Outside Inspiration: Variation in Clay
I’m sure by now you get that the key to finding variation in your work is pushing what you already know or do. You can look at other people’s art to find additional variation and inspiration to push your work. If we keep looking just at polymer though, we are limiting our potential avenues of inspiration.
Many of us look to nature for ideas because we find beauty and insight into our world there and can translate into our art–and its been a primary muse for artists for all our existence. But this can be true of many other things as well, such as other art forms. This is why I show another form of art once a week. You can’t really look at other art forms as separate from what we do with polymer. Forms, textures, colors, patterns, structure … these all can be translated from other art into polymer in some manner. When looking to vary your work or a technique, looking outside polymer is probably your best source of ideas. Truly. Other clays in particular can be so helpful because the building process is similar and we can create similar forms.
Meagan Chaney works in ceramics with a focus on movement and change so creating variation is a large part of what she does. Probably her most impressive work are her multi-part wall sculptures that climb or flow across a space. But when on her site, these small decorative domes are what caught my eye. They remind me of urchins in form and often in line but without spines. Like cultured, high class urchins in an alternate world, perhaps.
Meagan works with a limited palette here and then works out variations in texture, pattern and composition. The dome form and patterning could be directly translated into polymer although the stenciled patterns might be tricky. It can be done with polymer paste or using the Sutton slice but you could also just go for visual texture using mica shift or mokume. And of course, there’s always stamping. You can also take away just the idea for mixing up patterns on a form, or taking what you usually do on flat form and try it on similar dome forms. The idea is, if you want to work on variation, look at other work like this and think about what you like about it that you aren’t doing in your own work and then figure out how to translate it into what you do. That will push variation in your work even if you don’t end up liking the approach. Primarily what it will do is get you to work and think differently.
Take a look at Meagan’s wall sculptures and other incredible work on her website for a pleasant break in your day.
