The Party is in Full Swing. Come join us!
May 31, 2023
Polymer community news, The Polymer Arts magazine news
What party is this? The latest project from little ol’ me, Sage. The Sage Arts podcast is more than up and running… I have 25 episodes up as of this posting, ready on your favorite podcast player (New to Podcasts? Click here to find out how easy it is to enjoy them!) and a new one coming out every week.
What’s This Podcast All About?
This podcast is all about feeding and exciting your muse. By enlightening or reminding you about important and maybe unconsidered aspects of creating and living as an artist, I hope to help you find more joy and satisfaction in what you do, sharing ways to create with authenticity and fearlessness, while supporting your uniquely defined version of success.
Now what the heck does that all mean? Well, let’s look at what this is and what this is not…
It IS…
… a way to consistently feed your muse
… all about you. Myself, my guests, and my guest co-hosts speak to the issues, curiousity, and hurdles that you as a creative deal with on a regular basis.
… focused on creating a more fulfilling, joyful, and meaningful artistic journey.
… a conversation that goes both ways with lots of opportunities for you to be heard.
It is NOT…
… all about polymer clay or any one medium, as it’s important stuff for all artistic folks.
… focused on “how-to” or the latest tools and materials.
… just interviewing successful artists and talking at you. Rather it is like a coffee house chat or other friendly gather and I include you, the listener, in every way I can.
I created this podcast to supercharge your creativity, motivation, and artistic style through novelty, story, conversation, and community. Everyone has how-tos and ways to increase your sales – valiant and necessary stuff, of course! But what does your muse need? What does your work and your love of your art need to thrive? That’s where I want to help.
I aim to give artists ways to further hone their unique voice, increase their joy and productivity, and create a version of artistic success that is meaningful, satisfying, and anything but ordinary.
Come Join the Conversation
If you have something to share, would like to be a guest (for a chatty interview), or be a guest co-host (you and I banter on a particular subject) drop me an email me via my contact page on the show website: https://thesagearts.com/contact/ or send a voice mail (use the red button on that same site, bottom right corner of any page.)
And join me on social media!
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thesageartspodcast/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheSageArtsPodcast
And don’t forget to click “FOLLOW” or that little arrow on your favorite Podcast player so you get notices of new episodes. New Episodes come out weekly on Friday evenings, barring natural disasters or other bits of interference, of course. I hope you’ll join me there, on The Sage Arts podcast!
There are new artists and creatives joining every day with tons of great things to say…
“Just what I needed!”
“I just binged-listened … and I can’t wait for more!”
“There is so much validity in your presentation…”
“Looking forward to all the thinking and creating that they prompt.”
Taste test on my RSS website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thesagearts/
Or on the podcast home website: https://thesagearts.com/
Or start with this episode:
Outside Inspiration: Luminary Cellular
May 16, 2014
Inspirational Art
Stoneware and porcelain might not seem to be natural choices to depict biological elements but somehow Andrew Dewitt manages work that is fluid, graceful and looks nearly alive. This Black Fringed Porcelain Luminary was created using high-fired translucent porcelain with gloss and satin glazes. It is just one gorgeous piece among many that are highly organic and primarily cellular in design.
I was thinking that for those of us playing around with translucent clays, this piece could bring on just a flood of ideas. I know I’ve got a few thoughts swirling around in my mind from looking at Andrew’s work. Take a journey through his gallery on his beautiful website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
The Summer 2014 Issue: Let There Be Light
May 16, 2014
Inspirational Art, The Polymer Arts magazine news
The Summer 2014 issue is just about done. It is presently due to be released the first week of June. Here we have a sneak preview of the cover with a bright, reflective necklace by Silvia Ortiz de la Torre:
You can look forward to a ton of great, in-depth articles–
- Designing with Light in Mind
- Creating the Illusion of Light
- Luminous Landscapes Technique
- Luscious Liquid Clay Glazes
- Putting Sealants to the Test
- Lighten up: Taking the Weight out of Big Beads
- Controlling Photographic Light
- Grabbing the Internet Spotlight
- The Mobile Polymer Studio
- The Clay Report: What’s new, what’s best, what’s out there.
