting in every nuance. At the Australian Parliament house’s Great Hall.
Forest labyrinth built by some passionate creative person in the bush just beyond Wendy’s house. Wendy and I are walking it with my step-daughter and Wendy’s granddaughter.
Photos by Brett Varon
There are so, so many other artists I could point out as examples of deeply passionate people who let that passion drive the work they do, both in and outside the studio. But this is all I have in me to write just now. Right now, I am very passionate about sleep!
However, I would encourage you to continue this search for passion in your daily perusals of artwork online. I would challenge you to keep an eye out for work in which the artist’s passion is intensely obvious and try to imagine the emotion and drive that they must have to create the wonderful work they share with us.
If you aren’t feeling a glimmer of what you think these dynamos must have, perhaps it’s time to assess what you are doing and why. Perhaps you need to infuse your work with new inspiration and materials (as suggested in last week’s post) or maybe you would be more fulfilled spending some of your time teaching (which might include writing articles for publications like The Polymer Studio. Check out our guidelines.) or maybe you need to step back and ensure you are creating in a fulfilling and meaningful way for you, not just for your customers. If your work is infused with your passion, you’ll sell it and you’ll get noticed. Just note how highly passionate art grabs your attention!
Okay, off for more sleep so I can hit the ground running on Monday as I aim to get Issue #3 off to the printer in early July. It’s shaping up to be a really gorgeous issue but I’m still having my challenges here as the house is still in various stages of construction (the worst of it being there are no working sinks except the one in the garage) but the bones of the kitchen are in so that is awesome! Now I can start working on the back-splash I designed. Well, maybe after this next issue if off to the printer.
In the meantime, have a wonderful, inspired, and passionate week!
A Blossoming Passion
June 18, 2019
Ponderings
I’m sorry to say that I have not been able to find sufficient Wi-Fi or cellular service to work on research and photos for this blog. I tried getting these done before I left but it got a bit chaotic and you know what they say about best-laid plans! But here is another little story about passion that will hopefully hold you over until I return next weekend.
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
I am on Kangaroo Island in South Australia right now. 2 days ago we were in Cairns off the Great Barrier Reef where we got to see a real passion bloom in our teenager. My step-daughter just graduated high school and this trip was her graduation present. Australia and the Great Barrier Reef, in particular, were chosen because she is entering college as a Marine Biology major. She had to declare a major when she applied but the truth is, she is not at all certain what she wants to do. She is interested in conservation and environmental issues so the reef and its survival through the ravages of global warming is something that resonates with her.
In Cairns, were lucky enough to find a snorkeling trip run by a very passionate marine biologist who took us out on the reefs and educated us for a good hour on the creatures of the reef, the ecology, and the efforts being made to save it. Our teenager soaked it all in, every word. You could see her interest blossoming into an intense passion before our eyes. She couldn’t stop talking about it. It was so lovely to see that. I nearly cried.
This is not to say that she might not change her mind later but I do think we witnessed the start of an intense journey out there in the aqua blue ocean. Do you remember when your passion for art or for polymer occurred? Do you remember the feeling? Is it still there?
If that same passion doesn’t still exist, it is okay to consider a change. I have had so many passionate excursions in my life although writing and creativity have always been out front. Sometimes we just need to get out and adventure to figure it out or find it again. Sometimes those adventures just reaffirm or invigorate a passion that already exists but perhaps those passions needed a new and novel experience to energize them again. Or perhaps it is not the subject that is in question but what you are doing with it.
The blog I had planned for this week was originally about that—figuring out if we are doing what we want with our passion and our love of art. It is a question that needs to be asked regularly. Sure, routine and inertia can keep you going even if you’re not completely happy with what you are doing, but shouldn’t we strive to do what we love if at all possible?
This week, I’d like to suggest that you try something new every day. Not just in your art but in your daily life. Drive a new way to work. Shop at a different grocery store. Take a day hike at a nearby park or area you’ve never been to. Wear your hair differently. Try a new food or restaurant. And in the studio, try a new technique, just once at least. Or try a new material even. Or a new form—so if you primarily do jewelry, try sculpture or wall art. Set yourself this challenge just to shake it up and see what you discover. You never know if a new passion will bloom inside of you from just one little different adventure.
A Passion Story
June 9, 2019
Inspirational Art
My apologies for the lateness of this post. Nothing has quite worked out the way I had planned this week. From yet a new plumbing problem and further demolition being planned to the sad yet exciting news that my assistant and keeper of lists, Sydney, is moving on to work with a business helping people with eating disorders to the graduation of our teen, setting up for the next issue and our vacation preparations, it has been beyond busy here. I wrote this on a plane to Australia and still am not sure when I’ll get to post it.
The craziness of this week, has, however, had its moments of clarity and calm, at least enough to have a couple of conversations on a subject that is very dear to me … passion. So I thought I’d share my thoughts and, perhaps, get you thinking about your passions and your voice. But, alas, I can’t do the usual research in my present situation, so I am going to tell you some stories about me instead, just a little view of a life driven by my passions and need to be creative and expressive. My apologies for the lack of photos. I’ll make up for it in the coming weeks.
This text is actually from a talk I gave with Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes at Eurosynergy in Malta in 2014 titled Finding your Artistic Voice. My story isn’t purely about polymer art though as writing has been the larger part of my creative journey.
My journey as a writer started when I was very young. I was writing stories in my head from the time I had language enough to do so. I wrote my first book at age 9 and, encouraged by an insightful teacher who saw something in this fearful, quiet, and intensely shy child, I became determined to be a writer. I was lucky to find a passion as a child as my voice developed at an age when I did not think about having to please anyone besides myself or follow what others did. I still try to return to a childlike state in my mind as much as I can—the child mind is so unencumbered with little or no critic, less of a need to ‘fix’ what they are doing, and seeing the world as still new and intensely interesting.
