Rousing Repetition

Neon Paper beads necklace by Devi Chand.

First of all, thank you to all you amazing, wonderful, caring folks who sent me notes and words of encouragement and offers of help and even a book in one case, all due to my little tendinitis issue. You are the most amazing people. What a fantastic community we have! I expect most of you are dealing with something frustratingly disruptive in your life and things a lot worse than my little annoyance in many cases so know that my heart goes out to you too. Life is challenging. So, let’s go out and wrestle it and show the universe what we’re made of!

I do have more news but I’m going to save the update on my situation until the end so you can enjoy some artwork first.

Okay, on to the contemplation of art!

Rousing Repetition

This week I want to talk about repetition. Do you like heavy repetition in artwork, where a single form, mark, or motif is repeated over and over? Saying it like that makes it sound boring and unimaginative. But I think repetition has gotten a bad rap. I mean, sure, in some circumstances, like when someone says the same thing over and over again in a conversation, it is going to get on your nerves. But when it comes to design, repetition can be mesmerizing, energetic, and downright stunning. The trick is to put some rhythm and variation into that repetition. Or at least, if it’s very static, it’s best if it is obvious that a lack of variation is intentional to convey stillness, poise, or something of that sort.

I thought we’d pull up some really beautiful examples of repetition to prove the point. You’ll note in all these pieces that although form, shape, motif, or other characteristics are repeated, variation in other aspects of the design choices brings in the energy and rhythm that draws us in. The repeating element also serves to create cohesiveness and unity amongst all the other elements

So, as we go through these this week, identify the repeating design elements in each piece and then the variation that makes the repetition so interesting for you. I’ll show the piece first before I talk about it so you have a chance to consider and see what you come up with. Mind you, you will often come up with things that I won’t and that doesn’t mean that I’m right and you’re not. When art is viewed, it has to be fundamentally about personal interpretation so there is a ton of room for your unique point of view. Asking yourself these questions that I periodically challenge you with just gets you to actively think about the work, homes your eye, and, hopefully, gives you the understanding to verbalize those things so you can translate them into aspects of your own work.

So, let’s get to it!

 

Music in the Monotony

I am going heavy this week on non-polymer artists and I may do a bit more of this going forward too. There is just so much great design amongst craftspeople of other mediums that we could really learn from. I find it refreshing and immensely inspiring to consider how to get the aspects that I enjoy in the artwork of other mediums into my polymer designs. I hope you agree and will stick this out with me! But we’ll start with polymer work.

Here we have some really obvious repetition with a couple of bracelets from Maria Belkomor. A lot of things are being repeated here. How many do you count?

Depending on how you count, there are either two repeated elements– the black carved beads and the disk elements – or maybe four if you count the stacks of beads and the colors. Or maybe you counted more. Everything in these are repeated except for the clasps so pretty much every element can be counted as a repeating one. Variation and, especially, the contrast in the colors and the contrast in the shape between the round beads and the flat disks is what keeps the repetition from being boring. It’s very regular but the bracelets are still fun and visually engaging pieces.

 

Keep in mind, repetition doesn’t mean it needs to all be lined up to engage repetition. Take a look at the pieces below. Parallel lines are used over and over again but aren’t always the same types of parallel lines nor are they seated in the same orientation.

Anna Nel has a lot of fun with her bouncy graphic look by repeating parallel lines over and over but varying them from solid line sets to lines of blended clay, adding pops of color and focal points with the irregularly placed round cane slices. Her variation in color, going from black-and-white to very saturated hues doesn’t hurt the impact of these pieces either.

 

Looking outside of polymer, it is not hard to find gorgeous examples of repetition in construction jewelry like beadwork.

Obviously, the repetition here is primarily in the square beads, all lined up with the same orientation, as well as the repeated dangles. The designer, Beth Graham of Semper Fi designs on Etsy, switches up the color in the squares and the length of the dangles for a simple but very effective variation within the design. There are much more intricate bead designs out there, but I like this example because it highlights the concept in an easy to identify way and works to great effect.

 

I wonder if, in polymer, we might use repetition more often if it was not so easy for us to vary up our elements. I do think there is such a discipline in trying to create dynamic and intriguing pieces without using a wide range of variety to carry it. Just look at this necklace below. It could be polymer but is gorgeously carved, colored, and polished wood.

Liv Blavap’s works are amazing. She works with repetition in a way that it somehow becomes the focal point of her pieces. I think it’s because there’s an almost seamless transition in the variation between one element and the next, making a smooth undulation in the form and, collectively, feeling like one continuous piece even though it is dozens, maybe a couple hundred, individual elements. This approach and her workmanship make you hyper-aware that basic forms are being repeated, if changing along the way.  If you’re unfamiliar with Liv’s work, jump over to this site for a quick peek at more of these stunning necklaces of hers.

 

Okay, one more piece that is not polymer but so readily could be and I think will be quite inspiring for those of you who like to work with sheets of thin polymer or, looking at the pattern only, cool geometric cane work. Paper does really lend itself to repetition as seen by this and the paper necklace of the opening image.

This is paper jewelry by Dutch artists Nel Linssen. Paper quite readily, and beautifully, lends itself to dynamic repetition. The energy here comes with the variation within each element that has been repeated. It doesn’t hurt that they’re basically arrow shapes all pointing inwards making it feel like all the movement is strongly and persistently moving towards the center. Yes, there is strength in repetition as well!

 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (as they used to say) …

Okay, so, a little bit of an update on the situation over here at Tenth Muse Arts headquarters:

The not so great news is that the conclusion about my tendinitis progressed into something called tendinosis which takes a lot longer to heal and is why I am still dealing with it. On top of that, I have some possible physiological issues which may be the cause of my slow healing (on top of working too much, of course!) The good news is it is all fixable. However, I am going to have to disrupt my usual schedule to deal with this and, with the tendinosis, I am being told that I should stay off my keyboard as much as possible for the next 3-6 months. Ack! That means I can’t do layout, photo adjustments, or anything else that takes just a ton of mouse clicking and keyboard shortcuts. I can still write thanks to speech to text software but not much of anything else.

Translation… I have had to make the decision to halt production on The Polymer Studio magazine for the time being. I’ve also decided subscription purchases will not be available during this time because I just can’t take money for something that isn’t actively in process. That just feels wrong. And yes, I considered bringing on people to help but it would take a while to get anyone up to speed on graphics and editing work and if I’m going to work on myself, I can’t add to my schedule. My crazy long workdays are why I’m having the physiological issues, so I really have to take a pretty full break.

So, I’m making plans to play around with creating some other stuff that would be doable with written, spoken, or videotaped content because I am just not good at not being productive. But without deadlines, I can take my time. And, yes, I do plan to continue to post the blog. I like chatting with you all too much to stop if I don’t really have to!

So, some weeks I might have to go a little bit light, but I do plan to be here to join you on Sunday mornings for low contemplative art. Do please join me next Sunday – I’m putting together a survey to see what you all would like me to talk about on the blog and my other possible projects. I’m working on gathering goodies for a giveaway to go with the survey so don’t miss that!

Have a wonderful, creative, healthy, and inspiring week!

Small Steps

July 21, 2019

A little warning: this post is not going to be strictly about art as usual and you’ll understand why if you’re up for reading my little mental prattle today. Just thought you ought to know!

Has anyone ever told you, when something particularly difficult has happened to you, that it was just the way things are meant to be? Do you believe that’s true? Or do you feel a little inclined to smack the messenger? It’s ok … pain, be it physical or emotional, can make you grumpy in a way that cheery, little encouragements just can’t dissipate.

So, yeah, I’ve been a little grumpy this week. My arms are getting worse and I’m not sleeping well because this really worries me. I’m certain I am going to need to take some kind of break to let them heal but being the one full-time person in my business, taking a break can wreck a production schedule. It really makes me appreciate my arms! My arms and hands are my busy little helpers. I can’t do layout without them. I can’t touch up photographs without them. I can’t work with polymer clay without them!

