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:
Rhythm in Composition
July 21, 2012
Technique tutorials, Tips and Tricks
Rhythm has been on my mind all this quarter. Our next issue of The Polymer Arts is themed “Rhythm and Flow,” so I’ve been searching out additional resources online. Here’s one on video that won’t, obviously, make its way into the print magazine but I thought was too cool to keep to myself.
They use mat board and foam sheets to do this but sheets of polymer clay would be perfect as well. And in smaller sized shapes, you could decorate a vase or even make a pendant while you practice the ideas.
Inspiration in the Bowl
July 20, 2012
Inspirational Art
Okay … you are welcome to tell me if I’m completely nuts but I saw this photo of miso soup and immediately thought of polymer clay.
“Say what?”
Well, the composition of the soup’s ingredients are just beautiful. I can imagine creating canes and transparent layers to build up the depth of texture and then accenting the surface layer with bright spots of green in a playful scatter towards one side. Do you see what I saying?
Inspiration is everywhere! Why not in your food too? Besides the recipe looks absolutely yummy.
I’ll keep you updated on any efforts I have to duplicate this both in the kitchen and the studio!
To Vary One’s Style or Not …
July 19, 2012
Inspirational Art, Ponderings
Bettina Welker has been quite busy of late. This Spring she was featured in The Polymer Arts’ Creative Spaces (Spring 2012) issue with a peak into her studio. You may have seen her very nice Pixelated Retro Blend Cane bracelet on Polymer Clay Daily. She recently completed a tutorial on her intriguing Jellyfish earrings that you can find on CraftArtEdu.com. And recently on Polymer Clay Diaries this beauty was posted.
All of these pieces have very different elements and I would not have guessed they were all Bettina’s. But whereas some artists work in a very narrow and much perfected style, Bettina explores the material, approaching it from a variety of aspects. There’s nothing wrong with that. Some of us get more intrigued with the possibilities than anything else.
And there is nothing wrong with sticking to and constantly evolving a particular style or approach. I do think it is a great idea for every artist to do a little of both. If you spend a lot of time exploring, try taking something you have really been intrigued with and really testing it, improving it and trying a variety of variations. This kind of approach is necessary if you want to get into wholesale or brand yourself as an artist. If you work primarily with one technique or style, try out a few new ideas every month or two. Even if you don’t get into the new work, its amazing how stretching your creative muscles can help you improve and expand the area you prefer.
Sculptural Jewelry
July 18, 2012
Inspirational Art, Ponderings
How do you work with polymer clay? Do you consider yourself primarily a maker of jewelry or do you prefer sculpture? Do you ever combine both. Janet Wilson does just this with her tree pendants.
One of the joys of jewelry art is that someone can wear and show around a little piece of their art collection. It is a piece of art not relegated to viewing by only those who visit the owner’s home or stop in the office it’s placed in. Creating a sculptural vision that can also be worn really takes advantage of this aspect of jewelry. And probably gets the wearer a lot of attention?
Have you ever used sculptural imagery in your work or created a scuplture that can be worn?
Silk Screening Anyone?
July 17, 2012
Technique tutorials, Tips and Tricks
Have you been curious about what it would take to try out silk screening on polymer? I can tell you the whole process is relatively simple. You need a few specialty supplies (but who doesn’t like having to get a few new supplies!) and a little practice. Once you get it down it can be quite addictive.
Here are few pins by Karen Woods with lots of silk screening textures to intrigue you.
If you want to look into it further, Polymer Clay Express has both a tutorial posted as well as supplies to get you started.
And our friends over at Polymer Clay Productions have a great video on polymer silk screening with lots of good tips to get you started: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJZ8ec8NAko
Mesmerizing Mokume
July 16, 2012
Inspirational Art, Polymer community news
Is it just me or do these bracelets by Ukrainian polymer artist Iryna Osinchuk-Chajka just hypnotize you? A simple swirl design but a constant change in color and contrast grabs and keeps your attention.
Her explanation of how she works certainly attests to the results. Iryna says “every time I make something I kind of watch a little magical performance”. And then so do we!
You can see more of her mesmerizing work on her website at and in her Etsy shop.
If We Were to be Truthful About Our Business Hours
July 15, 2012
Ponderings
How I would love to be so honest and forthright with my business hours!
Sushi Caning
July 14, 2012
Inspirational Art
I’m posting this for no other reason than I thought all our caners out there (and even those who don’t cane much) would get a kick out of it. Found on Facebook … still looking for a source for it.
Now, don’t feel threatened by the art of sushi. I don’t think they will ever surpass us in our ingenuity and artistic outcomes but … I’m sure they taste tons better.
What will your dinner look like tonight? 🙂
Outside Influence: Oceans in clay
July 13, 2012
Inspirational Art
The ocean is a an incredible source of inspiration for form, color and just a general sense of alienness. And who isn’t intriqued by the strange and unique?
Melanie Ferguson is a ceramicist who focuses on the strange and unique in organically themed pieces. This is from her 2012 “Tossed Ashore” series of which there are only a couple posted on her Facebook page at this time, but I am checking back regularly awaiting any new work. She has also explored plant and pods forms where her works becomes incredibly colorful. I get quite mesmerized by the bursting, melting and growing shapes she creates, not to mention the incredible surface texture. Her approach could so easily be translated to polymer that I keep stopping to read the description of her work to be sure she didn’t actually stray from mineral clays.
Do take some time to peruse her work. It will fill your mind with the pure beauty of nature’s forms as if you’ve never seen them before.
Unexpected Blossoms
July 12, 2012
Inspirational Art
This Thursday, with a fun but hectic couple of weeks of traveling behind me my brain is trying to get back to a calm state I work with. Something about circles is very calming–the way they loop and complete themselves without an end or a start. Perhaps that’s why discs and circles are so regularly set into quiet contemporary compositions but as seen here in work by Meisha Barbee, they can have that contemporary look and still be fun and unpredictable.
This piece has a single element that does this. The flowers. The necklace would have worked with just the mica shift sheets filling in the space around imperfect negative circles cut into the discs echoing the imperfect silver rings. But no … she had to throw us with a blossoming of flowers on the mica sheet seams. It’s a joy and surprise to see them there.
Unfortunately, they remind me of the little flowering weeds that cropped up in the cracks of my driveway while I was gone that I must go take care of. *sigh* I guess its off with me to go contemplate so blossoms of my own.