Because of that, my journey as a writer has been very organic and relatively unencumbered. But it did have its challenges. My undergraduate college work was in art but I went back for my Master’s in Writing in San Francisco, the birthplace of beatnik poetry and a lot of great but very edgy & alternative writing. I concentrated on poetry but I wrote for the average person. I wrote about normal things—nature, everyday struggles, and just things I saw out my window or on a walk.
I was heavily criticized by the other students for not doing something “different”. Sure, most all my subjects have been written about thousands of times but they were not written by me and they were not filtered through my eyes. Back then, it never occurred to me to give in to criticism because my writing was so ingrained in me and I grew up just writing what I wanted and didn’t question my subject choices. As a result, I think my work had a recognized honesty and my writing was well received by my professors and department heads. I was nominated for a number of awards and I continuously published for nearly 5 years. Half the other students in my master’s program couldn’t say that.
Eventually, and somewhat ironically, I stopped publishing because I ended up spending more time at readings and shows than writing and I wanted to focus on the writing more. Although the creative writing efforts didn’t go where I had hoped, that focus allowed me to build a career in writing as a freelancer, although it was non-fiction magazine articles and training materials. But in these, I found my passion for teaching and sharing knowledge with others.
Visual art, although an intense passion now, was a long time developing. I actually didn’t see myself as a visual artist at all until I was in my late teens when I accidentally ended up in an advanced Life Drawing class and couldn’t get out of it right away. However, being forced to do the initial assignments, I found that visual arts came quite naturally to me. But with writing being my “thing”, I just thought of art as something fun to do. I was eventually convinced by two different professors to change my major from writing to art, my eventual reason being that I felt I had a lot more to learn about art than writing.
In art school, I was still able to draw on my childlike wonder and sense of exploration, probably because I had kept it alive in my writing all through my younger years. After art school, I worked in charcoal and fiber as well as mixed-media but wasn’t driven to make a career of art until polymer found me nearly 18 years after art school. My polymer journey was quite different than my previous creative treks. I found that I had lost a lot of my childlike tendencies and was out of practice having taken years off my creative endeavors to work and take care of family. But, like many of you, when I found polymer, I became obsessed. I quit my writing career so I could be a full-time artist and so, obviously, I geared what I did to make a living but that gave me a very different focus to start with than I had when I started writing or when I started art school.
My dual drive—to make a living as well as explore this fascinating medium—pushed me to learn as much as I could in 4 months and then I started doing shows, so from the start, my polymer art was about selling it. Although I was initially making art that made me happy, it was not long before I was making art according to what I thought would sell. That resulted in some gimmicky things that were more for and about the market than me. I sold well enough for a while but I slowly began to dislike my work and when that happened, coincidence or not, my sales started to slow.
Eventually, I went back to freelance writing part-time in order to allow myself to start making what I wanted. Not having to count on my art alone to pay my bills was very freeing. Strange thing though … I sold a lot more for better prices when I just did what I wanted.
What happened? For one, I think I was happier with my work, finding so much more joy in what I was doing, and I think it showed it came through in the work, making the art more desirable. I returned to combining other mediums in my work which allowed me really explore the medium in ways I had not done before. I was back to selling out at nearly every show, was invited to teach classes and spoke at shows in rooms so packed that I was often moved me to bigger rooms to accommodate. I believe my success at that time was due largely to my passion showing rather than external pressures driving what I did.
Eventually, though, my passions changed (they will do that!) as I was missing the broad sharing of knowledge that writing allowed, so I started a magazine, thinking it would give me time to develop my art in new directions. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a lot of time for my art since then but only because the magazine was such a success. I am still pondering my passions though and what I’ll do next. That’s part of what I want to do on this trip. Consider where my passions truly lie these days and decide if the changes I’ve made recently are feeding them or might there be more changes in the near future?
I’ll talk more about this in the coming weeks and I’ll get photos up then too. Thanks for being patient with me while I travel and think about your passions and what you are doing in the meantime identify what you love most about what you do and whether or not you are feeding your true passions.
(Apologies for typos and odd grammar. I’m not going to have time to proof this very well and my dyslexia is out and causing havoc with this jetlag! I hope you enjoy my story nonetheless.)
Orient your Contrast (+Sitewide Sale)
June 2, 2019
Inspirational Art
Have you ever looked at a piece that you are creating and think, it could use a little more contrast? And when you think of contrast, what do you turn to? Colors? Light or dark values? Maybe texture? How about, next time you’re looking for more contrast, you consider orientation?
In most work, there is a perceivable orientation of the pieces, marks, and edges. If everything is going in the same direction –vertically, horizontally, or some version of diagonally – there is a constant and strong flow in that direction which can be a wonderful way to convey certain emotions or levels of energy, but mixing it up can increase the energy of your work when it needs that extra boost.
I was thinking about that this week because we finally determined a suitable tile design for our new shower. The go-to design for shower accent tile is running it horizontally towards the top of the wall, although vertical lines have become a thing of late. I don’t particularly like either, but then I came up with the idea of having both – a vertical run of accent tile down the middle of the faucet wall and a horizontal one on the opposite side where we created a sunken ledge. I came up to this when it hit me that we had only been considering contrast in terms of tile color and not the orientation of those swaths of contrasting tile.
So, I thought this week we could look at contrast of orientation in polymer art. It can be such a simple thing to tweak in a design and yet it can make a huge difference in the feel, dynamics, and focus of the work.
Orientation versus Line
I think we need to define a couple of terms before we dive in here. As you’ll see, I’m going to use the words “orientation” and “line” a lot in this post, but I don’t want you to get confused and think of them as the same thing in terms of design.