Luckily, I can write without them because of speech-to-text software, as buggy as it can be sometimes. So today I’m mostly going to talk at you, literally, from my end, to save my arms which are taking care of the last tweaks needed to get the magazine files to the printer tomorrow. So, forgive me for the lack of in-depth artistic information and imagery. That takes several hours of research and my mouse finger is about done in.

So, yeah, I’m hoping you’ll indulge me as I share with you what has been on my mind, you know, from one creative to another. I know many of you are small business owners or super-solopreneurs trying to make a living or supplementing your income with your art, with no additional support. If you couldn’t upload to your online shop, schlep all those boxes to the art fair, or pack up those orders, who would? There is certainly nobody who can design and make your artwork for you so if you lose the ability to do so, even for a short time, what in the world would you do?

This, of course, is where my brain has been going, worrying about the situation with my arms. To calm my worries, I’ve been telling myself that whatever I’m going to need to do to heal is going to be a necessary thing in my life, not a barrier or a hurdle or any type of calamity. I do think we end up where we need to be when we do not struggle against what we know in our gut to be the right course of action. I think that we do become tuned into the things that we need when we acknowledge the need for change. We often just don’t see opportunities or understand what is possible until we are ready for them.

So, I am wondering, if I need to take a break, what can I do with that time? And, in the process of pondering this, it has struck me is that I have not had the opportunity, in the nearly 10 years I’ve been doing polymer centric publications, to ask myself what I would do if I could not do print production. And, yes, my thoughts have gone there because although I am hoping the doctor is going to advise a reasonable break of three or four weeks, I’ve done some research and know there’s a possibility that my tendinitis has progressed into something that’s going to take much longer to heal from. And just asking myself those questions has revealed to me that I’ve not really reviewed what I’m doing and why for quite a long time. And maybe this is happening now because that is what I need– to take an honest view of my life.

I am sure I am not the only one who could use a little internal review. Have you had the opportunity to ask yourself recently if you’re happy doing what you’re doing? And I’m talking careers, relationships, living situations, as well as a creative life. Do we continue to do what we do out of inertia or because we love it or because we just don’t have time to stop and think about it?

I know it’s hard to carve out time to take a good honest look at our lives on a regular basis, but shouldn’t that be a priority? I know couples whose anniversaries are not just a time to go out to dinner and celebrate but, rather, are a time to discuss and assess the relationship. They asked each other “Do you want to stay with me another year?” I know one couple that’s been doing that for over 30 years. After that long, it seems silly to ask but I do think it wonderful that they take the time out to pose the question so that if they are at all unhappy maybe they can do something about it before becomes a problem. Maybe, we should all be doing that with every aspect of our lives. Maybe right after the busy season or on New Year’s Day – whenever in your life you know you will have some downtime each year – we can ask ourselves, “Am I happy with my life and how I am living it?”

Is it me, or does the prospect of asking that sound downright scary? What if the answer is no? I get a little twist in my stomach thinking about it. Is that because I’m afraid to of the truth or afraid of the prospect of needing change?

I’m not sure. But I am going to take the time to ask myself that question this week when I get to take a breather from production. So, if the answer is “no”, then that is the first step towards making necessary changes. I can already say that I’m not happy about the physical pain I often find myself in so I do know I will be working on that. But none of us should be afraid to ask ourselves such a question. If a change needs to be made, it doesn’t have to be drastic and it doesn’t have to be immediate. You can start by making just teeny tiny changes towards it.

The idea of making minuscule little changes comes from something I read about a process called the Kaizen method. This was developed primarily for use in business to create more efficient procedures. It seems to be rooted in the idea that you aim to create change through a series of very small steps. The Idea is that when we are faced with a big change, it’s scary and daunting and we tend not to get started working towards it because of that. But if you just change one very small thing every day, or every week, something so minuscule it would be silly to say you couldn’t do it, you will be making progress towards the change you want or need and will eventually, almost effortlessly, get there.

So, what if we took an honest look at what we’re doing with our lives and a close look at the things that don’t make us happy or causes pain and do just one teeny-tiny little thing today to put us on the path to the change that we need? And better still, tell someone you’re going to do it. Because if you say something like “I’m going to massage my arm for thirty seconds every morning before I get to work, no matter how busy I am,” (Yeah, that was mine early this week …) to your spouse or your best friend, how in the world can you tell them that you couldn’t take thirty seconds out of your day to do that? And if you reward yourself as well (I sat by the pond and watched our pretty fish while I did it), you’re even more likely to do it.

Okay, I know you don’t read this blog for motivational self-help talk but this was on my mind and if it’s on my mind as a person trying to figure out how to live a creative life and survive it, I figure it’s going to strike a chord with a few of you as well. I hope you didn’t mind.

There is a direct artistic process correlation buried in these ideas. For one, you really should ask yourself on a regular basis if you’re happy doing the kind of work that you’re creating. For instance, I’ve been antsy to get back to doing some fiber work, not just polymer, but being entrenched in polymer art day in and day out, it’s rather hard for me to think in terms of fiber design but if I get a break, I think it may do just that. And then I’ll combine the polymer, I’m sure.

And taking tiny steps… You can do incredible things one tiny bit at a time. Take a look at the Cynthia Toops and Chuck Domitrovich pin opening this post. She drops in one little chip of polymer at a time – a tedious procedure, I’m sure. But I’m also sure that as the image emerges, Cynthia becomes more and more motivated to complete the piece. And the result is gorgeous. I can only imagine how satisfying it is to complete such an intense piece. And that’s what change would be like, done one teeny tiny step at a time.

And really, our life is not made up of big events and monumental changes. It is primarily made up of all the small steps, the minor decisions, the little nudges, and all the little utterances we put out there. The small steps are what get us to the big and momentous occasions. So, hurrah for all the teeny tiny steps we make. Let’s try to keep the ball going in the right direction.

I’ll let you know next week what the doctor says. Don’t worry… I promise I will not disappear. There is nothing I would rather do than inspire the artistic and creative in people. If I need any help, I’ll let you know. I do tend to post calls for content and assistance on my personal Facebook page so if you’re at all inclined, you’re welcome to friend me there at www.facebook.com/s.sagebray

In the meantime, I hope you have a beautiful, creative, and inspired week!

 

 

The Story Within

July 14, 2019

What is it about faux damaged and worn surfaces that we like so much? I mean, it’s everywhere – crackle, antiquing, weathering, patina, torn edges, scratching, distressing – these are all widely used surface techniques in art and in all kinds of decor. But have you ever asked yourself why we are drawn to things that are breaking down and degrading?

Let me say right out the gate, I absolutely adore this kind of surface treatment so don’t stop reading because you think I’m going to try to dissuade anyone from using it. But I do think it’s interesting that artists of all kinds are interested in it and wondered if you ever considered why people, in general, are so attracted to it.

I’ll give you the answer in one simple word – story. Things that are worn, show signs of use, and show the passage of time, have a story, history, a connection leading into the past lives and worlds of other people and places, or are a connection to our own past. Human beings love story. Civilizations of all kinds, and through all time, have told stories or sung songs to keep a culture, event, or person alive in the community or society. Communities everywhere collect evidence of the past – both their own and of others – and engage in the exchange of stories through nearly everything that we do and attend to including banter and gossip, entertainment, all our print and spoken communication sources , and all kinds of visual forms including, and maybe most especially, art. So, it’s no wonder artists love to recreate that innate sense of story by creating the look of aging, wear, breakage and weathering.

Now, you may think you simply like the look and any attraction you have to aged looks has nothing to do with the potential history something might have had or the stories that you could make up, consciously or unconsciously. The thing is, whether it is faux or real aging, we will always associate the look of something worn and weathered with the past and the past means history and history is, well, hi-story. It’s never just what we see that draws us. It’s what we associate with it, what our experiences tell us and our emotions evoke.

