The Party is in Full Swing. Come join us!

 

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:

Double down on Extruder Discs

November 29, 2012

Today … just a simple but clever idea for all you extruding fiends out there. Marie Segal has an extensive set of pages on her website on creating African trade beads and within those pages, on Part 5 she talks about making new shapes for the extruder by doubling up the discs. Genuis!

Of course you could put more than one disc in if it continues to pleasantly change the shape. Just need a little something to hold them in position as she demonstrates in her post. But how fun. This would certainly multiply your extruder shape options for the low low cost of  … well, nothing. Who doesn’t like that?

 

Appreciating Accomplished Art

November 28, 2012

I’m going to put this out there so no one has to feel like they are the odd one out. The art piece I am posting today by German artist Angelika Arendt is not something I find particularly beautiful. There you go … I said it. So if you like the piece, great. If you don’t really care for it, just read on. Let’s talk about why we might want to take a closer look at work we may not personally find aesthetically pleasing.

We don’t have to find something beautiful or visually pleasing to appreciate, learn something from, or be drawn to it. I’m drawn to this piece even though I would not consider having it adorn a shelf in my home. Being a texture junkie, I can’t help but be drawn to the visual and tactile nature of this sculpture. The piece is kind of nuts. Not in any derogatory way … I just imagine the painstaking hours it took to apply and pattern a piece like this. It’s really rather amazing  on that point alone. But why share a piece if I don’t find it aesthetically pleasing?

Well, of course there is the “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” thing. I can’t just post what I like. But I think the real point is that accomplished work isn’t always going to be found beautiful. It is, however, always something that makes a good majority of people stop and contemplate it. Don’t tell me you don’t keep looking back at this undulation of color and dots. It’s kind of unnerving how visually magnetic it is. And for us as artists, knowing what kind of work went into this, we may be in awe or at least garner some serious respect for the effort involved.

So what makes this piece accomplished? It’s the fact that it does draw your attention. Its not the busy nature of the texture or color either … anyone can slap a lot of tiny bits onto a form–but there is the choice of colors mixed across the surface. We recognize that the colors do belong together, that there was thought that went behind the choices. In a less accomplished work where conscious decisions aren’t made about color and placement, that lack of planning is usually pretty obvious. What’s hard is making something look random and even chaotic but still whole and ‘right’.

Bottom line here … a variety of shapes, colors, patterns and applications can be used to create an accomplished piece of art. It just needs some intelligence and intention behind it. Even with that, you don’t have to like it but it is worthwhile to see and appreciate it.

 

Sparkling SkyScrapers

November 27, 2012

Last winter the cover of The Polymer Arts was graced with beautiful brocade polymer purses by Iris Mishly of PolyPediaOnline. Iris is quite the innovator and her library of tutorials as well as her blog is a treasure box of fantastic ideas. One of her more recent tutorials is on a technique she refers to as ‘SkyScraper” in reference to the sparkling effect of tall city buidlings in the sun.

The necklace here is an example of what the technique can create. She emphasizes that the process requires baking before creating so we can surmise that there will be some very different ideas and tricks to be gleaned from this class in particular.

Iris’ tutorials follow a growing trend of artists that combine lengthy videos and printed materials into a very in-depth and intensive class you can take at your own pace and at a significantly lower cost than traveling and attending workshops. Not that technology will ever begin to replace that hands-on, in-person experience but with the wealth of information out there from generous artists all over the world, this technology and approach is a great way to get a wonderfully broad and diverse polymer education.

See all of Iris’ tutorial classes here. She also offers quite a number of free tuts  and free videos with additional tips and ideas.

An Optical Education

November 26, 2012

ST Art Clay’s photostream on Flickr is a rather amazing educational journey. This artist (whose name I have not been able to discover but would love to have on here, should anyone know it) looks to have taken classes with all the big names and obviously paid attention in class! She credits all her pieces to the original artist she learned the techniques from.For instance, this pendant’s mokume gane approach is credited to Melanie Muir. Melanie’s influence is obvious if you are a fan of her work but what our avid new polymer artist here does is translate what she learns into some really incredible optically active textures.

The ordered application of the impressed circles is almost hynotic. Browse through St Art Clay’s Flickr stream for her externally well-finished versions of Cormier Cutting Edge necklaces, Picarillo pendants, Dumont hollow beads, and McCaw canes.

Although the influence of the master artist’s are obvious, I like the direction that one can see is starting to be pushed in the collection of work. I am a big proponent of finding one’s own voice as an artist but I also see nothing wrong with learning technique and skills through copying the approach of another’s work. As long as you take it and start to apply your own interests and visions. This needs to be done not only out of respect for the artist you learn from but also for your own growth. The fact that ST Art Clay consistently pushes the work towards an optically enticing and visually active surface treatment shows this is one artist that is already well on her way to digging her own voice out of the many voices she’s been assimilating.

Making Happiness

November 25, 2012

This holiday season, make your happiness. As creatives, we can be particularly good at this. If you can create something beautiful from a boring lump of clay, you can take something dull or difficult and create the joy we know exists in everything.

