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:
Mysterious Snails
March 15, 2014
Inspirational Art
Evgeny Hontor looks to be the artist here although the link on Pinterest goes nowhere. However, I’m pretty sure this is the artist but since there is no longer a posting on Etsy and whoever started pinning them didn’t know the artist, this is an educated guess for now.
The artist lists his materials primarily as “velvet clay.” I found another artist that referred to air-dry polymers as velvet plastic and looking at the one image of his work table would lead me to believe this is painted air-dry similar to Makin’s. But regardless, it’s definitely a direct inspiration for polymer.
Evgeny creates the textures for his fantasy figures by designing and hand carving with a needle on an elastic resin texture mold. Using the mold, he then imprints these textures onto his creatures. He highlights the surface colors using acrylic paint by applying paint to the surface of the piece and then wiping away the excess from the highest points of the surfaces so that the color remains in the crevices of the design. It leaves an antiquing look that gives depth and added texture to the figures.
He sells some of these texture molds on his Etsy site, and you can find more of his work and creations on DeviantArt.
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.
Outside Inspiration: Fractals and Random Paths
March 14, 2014
Inspirational Art
I don’t remember the actual moment I discovered fractals, just that my mind was blown and I became lost in searching them out on the Internet, in books and even going so far as to look at software that can be used to create these amazing designs. They look so complex but when you get down to it, they have a very simple base. They can be made to appear rather random and intricate but the truth is, everything in the design is a version of a single shape or motif repeated over and over in different sizes and sometimes varying colors.
How is this relevant to the polymer artist? Well, besides often embodying fantastic and inspiring color palettes, what fractal artists do with their design is only a few steps away from concepts used in kaleidoscope and similarly built polymer canes. Starting with a single pattern, immensely complex canes can be created by using multiple stacks and mirrored versions of the same design not unlike how fractal art is designed.
Also, consider the complexity that can be accomplished on a cane covered piece using the same cane design but in a wide range of reduced sizes. Making a pattern of the canes in the same basic design as the base pattern of your cane the way they do with fractals and you could end up with some mind-blowing and very intricate pieces. Look very close at all the tiny detail in this fractal and you’ll see that the ‘lines’ of the larger swirls are actually flowing rows of the same swirl. Amazing!
This fractal graphic is a piece called “Joyous” by a graphic artist named Cyd who lists art on DeviantArt as ShadowedDancer. Heading to her page will only be the start of what could be a very long journey through the world of fractals on the internet. If you want to get lost, let me suggest you start with this amazing fractal artist Cory Ench (my personal favorite) as well as just Googling fractals on Google images. Be careful you don’t lose the whole day doing so!
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.
Mixing in Mosaics
March 13, 2014
Inspirational Art
This seems to be the week of mixing it up with polymer as well as intricate pieces. Here we have one of Susan Crocenzi‘s amazing mosaics that includes glass as well as polymer to build up an almost textile feel to this wall piece. The mosaic has a natural rhythm and flow of materials that allows the story to unfold sincerely. As Susan explain it, “Mosaic art offers us the sweet possibility that our own crazy, disjointed life-bits can yield peace, beauty, and meaning.”
This California artist teaches classes at her Grass Valley studio. To view more of her mosaics and learn more about her work, visit her Flickr site. There are more beautiful examples of her mosaics on her Facebook page. “Susan makes mosaics on steroids.” –Carol Herschieb, director of Nevada County Open Studios Tour.
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 Complexity of Animals
March 12, 2014
Inspirational Art
This fantastical creature is part of the series “Creatures from El” by Canadian artist Ellen Jewett. All of the swirls and scales movement are portrayed using textures and the wave of the dragon’s body. The dragon appears like stop animation … he is caught for a moment in time … so that we might enjoy his magnificence. This piece is a moving biological narrative, expressing emotions, movement, balance, and observations about life’s overtures and subtleties. This artist works with the principle that materials should conform to her vision, rather than confine her vision to the limits of materials.
As might be evident in her work, Ellen has extensive education in post-secondary Biological Anthropology and has been pursuing graduate work in anthrozoology. To enjoy the magnitude of her vision, take a look at her Etsy site, and read her journal entries on deviantart.com. When she is not too busy creating new work or filling custom orders, she hopes to resume private lessons in sculpture and stop motion animation, as well as her online tutorials.
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.
Intricately Layered
March 11, 2014
Inspirational Art
Israel’s Lesya Binkin produces intricately layered pendants and other polymer based jewelry. She is no polymer purist, tossing in a bit of this and that to create pieces that are not at all defined by the materials.
Lesya’s posts on her website, “My 7-years professional experience as a graphic designer at fashion field determines the main line at my polymer clay jewelry-making. It is multi-layer and graphic, made with the same principle as ones used at computer graphic programs. I mix layers and objects using various materials such as colorful metal leaf, metal powders and spangles in different color combination and shapes.” I don’t know about you, but I highly approve of the end result!
Her shapes and layers vary widely so don’t miss out on the very many incarnations of this heavily layered approach by heading over to her Flickr photostream or 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.