Let me start out being the master of the obvious for a moment by defining those terms: Orientation is the relative position of an object or element from a particular viewpoint while a line is an element that follows a singular path and whose path can have an orientation. For instance, a bean pod lying on the counter has a horizontal orientation. The seam of the pod, on the other hand, is a line, which, following the length of the pod, will have the same horizontal orientation as the pod’s shape. Crack open that seam and you have a horizontal row of beans as well, even if each bean is sitting up (so each bean itself has a vertical orientation.) That’s because a row is a visual line. However, each item in a row will have its own orientation as well.
In other words, most everything will have its own orientation, including lines, but lines are not the only thing that has an orientation. Their orientation just happens to be very prominent and lines are a common and highly employed design element so I end up pointing them out a lot here.
Below is a more interesting example than a bean pod (although I found this while looking for polymer bean pods because Shelley Atwood, the creator of this pair of earrings has also made bean pod earrings!) Here there are a lot of vertical elements. The overall shape, the snakes of clay, and the row of balls are all vertical. However, the texture on one side runs horizontally within the vertical shape of the earring. And with that, she’s created contrast in orientation.
So, all you have to remember is that a line will have an orientation, but a shape, mark, or edge, also has an orientation. Orientation is like a bigger, more general characteristic of an element while line is just one type of element. Is that all a bit much for a Sunday morning? I wasn’t aiming to take you to class but there you have it!
Cases for Contrasting Orientation
Let’s start with a simple but high contrast example in orientation. This pendant by Kseniya of Etsy shop Solar Bird has a vertical shape but is heavy on the horizontal lines. The contrast in orientation carries this piece. It takes a simple construction – a stack of extruded canes – and creates the energy this contemporary, understated piece needs. The contrast between surfaces (the horizontal lines versus the stack of concentric circle cane ends) creates interest but such a pendant would not have had as much presence if it had been a simple square or an equilateral triangle as those lack the contrast of the vertical shape against the horizontal lines we have here.
Here is another way to work with a vertical shape and introduce contrast in orientation. These polymer and metal earrings by Sue Savage include vertical polymer shapes with diagonal lines in the treated polymer and in the wire, creating a very dynamic, kind of spinning feel to the set.
The elements in Jeffrey Lloyd Dever’s work is a constant study of variation in contrasting orientation. His pin in the opening image of this post has elements that are strongly opposed in orientation. However, how the brooch is worn determines the level of contrast and how it feels when looking at it. If the long central body of the brooch is set vertically or horizontally the individual spines create a high opposing, and thus contrasting, orientation. If set on a horizontal, like it is in the image, it becomes a series of opposing horizontals which isn’t quite as stark a contrast. Isn’t that interesting?
There is one design element on that pin, and in his assemblage piece below, that does not have an orientation but is integral to the design, slowing down all that contrasting energy and giving the eye a place to rest. I bet you can identify what that is.
As you might have noted earlier, I said that “most” objects have an orientation. Well, you are now seeing the one type of object that does not – a symmetrically round one. A circle or a ball has no top or bottom, no sides, no vertical, horizontal, or diagonal edges. It is one continuous curve. Because of that it visually sits still. It is grounded and yet imbued with mild energy. That’s why circles, dots, and balls make such great focal points. So, if you going to go high contrast with lines or orientation, and it feels like it needs to be reined in, a round element may be just what you need. With every type of orientation included in the brooch assemblage above, the ball is needed to anchor all that energy, give it focus, and provide a place for the viewer’s eye to rest.
Let’s look at a more subtle use of orientation that is still high contrast. Sonya Girodon loves contrasting verticals and horizontals, sometimes in very obvious and stark ways, but other times her dedication to these absolute orientations is set in a more understated manner.
In the necklace below, most elements are involved in both horizontal and vertical orientations. The horizontals appear as marks on the clay but are also present in the row of staple-like wires, the two rows of circles (the horizontal emphasized by the lines running through them), and in how the vertical marks are lined up. The staple wires themselves are vertical as are many of the marks and the overall shape of the pendant. This high contrast in vertical versus horizontal within the elements that make up this piece creates a tremendous amount of energy but it is softened and contained by the curve of the central shapes and the circles which, again, create a focal point.
I think by now you must be getting the idea. You can switch up the orientation of elements such as shape, line, and marks to increase, decrease or anchor the energy of your designs. I think we all inherently know this, but how often do you make a conscious decision as to how the various components or elements in your work will sit in relation to the others? I think this may be one of those too often neglected design decisions. But maybe now it won’t be glossed over next time you sit down at your studio table.
I am going to have to leave it at that this week. I have much to do as I prepare to run off to Australia next weekend. I am going to put together something for you to have on the weekends while I’m gone and, with any luck, I’ll be able to sneak in some pics from the trip as well. But as those of you who travel internationally a lot know, you just can’t count on Internet connectivity. And I could really use some unplugged time.
Important Info in Our Recent Newsletter
In the meantime, if you got our recent newsletter or if you are a reader of our other publications (thank you so much for your support of our projects!), be sure to read about the upcoming increases in USPS shipping and why it has become so very important to keep us up-to-date on any change of address.
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We have walls!
For all you fabulous and funny people who are still interested in the house progress here, we have walls and floors and many fewer holes! We still don’t always have a hot shower so we have to get that figured out and soon. But we have had some warm days for the first time in I don’t how long, so it’s been a good week. But the constant checking in with the contractors and this whole designing of the shower tile has eaten up a ton of time so I must run off. It’s a working Sunday for me, which is kind of sad, but it’s going to be worth it when I am snorkeling through the Great Barrier Reef and shooting pictures of curious creatures on Kangaroo Island!
In the meantime, stay inspired, keep creating, and enjoy a wonderful first week of June!
Monika Duchowicz’s Slavic Village polymer journal cover
Have you ever gone to a foreign country and found yourself talking like them after being there awhile? It might just be the phrasing but perhaps you take on accents or hand gestures as well. It’s natural to adopt accents and ways of speaking when you are around it a lot. That’s how you learned to talk as a baby and your brain doesn’t completely turn off that learning from what you hear around you.