The Universe in a Dish

November 24, 2012

It’s surprising; with the ease and beauty of polymer that more artists in other mediums don’t look to polymer to add color, texture and forms that won’t require extensive or complicated work. It may be simply that they don’t know how easy it is to combine it with other materials. But when a talented artist of a traditional medium meets up with a talented polymer artist … well, there would be tremendous potential for some truly beautiful and original art.

This is the story behind the piece below. Victoria Altepeter & Judy Belcher meet at Arrowmont where Victoria is the resident metals artist and soon thereafter combined talents to make this subtle but intriguing piece.

 

I found this piece on the IPCA website in connection with the last Synergy conference. There is a very nice explanation of the concept behind this piece on the page:

“The metalwork Victoria creates is inspired by the universe and the events occurring therein. It is her goal to make comprehensible the vastness of our universe. Intimate portraits of cosmic existence allow us to quietly ponder our own place in the universe. That connection spoke to Judy and she created her pieces that Victoria incorporated. Patination conveys a sense of time and place. It keeps forms as simple as possible creating calm and balance.”

With these last busy days and with the holidays here in the US, I’m all for simple, calm and balance. I hope you are able to enjoy your weekend with a little calm and balance of your own.

Outside Inspiration: Nifty Magnetics

Ever wish there was a way you could turn a single sale into a sale of two pieces? Wish you had a few pieces that were versatile and clever enough to draw the attention of the more skeptical buyers as they look over your booth? Well, when I saw these two beaded magnetic bracelets below, so easily turned into an interesting neck piece I couldn’t help but imagine all the configurations (and extra sales) a polymer jewelry artist could come up with.

These beaded beauties were created by Hildegund llkerl of Austria. I did wonder at what looks to be plastic ends on these very expensive pieces ($440). But they sold. On the other hand, just think of what beautiful covered connections a clayer could come up with?

The magnetic clasps are a pretty familiar finding now a days but I do wonder that more people haven’t considered how to use them to expand a piece. You could make beaded bracelets that fit together as a necklace, necklaces that can be adjusted to be different lengths by removing a magnetically attached section or make a short necklace with matching earrings that are magnetically attached to earring wires or post but could be pulled to grow the length of the necklace. Or make interchangeable sections of different colors or patterns for a necklace or bracelet. My mind is just whirling. Isn’t yours?

Thankful for You

Today in the USA we observe Thanksgiving Day, a day most notably associated with turkey, pumpkin pie, and generally eating way, way too much. I’m not sure why we celebrate a day that is suppose to be one of contemplation for all we have to be thankful for by putting ourselves into a food coma. Maybe the food coma is a way of slowing us down so we have time to think and be thankful. Or we’re just being typical crazy Americans.

In any case, this is my opportunity to stop and say thank you to all the readers throughout the world and artists in the polymer community that have helped to make my life so full and so inspired. I am grateful for each and every email, note card and online post that encourages and comments on my efforts with the magazine and this blog. Not only couldn’t I do this without the support of all of you but, in truth, it really has become a set of projects about and by you. And I feel like the luckiest woman in the world to be facilitating the exchange of knowledge and beauty in this community. Thank you all for keeping this going.

Of course, polymer would not be what it is today without the immense contribution of the pioneers of our medium. We should all be immensely grateful for their efforts to spread the word and share emerging techniques. One of the first and most inspiring of the pioneers was and is Nan Roche. Her groundbreaking book The New Clay was the seed that got the obesession going for many of us. And we are so lucky that she is still out and about teaching and sharing.

This next year at Cabin Fever Clay Festival, Nan Roche will be present, teaching her loop-in-loop chaining using extruded clay “wire” used to make pieces like the one below.

If interested in this class and the CFCF event, here is the link to more information about the plethora of artists and classes at the 2013 event being held Feb 15-20 in Laurel, MD. www.polymerclayfests.wordpress.com

In the meantime, don’t overstuff yourselves if off to Thanksgiving dinner but do have a beautiful and loving day with family and friends.  Feel free to share this with your friends, polymer or not.

Mesmerizing Scales

November 21, 2012

Before pixilated retro blends there were just retro canes. And what fun you can have with them.

Here England’s Debbie Carlton, who creates a visually mesmerizing look with a minimal palette and extruded canes. The scale like pattern has a certain movement to it due to the shift in balance of white and gray to brown and black that changes gradually across the surface of the bangle. Kind of mesmerizing, isn’t it?

 

Real Leaves, Real Easy

The leaves in the brooches below look deceptively real.  For good reason. They are the result of direct impressions from real leaves. That and a little paint to bring out the veins. It doesn’t get much more real than that. Except for the real thing of course.

The clay used by artist Camille Young here is actually Lumina. It’s a translucent polymer resin clay that air dries. You color it with acrylic or oil based paints. But, this is just as easy to replicate in polymer and there’s no mixing in of paint into the clay. Choose a leaf color or skinner blend a few colors of clay together, then press in a real leaf, bake, apply acrylic paint to get it into the veins and then wipe off the paint on the raised surface.

Camille documents her creation of these leaves in Lumina on her blog here (scroll down when you get to the page … she has a large header). Just follow the steps except bake the polymer where she says “let it dry thoroughly”.

Grand idea!

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