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:
Stocking up on Texture
January 8, 2013
Tips and Tricks
There’s nothing quite so energizing in the studio as new materials or tools. But after the holidays, sometimes the budget is a little slim. Don’t let that stop you, though.
You can always make a new set of texture stamps or plates from scrap clay. Simple, easy to do, and inexpensive, you can pull texture from anything around you or ‘doodle’ on a sheet of clay. Here is a sheet by Cynthia Gordillo that employs the doodling approach with wonderful results. This kind of design might take a little time, but what wonderful texture sheets you’d end up with.
Cynthia documented her texture sheet creation on her blog here so you can see the tools she used to make these marks. But you needn’t stop there. You can do a couple other things with these sheets besides creating the initial texture.
You can get two plates for your efforts by making a negative of it–prep your new baked texture sheet with your favorite release (I am big on ArmorAll for this kind of thing) and press a thick sheet of clay carefully and thoroughly onto it. Pull it off and bake and you have sheet #2. You can also take that same negative sheet of clay and cut circles, squares, or odd shapes to include the most intriguing parts of the design so you have smaller stamps to work with. To eliminate some of the roundedness of the texture’s raised surface, you can sand the positive or negative sheet on a full piece of sandpaper laid flat on a table. If you sand with coarse sandpaper you’ll have a contrasting matte or slightly textured surface.
In Praise of the Bolo
January 7, 2013
Inspirational Art
Praising the bolo? Yes, actually, I am. They had a bit of a comeback in some circles last year, circles outside of cowboy fashion even. And why not? It’s a neat little accessory with a central decorative piece and two points on the end caps for additional color and/or pizzazz. And they are a lot easier to put on in the morning than a tie. Not to mention that it is actually an interesting composition for a necklace if worn as such.
Melanie West got into bolos because of her father but now she likes to wear them herself. Bolos, like these of hers below, have me thinking about the potential for this overlooked accessory.
Melanie’s own words on the bolos: “They are light, colorful (well, mine are), and unexpected (at least on a woman). Throw in my kooky organic “cilia and cell” patterns, and they can generate a lot of surprised looks from folks – in a good way, that is.” I imagine so!
You can read about Melanie’s bolo journey on her blog.
Art & Health
January 6, 2013
Polymer community news, Ponderings
What are your goals for this New Year? Improve your skills as an artist? How about improve your health? How about doing them both together?
I think we can all agree that good health certainly helps us in creating art. It’s hard to create when we don’t feel good. So, our friends over at Crafty Link (same gals that run Polymer Clay Productions) decided to help artists get healthier. They have a 12 week course titled The Art of Healthy Living that is “designed to teach real-world, healthy lifestyle choices while using art as a means to work through the thoughts and emotions that accompany weight loss.” Sounds rather intriguing.
I do have a few holiday pounds to lose myself. I am also working on reducing stress and having more time to laugh …
I had to share this image … it has fractals on it! I’m a bit nutty about fractals. They are all around us in nature but can also be created using math. Crazy pretty stuff.
The Serendipity of Kathleen’s Inspiration
January 5, 2013
Inspirational Art
Do you ever wonder what the first efforts of some of our polymer greats looked like? If you ever make it to Buford, GA, you can get a look at some of the earlier work in our community. It will make you feel better to see that Barbara McGuire’s first face canes look like, well, someone’s first efforts at making face canes. Unfortunately, looking at some of Kathleen Dustin’s firsts is not quite as affirming. I think she was born an artistic master.
These beads are her first experiments in layering translucent with her now well-recognized style, experiments that led her career off in another direction and into the realm of mastery we know and admire her for. She confesses that she was just about ready to abandon polymer and return to ceramics until circumstances got her to into the exploration of this technique. (Can you imagine a world without those purses of hers!)
We can’t all be Kathleen. We will make some horrible pieces before we make our master pieces. Just keep that in mind as you work. Your art will evolve and improve. Just don’t give up on it.
You can read more about Kathleen’s journey with layered translucents on the Polymer Art Archive post here.
Outside Inspiration: Tension in Jet
January 4, 2013
Inspirational Art
In our present issue of The Polymer Arts, there is an article about focal points–that place in a piece of art that the viewer’s eye immediately finds or continuously returns to. There are many ways to establish a focal point and our article discusses the more common ones. Jacqueline Cullen‘s bracelet, shown here, is an example of yet another type of focal point, one that is undeniable. In fact, you almost can’t pull your gaze from the central focus of the piece.
This strong focal point is created by tension. We have granulation in gold which, in contrast with the black, already would draw the eye. But, by bringing the two textured ends together, just barely touching, Jacqueline has also created tension. We want to see more certainty in the connection, more undeniable strength especially with such a strong solid band created in the rest of the pieces structure. But no … we’re denied that and so we see that barely-there point as tense. We as humans are drawn to tension, whether we like it or not. (If the popularity of reality TV with all it’s confrontations and drama is any indicator, many, many people really like tension!) That’s why this focal point is so strong. If you are after a really strong, impactful focal point on a piece, this approach will almost certainly do it for you.
A note on this interesting black material. It is called Whitby jet and is basically a prehistoric black fossil that is usually associated with Victorian mourning jewelry, a trend started by Queen Victoria who wore it when she went into mourning for Prince Albert. It is not mined much today making it a rare material. Jacqueline is the only contemporary artist working with this material in a non-traditional manner. Pretty cool.
