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:
Polymer-Only Linking
May 29, 2013
Inspirational Art
The one person who has probably spent more time than any other polymer artist exploring the possibilities of polymer-centric connections for jewelry is Maggie Maggio. Her architectural design background makes pondering the capabilities of a material almost inevitable.
One of her first experiments with polymer-only connections was the split ring. A roll of polymer is looped twice around and then baked to make split ring links. This process of creating a ring of polymer that can be securely looped through other rings after baking creates beads that are not only beautiful and intriguing to work with, but are also really just a ton of fun to make. This Rose Chain is one of Maggie’s expanded versions of the polymer split ring, with an additional wrap of clay and added layers to create the fabric-like ruffles.
Intrigued by the split ring idea but haven’t tried it yet? Take a couple minutes to view Maggie’s split ring video tutorial.
Maggie has also successfully created polymer hooks and jewelry that wraps around the neck or arm, so that no metal or other findings are needed. Check out her other finding-less creations on her website, and follow her adventures in polymer and color on her Smashing Color blog.
Front Side Connections
May 28, 2013
Inspirational Art
Since I brought up polymer clasps yesterday, I thought I’d talk about a variation on that type of connection: the front side toggle, and derivations of it. The connection for a necklace does not have to be at the back. If you are making a piece with a central focal bead, why not make the bead a connectors as well?
One of my favorite versions of this is the almost bolo-like polymer and filigree pieces Janet Pitcher creates for her Petal Pushers line of polymer jewelry. The focal bead is like the entry point half of a toggle; but instead of an insertion piece that will back up against the opening of the entry point, Janet creates weighted lengths of ribbons with beads created from the same petal canes as the center piece. The bead-weighted ribbons are threaded through the focal bead, and hang there as part of the design.
This is not, by far, the only option for front side connections. A really showy or beautifully done toggle type clasp can operate as a focal bead, or a large bead sliced in half with magnets in either half can be the central focus of a necklace or bead design. Just don’t relegate your beautiful connectors to the back of the necklace or bracelet if showing them off out front will make for a gorgeous piece of jewelry.
Polymer Connections in Toggle Clasps
May 27, 2013
Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
This week I thought we’d do look at polymer fasteners – the connections and findings made from or dependent on polymer for their construction. One of the reasons I want to look into this is because of a new section in The Polymer Arts magazine called “Polymer Jeweler’s Workbench”. In this regular section we’ll be exploring techniques, ideas, and designs specific to jewelry created in polymer.
In the recently released Summer issue of The Polymer Arts, we feature combining wire findings with polymer; but one can easily create findings from polymer itself. Here is a straightforward example of polymer toggle clasp findings by Tina Holden.
The great thing about making polymer clasps is, of course, that you can make them to match the design of the piece using the same colors, textures, and motifs so the clasp becomes a integral part of the necklace or bracelet design, not just an add-on.
Tina is a very inventive and creative polymer artist. She shares many of her wonderful techniques through her tutorials which you can find on her Etsy and Artfire shops including one for the clasps you see here.
Trigger Experiences
May 26, 2013
Ponderings
I have long been a fan of Brian Eno, ever since I went to a sensory exhibit of his in Long Beach, California, back in my art school days. The huge meandering gallery space was in almost complete darkness but for these glowing, changing colors in variously constructed light boxes. His music played in the background, and you had to move about slowly because you couldn’t see that well. You could see the forms of other people, but that was it, so you weren’t distracted by any people watching or influenced by anyone else’s reaction to the work. It was ethereal, wandering through the dark space, watching these kind of light sculptures hover in the space around you. THAT was an experience, not a series of objects.
Now, I know we’re not likely to do anything quite so grand in the way our work is presented, but sometimes we can influence our work by simply thinking about how it is experienced by the person who ends up owning or viewing it: how it might relate to their life, how it would live in their home, or how it will feel to the wearer or make other people feel when they see it on that person. Our works are not just a series of objects. They are additions to our lives and the lives of those who end up with them. They can be experiences.
The Art of Subtle Variation
May 25, 2013
Inspirational Art
We’ve been talking about pushing variation all week. Pushing it usually means you are leaning towards an extreme, or at least a pretty good departure from the norm. But I wanted to correct that notion a bit. I do think swinging that pendulum to an extreme can be great for breaking through any creative barriers, but sometimes it’s the subtle changes that can really make a difference.