- They Love Me Not: Creating Success from Failures
- … and more!
We just sent out renewal notices so if you got that, don’t hold off renewing any longer. The mailing list for you to get the issue when it is first mailed out will be put together this coming week so renew and get it first!
www.thepolymerarts.com/Subscription_ordering.html
We’ll resume our exploration of cellular formations in the next post today!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Just Dots
May 14, 2014
Inspirational Art
If you ever did petri dish tests in biology class or left the tomato sauce too many weeks in the fridge, you might recognize the patterning of this next piece for our microscopic week. This is a simple but visually high impact bracelet by Mathilde Colas. It’s not often that we think of mold or mildew as inspiring much beyond disgust but all of nature has a beauty to it. The delicate dots and rich colors against a stark white background make for a calm but dramatic beauty here.
It seems obvious, looking at her body of work, that Mathilde Colas is heavily influenced by nature in all its forms, from the color of spring flowers to the decay of late autumn. Take a look at her work and read up on her thoughts on her blog website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Gane Cellular
May 13, 2014
Inspirational Art
As we continue our look at designs inspired by microscopic imagery, this necklace by Jael Thorp from Champaign, Illinois, brings to mind plant material under a microscope. This necklace is one of Jael’s Jewels and was made by the mokume gane method. She calls this her mini mokume gane set. They have an organic fluidity that almost vibrates with life.
Jael works with color to fit her mood. You have to wonder what kind of wonderful mood she was in here. To see more of Jael’s work, visit her Art Fire shop or her Flickr pages. You can read about her process on her award winning blog site “Jael’s Art Jewels Blog.”
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Polymer Under a Microscope
May 12, 2014
Inspirational Art
The organic forms, colors and patterns of nature inspire the work of many polymer artists. There was quite a bit of this at EuroSynergy, the microscopic looking variety especially and it has been on my mind since then. So this week, let’s look at items that could be drawn from what we might find under a microscope.
When thinking of cellular imagery, Christine Dumont’s work comes to mind first. We enjoyed a number of wonderful talks at EuroSynergy and I had the opportunity to take a close look at some of her more recent work although I didn’t get any photos. However, Christine takes such wonderful photos of her work so let’s look at her images instead. This pendant is a slight departure from others in her “Cellularia” series. She usually layers the perforated clay, lining the holes in precise rows to create a three dimensional surface. Here we have just the one layer of very organically spaced holes giving it even more of a cellular look.
Christine is known for her wonderfully helpful site, Voila as well as her beautifully finished work. Enjoy some time on her beautiful website and do check out Voila.eu.com if you haven’t yet or haven’t been there recently.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Color is Not a Modern Obsession
May 11, 2014
Uncategorized
Do you have trouble mixing colors or deciding which colors look good with other colors? Pantone Color Formula Guides, invented by Lawrence Herbert, have been the standard for mixing colors since 1963. The Pantone Matching System, a book of standardized colors in a fan format, was invented for identifying, matching and communicating colors accurately. But did you know that the system for actually mixing the colors to make different hues and tones was invented more than 270 years earlier? In 1692 an artist known as A. Boogert hand wrote an 800 page book about mixing watercolors. The book, Traité des couleurs servant à la peinture à l’eau, was never reproduced, even though it was intended as an educational guide. You can see the entire book on the e-corpus website.