This phenomenon can happen with things other than language too. As fashion and décor changes around us, we may find our tastes get tweaked along with them. When we peruse social media sites and see artwork online, we may adopt a tendency towards certain types of design, colors, and forms. This can happen over time or even over the course of a day. That means that what you see online and around you can effect what you create.
So how do you keep your own voice and your style unaltered? Well, you can’t, really. Our aesthetic is formed from our interaction with our world but we can do something about the dominance of other influences over our own unique and personal voice. But it’s like muscle memory and that takes regular practice.
Ages ago, I read a book written in 1920 (whose title and author I have shamefully forgotten) on how to be a writer. The author had one line that really struck me. After stating he explained that a writer must get up every morning and, before doing anything else including getting out of bed, he or she must write at least a page of what we would now call free-writing, because this was the only way to insure the writer would wrote with their own voice later in the day. The section ended with him saying, “If you cannot get up and write a page every morning, then you are not a writer.”
At that point, a writer was all I wanted to be, so, fearful that I would not prove up to the task and therefore, I’d never be a real writer (I was rather young and impressionable then), I took that line to heart and I wrote every morning, no matter what, for what was probably about 10 years. Getting married and having a family kind of threw me off the habit but I do try to go back to it each time I stray.
When I don’t do this exercise, I do find that my day to day interactions find their way into my creative work. I found out early on that if I didn’t write in the morning, or tried writing fiction or poetry after a long day of reading academic books or writing training manuals, my writing would feel awkward or stilted. It just didn’t sound like me.
I think this influence of other art we see during the day can similarly affect the art we create as well. So, as part of my morning ritual now, I write for 10-15 minutes and then sketch for about the same amount of time. It is a very pleasant way to wake up and, in the process, I flex my unique voice and get my brain geared up for creative work. I don’t always have time to work in the studio but at least every day I am flexing that visual creative muscle and, I find, it makes my creative time easier to get into when I do get to go play.
Even if you aren’t able to spend productive time creating every day, I think you would find that a morning sketch, a quick “clay doodle” (just sitting at the studio table, playing with your clay for 15 minutes), or just journaling about design ideas will go a long way to concrete you personal voice. It will also show you what you are drawn to or might give you some really unique ideas for new designs. It’s something I would highly encourage.
So, would you be up for that? If you choose to write or sketch in the mornings, you can increase your motivation by creating a beautifully covered sketchbook or journal. And since polymer clay lends itself so well to decorating just about anything, why not make a beautiful cover for a blank book, and then keep it by your bedside? With a gorgeous tome to work in, you’re sure not to miss out on a very useful and fulfilling bit of creative exercise.
A Book and It’s Cover
The first person who comes to mind when talking of polymer covered journals is Aniko Kolesnikova aka Mandarin Duck. She does some of the most interesting and detailed journal covers you can find in polymer these days. And she doesn’t do just the front. She covers the back quite often, like on this one here.
If you are the sculptural type and want a ton of ideas to get you going on a cover design of your own, check out Aniko’s Flickr photostream. If you want more than just ideas, go to her Etsy page for tutorials, including one for that gorgeous peacock cover that was featured in Polymer Journeys 2019.
The other person that comes readily to mind for polymer covered books, and is one of my early influencers, is Chris Kapono, who, like Aniko, also has an affinity for the word Mandarin for some reason, her shop being Mandarin Moon. Chris’ covers are a riotous mixed-media decoration of polymer with glass cabochons, metal charms, beads, and, sometimes, hand-drawn decoration, as you see in the border of this book below.
Books are a perfect canvas for Chris’ style of decorative polymer. She shares her process as well, through tutorials on her Etsy site and in publications such as her tremendous contribution to the Polymer Art Projects – Organics book.
If you would like to create a cover with a more painterly approach, you might aspire to the work of Monika Duchowicz. Her polymer paintings are masterful but she kindly shares process shots on her Instagram account and was so kind to create a tutorial for her style of polymer painting for The Polymer Arts in the Summer 2017 issue.
Here’s another painterly polymer artist, Zhanna Bessonova, who likes to go really large. I just didn’t want you to think it had to be a small journal or sketchbook. Pick the size of the book you want to write or draw in first, then decide the cover.
I know, I know … the work of these very talented ladies might be intimidating to some people but remember, the whole idea is to make something that can help you find and/or hold onto your unique voice so you certainly don’t need to make covers like these—make them your way! Whatever you can create on a flat sheet of polymer can become a journal cover. Create a cover with a mosaic of textured squares, tons of polymer dots, rhinestones, polymer ‘embrodiery or, heck, canes will do, of course! Strangely enough, I couldn’t really find anyone doing cane covered books. I thought clayers had hit everything with cane slices! They must be out there somewhere! (If you know of some, share the links to them in the comments at the end of this post. Click the header if you are getting this by email.)
Also keep in mind, your cover doesn’t have to be complicated. And it doesn’t have to be polymer. Use whatever you like and do as much or as little as you like on it. Look at this lovely but simple book by a French crafter who goes by shop name alone – Avenuedes Fantaisies. It’s just a polymer honeycomb background and some fun rhinestone bees that were probably pins at one time, but it feels joyful.
You really can attach anything you want to your book cover. It’s for you, so if you are up for the challenge, make it yours!
New Issue of The Polymer Studio, coming late July
If you haven’t seen the new cover roaming about social media, here it is! Debbie Crothers’s acrylic on polymer beads grace the front for issue #3. We also have tutorials by Christi Friesen, Anita Long, Beatriz Cominatto, Kathy Koontz and Nika Nakit. There is also a fascinating interview with Beatriz, Brazil’s premiere polymer artist with a branded line of polymer clay, and a peek into the studio of master miniature artist, Angie Scarr. Plus much more.
Start or renew subscriptions or pre-order a copy on the website here.
