Fall arrives tomorrow … The Polymer Arts that is!
Tomorrow, September 7th, the Fall 2016 issue of the The Polymer Arts will be arriving in Email inboxes (check spam folders if owed a digital copy and it doesn’t show up by midday US time) and should start arriving in mail boxes in some West coast US areas as well. It is also the day I get to see it in my anxious little hands! Release day is both exciting and nerve-wracking. I am always so anxious to know if we’ve done well for The Polymer Arts readers. You are more than welcome to let me know what you think if you have the chance–good or bad. I appreciate all comments.
In the meantime, we’ll get started on the Fall issue blog kick off just a day early. This is the week or two we look at work that we couldn’t quite squeeze into the upcoming issue due to how packed the issues get.
This craziness you see here is just one of them and although I not over the moon about this piece, I have to say it was a huge surprise to see it come to life on my own work table. I had sat down to create a polymer mandala as part of our article vetting process–when myself or someone on the team follows a tutorial article’s instructions to see if they make sense–and the article on Mandalas by Anke Humpert was one I was personally anxious to try. In truth, we had collectively worked through a lot of what was going into this as we went gallivanting through France. But what I had not quite realized was how focused it would be on the intuition and meditation aspects of creating these. So in trying not to judge what I might be doing on my mandala, one late night I just went at it for a couple of hours. This is what I found on my work table the next morning.
I wanted to share this because for one, I think making these takes a bit of bravery to do just want comes to mind. So whereas the mandala created in the tutorial is pretty controlled, I just let go and kind of macerated the clay sheet. The thing is, whether you want to do some orderly or want to scratch spontaneously at the clay, a polymer mandala allows you to do whatever you like and allows your personal creativity to just flow through you. Just tell yourself that no one has to see it and create absolutely whatever comes to mind.
I had to say I absolutely loved the process. I got so lost in it and it felt so odd coming out of the session, like the real world was surreal. It did feel like coming out of meditation except I had something exciting to show for it. If you want to try your hand at this, I suggest you open up the article on mandala making in the Fall issue that comes out tomorrow, give it one read through so you understand the basic process–Anke shows you how to lay out a base grid to get you started and then makes suggestions for various ways to approach it. Then get to it and let yourself go.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Create a mandala, of course. If you don’t have the article, just roll a sheet of clay and start ‘doodling’ on it, making whatever tool marks you like, adding cane slices or sculpting pieces to attach. Just let yourself go.
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