If these looks were just about the visuals, more people would be drawing inspiration from gory and grimy imagery alongside the pretty, intriguing, and more benign sources. (There are definitely people who draw texture from gore and grime but they’re not usually doing it to create something with a comfortable, aesthetic beauty.) So yes, the worn and weathered textures are beautiful, but it is psychologically attractive because it represents the passage of time and it’s interaction with the world and us.

Understanding that it is story and not just the beauty of these aged and distressed textures can take your work and designs into a more complex and rich realm because, instead of just thinking “This is a pretty texture, I want to make something with it,” you can start asking yourself, “What is the story behind this texture and why do I want to put it on this piece?” Or conversely, “Why do I want to make that texture into a piece of art?”

This is not to say that you have to write up an actual story or history for the piece that you’re making. I think just being aware that what you’re putting forth does represent a history will help guide you in your choices. After all, the viewer of your work isn’t necessarily going to know what story you associate with it but they will insert their own story, or an emotion associated with a story that the textures elicit, and the whole of the design should support the idea of its history or use.

Let’s look at some work with some of our favorite worn and weathered textures, and not just polymer either – I think we need to branch out a bit, especially in this subject matter, to see just how ubiquitous this type of texture is in art.

 

All a Story is Cracked Up to Be

Let’s start with an example from an artist who is obviously all about the story in her artwork. Christine Damm’s website and shop name is, after all, “Stories They Tell”. All her work looks weathered or worn, maybe a bit beaten and dinged, but she’s coaxed a persevering beauty out of these rough, color strewn treatments with consistent intention. This piece of Christine’s includes parts of an old vintage hand beater whose actual history of use, neglect, and, now, adoration, is echoed in the polymer clay and combined in a tribal-esque design.

This piece was actually the opening beauty shot for Christine’s article, “Found Fusion: Designing with Polymer & Found Objects”, in the Spring 2016 issue of The Polymer Arts. It’s a fantastic article that will really get you thinking about how enriching found objects can be when added to your work. We still have copies of that issue in print on our website here and you can read more about Christine’s and her process on her website here.

 

Nadezhda Plotnikova’s “Sunny necklace”, below, is aptly named. Although the surface of the focal beads is quite crackled and the other beads have a rough, weathered look, the necklace is anything but worn out looking. The bright and light colors convey that “sunny” emotion while the surface treatments give it a relaxed and comfortable feel. It’s that same kind of feeling you get from your favorite well-worn comfy jeans (and don’t those jeans have stories!), only with a bit more pizzazz. It seems like the individual beads here would have the stories, though, and the necklace would be a recent gathering of them. Like maybe it could be a collection of old sun-bleached coral washed up on a distant island combined with wave-worn, fantastical rocks, all found and brought together by some seafaring adventurer. Or something like that. What story do you come up with when looking at this?

 

Like Nadezhda’s above, Tamara of Block Party Press has chosen a light theme for a necklace of visually distressed beads. Her’s however, comes in the form of stylized daisies but the color and treatment is on the dark and heavy side, with its worn-out whites over a dark brown base. It’s a kind of a subdued approach to what we have above, being much less dramatic. I also feel like it’s the kind of thing you might have found in the back of your mother’s jewelry drawer, forgotten and dusty, and just exuding nostalgia. It absolutely begs for a story to be wound around it. It’s the kind of piece that I think would feel instantly a part of your personal history even when new.

 

Some artwork does not just imply story but is actually created from a story. Our featured artist in the #3 issue of The Polymer Studio is an avid researcher and history lover from Brazil quite inspired by interpreting story. Beatriz Cominatto created the pieces you see in the opening of this post and the one below as part of a series inspired by the native work of the Marajoara people. She researched the history of Brazil’s Marajo Island and the archaeological finds there extensively before starting the series and then developed this into quite the elaborate art installation, complete with simulated archaeological work. These pieces imply story even when you even to those uninformed about Beatriz’s inspiration, due to the consistently applied signs of age and the tribal design.

You can see and read more about this Beatriz’s work, in the next issue as she is our featured interview. She has had the most amazing artistic journey! She’s had a lot of hurdles to jump being so isolated, primarily language-wise, in Brazil, from the rest of the polymer community and yet she grew polymer as an art form there almost single-handedly, even helping to develop Brazil’s own line of polymer clay. You gotta read this article! You can also find out more about her Marajoara series on her feature page in Polymer Journeys 2019.

 

When I think about cracked and torn pieces in art jewelry, I always think about the metalsmiths. There’s something about taking a jeweler’s saw and developing cracked layers, revealing the jewels or textured surfaces beneath. Both the metalsmiths and admiring collectors seem to be quite drawn to it as the treatment is not at all uncommon. Lexi Erickson’s penchant for this kind of treatment is often paired with pitted and worn metal as in this pendant below.

It almost feels like Lexi’s piece was torn from some old piece of machinery which could lead you to wonder where and what that machine was and maybe what the machine’s purpose was and whether its maker ever imagined it would become a piece of jewelry. No, I’m not saying that’s what she did but that’s the kind of story, or at least e a sense of story, this type of work can invoke, all because of the thoroughness in her treatment of that one layer.

 

And what about this amazing conglomeration of worn, cracked, scratched and yet intensely beautiful surface treatments on this ceramic vessel below? Lesley McInally’s work is often reminiscent of an old doorframe much in need of painting or the corner of a crumbling old house where the plaster and frame have started to show. And that red dot … so simple and yet it adds so much energy and drama. I don’t think it’s supposed to be blood, but it could represent something of that sort. It really depends on where your mind wants to go with the possible stories buried here.

 

Creating Your Own Story

So, I want to give you a little, fun challenge today. Go take a look at some of your more elaborate pieces or, if you don’t have anything of your making at hand, look up some of your favorite pieces by other artists. What is the story, for you, in each piece that you look at? Tell yourself as much or as little of the story as comes to you in the first minute or less. Do this with at least 3 pieces, maybe 5. You may discover, during this process, a story in a piece that was only unconsciously there, but once you ask yourself about its possible history, it may become quite obvious. How exciting is that? Or do all of your pieces already come with a fully realized story?

Some artists do work that way, creating full-fledged stories for all their work, although I think it’s more predominant with people who create figures, animals, or creatures of some sort. I learned to do this with my art jewelry, mostly because, when I was selling, I made sure each piece had a title because that really helps to get potential customers thinking about its story and since they write the story, they tend to find a connection to the work, making it much more likely that they would buy the piece. I have a whole article about naming your pieces and the advantages of this in the Fall 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts if you want to read more about that.

 

My Own Story

First of all, I want to thank all of you who wrote me little personal notes about my physical well-being. You’re also sweet! Mind you, it’s nothing serious but chronic tendinitis does make it very hard to work, I have to say. But I have my workarounds. And for those who wrote me about the earthquakes… I grew up with them and although they are scary in the moment, us native Californians just take it in stride. There were no major injuries from these quakes as it was centered in a fairly unpopulated area and deep in the earth. We were rolling around quite a bit here but nothing even fell over, which was a miracle considering the state of our house.

As for this house renovation, we are supposedly really close to being done but it still looks like a wreck and everything is covered in a layer of white dust from all the plastering. It feels like it’s going to be months after they finish before the house is back to normal, just because of all the house cleaning we get to look forward to and all the organizing. It’s going to be like moving into a new place! Well, it is mostly a new place now, actually. Which is cool! But a lot of work.

The good news is that we do have nearly one whole bathroom done, which is really nice, to say the least. We’re doing the painting on it to save us some bucks while the crew works on the kitchen and tiling the other bathroom. I’m training the family on painting and other home improvement stuff. It’s become quite the family project which is pretty nice. We get to spend paint-spattered time with the teen before she goes off to college in a couple of months!