Painter for a Day
I am off to paint a bathroom today then back to polishing the next issue. We might have a fully functional bathroom by the end of the day Monday but only if I can get this part done today. It’s not that the contractors couldn’t paint it but, well, I’m cheaper—I just require some yummy baked goods and a good audiobook or podcast and I’ll work away! And, honestly, I will do a better job. When it’s your place, you just take extra care with things. So, I am off. Enjoy your Sunday and have a beautiful week! I hope you get up every morning before your mind is otherwise influenced, and you write or create something just for yourself. You deserve it!
Read MoreJust flew in from Australia yesterday so I’m a bit jetlagged still but I wrote up some thoughts on the plane and pulled some pretties to demonstrate some more ideas on passion in your art, so here goes.
If you are reading this, chances are, you are passionate about art, either creating it or supporting its creation. Can we take just a few spare seconds to admire and be amazed by that passion of yours? I’d suggest that you stop at this moment and really let the emotion of that passion of yours come to the forefront, letting it blossom in the memory of what drives you to create or be supportive of creativity. Can you feel it? Close your eyes if you don’t feel it yet and just give it a few seconds to come to the surface so I can pose a few questions while that emotion is coursing through you.
Got it now? Okay. So, tell me … what color is your passion? Close your eyes if you need to and see what color blooms in your mind.
Then ask, does your passion have a temperature? Is it cool and constant or warm and rolling? Or something else entirely?
What does it act like? Is it like a soft, persistent wind, or a crashing ocean or something in between?
It doesn’t matter what metaphors you come up with for the feeling, you just want something concrete to hold onto. With those sensations and images in mind now, ask yourself, is that feeling there when you sit down to create? Does that passion spill out onto your worktable and direct your work? Does it drive you to come up with ideas or search out and soak up great art and other inspiring sights and sounds?
With all these metaphors and answers in your mind, I want to ask the core question that just couldn’t be put forth until you were in the right mindset:
Do you like what you create and why you create?
That might sound like a strange question because who would continue to create art while not liking it? Well, many of us do. That’s been at the heart of several conversations I’ve had recently, all related to trying to make a living from creative endeavors. That need to pay one’s bills is not the kind of drive that we really want to direct our work if fulfilling our passion is at all a goal of ours.
The fact is, letting out your passion and letting it guide you feel risky because you are putting a bit of yourself out there into the world in that process. Or a lot of yourself sometimes. It’s scary, isn’t it, putting your latest work out, wondering what people will think, whether it will sell or whether the receiver will like it? But it’s thrilling too, especially when people respond to it, when they connect to your work and to you. It’s a serious high.
You deserve to get that high on art. Don’t you think?
High on Creativity
I bet you can spy those artists who do get that high on a regular basis, people who let their passion run wild and lead their work. Here are just a few of my personal favorites but start thinking of your own as I go through them.
One of the first people that comes to mind is Ellen Jewett. She has worked in polymer, epoxy, and paper clay, using no tools but her hands and a brush, and makes only what she wants to make. Here is but one of her mind-blowing sculptures.
Her work is born of a unique and driving passion. In her own words:
At first glance my work explores the more modern prosaic concept of nature: a source of serene nostalgia but this is balanced with the more visceral experience of ‘wildness’ as remarkably alien and indifferent. Upon closer inspection of each ‘creature’ the viewer may discover a frieze on which themes as familiar as domestication and as abrasive as domination fall into sharp relief. These qualities are not only present in the final work but are fleshed out in the process of building. Each sculpture is constructed using an additive technique, layered from inside to out by an accumulation of innumerable tiny components. Many of these components are microcosmic representations of plants, animals and objects. Some are beautiful, some are grotesque and some are fantastical. The singularity of each sculpture is the sum total of its small narrative structures.
I encourage you to take the time to read her full artist statement. You may be surprised by her approach and amazed by her insights into her own work and purpose.
I have found that many of insanely passionate artists are also similarly intense thinkers. Some of these passionate thinkers take their love of art a step further by sharing their passion through education as a way to spark and inspire the creativity of others. Christine Dumont is just such an artist, giving polymer and mixed media artists a place to push themselves and grow through her website Viola and its related projects.
Her own work comes about as a result of intense exploration. She does not create to sell, and I think this gives her a freedom that an artist dependent on their work for their income may find harder, although not at all impossible, to achieve.
Christine will actually be in Switzerland teaching this mix of polymer and metal September 14-15, 2019. If you are interested in joining the class, you can message her directly through her website.
As demonstrated by Christine’s passion for teaching, a creative passion doesn’t have to manifest itself purely in your art. Teaching, which takes a particular passion of its own, is just one alternate avenue to steer one’s creative passions. Giving back to others is another way. We had a whole section of community recognition for polymer artists who give back in our first edition Polymer Journey in 2016. We have so many giving and generous people in this community! One of those beautiful people is Wendy Moore who I had the unparalleled pleasure of staying with this past week in Canberra, Australia.
Her creative passion was intertwined with a passion to give back to others when she founded the Friends of Samunnat alongside Nepalese lawyer Kopila Basnet, to help support and give independence to women who were victims of violence. Wendy’s passion and empathy for others is seen directly in her art as well, including this piece I photographed at her home but which you can also find in the Polymer Journeys 2019 edition. It is a representation of her “confusion and angst relating to issues about how we move forward in relationships with Australia’s indigenous people.”
Wendy’s passion has not gone unnoticed outside the polymer community either. It was recently announced that she has been awarded the 2019 Order of Australia medal by the Australian Governor-General for her contribution to the international community of Nepal! This is one of a set of awards and appointments the Australian government uses as a principal way of recognizing outstanding citizens. Join me in a big congratulations to (a probably very embarrassed and blushing) Wendy Moore. Read more about the award along with her interview in this article here.
