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:
What’s a Zentangle?
August 30, 2012
Inspirational Art
There’s been a lot of chatter about zentangles in the last year or so. I have yet to explore them but they are just popping up everywhere.
Simply explained, zentangles are structured doodles. The copyrighted term, Zentangle, was coined by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas when Maria was describing the meditative state she experienced while drawing on a manuscript. It has grown into a large creative movement with instructors teaching the process throughout the country. The concepts have inspired artists in many different disciplines, including polymer.
Julie VanDuren explains the components of this piece: “Here is another recent Zentangle-inspired piece. Lots of canework, some component caning and some small loafs or complex canes.” It is one of many on her Flickr page that explores Zentangle-inspired structure.
Liquid Polymer & Scrap Fabric
August 29, 2012
Technique tutorials, Tips and Tricks
Isn’t liquid polymer just wonderful as a finish for polymer? Transluscent, easy to apply, durable … Those same qualities actually allow it to work really well with a few more things beside polymer.
Genevieve Dolosor shows how she uses small bits of fabric to create colorful backgrounds using LPC to seal it and make the bit of fabric more substantial so it can be shown off as a center piece like a semi-precious stone in this tutorial.
So pull out those old ties, scraps of fabric or that dress you’ve been wanting to shorten (from hemline to art!) and snip yourself off some color and pattern to play with.
The Flowery Depths
August 28, 2012
Inspirational Art
Zuda Gay Pease is a grandmother who lives in Illinois and creates these incredible flowers that seem to have so much depth and complexity to them. But if you look closely, they aren’t so much complex as unexpected.
The caned petals aren’t simply sliced but also cut and sculpted. This gives them a depth and tactile surface I don’t think you’d find anywhere in nature but they seem to be perfectly natural regardless.
Edges
August 27, 2012
Inspirational Art
Eva Haskova, from the Czech Republic, has applied what looks to be the edges of stacks into a contemporary design for a simple but eye-catching pendant. She uses just a little repetition of line and color and a simple single accent. Design does not always have to be complex … simplicity is a wonderful approach.
Nothing needs to be wasted with polymer. Not even those edges you trim off. They have such wonderful texture when you turn them on their sides! It’s like getting a bonus project half way done simply by working on another one. Polymer is too cool.
You Know You Are a Creative When …
August 26, 2012
Ponderings
Thanks to Jan Geisen for sending this along.
I can’t say I have problems with item #1 … Maybe it should be that creative people refuse to be bored! Especially crafters. Art materials are everywhere … and we’re not afraid to use them when our hands are otherwise idle!
Beauty Bust
August 25, 2012
Inspirational Art
It’s about time we revisit the Art Doll world. There are so many incredibly talented people in art dolls and Virginie Ropar is among the most amazing of them.
This piece is actually a bust rather than a doll. The detailed components as well as the exploration of texture, color and the injection of a touch of fantasy into a realistic sculpture is just candy for the eyes.
Outside Inspiration: Millefiori in Porcelain
August 24, 2012
Inspirational Art
I was sure when I first saw these that they had to be polymer but they aren’t. The way porcelain is being pushed here is inspiring. If you’ve ever worked with porcelain or any earthen clays, you know that manipulation and embedding color with any crispness is tricky.
In this pendant — a reversible one even — the application of color and pattern matches what we do with polymer … all borrowed from the ancient technique of millefiori.
Here is what the artist Tom Garvin of Blue Bus Studios (http://www.bluebusstudio.com/) says about his work:
“The extreme detail and intense color in our ceramic work results from the use of over 500 different colors of clay to create our carefully designed clay loaves. Next, cross-sections are sliced from the loaves, and these sections are shaped and finished into individual pieces, then glazed and fired twice.”
It’s just kind of cool to know that others are working in similar ways to us and that, well, we have a pretty easy material to work with. But kudos to all artists that push their medium to create more beauty in the world!
Cane, Cut, Repeat
August 23, 2012
Inspirational Art
If you read the in-depth design articles in this latest issue, here is an opportunity to practice your new analytical skills for identifying types of repetition and rhythm. And to see just how much beauty these design concepts can add to a piece.
Look at the piece below. Draws you in immediatly doesn’t it? But why? Seems straight-forward, maybe even rather basic at first glance. However, this is anything but simple and is a sterling example of what makes good art great — it makes you keep looking at it. After a minute or two of surveying this mosaic wall piece — and especially if you have an appreciation for the roles that repetition and rhythm play in art — you’ll really begin to appreciate the complexity of the design choices.
Ponsawan Sila created this piece with mosaic polymer pieces 1cmx1cm — nothing more representative of repetition than a shape repeated over and over but … the visual textures in each shape are all different or rarely repeated, incorporating random (textures) and regular (shape) repetition. She uses progressive rhythm in the color changes that occur in each waving layer as it moves horizontially across. There is also repetition of line in the waves, which consistently create the space for each color palette, creating soft slow rhythm established in the reserved undulations of those lines.
All on a 6″x12″ tile. That’s pretty impressive.
It’s All in the Details
August 22, 2012
Inspirational Art
Polymer is highly versatile but working small can be tricky for even the most talented among us. Eva Margriet Thissen from Herne, Germany seems to have the art of teeny-tiny polymer bits down beautifully.
The quality and crispness of the details on this 1″ wide pendant is amazing — and adorable at that. The stance of Little Red Riding Hood perfectly captures how a little girl would go skipping off through the forest. The whimsical shapes of the trees, even with a subdued color palette, is cheerful and fun. The pendant has playful overtones and yet is incredibly intricate. I can’t imagine just how many people would come up to you wanting a closer look at this intriguing pendant.
The Nails Have It!
August 21, 2012
Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
I’ve been drawn to stripes a lot lately … we have a cool striping tutorial in the latest issue — a simple, fun technique from Donna Greenberg that you can add to your approach to any practice in rhythm and repetition you might be inspired to try from the articles focused on those design concepts — as well as a lot of sample art in the Fall 2012 issue that uses lines as a primary design elements.
So a set of striped nails attracted me like a magnet. Polymer nail art has so much potential and not just the cane accents that have become so popular.
Claire Wallis’ Facebook tutorial with the steps on how to make your own fake nails with polymer is terrific. After you have looked at the tutorial, buzz over to her site to check out more hyponotizing stripes in her work, especially her beautiful bangles.