Little changes in your design elements can take something from still and calm to energized and exciting. I’m not say still and calm is bad, but changing the forms from what one might expect or varying them in a single piece can produce a whole new feeling in the piece.
Let’s take this piece by Judy Kuskin. This necklace has circles, rectangles and triangles in it. Sort of.
The shapes here are not, for the most part, standard or evenly shaped, except the circles and the oblong center bead. And none of the shapes match their brethren. None of the ‘rectangles’ are actually rectangles (the shape is called a quadrilateral… just a shape with four sides); instead, they are all are off-kilter, some more than others, and are hung at varying orientations. Same thing with the triangles. The circles are also different sizes, with different accent pieces in them. What Judy has done is broken our expectations. We naturally look for repetition, cohesiveness, and pattern. There isn’t any pattern here, except in a lack of repetition and consistency. This makes our eye bounce around the necklace, looking for what we expect and a place to rest. Having neither actually provides the sense of movement and energy we get from it.
This kind of full departure from expectation can be difficult to master. But as you experiment with variations in your work, you can at least take away the idea of pushing something – like a shape or the orientation of a shape – and changing it so it isn’t standard. Cut off the tip of a triangle. Slice in the sides of a square. Remove the petals in one section of a flower. Punch out the side of a circle like an eclipsing sun. Small, subtle changes like this can take a piece that you don’t find as exciting as you wanted it to be and really give it some punch.
Changes don’t need to be big and bold to make a big or bold difference. Playing with your options will help you learn what will work, and when.
Outside Inspiration: Variation in Clay
May 24, 2013
Inspirational Art
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.
Pushing the Inchies
May 23, 2013
Inspirational Art
I mentioned inchies as an option for exploring variation a couple days ago but have been thinking maybe a brief word on breaking out of the inchie tradition of minimal variation was worth a post. If you aren’t familiar with inchies they are simply one inch square tiles of artwork. They are often made for swaps and exchanges at events, somewhat like art trading cards but tiny.
As a means for exploring variation, the use of this concept is hard to beat. Inchies give you a limited space to work in but no limitations on what you do with it. And for those of us who have limited time and resources, creating them while exploring variation means we get to build a stock of exchangeable tiny samples of our art for the next inchie exchange while pushing ourselves artistically.
Although most inchies are created to be quickly produced, don’t rush or limit your exploration of variation through inchies. Here are a few inchies by the Philippines’ Donna Cruz-Comia that obviously took some time but what wonderful results.
The consistency that makes these inchies related are that they are all petals and are built off a corner. Beyond that, that couldn’t be more different. But its this kind of work, pushing a limited idea such as the many ways one can create a petal and build the form of a flower from it that will result in new discoveries for you.
And how impressive will your inchies be at the next exchange if you created such involved work as this? Isn’t exploration wonderful?
Breaking Traditions in Faux (And the Summer Issue is out!)
May 22, 2013
Inspirational Art
The really, truly amazing and incredible thing about working with polymer … you can make ANYTHING you want out of the stuff. (Well, I have yet to see properly emulated hair but close!) The thing is, we have this medium that has few limitations and endless possibilities but so often when faux stone or other faux natural materials are created from it, it is in the common natural colors and usually even in the same traditional forms we’ve seen them for centuries. Now I know some stones are expensive and making them in polymer just allows for an inexpensive option. And I am all for making faux ivory rather than getting real ivory from the source. Making faux that looks just like we’d expect the real material to look does make sense but what doesn’t make sense is why more people don’t move beyond what nature and tradition has made?
Let’s take jade for example. We think of it as green and Asian. So we see tons of faux polymer jade in variations of green in simple beads or Asian motifs. Understandable. But why be limited by what has been done?
Desiree McCrorey has never approached anything in a traditional manner as far as I can tell and that penchant has resulted in some really unusual and beautiful work. I mean, have you ever seen jade like in the necklace here?
I don’t know how difficult if would be to carve real jade into such forms but since its so easy with polymer, why not take advantage of that capability and go beyond what is usually done with the real material?
And why always green? I remember wondering that in the first year I worked with polymer. Nature already makes all these beautiful variations of soft greens in jade. But why not bright blues? Or purples? Or reds? Or all of them together.
Here you get to peek at one of my very early pieces when I was playing with what I called rainbow jade. I just kept pushing the idea of jade–the semi-translucence and inclusions often seen in it–using the basic mixing techniques common for faux jade but with unnatural colors and variation, not just between beads but within them. Because … why not?