And you can also look forward to reading in depth about Wendy, her journey, her work, and her life in issue #4 of The Polymer Studio later this year, so keep up those subscriptions!
Here are a few pics from my time with Wendy. I’ll get more photos of the trip up on Facebook where you are welcome to follow me.
Wendy and I contemplating the insanity of this immense tapestry which recreated a much smaller painting in every nuance. At the Australian Parliament house’s Great Hall.
Forest labyrinth built by some passionate creative person in the bush just beyond Wendy’s house. Wendy and I are walking it with my step-daughter and Wendy’s granddaughter.
Photos by Brett Varon
There are so, so many other artists I could point out as examples of deeply passionate people who let that passion drive the work they do, both in and outside the studio. But this is all I have in me to write just now. Right now, I am very passionate about sleep!
However, I would encourage you to continue this search for passion in your daily perusals of artwork online. I would challenge you to keep an eye out for work in which the artist’s passion is intensely obvious and try to imagine the emotion and drive that they must have to create the wonderful work they share with us.
If you aren’t feeling a glimmer of what you think these dynamos must have, perhaps it’s time to assess what you are doing and why. Perhaps you need to infuse your work with new inspiration and materials (as suggested in last week’s post) or maybe you would be more fulfilled spending some of your time teaching (which might include writing articles for publications like The Polymer Studio. Check out our guidelines.) or maybe you need to step back and ensure you are creating in a fulfilling and meaningful way for you, not just for your customers. If your work is infused with your passion, you’ll sell it and you’ll get noticed. Just note how highly passionate art grabs your attention!
Okay, off for more sleep so I can hit the ground running on Monday as I aim to get Issue #3 off to the printer in early July. It’s shaping up to be a really gorgeous issue but I’m still having my challenges here as the house is still in various stages of construction (the worst of it being there are no working sinks except the one in the garage) but the bones of the kitchen are in so that is awesome! Now I can start working on the back-splash I designed. Well, maybe after this next issue if off to the printer.
In the meantime, have a wonderful, inspired, and passionate week!
Read MoreI’m sorry to say that I have not been able to find sufficient Wi-Fi or cellular service to work on research and photos for this blog. I tried getting these done before I left but it got a bit chaotic and you know what they say about best-laid plans! But here is another little story about passion that will hopefully hold you over until I return next weekend.
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
I am on Kangaroo Island in South Australia right now. 2 days ago we were in Cairns off the Great Barrier Reef where we got to see a real passion bloom in our teenager. My step-daughter just graduated high school and this trip was her graduation present. Australia and the Great Barrier Reef, in particular, were chosen because she is entering college as a Marine Biology major. She had to declare a major when she applied but the truth is, she is not at all certain what she wants to do. She is interested in conservation and environmental issues so the reef and its survival through the ravages of global warming is something that resonates with her.
In Cairns, were lucky enough to find a snorkeling trip run by a very passionate marine biologist who took us out on the reefs and educated us for a good hour on the creatures of the reef, the ecology, and the efforts being made to save it. Our teenager soaked it all in, every word. You could see her interest blossoming into an intense passion before our eyes. She couldn’t stop talking about it. It was so lovely to see that. I nearly cried.
This is not to say that she might not change her mind later but I do think we witnessed the start of an intense journey out there in the aqua blue ocean. Do you remember when your passion for art or for polymer occurred? Do you remember the feeling? Is it still there?
If that same passion doesn’t still exist, it is okay to consider a change. I have had so many passionate excursions in my life although writing and creativity have always been out front. Sometimes we just need to get out and adventure to figure it out or find it again. Sometimes those adventures just reaffirm or invigorate a passion that already exists but perhaps those passions needed a new and novel experience to energize them again. Or perhaps it is not the subject that is in question but what you are doing with it.
The blog I had planned for this week was originally about that—figuring out if we are doing what we want with our passion and our love of art. It is a question that needs to be asked regularly. Sure, routine and inertia can keep you going even if you’re not completely happy with what you are doing, but shouldn’t we strive to do what we love if at all possible?
This week, I’d like to suggest that you try something new every day. Not just in your art but in your daily life. Drive a new way to work. Shop at a different grocery store. Take a day hike at a nearby park or area you’ve never been to. Wear your hair differently. Try a new food or restaurant. And in the studio, try a new technique, just once at least. Or try a new material even. Or a new form—so if you primarily do jewelry, try sculpture or wall art. Set yourself this challenge just to shake it up and see what you discover. You never know if a new passion will bloom inside of you from just one little different adventure.
Read MoreMy apologies for the lateness of this post. Nothing has quite worked out the way I had planned this week. From yet a new plumbing problem and further demolition being planned to the sad yet exciting news that my assistant and keeper of lists, Sydney, is moving on to work with a business helping people with eating disorders to the graduation of our teen, setting up for the next issue and our vacation preparations, it has been beyond busy here. I wrote this on a plane to Australia and still am not sure when I’ll get to post it.
The craziness of this week, has, however, had its moments of clarity and calm, at least enough to have a couple of conversations on a subject that is very dear to me … passion. So I thought I’d share my thoughts and, perhaps, get you thinking about your passions and your voice. But, alas, I can’t do the usual research in my present situation, so I am going to tell you some stories about me instead, just a little view of a life driven by my passions and need to be creative and expressive. My apologies for the lack of photos. I’ll make up for it in the coming weeks.
This text is actually from a talk I gave with Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes at Eurosynergy in Malta in 2014 titled Finding your Artistic Voice. My story isn’t purely about polymer art though as writing has been the larger part of my creative journey.
My journey as a writer started when I was very young. I was writing stories in my head from the time I had language enough to do so. I wrote my first book at age 9 and, encouraged by an insightful teacher who saw something in this fearful, quiet, and intensely shy child, I became determined to be a writer. I was lucky to find a passion as a child as my voice developed at an age when I did not think about having to please anyone besides myself or follow what others did. I still try to return to a childlike state in my mind as much as I can—the child mind is so unencumbered with little or no critic, less of a need to ‘fix’ what they are doing, and seeing the world as still new and intensely interesting.