 

As for work here at Tenth Muse headquarters, I’m still working on polishing the next issue of The Polymer Studio which is going slower than I’d like because of the tendinitis but I’m going to keep at it. I hope to have the actual publication date next week so stay tuned!

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and have a little time to go and find some of the stories in your work–you’ll love doing that! I promise. Have a great week!

Questioning Focus

July 7, 2019

“Fabiclay” brooch by Klio Tsaliki

Are you one of those people who finds an interesting path and goes down its until you find the end or do you like to wander about? I know that’s kind of a vague question, but you could apply it as a metaphor to goals in your life, the path of your career, or the way you create your artwork. I recently read some excerpts by Thomas Edison on the importance of keeping focused. He said, “The one prudence in life is concentration, the one evil is dissipation.” I don’t know if I wholly agree with that or, at least, I think it’s not so readily summed up in one tidy sentence.

I bet you can come up with at least a couple of artists off the top of your head who have come up with a treatment in polymer clay that they create with almost exclusively and have become quite masterful at it. But I think you come up with quite a few artists who consistently try different things, exploring, growing, and changing their style and focus on the artwork. Would you say that the person who focuses is probably doing better work than the person who is constantly exploring?

Perhaps it’s because we are talking about art that I can so readily dismiss Edison’s comment. I have always thought that, for most artists, art is about the exploration. I think if you find one technique and worked very hard to perfect it, you might get overly comfortable because you will more likely succeed with each successive piece as you hone your skill. And yes, I am presenting that as a possible problem. I am a strong believer in the value of messing up and creating pieces that “fail” on some level. It’s those experiences that really teach us and allow us to grow as artists. However, I do think that masterful artists who stick with one approach do, especially in their mind, make a lot of mistakes and have numerous pieces that failed or fell short of the artist’s expectations for every piece of work we would deem a masterpiece.

The bottom line is, I think whatever journey your imagination and curiosity leads you on is the right path to follow with your creative work. Don’t fight it if you like to stick with one technique and refine it over and over or if you get easily bored once you feel you’ve mastered something enough to understand it and want to move on to the next challenge. The journey of our creative process is as individual and unique as our own artwork.

Let’s look at a few examples of people on both sides of this coin – those dedicated to a primary technique and those that constantly change their focus. Then you can decide for yourself if Edison had a point or not.

Single Minded Tangents

There are so many artists that come to mind that focus on a single technique or process and have mastered it to a mind-blowing extent. Elise Winters is one of the first that comes to mind when it comes to technique. This surface treatment was her signature and her legacy and no one, that I’ve seen, has yet matched her skill with it.

 

When it comes to form, I don’t think anyone else in the polymer community has made more of the same form than Ron Lehocky with his hearts. But here’s an example of staying focused on one thing while exploring just about everything else you can. He’s made tens of thousands of hearts and no two are the same. Here are examples of the variations he came up with from a single Skinner blend.

 

One of the most masterful and single-minded people of process would have to be Jon Stuart Anderson with his cane covered animals and functional objects. Although caning is his focus as far as technique, he is constantly exploring pattern and how it affects the form. It’s a subtle exploration but if you look back through his work you’ll see how the application of pattern has changed over the years and how he is constantly exploring new forms to apply them to, working on how the new forms will show off the canes or how the canes will accentuate the forms.

I love this bowl below. It shows more “quiet space” with those swaths of black to red canes, than I think I’ve ever seen in his work before. The relatively unpatterned area so dramatically contrasts the complex canes designs but you can take in the individual cane and pattern placement more readily because the eye has a place to rest, giving you a moment to rest and to process more of what you’re seeing

 

This whole subject matter recalls to me a conversation Rosanna Faillace and I had with Melanie Muir in Rome last year. We were talking about people who stick with one technique and don’t branch out and Melanie, seeming to think it might be a negative thing, said “That’s me. I’m a one trick pony.” But of course, she’s not. She loves her inlaid mokume gane veneers, but she is constantly exploring construction and different forms on which to present these, resulting in pieces like this beautiful bracelet.

Frenetically Fabulous

I myself am of the exploratory variety of artists. I do wish I had a little more focus and could spend more time on any single technique, form, or process, but the thing is, my curiosity about what else I could do is a stronger driving force, so I go with that. There are a LOT of us artistic explorers in polymer art as polymer just cries out to be explored.

When it comes to an exploratory approach in polymer, Debbie Crothers is the first person who comes to mind. You can see her gorgeous acrylic on polymer beads on the front of the upcoming issue of The Polymer Studio. Her penchant for exploration is why she is writing the “Mix it Up” articles in the magazine. She always has something she’s playing around with and she does love to share. She does occasionally show the results of both her good and not so successful explorations, which I love because it demonstrates her willingness to try, to make mistakes, and to do the work over and over again until she has mastered it. It is highly unlikely that Debbie would have gotten the results she got in these beads below if she didn’t go through a lot of trial and error first. The final results are well worth the exploration!

 

Another person I’ve been following for years is Klio Tsaliki. She’ll try almost anything and, in the process, comes up with some great techniques and approaches. Some attempts come out better than others, but I love that she shares it all, or at least enough for us to see that she is not afraid to try anything that interests her. I find that very inspiring. A couple of years ago she was playing with metallic silkscreen and the possible fabric-like quality of polymer, as you can see in the opening photo of this post. More recently, she’s played with translucent clay and LED lights, as seen below.

Klio’s newest work has been in the up and coming new clay from Fimo, “Leather Effect”. Once cured, this clay is supposed to be very much like leather. You can see here on the Fimo website that it is very pliable and can be cut and even stitched. I don’t know about you, but I have never been so excited about a new line of polymer clay! It’s not available in the US yet, and I don’t know how widely distributed it is in Europe, but there is supposed to be news about that soon and, trust me, when it is available, I’m going to be playing with it quite a bit as leather was one of my first materials I made jewelry from. You can go to Klio’s Flickr photostream to see what she’s been doing with it.

Another name for exploration is pioneering. Pioneers need to explore their subject extensively to find those new and intriguing aspects that lead the rest of us to their fresh finds. In general, you’ll find that most of the folks we identify as polymer pioneers were and are highly exploratory. Just look at what Kathleen Dustin has done throughout her career. From ornate purses to translucent layered brooches to reinterpretations of textile patterns such as with these new brooches below, you never really know what Kathleen will be working on next and yet, all her work is masterfully constructed and impeccably finished. I think her exploration keeps her work fresh for us and, most especially, for her and her passion for her work.

 

Focus on Yourself

So, as you see, there are many approaches to the creative process, all of which have value and result in beautiful, emotive, and inspiring work. So, no, I don’t think focus and concentration on one technique, form, or even material, is necessary but I do think keeping a sharp focus on the overriding creative goal – to make fulfilling artwork, financially supportive artwork, satiating your curiosity, or whatever the important creative motivation is for you – is something to keep a watchful eye on.

Speaking of focus … The construction on my house is in the finishing stages now. That hasn’t helped me with my focus on getting the next issue out, neither has my tendinitis and back issue which was such a huge problem last year. The thing is, in the last year, I have not really had enough time off to completely heal and am having issues again. I’m pretty sure I can get this issue to the printer in time to have it out by the end of the month but I’m probably going to have a heart-to-heart with my doctor on what I really need to do to get this healed and am working out a bit of time off later this month. This is one area where keeping focus would be very helpful!

I will keep you apprised of any shakeups in production if you are a subscriber to The Polymer Studio so just stay tuned here. And next week maybe I can get you pictures of the house for those of you who are curious. Everything’s under plastic wrap right now as they finish plastering and painting. But it’s horribly exciting seeing it come together!

So, I will leave you with these thoughts on focus and exploration. I hope it brings you some interesting insights for your own process and work. Have a fabulous week!