A Nomadic Moment
January 3, 2013
Inspirational Art
We’re taking a moment today to admire the work of Renata Jansen, sculptor of highly detailed dolls and figurines. Her subject matter touches on the fantastic as well as portraiture and interpretations of story and myth.
Damia here is a creature of the city. It took me a few times through the many images Renata posted (as she does for most of her dolls … you really get a detailed view of each one on her website) to realize that she’s winged. A great juxtaposition between fantasy and gritty street life in our own realm.
Renata has a serious dedication to realism (even in her fantastical creatures). She has an interesting set of tutorials on making tiny doll eyes from polymer and resin. They aren’t difficult, but as it is with her sculptures, its all about the details.
Working Well with One Concept
January 2, 2013
Inspirational Art
As an artist, do you spend your time learning a variety of techniques so you have many options to express yourself, or do you find one approach you like and work with it continuously until you have it done perfectly?
I suspect most polymer artists are drawn to this medium because of the variety of effects and applications possible. But some people can become completely enamored of a single application and I’m rather glad for that on most occasions. Take Cathy Braunlin’s work. She has really gotten covering objects in extruded rope filigree down to, well, an art. Her technique is straight forward–swirls and zig-zags fitted onto the surface of an object, then painted with mica powders usually in a rainbow of colors. The effect is quite dramatic and is the epitome of eye candy.
Cathy covers vases, lamps, pens, and other household items as well as using this technique on a variety of jewelry forms, all in this neat but varied texture. Is she a well accomplished polymer artist? It would depend on how you define “accomplished”. It’s also a question of whether labeling one in such a manner is important on any level. I enjoy her work and I bet many of you will also. She has taken this approach and done quite well with it. And all I can say is that I’m glad for it.
Happy New Year. This Year, Let’s Do It Now.
January 1, 2013
Inspirational Art, Ponderings
‘Tis New Year’s Day and I’m sure we all have, to some extent, thoughts of what we will do with ourselves in this coming year. What do we want to do differently, better, or even the same because it actually worked? What do we want to avoid doing or discard completely from our lives? And will we actually do these things?
It’s hard to say. The New Year reminds us to reflect and because the rest of the world is in the same contemplative mood, we find ourselves there, too. The hard part is not facing our failures and our need to improve but actually doing something about it. We all have such wonderful ideas and intentions, but we often stop there, with just the thoughts.
I have this work philosophy that is probably the one reason I can manage to do as much as I do and it is simply this … “Do it Now”. People are often surprised that they write me and often get an answer within a few minutes. Its because, for one, I’m here working most every hour of the day online and secondly, why should I wait to answer? If I do it now, it’s completed, I have moved forward and I will not waste time later rereading and revisiting the email.
When I’m in the studio, I do this with my art as well. If there is an idea I’ve wanted to try, why not try it now? This piece below by Karen Park was something she had been thinking about doing for years. It’s simple but quite elegant. A great piece. What if she had lost that idea? Doing it when it first came up would have guaranteed it’s existence, or something similar to it. I’m glad she did do it, even if it took some time.
Mind you, I am not saying that some ideas shouldn’t wait. Some designs should be left to “gestate,” as Karen called this process. But what you don’t want to do is keep saying “I should do that someday,” and keep revisiting the idea without anything coming of it.
So, just a suggestion for this New Year; If you have an idea, fully formed with all the materials you need in front of you, why not just start it? If you only have 5 mintues, sketch it. If you have 30 minutes while other things are in the oven, give it a go. Let’s make this the year of doing things, not just thinking about it. Let’s make it a year of creativity and success.
Your Craft Business in the New Year
December 31, 2012
Ponderings
With the New Year now upon us, I thought I’d take a moment to share a blog I’ve found rather enlightening over the last few years.
When one gets serious about art, that business aspect almost always creeps in. To sustain our art (or obsession as it often is), selling our work becomes a necessity. Artists are usually business minded so it is very helpful to have a helping hand in that area.
The Craft Business Biz blog written by Terri Belford covers that one area of arts and crafts that most of us would prefer to think about as little as possible. It can be a bit heavy on the dramatic marketing in the way the blog is set up, but the advice is generally pretty good. For example, his post earlier this month on making your business stand out is just a short list of common sense things you can do to help boost your business. Terri only posts a few times each month so it’s not stuff you’ll be getting hit over the head with. But it is great to get those little reminders to think about improving your business on a regular basis.
The New Year should not be the only time you work on improving what you do, but it is a good place to start.
Outside Influence: Art on Nature
December 30, 2012
Inspirational Art
When I first saw this array, I thought it was polymer and ingenuous work at that. But no … it turns out to be leaves. Beautifully painted details on dead leaves by Elena Nuez of Spain. But its not the painting of each leaf that is so enticing, rather it is the arrangement, the collective impact that gives this image it’s impact.
Even more wonderful is the variety of ways Elena photographs these. On her web post she has several different arrangements and angles from which she photographs them. The photos–the compostition and view–are the art.
In terms of how we can translate this into polymer, there are several things you can take from this. One, the shapes and colors are perfect for polymer and these patterns could be easily reproduced. It also might give you ideas for making a batches of forms and then playing with the arrangement of them until you either find an arrangement you like for a brooch or wall piece or as a collection you can continue to play with for your own enjoyment. Also, consider that the photography of your work can in itself be art with polymer the subject that helps create the images rather than the polymer being the end product alone. Just a lot to ponder. And enjoy.