Because of that, my journey as a writer has been very organic and relatively unencumbered. But it did have its challenges. My undergraduate college work was in art but I went back for my Master’s in Writing in San Francisco, the birthplace of beatnik poetry and a lot of great but very edgy & alternative writing. I concentrated on poetry but I wrote for the average person. I wrote about normal things—nature, everyday struggles, and just things I saw out my window or on a walk.
I was heavily criticized by the other students for not doing something “different”. Sure, most all my subjects have been written about thousands of times but they were not written by me and they were not filtered through my eyes. Back then, it never occurred to me to give in to criticism because my writing was so ingrained in me and I grew up just writing what I wanted and didn’t question my subject choices. As a result, I think my work had a recognized honesty and my writing was well received by my professors and department heads. I was nominated for a number of awards and I continuously published for nearly 5 years. Half the other students in my master’s program couldn’t say that.
Eventually, and somewhat ironically, I stopped publishing because I ended up spending more time at readings and shows than writing and I wanted to focus on the writing more. Although the creative writing efforts didn’t go where I had hoped, that focus allowed me to build a career in writing as a freelancer, although it was non-fiction magazine articles and training materials. But in these, I found my passion for teaching and sharing knowledge with others.
Visual art, although an intense passion now, was a long time developing. I actually didn’t see myself as a visual artist at all until I was in my late teens when I accidentally ended up in an advanced Life Drawing class and couldn’t get out of it right away. However, being forced to do the initial assignments, I found that visual arts came quite naturally to me. But with writing being my “thing”, I just thought of art as something fun to do. I was eventually convinced by two different professors to change my major from writing to art, my eventual reason being that I felt I had a lot more to learn about art than writing.
In art school, I was still able to draw on my childlike wonder and sense of exploration, probably because I had kept it alive in my writing all through my younger years. After art school, I worked in charcoal and fiber as well as mixed-media but wasn’t driven to make a career of art until polymer found me nearly 18 years after art school. My polymer journey was quite different than my previous creative treks. I found that I had lost a lot of my childlike tendencies and was out of practice having taken years off my creative endeavors to work and take care of family. But, like many of you, when I found polymer, I became obsessed. I quit my writing career so I could be a full-time artist and so, obviously, I geared what I did to make a living but that gave me a very different focus to start with than I had when I started writing or when I started art school.
My dual drive—to make a living as well as explore this fascinating medium—pushed me to learn as much as I could in 4 months and then I started doing shows, so from the start, my polymer art was about selling it. Although I was initially making art that made me happy, it was not long before I was making art according to what I thought would sell. That resulted in some gimmicky things that were more for and about the market than me. I sold well enough for a while but I slowly began to dislike my work and when that happened, coincidence or not, my sales started to slow.
Eventually, I went back to freelance writing part-time in order to allow myself to start making what I wanted. Not having to count on my art alone to pay my bills was very freeing. Strange thing though … I sold a lot more for better prices when I just did what I wanted.
What happened? For one, I think I was happier with my work, finding so much more joy in what I was doing, and I think it showed it came through in the work, making the art more desirable. I returned to combining other mediums in my work which allowed me really explore the medium in ways I had not done before. I was back to selling out at nearly every show, was invited to teach classes and spoke at shows in rooms so packed that I was often moved me to bigger rooms to accommodate. I believe my success at that time was due largely to my passion showing rather than external pressures driving what I did.
Eventually, though, my passions changed (they will do that!) as I was missing the broad sharing of knowledge that writing allowed, so I started a magazine, thinking it would give me time to develop my art in new directions. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a lot of time for my art since then but only because the magazine was such a success. I am still pondering my passions though and what I’ll do next. That’s part of what I want to do on this trip. Consider where my passions truly lie these days and decide if the changes I’ve made recently are feeding them or might there be more changes in the near future?
I’ll talk more about this in the coming weeks and I’ll get photos up then too. Thanks for being patient with me while I travel and think about your passions and what you are doing in the meantime identify what you love most about what you do and whether or not you are feeding your true passions.
(Apologies for typos and odd grammar. I’m not going to have time to proof this very well and my dyslexia is out and causing havoc with this jetlag! I hope you enjoy my story nonetheless.)
Read MoreHave you ever looked at a piece that you are creating and think, it could use a little more contrast? And when you think of contrast, what do you turn to? Colors? Light or dark values? Maybe texture? How about, next time you’re looking for more contrast, you consider orientation?
In most work, there is a perceivable orientation of the pieces, marks, and edges. If everything is going in the same direction –vertically, horizontally, or some version of diagonally – there is a constant and strong flow in that direction which can be a wonderful way to convey certain emotions or levels of energy, but mixing it up can increase the energy of your work when it needs that extra boost.
I was thinking about that this week because we finally determined a suitable tile design for our new shower. The go-to design for shower accent tile is running it horizontally towards the top of the wall, although vertical lines have become a thing of late. I don’t particularly like either, but then I came up with the idea of having both – a vertical run of accent tile down the middle of the faucet wall and a horizontal one on the opposite side where we created a sunken ledge. I came up to this when it hit me that we had only been considering contrast in terms of tile color and not the orientation of those swaths of contrasting tile.
So, I thought this week we could look at contrast of orientation in polymer art. It can be such a simple thing to tweak in a design and yet it can make a huge difference in the feel, dynamics, and focus of the work.
Orientation versus Line
I think we need to define a couple of terms before we dive in here. As you’ll see, I’m going to use the words “orientation” and “line” a lot in this post, but I don’t want you to get confused and think of them as the same thing in terms of design.