 

Rousing Repetition

July 28, 2019
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Neon Paper beads necklace by Devi Chand.

First of all, thank you to all you amazing, wonderful, caring folks who sent me notes and words of encouragement and offers of help and even a book in one case, all due to my little tendinitis issue. You are the most amazing people. What a fantastic community we have! I expect most of you are dealing with something frustratingly disruptive in your life and things a lot worse than my little annoyance in many cases so know that my heart goes out to you too. Life is challenging. So, let’s go out and wrestle it and show the universe what we’re made of!

I do have more news but I’m going to save the update on my situation until the end so you can enjoy some artwork first.

Okay, on to the contemplation of art!

Rousing Repetition

This week I want to talk about repetition. Do you like heavy repetition in artwork, where a single form, mark, or motif is repeated over and over? Saying it like that makes it sound boring and unimaginative. But I think repetition has gotten a bad rap. I mean, sure, in some circumstances, like when someone says the same thing over and over again in a conversation, it is going to get on your nerves. But when it comes to design, repetition can be mesmerizing, energetic, and downright stunning. The trick is to put some rhythm and variation into that repetition. Or at least, if it’s very static, it’s best if it is obvious that a lack of variation is intentional to convey stillness, poise, or something of that sort.

I thought we’d pull up some really beautiful examples of repetition to prove the point. You’ll note in all these pieces that although form, shape, motif, or other characteristics are repeated, variation in other aspects of the design choices brings in the energy and rhythm that draws us in. The repeating element also serves to create cohesiveness and unity amongst all the other elements

So, as we go through these this week, identify the repeating design elements in each piece and then the variation that makes the repetition so interesting for you. I’ll show the piece first before I talk about it so you have a chance to consider and see what you come up with. Mind you, you will often come up with things that I won’t and that doesn’t mean that I’m right and you’re not. When art is viewed, it has to be fundamentally about personal interpretation so there is a ton of room for your unique point of view. Asking yourself these questions that I periodically challenge you with just gets you to actively think about the work, homes your eye, and, hopefully, gives you the understanding to verbalize those things so you can translate them into aspects of your own work.

So, let’s get to it!

 

Music in the Monotony

I am going heavy this week on non-polymer artists and I may do a bit more of this going forward too. There is just so much great design amongst craftspeople of other mediums that we could really learn from. I find it refreshing and immensely inspiring to consider how to get the aspects that I enjoy in the artwork of other mediums into my polymer designs. I hope you agree and will stick this out with me! But we’ll start with polymer work.

Here we have some really obvious repetition with a couple of bracelets from Maria Belkomor. A lot of things are being repeated here. How many do you count?

Depending on how you count, there are either two repeated elements– the black carved beads and the disk elements – or maybe four if you count the stacks of beads and the colors. Or maybe you counted more. Everything in these are repeated except for the clasps so pretty much every element can be counted as a repeating one. Variation and, especially, the contrast in the colors and the contrast in the shape between the round beads and the flat disks is what keeps the repetition from being boring. It’s very regular but the bracelets are still fun and visually engaging pieces.

 

Keep in mind, repetition doesn’t mean it needs to all be lined up to engage repetition. Take a look at the pieces below. Parallel lines are used over and over again but aren’t always the same types of parallel lines nor are they seated in the same orientation.

Anna Nel has a lot of fun with her bouncy graphic look by repeating parallel lines over and over but varying them from solid line sets to lines of blended clay, adding pops of color and focal points with the irregularly placed round cane slices. Her variation in color, going from black-and-white to very saturated hues doesn’t hurt the impact of these pieces either.

 

Looking outside of polymer, it is not hard to find gorgeous examples of repetition in construction jewelry like beadwork.

Obviously, the repetition here is primarily in the square beads, all lined up with the same orientation, as well as the repeated dangles. The designer, Beth Graham of Semper Fi designs on Etsy, switches up the color in the squares and the length of the dangles for a simple but very effective variation within the design. There are much more intricate bead designs out there, but I like this example because it highlights the concept in an easy to identify way and works to great effect.

 

I wonder if, in polymer, we might use repetition more often if it was not so easy for us to vary up our elements. I do think there is such a discipline in trying to create dynamic and intriguing pieces without using a wide range of variety to carry it. Just look at this necklace below. It could be polymer but is gorgeously carved, colored, and polished wood.

Liv Blavap’s works are amazing. She works with repetition in a way that it somehow becomes the focal point of her pieces. I think it’s because there’s an almost seamless transition in the variation between one element and the next, making a smooth undulation in the form and, collectively, feeling like one continuous piece even though it is dozens, maybe a couple hundred, individual elements. This approach and her workmanship make you hyper-aware that basic forms are being repeated, if changing along the way.  If you’re unfamiliar with Liv’s work, jump over to this site for a quick peek at more of these stunning necklaces of hers.

 

Okay, one more piece that is not polymer but so readily could be and I think will be quite inspiring for those of you who like to work with sheets of thin polymer or, looking at the pattern only, cool geometric cane work. Paper does really lend itself to repetition as seen by this and the paper necklace of the opening image.

This is paper jewelry by Dutch artists Nel Linssen. Paper quite readily, and beautifully, lends itself to dynamic repetition. The energy here comes with the variation within each element that has been repeated. It doesn’t hurt that they’re basically arrow shapes all pointing inwards making it feel like all the movement is strongly and persistently moving towards the center. Yes, there is strength in repetition as well!

 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (as they used to say) …

Okay, so, a little bit of an update on the situation over here at Tenth Muse Arts headquarters:

The not so great news is that the conclusion about my tendinitis progressed into something called tendinosis which takes a lot longer to heal and is why I am still dealing with it. On top of that, I have some possible physiological issues which may be the cause of my slow healing (on top of working too much, of course!) The good news is it is all fixable. However, I am going to have to disrupt my usual schedule to deal with this and, with the tendinosis, I am being told that I should stay off my keyboard as much as possible for the next 3-6 months. Ack! That means I can’t do layout, photo adjustments, or anything else that takes just a ton of mouse clicking and keyboard shortcuts. I can still write thanks to speech to text software but not much of anything else.

Translation… I have had to make the decision to halt production on The Polymer Studio magazine for the time being. I’ve also decided subscription purchases will not be available during this time because I just can’t take money for something that isn’t actively in process. That just feels wrong. And yes, I considered bringing on people to help but it would take a while to get anyone up to speed on graphics and editing work and if I’m going to work on myself, I can’t add to my schedule. My crazy long workdays are why I’m having the physiological issues, so I really have to take a pretty full break.

So, I’m making plans to play around with creating some other stuff that would be doable with written, spoken, or videotaped content because I am just not good at not being productive. But without deadlines, I can take my time. And, yes, I do plan to continue to post the blog. I like chatting with you all too much to stop if I don’t really have to!

So, some weeks I might have to go a little bit light, but I do plan to be here to join you on Sunday mornings for low contemplative art. Do please join me next Sunday – I’m putting together a survey to see what you all would like me to talk about on the blog and my other possible projects. I’m working on gathering goodies for a giveaway to go with the survey so don’t miss that!

Have a wonderful, creative, healthy, and inspiring week!

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Small Steps

July 21, 2019
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A little warning: this post is not going to be strictly about art as usual and you’ll understand why if you’re up for reading my little mental prattle today. Just thought you ought to know!

Has anyone ever told you, when something particularly difficult has happened to you, that it was just the way things are meant to be? Do you believe that’s true? Or do you feel a little inclined to smack the messenger? It’s ok … pain, be it physical or emotional, can make you grumpy in a way that cheery, little encouragements just can’t dissipate.

So, yeah, I’ve been a little grumpy this week. My arms are getting worse and I’m not sleeping well because this really worries me. I’m certain I am going to need to take some kind of break to let them heal but being the one full-time person in my business, taking a break can wreck a production schedule. It really makes me appreciate my arms! My arms and hands are my busy little helpers. I can’t do layout without them. I can’t touch up photographs without them. I can’t work with polymer clay without them!