So if you’re going to do faux stones and the like and you want to work on variation, why not look at doing what nature and tradition has not? Use different colors, different inclusions, and definitely different forms and motifs. We have the power to create that which never existed before. Embrace the power!
And … the Summer 2013 issue of The Polymer Arts is out! All print issues are in the mail and on the way and digital access was sent out to all subscribers last night. If you have a print issue coming, it takes 5-10 days so with the last of them mailed off this morning (and with Memorial Day in the midst of mailing time here) most of you should have it by the end of the month/first week of June. If you have a digital issue due to you but haven’t seen it in your inbox, check you spam/junk mail folders as they can get filtered there. Add connect@thepolymerarts.com to your safe sender list or address book to keep TPA mail from getting spam filtered.
And if you don’t have a copy on the way, go get it. This is a very cool, very packed issue. Talk about inspiration for variation … sheesh! Inclusions, hats, wall art, a huge list of covered object ideas, variation through collaboration, new wire findings ideas for polymer, changing up backgrounds for you photos and even variation in your selling technique to get more sales at shows! Much, much more of course. Get it here: www.thepolymerarts.com
Devising Variation … in Crackle!
May 20, 2013
Inspirational Art
I’ve been lining up some ideas for this week’s posts about variation, as requested. In the process, it occurred to me that we actually should write a full length article for the magazine on this subject–it’s really broad and very important to expanding an artist’s repertoire and skill. But I thought we could go over the basics and maybe get you thinking more about how to push what you already enjoy doing until we can put an in-depth article together for you.
I thought we’d used crackling as an example of how to start working out variations. Crackling is one of my favorite techniques because of the varied texture it creates as well as the wide possibilities in color, shimmer and ways it can be applied.
The basic process for working out variations starts with getting a handle on what the core concept is behind the technique, form or approach you want to expand on. In crackle, the core of the technique is based in how crackling works. Polymer is an elastic material that can be moved and stretched without breaking apart. If you adhere something that is not elastic on the clay and then stretch the clay, the non-elastic material has to break to move with it–this is what we call crackling. So any material that is non-elastic, can be laid on and adhered to raw polymer in a continuous sheet and that that will break relatively easily can be used for crackling.
Gold leaf is very common for crackling texture because it meets all the criteria plus its shiny surface contrasting with the non-reflective surface of the clay makes for very pretty effects. Tempura and other non-elastic paints (note: acrylics are quite elastic so they just stretch with the clay) can be laid on raw clay and, once dried, will also meet the non-elastic and easy to break criteria. Paints greatly broaden your options for color and texture as how the paint is applied (thickly, thinly, with gaps, etc.) controls the type and subtlety of the crackling. And additions to the paint including mica powders, alcohol inks, glitter–whatever material can mix into the paint and keep it non-elastic–allows you to change the color and visual impact.
Here are beads by Janice Abarbanel showing several variations on her crackle technique in different shades applied in a variety of ways to lentil beads. Some of the crackling is very subtle while other variations on it are quite bold. In this case, the biggest variation is in the choice of background clay color.
So with just this idea that you can use anything non-elastic, you have a huge treasure trove of possible variations for crackling. Then add in changing how you use it such as going from stripes to wide swathes of it like in the beads above or applying bits as accents, borders or cut up in shapes to create specific imagery, moving from just using crackled clay in jewelry to using it on home decor or even sculpture … the possibilities are really endless.
This same process–figuring out the basic premise of a technique then pushing yourself to think beyond what you usually do–can be applied to any technique or approach. Try it out–play with crackling or any technique you are into. In the meantime, if you like Janice’s subtle crackle technique, she does sell a tutorial in her Etsy shop for it. That could be a fun way to start experimenting with variations on crackle!
Do you have an unusual way of working with crackling? Drop us a comment below (if you’re getting this by email, click on the post’s header and it will take you to the page where you can leave a comment–it won’t be share-able if you just respond to the email.) If you have photos up of your crackle work, leave us a link so we can go check it out. Seeing a wide variation can help us all expand our ideas about what to do with crackling!
Faux is Fun … unless it’s You
May 19, 2013
Ponderings
Just a little faux-ish quote to end our faux week. I can’t say I try to be normal too often. It’s reaaaally hard to maintain!