Let me start out being the master of the obvious for a moment by defining those terms: Orientation is the relative position of an object or element from a particular viewpoint while a line is an element that follows a singular path and whose path can have an orientation. For instance, a bean pod lying on the counter has a horizontal orientation. The seam of the pod, on the other hand, is a line, which, following the length of the pod, will have the same horizontal orientation as the pod’s shape. Crack open that seam and you have a horizontal row of beans as well, even if each bean is sitting up (so each bean itself has a vertical orientation.) That’s because a row is a visual line. However, each item in a row will have its own orientation as well.
In other words, most everything will have its own orientation, including lines, but lines are not the only thing that has an orientation. Their orientation just happens to be very prominent and lines are a common and highly employed design element so I end up pointing them out a lot here.
Below is a more interesting example than a bean pod (although I found this while looking for polymer bean pods because Shelley Atwood, the creator of this pair of earrings has also made bean pod earrings!) Here there are a lot of vertical elements. The overall shape, the snakes of clay, and the row of balls are all vertical. However, the texture on one side runs horizontally within the vertical shape of the earring. And with that, she’s created contrast in orientation.
So, all you have to remember is that a line will have an orientation, but a shape, mark, or edge, also has an orientation. Orientation is like a bigger, more general characteristic of an element while line is just one type of element. Is that all a bit much for a Sunday morning? I wasn’t aiming to take you to class but there you have it!
Cases for Contrasting Orientation
Let’s start with a simple but high contrast example in orientation. This pendant by Kseniya of Etsy shop Solar Bird has a vertical shape but is heavy on the horizontal lines. The contrast in orientation carries this piece. It takes a simple construction – a stack of extruded canes – and creates the energy this contemporary, understated piece needs. The contrast between surfaces (the horizontal lines versus the stack of concentric circle cane ends) creates interest but such a pendant would not have had as much presence if it had been a simple square or an equilateral triangle as those lack the contrast of the vertical shape against the horizontal lines we have here.
Here is another way to work with a vertical shape and introduce contrast in orientation. These polymer and metal earrings by Sue Savage include vertical polymer shapes with diagonal lines in the treated polymer and in the wire, creating a very dynamic, kind of spinning feel to the set.
The elements in Jeffrey Lloyd Dever’s work is a constant study of variation in contrasting orientation. His pin in the opening image of this post has elements that are strongly opposed in orientation. However, how the brooch is worn determines the level of contrast and how it feels when looking at it. If the long central body of the brooch is set vertically or horizontally the individual spines create a high opposing, and thus contrasting, orientation. If set on a horizontal, like it is in the image, it becomes a series of opposing horizontals which isn’t quite as stark a contrast. Isn’t that interesting?
There is one design element on that pin, and in his assemblage piece below, that does not have an orientation but is integral to the design, slowing down all that contrasting energy and giving the eye a place to rest. I bet you can identify what that is.
As you might have noted earlier, I said that “most” objects have an orientation. Well, you are now seeing the one type of object that does not – a symmetrically round one. A circle or a ball has no top or bottom, no sides, no vertical, horizontal, or diagonal edges. It is one continuous curve. Because of that it visually sits still. It is grounded and yet imbued with mild energy. That’s why circles, dots, and balls make such great focal points. So, if you going to go high contrast with lines or orientation, and it feels like it needs to be reined in, a round element may be just what you need. With every type of orientation included in the brooch assemblage above, the ball is needed to anchor all that energy, give it focus, and provide a place for the viewer’s eye to rest.
Let’s look at a more subtle use of orientation that is still high contrast. Sonya Girodon loves contrasting verticals and horizontals, sometimes in very obvious and stark ways, but other times her dedication to these absolute orientations is set in a more understated manner.
In the necklace below, most elements are involved in both horizontal and vertical orientations. The horizontals appear as marks on the clay but are also present in the row of staple-like wires, the two rows of circles (the horizontal emphasized by the lines running through them), and in how the vertical marks are lined up. The staple wires themselves are vertical as are many of the marks and the overall shape of the pendant. This high contrast in vertical versus horizontal within the elements that make up this piece creates a tremendous amount of energy but it is softened and contained by the curve of the central shapes and the circles which, again, create a focal point.
I think by now you must be getting the idea. You can switch up the orientation of elements such as shape, line, and marks to increase, decrease or anchor the energy of your designs. I think we all inherently know this, but how often do you make a conscious decision as to how the various components or elements in your work will sit in relation to the others? I think this may be one of those too often neglected design decisions. But maybe now it won’t be glossed over next time you sit down at your studio table.
I am going to have to leave it at that this week. I have much to do as I prepare to run off to Australia next weekend. I am going to put together something for you to have on the weekends while I’m gone and, with any luck, I’ll be able to sneak in some pics from the trip as well. But as those of you who travel internationally a lot know, you just can’t count on Internet connectivity. And I could really use some unplugged time.
Important Info in Our Recent Newsletter
In the meantime, if you got our recent newsletter or if you are a reader of our other publications (thank you so much for your support of our projects!), be sure to read about the upcoming increases in USPS shipping and why it has become so very important to keep us up-to-date on any change of address.
There is some fantastic news in that newsletter as well – we are having a sitewide SALE! Go ahead, stock up, and take 10% off everything in your cart. Head over to our website here by Thursday (June 6th) and use Promo code Now10.
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We have walls!
For all you fabulous and funny people who are still interested in the house progress here, we have walls and floors and many fewer holes! We still don’t always have a hot shower so we have to get that figured out and soon. But we have had some warm days for the first time in I don’t how long, so it’s been a good week. But the constant checking in with the contractors and this whole designing of the shower tile has eaten up a ton of time so I must run off. It’s a working Sunday for me, which is kind of sad, but it’s going to be worth it when I am snorkeling through the Great Barrier Reef and shooting pictures of curious creatures on Kangaroo Island!
In the meantime, stay inspired, keep creating, and enjoy a wonderful first week of June!
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