Lost in the Intricacy
March 10, 2014
Inspirational Art
I have, piling up in my Pinterst boards, pocket pages and research folders, all this really intricate, time consuming work that I’ve been wanting to share. I guess this will be the week to do that!
This first piece just fascinates me. I used to do quite a bit of carving, in all kinds of mediums. It’s extremely zen and therapeutic but I’ve done very little in polymer. That is probably a big reason why I like this piece so much. I could see its creator, Belarus’ Anna Anpilogova, spending hours carving out all this texture, lost in the emergence of the layers as she carved into the polymer over and over again. It’s got my fingers itching to try some myself!
Anna’s polymer work is quite tactile and intricate, usually with an organic or nature inspired theme. Her collection of work on her Flickr photostream and LiveJournal pages can get you as lost in a trance as I imagine doing all the carving would.
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.
Sneak Peek at the Spring 2014 issue
March 9, 2014
The Polymer Arts magazine news
Today, we’re covering some public service announcements about the new issue just released. We’ll get back to regularly scheduled art work tomorrow getting into ‘intricate’ design for this coming week. So, here are share-able items, and the timeline for delivery, if you don’t have yours yet, below.
The latest issue of The Polymer Arts is out! Spring 2014–Wrap it Up was challenging to put together but it sure was worth it! Here is a small sampling flipbook of the issue if yours hasn’t arrived yet or you haven’t decided to buy it yet.
If you want to share this fun little flipbook or news about the magazine’s release, you can post this link: http://goo.gl/OkVlyX which goes to the flipbook or copy any of these images and link to www.thepolymerarts.com so people know where to get their own copy.
Your Copy of Spring 2014:
- Digital issues were released on Friday the 7th so if you expected a digital access email but haven’t seen one yet, check your spam/junk mail folder for it and if it’s not there, write us at connect@thepolymerarts.com. Don’t forget to add connect@thepolymerarts.com to your safe sender list and/or address book to help keep emails from being filtered to junk mail.
- Print issues started mailing out on Wednesday from Idaho. They can take up to 3 weeks to get some areas in the East, South and overseas but they are all on their way.
- If you don’t buy a copy of this issue yet, you can get your copy at our website or through one of our online retailers listed on that page as well.
Thank you all for your many kind and enthusiastic words about this issue you’ve sent my way the last couple days! And thank you ever so much for sharing the issue on your Facebook page, Pinterest and other online sites. It is very heart-warming to see how thrilled you all are about this issue. It is pretty amazing just how many people got involved in the content, contributing their thoughts, art work and talent into making this one very packed issue! Thanks to you all!
Spinning Off
March 8, 2014
Inspirational Art
For this Saturday, here is a bit of fun asymmetry composed from elements not aligning. In this case, these earrings by Elvira Krick consist of incomplete circles whose breaks sit at different positions make the line kind of rock back and forth. But then, free them from hanging in the same flat plane as shown in the right side image, and you have a number of new asymmetrical compositions and, still with a kinetic feel to them.
Elvira hails from Amsterdam where she creates jewelry from a variety of materials including glass beads, metals, and fiber as well as polymer clay. Check out more of her work on her Flickr page and in her Etsy shop.
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.
Outside Inspiration: Hanging Felt
March 7, 2014
Inspirational Art
Asymmetrical composition is common in every artistic area so choosing just one for today’s outside inspiration was tough. This necklace has been on one of my Pinterest boards for a while though so this seemed like a great chance to share it.
Felted jewelry is becoming more common and the felters are getting quite creative. I like this example by Nadine of Dans Mon Corbillon, not because it’s the most creative but because of it’s intricacy and use of other materials including beads and what I think are feathers. It’s just so full of varied textures. The variation and asymmetrical arrangement could have looked a bit too chaotic but I think it comes across as rather celebratory instead, the way nature can get at the peak of the season when all the foilage and flowers are taking over. (and those of us in the Northern hemisphere are sure looking forward to that!)
You can look at more of Nadine’s gorgeous work on her Flickr site and her blog.
By the way, the Spring issue of The Polymer Arts came out today. If you are due a digital issue but it’s not in your inbox, look in your spam/junkmail folder as they can be sometimes be routed there. If you are waiting on a print issue, they were sent to the post office in Idaho on Wednesday to be processed so most people will be getting those next week or the week after if you are in the east or far south of the States or overseas. Due to cuts in postal services a few issues took over three weeks in the US and some places in Europe last time but be patient. They are on their way!
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.
Bringing it Back to Center
March 6, 2014
Inspirational Art
Although this pin by Kay Bonitz is asymmetrical, the pin uses the rule of thirds that we innately identify as balanced. The rule of thirds is a theory that says we recognize beauty and balance in images and objects whose proportions can be split into thirds. Our bodies are composed of elements that are built primarily on mirrored parts but all our limb to torso proportions and many facial proportions can be broken down into thirds which is why we likely identify with other items with proportions in thirds. In this case, Kay also has added further balance by using the feathers to create a center focal point.
Kay, who is a retired accountant, has moved from counting numbers to counting beads. She is actually a beading artist who embellishes her polymer clay creations with beads and feathers. You can see more of her work and learn more about this artist 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.