Luckily, I can write without them because of speech-to-text software, as buggy as it can be sometimes. So today I’m mostly going to talk at you, literally, from my end, to save my arms which are taking care of the last tweaks needed to get the magazine files to the printer tomorrow. So, forgive me for the lack of in-depth artistic information and imagery. That takes several hours of research and my mouse finger is about done in.

So, yeah, I’m hoping you’ll indulge me as I share with you what has been on my mind, you know, from one creative to another. I know many of you are small business owners or super-solopreneurs trying to make a living or supplementing your income with your art, with no additional support. If you couldn’t upload to your online shop, schlep all those boxes to the art fair, or pack up those orders, who would? There is certainly nobody who can design and make your artwork for you so if you lose the ability to do so, even for a short time, what in the world would you do?

This, of course, is where my brain has been going, worrying about the situation with my arms. To calm my worries, I’ve been telling myself that whatever I’m going to need to do to heal is going to be a necessary thing in my life, not a barrier or a hurdle or any type of calamity. I do think we end up where we need to be when we do not struggle against what we know in our gut to be the right course of action. I think that we do become tuned into the things that we need when we acknowledge the need for change. We often just don’t see opportunities or understand what is possible until we are ready for them.

So, I am wondering, if I need to take a break, what can I do with that time? And, in the process of pondering this, it has struck me is that I have not had the opportunity, in the nearly 10 years I’ve been doing polymer centric publications, to ask myself what I would do if I could not do print production. And, yes, my thoughts have gone there because although I am hoping the doctor is going to advise a reasonable break of three or four weeks, I’ve done some research and know there’s a possibility that my tendinitis has progressed into something that’s going to take much longer to heal from. And just asking myself those questions has revealed to me that I’ve not really reviewed what I’m doing and why for quite a long time. And maybe this is happening now because that is what I need– to take an honest view of my life.

I am sure I am not the only one who could use a little internal review. Have you had the opportunity to ask yourself recently if you’re happy doing what you’re doing? And I’m talking careers, relationships, living situations, as well as a creative life. Do we continue to do what we do out of inertia or because we love it or because we just don’t have time to stop and think about it?

I know it’s hard to carve out time to take a good honest look at our lives on a regular basis, but shouldn’t that be a priority? I know couples whose anniversaries are not just a time to go out to dinner and celebrate but, rather, are a time to discuss and assess the relationship. They asked each other “Do you want to stay with me another year?” I know one couple that’s been doing that for over 30 years. After that long, it seems silly to ask but I do think it wonderful that they take the time out to pose the question so that if they are at all unhappy maybe they can do something about it before becomes a problem. Maybe, we should all be doing that with every aspect of our lives. Maybe right after the busy season or on New Year’s Day – whenever in your life you know you will have some downtime each year – we can ask ourselves, “Am I happy with my life and how I am living it?”

Is it me, or does the prospect of asking that sound downright scary? What if the answer is no? I get a little twist in my stomach thinking about it. Is that because I’m afraid to of the truth or afraid of the prospect of needing change?

I’m not sure. But I am going to take the time to ask myself that question this week when I get to take a breather from production. So, if the answer is “no”, then that is the first step towards making necessary changes. I can already say that I’m not happy about the physical pain I often find myself in so I do know I will be working on that. But none of us should be afraid to ask ourselves such a question. If a change needs to be made, it doesn’t have to be drastic and it doesn’t have to be immediate. You can start by making just teeny tiny changes towards it.

The idea of making minuscule little changes comes from something I read about a process called the Kaizen method. This was developed primarily for use in business to create more efficient procedures. It seems to be rooted in the idea that you aim to create change through a series of very small steps. The Idea is that when we are faced with a big change, it’s scary and daunting and we tend not to get started working towards it because of that. But if you just change one very small thing every day, or every week, something so minuscule it would be silly to say you couldn’t do it, you will be making progress towards the change you want or need and will eventually, almost effortlessly, get there.

So, what if we took an honest look at what we’re doing with our lives and a close look at the things that don’t make us happy or causes pain and do just one teeny-tiny little thing today to put us on the path to the change that we need? And better still, tell someone you’re going to do it. Because if you say something like “I’m going to massage my arm for thirty seconds every morning before I get to work, no matter how busy I am,” (Yeah, that was mine early this week …) to your spouse or your best friend, how in the world can you tell them that you couldn’t take thirty seconds out of your day to do that? And if you reward yourself as well (I sat by the pond and watched our pretty fish while I did it), you’re even more likely to do it.

Okay, I know you don’t read this blog for motivational self-help talk but this was on my mind and if it’s on my mind as a person trying to figure out how to live a creative life and survive it, I figure it’s going to strike a chord with a few of you as well. I hope you didn’t mind.

There is a direct artistic process correlation buried in these ideas. For one, you really should ask yourself on a regular basis if you’re happy doing the kind of work that you’re creating. For instance, I’ve been antsy to get back to doing some fiber work, not just polymer, but being entrenched in polymer art day in and day out, it’s rather hard for me to think in terms of fiber design but if I get a break, I think it may do just that. And then I’ll combine the polymer, I’m sure.

And taking tiny steps… You can do incredible things one tiny bit at a time. Take a look at the Cynthia Toops and Chuck Domitrovich pin opening this post. She drops in one little chip of polymer at a time – a tedious procedure, I’m sure. But I’m also sure that as the image emerges, Cynthia becomes more and more motivated to complete the piece. And the result is gorgeous. I can only imagine how satisfying it is to complete such an intense piece. And that’s what change would be like, done one teeny tiny step at a time.

And really, our life is not made up of big events and monumental changes. It is primarily made up of all the small steps, the minor decisions, the little nudges, and all the little utterances we put out there. The small steps are what get us to the big and momentous occasions. So, hurrah for all the teeny tiny steps we make. Let’s try to keep the ball going in the right direction.

I’ll let you know next week what the doctor says. Don’t worry… I promise I will not disappear. There is nothing I would rather do than inspire the artistic and creative in people. If I need any help, I’ll let you know. I do tend to post calls for content and assistance on my personal Facebook page so if you’re at all inclined, you’re welcome to friend me there at www.facebook.com/s.sagebray

In the meantime, I hope you have a beautiful, creative, and inspired week!

 

 

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The Story Within

July 14, 2019
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What is it about faux damaged and worn surfaces that we like so much? I mean, it’s everywhere – crackle, antiquing, weathering, patina, torn edges, scratching, distressing – these are all widely used surface techniques in art and in all kinds of decor. But have you ever asked yourself why we are drawn to things that are breaking down and degrading?

Let me say right out the gate, I absolutely adore this kind of surface treatment so don’t stop reading because you think I’m going to try to dissuade anyone from using it. But I do think it’s interesting that artists of all kinds are interested in it and wondered if you ever considered why people, in general, are so attracted to it.

I’ll give you the answer in one simple word – story. Things that are worn, show signs of use, and show the passage of time, have a story, history, a connection leading into the past lives and worlds of other people and places, or are a connection to our own past. Human beings love story. Civilizations of all kinds, and through all time, have told stories or sung songs to keep a culture, event, or person alive in the community or society. Communities everywhere collect evidence of the past – both their own and of others – and engage in the exchange of stories through nearly everything that we do and attend to including banter and gossip, entertainment, all our print and spoken communication sources , and all kinds of visual forms including, and maybe most especially, art. So, it’s no wonder artists love to recreate that innate sense of story by creating the look of aging, wear, breakage and weathering.

Now, you may think you simply like the look and any attraction you have to aged looks has nothing to do with the potential history something might have had or the stories that you could make up, consciously or unconsciously. The thing is, whether it is faux or real aging, we will always associate the look of something worn and weathered with the past and the past means history and history is, well, hi-story. It’s never just what we see that draws us. It’s what we associate with it, what our experiences tell us and our emotions evoke.

