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:

Stacked Rhythm Rings

August 20, 2012

Stacking is such an excellent way to create rhythm and depth in your work. Here we have a collection of stacks by Mathilde Colas  that will be attached to ring blanks.

The repetition of shapes — the rounded-off triangles — accented by buttons, dots, and other round elements give the pieces a kind of swaying-in-place dance. Fun but a little reserved, the alternating colors in a limited palette keep the irregular stacks looking well-composed.

The Fall 2012 edition of The Polymer Arts, which was just released over the weekend, features lots of articles about creating rhythm and repetition in your work. If you haven’t had a chance to get yours, order a digital or print copy right now from our website.

Dear Crafters …

August 19, 2012

 

Anonymous note from one crafter to the world of crafters.

I don’t think there’s anything I need to add except  … Amen to that!

Outside Inspiration: Cutting in Clay

August 18, 2012

Okay so I usually do the Outside Inspiration posts on Fridays but we’ve been thrown off this week with the launch of The Polymer Arts latest issue. We know polymer can be manipulated very much like other clays. So …. who wants to try this?

This is porcelain created by the very talented Jennifer McCurdy. It is altered and carved, pushing the limits of porcelain’s ability to hold up structurally. But wow, is it gorgeous. She also gilds it on the inside … not the outside … inviting the viewer to consider the interior and allowing it to contrast with the white exterior. Very intriguing look.

I’m thinking that in polymer, it might work best if baked first. Or carved and smoothed while on a form. In any case, it’d be some serious work but with some serious rewards.

If this inspires anyone to try this kind of thing, send me images.

You can see a video on her technique on the Ceramic Arts Daily website. Also check out the wonderful photos of her work embedded into natural settings like the beach on her home page (it’s a slide show so wait for the change over in images) and rivers on her collection page. She has some really beautiful photos that are works of art themselves. So do take a moment to check them out.

 

 

Theme for the Day: Repetition

This is my day … pack, peel, and stick… repeat. This is the day I get to do all the international mailing and distribution packs for the newest issue Fall 2012: Rhythm and Flow. It involves packing envelopes and clear mailers, sealing them, sticking on the labels and doing this over and over again. The repetition gets one into a nice rhythm well-accompanied by some good sing-a-long music.

Which of course brings us to this issue’s theme and the desire to find something to counter the regular rhythm of my work. Here is a just amazing wall piece by those great innovators Ford and Forlano called “Pebbles Galaxy”.

There is definitely repetition of all kinds here — color, form, motif and texture. But the rhythm is utterly random, quite child-like in its placement yet reminiscent of rocks at the bottom of a river eddy — reminding us that there is an underlying reason for every arrangement in nature and created by a child’s hand. The caption says it has a removable pin. It is 13″ high so I’m thinking there could have been multiple pins, a pendant, a pair of earrings and a belt buckle if they worked it right. I really do like the idea of wall art that you can take pieces of to wear and share outside the place it is housed.

Well, for now, I have but another issue to share with you, to send off beyond TPA headquarters. I do hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together for you!

This above inspiring image is brought to you by the Ganoksin project, a jeweler’s resource site. The link takes you to their archive of an article by Marjorie Simon  for Metalsmith Magazine (Winter 2003) about Ford and Forlano.

Fall 2012 Issue Swims Out Friday August 17th

The print version of the latest issue of The Polymer Arts should be landing on my door step tomorrow. The final mailings will get packed up and readied for the post office over the weekend. Most of you who have a print subscription already have issues in the mail and on their way. The digital issue will go live tomorrow night — just in time for Saturday morning coffee.

Here’s another pretty piece from our cover artist and Emerging Gallery artist Chris Kapono. I believe this fish is as big as her face since it looks to be the piece she is hiding behind in her galley headshot photo. That’s a pretty large piece. (No, I’m not commenting on the size of Chris’ head! It’s just large for polymer!) I love her tendrils and dots. There’s so much going on but it all fits so well on this fanciful aquatic being.

If you haven’t subscribed, renewed or pre-ordered the latest issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, head to our website for easy ordering so you don’t miss out on all the in-depth information on Rhythm and Flow, repetition in design, a fun striping technique by Donna Greenberg, simple tips for improving your art photography and more in this great new issue.

 

Aging Like Porcelain

I restrained myself from presenting any crackling techniques lately (cracked textures being a weakness of mine!) but I figure enough time has passed to share this beauty and mention a couple of polymer friends along with it.