There is also another system called Color-Aid Paper, developed in 1948, that provides you with a set of 314 or 220 color swatches (or glorified large paint chips). It was originally used as a backdrop for photographers, but when Josef Albers started using it to teach design classes, it became a standard tool in the graphic artist’s toolbox. These pieces of paper can be cut, torn, and collaged into designs and compositions, that can literally keep you up all night with glue-covered fingers and way too many X-Acto blade cuts. If you haven’t ever experienced the joy of Color-Aid Paper, it will set your creative juices flowing and free up your imagination like no other. So much color … so little time!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
And the Winners Are
May 10, 2014
Inspirational Art, Polymer community news
At each conference, there are Polymer Clay Awards. At EuroSynergy 800 entries were juried to find the most significant 40 works for the IPCA Awards Exhibition. Georg Dinkel took Best of Show with his I-reliquaries and shrines, dedicated to Apple products like iPad and iPod. Best in 2D Art went to Fran Abrams for her “Warmth of Fire” and Laurie Mika for her “Circle of Life”. Best of Jewelry was shared by Angela Garrod for her “The Final Frontier”, Cornelia Brockstedt for her “City Skies”, and Annie Pennington for two of her pieces “Phagocytosis Brooch” and “Tucson Squiggle Brooch”. Best in Sculpture was awarded to Penne Mobley for “Pensive Prince”, Claire Fairweather for “Spring Trio”, and Joyce Cloutman for “Woodland Elf”. And pictured here, one of the Best in Functional Containers was this bowl by Emily Squires Levine.
Emily, a 2014 Niche Award Finalist, designs and creates one-of-a-kind accent tiles, bowls, and eggs. Using sophisticated color palettes, she fashions unique canes to form her exciting polymer clay art. Take a look at her use of pattern, shape, and color. How can you incorporate some of her distinctive juxtapositions into your own work? You can see more of her work on her website or Facebook page.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
A Last Glance at Malta
May 8, 2014
Inspirational Art
I am in the slow process of extricating myself from Europe. I spent the last 4 days with the very creative and enthusiastic Anke Humpert. We played as well as worked on several upcoming articles and came up with way too many exciting ideas that, we hope, might become a reality someday. But for now, as I leave the European continent on my way to Iceland where I will stopover for a day, I am taking one last glance back at Malta.
We had one in our group at EuroSyngery that was from the beautiful island, Nevena Ilic from Swiegi on Malta. She creates lovely polymer jewelry in many of the colors and textures I now associate with the small but vibrant country. The red that so often colored the Malta cross and the dark aging of limestone that many of the buildings there are constructed of can both be found in this pendant.
Nevena only started working with polymer clay in 2011, but like many of us, once she found it, it became the focus of her creative work. For her it is “an instrument of communicating my inner-self.” You can see more of her interesting forms on her website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Pin Inspired–Greece
May 7, 2014
Inspirational Art, Polymer community news
We’ve seen designs from Portugal and Switzerland using Dan’s pin as inspiration for different versions playing off the same idea in his Broken Internet Project. Now let’s take a look at another pin submitted by an artist from Greece, Anarina Anar. She uses some of the same design elements but presents them with bold colors in a more playful, organic manner. What other elements do you see that are likely drawn from Dan’s pin?
As with the other pins we’ve seen, Anarina’s personal and distinct artistic voice takes over so completely that it would not likely have crossed a viewer’s mind that one pin helped inspire the other. Take a look at more of Anarina’s distinctive work on her Flickr site or in her Etsy store.
This is all we get to peek at for now. Dan and Tracy will post the rest of the set when they get back from teaching around Europe so keep an eye on their Facebook page as well as here for more to come.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Inspired Pins–Switzerland
May 6, 2014
Inspirational Art, Polymer community news
So you saw Dan’s pin that started this different version of the inspiration centered project on my previous blog (see it here.) Now he has sent me three of the resulting pins to share with you until he is back and can get the whole project up on their own website and Facebook pages.
The next one we get to peek at is from Sandra Trachsel of Koniz, Switzerland. Her design stays closer to Dan’s form but departs in a couple very distinctive ways. Do you like where she’s taken this?
As with yesterday’s piece, it’s both fun and enlightening to go back and look at Dan’s pin and see where Sandra’s and his are similar and where they have approached it in their own ways. As you can see from Sandra’s work, it is easy to identify her caning and color preferences as found on her Flickr page.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