If these looks were just about the visuals, more people would be drawing inspiration from gory and grimy imagery alongside the pretty, intriguing, and more benign sources. (There are definitely people who draw texture from gore and grime but they’re not usually doing it to create something with a comfortable, aesthetic beauty.) So yes, the worn and weathered textures are beautiful, but it is psychologically attractive because it represents the passage of time and it’s interaction with the world and us.

Understanding that it is story and not just the beauty of these aged and distressed textures can take your work and designs into a more complex and rich realm because, instead of just thinking “This is a pretty texture, I want to make something with it,” you can start asking yourself, “What is the story behind this texture and why do I want to put it on this piece?” Or conversely, “Why do I want to make that texture into a piece of art?”

This is not to say that you have to write up an actual story or history for the piece that you’re making. I think just being aware that what you’re putting forth does represent a history will help guide you in your choices. After all, the viewer of your work isn’t necessarily going to know what story you associate with it but they will insert their own story, or an emotion associated with a story that the textures elicit, and the whole of the design should support the idea of its history or use.

Let’s look at some work with some of our favorite worn and weathered textures, and not just polymer either – I think we need to branch out a bit, especially in this subject matter, to see just how ubiquitous this type of texture is in art.

 

All a Story is Cracked Up to Be

Let’s start with an example from an artist who is obviously all about the story in her artwork. Christine Damm’s website and shop name is, after all, “Stories They Tell”. All her work looks weathered or worn, maybe a bit beaten and dinged, but she’s coaxed a persevering beauty out of these rough, color strewn treatments with consistent intention. This piece of Christine’s includes parts of an old vintage hand beater whose actual history of use, neglect, and, now, adoration, is echoed in the polymer clay and combined in a tribal-esque design.

This piece was actually the opening beauty shot for Christine’s article, “Found Fusion: Designing with Polymer & Found Objects”, in the Spring 2016 issue of The Polymer Arts. It’s a fantastic article that will really get you thinking about how enriching found objects can be when added to your work. We still have copies of that issue in print on our website here and you can read more about Christine’s and her process on her website here.

 

Nadezhda Plotnikova’s “Sunny necklace”, below, is aptly named. Although the surface of the focal beads is quite crackled and the other beads have a rough, weathered look, the necklace is anything but worn out looking. The bright and light colors convey that “sunny” emotion while the surface treatments give it a relaxed and comfortable feel. It’s that same kind of feeling you get from your favorite well-worn comfy jeans (and don’t those jeans have stories!), only with a bit more pizzazz. It seems like the individual beads here would have the stories, though, and the necklace would be a recent gathering of them. Like maybe it could be a collection of old sun-bleached coral washed up on a distant island combined with wave-worn, fantastical rocks, all found and brought together by some seafaring adventurer. Or something like that. What story do you come up with when looking at this?

 

Like Nadezhda’s above, Tamara of Block Party Press has chosen a light theme for a necklace of visually distressed beads. Her’s however, comes in the form of stylized daisies but the color and treatment is on the dark and heavy side, with its worn-out whites over a dark brown base. It’s a kind of a subdued approach to what we have above, being much less dramatic. I also feel like it’s the kind of thing you might have found in the back of your mother’s jewelry drawer, forgotten and dusty, and just exuding nostalgia. It absolutely begs for a story to be wound around it. It’s the kind of piece that I think would feel instantly a part of your personal history even when new.

 

Some artwork does not just imply story but is actually created from a story. Our featured artist in the #3 issue of The Polymer Studio is an avid researcher and history lover from Brazil quite inspired by interpreting story. Beatriz Cominatto created the pieces you see in the opening of this post and the one below as part of a series inspired by the native work of the Marajoara people. She researched the history of Brazil’s Marajo Island and the archaeological finds there extensively before starting the series and then developed this into quite the elaborate art installation, complete with simulated archaeological work. These pieces imply story even when you even to those uninformed about Beatriz’s inspiration, due to the consistently applied signs of age and the tribal design.

You can see and read more about this Beatriz’s work, in the next issue as she is our featured interview. She has had the most amazing artistic journey! She’s had a lot of hurdles to jump being so isolated, primarily language-wise, in Brazil, from the rest of the polymer community and yet she grew polymer as an art form there almost single-handedly, even helping to develop Brazil’s own line of polymer clay. You gotta read this article! You can also find out more about her Marajoara series on her feature page in Polymer Journeys 2019.

 

When I think about cracked and torn pieces in art jewelry, I always think about the metalsmiths. There’s something about taking a jeweler’s saw and developing cracked layers, revealing the jewels or textured surfaces beneath. Both the metalsmiths and admiring collectors seem to be quite drawn to it as the treatment is not at all uncommon. Lexi Erickson’s penchant for this kind of treatment is often paired with pitted and worn metal as in this pendant below.

It almost feels like Lexi’s piece was torn from some old piece of machinery which could lead you to wonder where and what that machine was and maybe what the machine’s purpose was and whether its maker ever imagined it would become a piece of jewelry. No, I’m not saying that’s what she did but that’s the kind of story, or at least e a sense of story, this type of work can invoke, all because of the thoroughness in her treatment of that one layer.

 

And what about this amazing conglomeration of worn, cracked, scratched and yet intensely beautiful surface treatments on this ceramic vessel below? Lesley McInally’s work is often reminiscent of an old doorframe much in need of painting or the corner of a crumbling old house where the plaster and frame have started to show. And that red dot … so simple and yet it adds so much energy and drama. I don’t think it’s supposed to be blood, but it could represent something of that sort. It really depends on where your mind wants to go with the possible stories buried here.

 

Creating Your Own Story

So, I want to give you a little, fun challenge today. Go take a look at some of your more elaborate pieces or, if you don’t have anything of your making at hand, look up some of your favorite pieces by other artists. What is the story, for you, in each piece that you look at? Tell yourself as much or as little of the story as comes to you in the first minute or less. Do this with at least 3 pieces, maybe 5. You may discover, during this process, a story in a piece that was only unconsciously there, but once you ask yourself about its possible history, it may become quite obvious. How exciting is that? Or do all of your pieces already come with a fully realized story?

Some artists do work that way, creating full-fledged stories for all their work, although I think it’s more predominant with people who create figures, animals, or creatures of some sort. I learned to do this with my art jewelry, mostly because, when I was selling, I made sure each piece had a title because that really helps to get potential customers thinking about its story and since they write the story, they tend to find a connection to the work, making it much more likely that they would buy the piece. I have a whole article about naming your pieces and the advantages of this in the Fall 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts if you want to read more about that.

 

My Own Story

First of all, I want to thank all of you who wrote me little personal notes about my physical well-being. You’re also sweet! Mind you, it’s nothing serious but chronic tendinitis does make it very hard to work, I have to say. But I have my workarounds. And for those who wrote me about the earthquakes… I grew up with them and although they are scary in the moment, us native Californians just take it in stride. There were no major injuries from these quakes as it was centered in a fairly unpopulated area and deep in the earth. We were rolling around quite a bit here but nothing even fell over, which was a miracle considering the state of our house.

As for this house renovation, we are supposedly really close to being done but it still looks like a wreck and everything is covered in a layer of white dust from all the plastering. It feels like it’s going to be months after they finish before the house is back to normal, just because of all the house cleaning we get to look forward to and all the organizing. It’s going to be like moving into a new place! Well, it is mostly a new place now, actually. Which is cool! But a lot of work.

The good news is that we do have nearly one whole bathroom done, which is really nice, to say the least. We’re doing the painting on it to save us some bucks while the crew works on the kitchen and tiling the other bathroom. I’m training the family on painting and other home improvement stuff. It’s become quite the family project which is pretty nice. We get to spend paint-spattered time with the teen before she goes off to college in a couple of months!