This if the work of Tonja Lenderman.  She developed this technique which is posted on Polka Dot Creation’s page for free viewing. It looks like the full-detail tutorial is being published in the upcoming issue (Pink) of From Polymer to Art, due out in less than a month. Although Polka Dot Creations is phasing out their retail shop, Lisa will still continue to distribute the next couple print issues of From Polymer to Art in the US. So do get your copy reserved through them here.

In the meantime, if you are in a crackling mood, take a crack at this technique (I had to say it!) then you can review the full tutorial to improve upon what you’ve learned.

 

 

 

Simple Black Impact

August 14, 2012

I wear a lot of black. No, it’s not out of some morbid aesthetic. I just find it to be a fantastic background for anything I add to my attire. And being the klutz with an insatiable curiosity, I know that I am less likely to end up with noticeable stains if I detour through the studio on the way out of the house for dinner after being struck by a random idea or find myself tromping into a field enticed by some color or texture — my wardrobe is determined primarily by the rule that what I wear should not stop me from exploring as situations arise.

But black has a purpose beyond being a background. It can also be a the focus of your ensemble. This stunning lentil bead by Judy Belcher is one such example. Simple, understated but enticing,  this piece’s impact comes from the starkness of the predominant black with only the quiet interruption of the lines of brown and the two pearly accents to break it up. In work like this where color is minimal, form and texture take precedence.

It is a piece like this that would get me to pull out one of my few white outfits to give it the simple ‘background’ the piece deserves.

In a medium dominated by tons of color, it is easily forgotten how well polymer can present a limited palette and the non-colors of black and white. We have many, many color options with our material and the ability to create sophisticated and stunning work in a way other jewelry material cannot. But it doesn’t mean we always need to use color. Try working with a piece in all black or all white and see just where form and surface texture can take you.

 

Doing Cute Well

August 13, 2012

One of the things I was truly delighted by with the Racine Museum exhibition last year was that the pieces chosen were not all just contemporary and serious pieces. They were, however, all well crafted as well as being historically relevant in the development of our art form. There were a number of ‘cute’ pieces such as Dan Cormier’s rocket vessels (love the one with the chimpanzee face in the rocket window!) or Cynthia Toops cartoon like mosaic pins. (Get your copy of the Terra Nova book to see these great pieces.) Art does not have to be serious. For goodness sakes, life is not!

Doing cute and doing it for a standard consumer audience with skill and good design is doubly difficult since you have to work within a certain pricing/cost structure and yet still spend the time and give the piece the consideration you would creating any true piece of art. That is why I find images like this one catching my eye ..

This adorable and beautifully wrought pin is by Pilar from Las Palmas, Spain. I ran into this on the Spanish European version of Etsy called Artesanum.

Pilar has obviously well-refined caning skills as well as being adept at modeling with polymer. She uses repetition of color (blues) placed at fairly regular intervals and repetition of motif (flowers repeated in different versions and even materials) to bring a cohesiveness to what might otherwise be an overwhelming array of texture and variety of items.

Repetition and rhythm are design elements not often discussed outside formal art courses but are hugely important in craft design. You can get great information on these concepts plus tons of polymer examples and even exercises to work on this in our upcoming Fall 2012 issue of The Polymer Arts. The issue rolls out this coming weekend so be sure you have renewed your subscription or have your order in so you can get in on the conversations you see online and can start applying this simple but powerful concepts to your own work!

In Art, You Are Never Wrong

August 12, 2012

Don’t let the worry that your work is not ‘right’, that it is not good enough, stop you from creating. Its not that the piece is wrong or not working out, it’s just not done yet. If you are struggling with a piece, put it aside for a day or two or ten. It and you just need to rest. Next time you come back to it, you will know what it needs.

 

Cutting in Your Canes

August 11, 2012

It’s just amazing what a few impressions with a card can do for a simple cane. Although you will see this most commonly with jellyroll canes, you can try this with any abstract or geometric cane.

 

Using translucents gives the impression of semi-precious stone as well magnifying the luminosity of the colors. Aren’t these just gorgeous?

 

You can see the full tutorial  by Elissa Powell on www.pcpolyzine.com.  Just thought I’d give you something cool to try out this weekend when you aren’t out enjoying the summer outside.

 

Looking for more great tutorials and information? Do take some time to peruse pcPolyzine’s site. Tons of great stuff here!

 

 

 

 

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