 

As for work here at Tenth Muse headquarters, I’m still working on polishing the next issue of The Polymer Studio which is going slower than I’d like because of the tendinitis but I’m going to keep at it. I hope to have the actual publication date next week so stay tuned!

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and have a little time to go and find some of the stories in your work–you’ll love doing that! I promise. Have a great week!

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Questioning Focus

July 7, 2019
Posted in

“Fabiclay” brooch by Klio Tsaliki

Are you one of those people who finds an interesting path and goes down its until you find the end or do you like to wander about? I know that’s kind of a vague question, but you could apply it as a metaphor to goals in your life, the path of your career, or the way you create your artwork. I recently read some excerpts by Thomas Edison on the importance of keeping focused. He said, “The one prudence in life is concentration, the one evil is dissipation.” I don’t know if I wholly agree with that or, at least, I think it’s not so readily summed up in one tidy sentence.

I bet you can come up with at least a couple of artists off the top of your head who have come up with a treatment in polymer clay that they create with almost exclusively and have become quite masterful at it. But I think you come up with quite a few artists who consistently try different things, exploring, growing, and changing their style and focus on the artwork. Would you say that the person who focuses is probably doing better work than the person who is constantly exploring?

Perhaps it’s because we are talking about art that I can so readily dismiss Edison’s comment. I have always thought that, for most artists, art is about the exploration. I think if you find one technique and worked very hard to perfect it, you might get overly comfortable because you will more likely succeed with each successive piece as you hone your skill. And yes, I am presenting that as a possible problem. I am a strong believer in the value of messing up and creating pieces that “fail” on some level. It’s those experiences that really teach us and allow us to grow as artists. However, I do think that masterful artists who stick with one approach do, especially in their mind, make a lot of mistakes and have numerous pieces that failed or fell short of the artist’s expectations for every piece of work we would deem a masterpiece.

The bottom line is, I think whatever journey your imagination and curiosity leads you on is the right path to follow with your creative work. Don’t fight it if you like to stick with one technique and refine it over and over or if you get easily bored once you feel you’ve mastered something enough to understand it and want to move on to the next challenge. The journey of our creative process is as individual and unique as our own artwork.

Let’s look at a few examples of people on both sides of this coin – those dedicated to a primary technique and those that constantly change their focus. Then you can decide for yourself if Edison had a point or not.

Single Minded Tangents

There are so many artists that come to mind that focus on a single technique or process and have mastered it to a mind-blowing extent. Elise Winters is one of the first that comes to mind when it comes to technique. This surface treatment was her signature and her legacy and no one, that I’ve seen, has yet matched her skill with it.

 

When it comes to form, I don’t think anyone else in the polymer community has made more of the same form than Ron Lehocky with his hearts. But here’s an example of staying focused on one thing while exploring just about everything else you can. He’s made tens of thousands of hearts and no two are the same. Here are examples of the variations he came up with from a single Skinner blend.

 

One of the most masterful and single-minded people of process would have to be Jon Stuart Anderson with his cane covered animals and functional objects. Although caning is his focus as far as technique, he is constantly exploring pattern and how it affects the form. It’s a subtle exploration but if you look back through his work you’ll see how the application of pattern has changed over the years and how he is constantly exploring new forms to apply them to, working on how the new forms will show off the canes or how the canes will accentuate the forms.

I love this bowl below. It shows more “quiet space” with those swaths of black to red canes, than I think I’ve ever seen in his work before. The relatively unpatterned area so dramatically contrasts the complex canes designs but you can take in the individual cane and pattern placement more readily because the eye has a place to rest, giving you a moment to rest and to process more of what you’re seeing

 

This whole subject matter recalls to me a conversation Rosanna Faillace and I had with Melanie Muir in Rome last year. We were talking about people who stick with one technique and don’t branch out and Melanie, seeming to think it might be a negative thing, said “That’s me. I’m a one trick pony.” But of course, she’s not. She loves her inlaid mokume gane veneers, but she is constantly exploring construction and different forms on which to present these, resulting in pieces like this beautiful bracelet.

Frenetically Fabulous

I myself am of the exploratory variety of artists. I do wish I had a little more focus and could spend more time on any single technique, form, or process, but the thing is, my curiosity about what else I could do is a stronger driving force, so I go with that. There are a LOT of us artistic explorers in polymer art as polymer just cries out to be explored.

When it comes to an exploratory approach in polymer, Debbie Crothers is the first person who comes to mind. You can see her gorgeous acrylic on polymer beads on the front of the upcoming issue of The Polymer Studio. Her penchant for exploration is why she is writing the “Mix it Up” articles in the magazine. She always has something she’s playing around with and she does love to share. She does occasionally show the results of both her good and not so successful explorations, which I love because it demonstrates her willingness to try, to make mistakes, and to do the work over and over again until she has mastered it. It is highly unlikely that Debbie would have gotten the results she got in these beads below if she didn’t go through a lot of trial and error first. The final results are well worth the exploration!

 

Another person I’ve been following for years is Klio Tsaliki. She’ll try almost anything and, in the process, comes up with some great techniques and approaches. Some attempts come out better than others, but I love that she shares it all, or at least enough for us to see that she is not afraid to try anything that interests her. I find that very inspiring. A couple of years ago she was playing with metallic silkscreen and the possible fabric-like quality of polymer, as you can see in the opening photo of this post. More recently, she’s played with translucent clay and LED lights, as seen below.

Klio’s newest work has been in the up and coming new clay from Fimo, “Leather Effect”. Once cured, this clay is supposed to be very much like leather. You can see here on the Fimo website that it is very pliable and can be cut and even stitched. I don’t know about you, but I have never been so excited about a new line of polymer clay! It’s not available in the US yet, and I don’t know how widely distributed it is in Europe, but there is supposed to be news about that soon and, trust me, when it is available, I’m going to be playing with it quite a bit as leather was one of my first materials I made jewelry from. You can go to Klio’s Flickr photostream to see what she’s been doing with it.

Another name for exploration is pioneering. Pioneers need to explore their subject extensively to find those new and intriguing aspects that lead the rest of us to their fresh finds. In general, you’ll find that most of the folks we identify as polymer pioneers were and are highly exploratory. Just look at what Kathleen Dustin has done throughout her career. From ornate purses to translucent layered brooches to reinterpretations of textile patterns such as with these new brooches below, you never really know what Kathleen will be working on next and yet, all her work is masterfully constructed and impeccably finished. I think her exploration keeps her work fresh for us and, most especially, for her and her passion for her work.

 

Focus on Yourself

So, as you see, there are many approaches to the creative process, all of which have value and result in beautiful, emotive, and inspiring work. So, no, I don’t think focus and concentration on one technique, form, or even material, is necessary but I do think keeping a sharp focus on the overriding creative goal – to make fulfilling artwork, financially supportive artwork, satiating your curiosity, or whatever the important creative motivation is for you – is something to keep a watchful eye on.

Speaking of focus … The construction on my house is in the finishing stages now. That hasn’t helped me with my focus on getting the next issue out, neither has my tendinitis and back issue which was such a huge problem last year. The thing is, in the last year, I have not really had enough time off to completely heal and am having issues again. I’m pretty sure I can get this issue to the printer in time to have it out by the end of the month but I’m probably going to have a heart-to-heart with my doctor on what I really need to do to get this healed and am working out a bit of time off later this month. This is one area where keeping focus would be very helpful!

I will keep you apprised of any shakeups in production if you are a subscriber to The Polymer Studio so just stay tuned here. And next week maybe I can get you pictures of the house for those of you who are curious. Everything’s under plastic wrap right now as they finish plastering and painting. But it’s horribly exciting seeing it come together!

So, I will leave you with these thoughts on focus and exploration. I hope it brings you some interesting insights for your own process and work. Have a fabulous week!

 

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