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:
Clearly Layered
October 5, 2016
Inspirational Art
The really cool thing about translucent canes is that whatever is set behind them shows through, allowing for all kinds of possibilities with imagery and depth. The cellular cane conversation started Monday now turns to how to apply translucent canes created more for textural application than for the images embedded inside.
Ivy Niles has got this particular idea down as can be seen here in what she calls a translucent lattice lace cane. Adding the mostly opaque flower patterns into the mix allows for the canes to add their own variation in layering to whatever they are applied to so the flowers sit ‘up’ on the surface while the translucent squares frame small sections of the layer beneath. The cane slices from this could be set corner to corner for a regular and consistent pattern or, due to the outer translucent edges, can be blended seamlessly into other patterns or can be applied as accent textures on corners or edges.
Ivy has several examples of how to apply this particular cane on the listing for it on Etsy (sold long ago, I’m afraid), so you can pop over to see this here or just rummage for other ideas in her Etsy shop. She also shows off more of her goodies on her website.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Today, accent, decorate or hand mark just the edges and corners of a piece. Let this kind of design suggest a focal point or maybe it won’t need a focal point but rather the texture may come together to create a pattern that becomes the focus and interest of the piece. Don’t judge what you’re doing. Just let yourself go and have fun.
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Damage Sale, and Cellular Caning
October 3, 2016
Inspirational Art
As many of you may know, we started our annual Damage Sale yesterday. This is when we sell copies of our publications that are not in perfect condition for half the base cover price–that’s $5 a copy for the magazine! We also put a stock of ‘perfect’ magazines and the book on sale from 15%-30% off alongside them. Not all publications are available as ‘imperfect copies’ and some have already sold out but there are about 10 different issues still available as of writing this so pop over to my Etsy store where we conduct this once a year sale, and stock up on the cheap! (Shipping is additional but we use the Etsy site because we can best calculate shipping for you there and can easily refund on shipping when we find we have a less expensive option.)
Now onto clay considerations …
Playing with translucent clay and canes, especially those with cells of some sort, has been quite a popular direction for many caners, and one that draws attention from many admirers. I went a’wandering this weekend to see what has been going on in the world of caning and noticed the trend in recent tutorials and in images posted and pinned out in cyberspace. I’ve been enjoying the look because although an experienced clayer would recognize it as caning, it’s not what first comes to mind.
The texture, energy, and illusion of depth is what hits you in pieces like this water cane bracelet by the very talented Claire Wallis. Not only that, the translucent cell opens itself to a variety of cane applications. Here Claire took the cane and created a radiating pattern to get that splashed look. The bracelet was a perfect choice for it too, giving the splash imagery a central form from which to radiate–the wearer’s arm! I can only imagine how striking it must be when worn.
You can learn to create this water cane plus a beautiful lightening cane by grabbing Claire’s dual tutorial on CraftArtEdu. For more on her application of this and some of her other mind-blowing canes, check out her Flickr photostream.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Whether you predominantly work in canes, veneers or sculptural elements (or something else completely), try laying your favorite surface application out in a repeated but energetic pattern. You can take Claire’s radiating pattern from a central point as your inspirational source, or find a pattern out in nature, in city structures, or on decorative art and use the pattern you find there as inspiration for a new way of applying and composing your elements.
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A Pastel Presentation
September 30, 2016
Inspirational Art
I was hoping to find a good example a of cool white but these are not often used or they appear to be merely gray and if you are going to play with grays, richer, deeper grays seem more committed and elegant. The alternative is pastels, which can be warm or cool. Cool green leaning whites, like the palest mint color are delicious but what do they express? Cool blue whites in their palest manifestations can actually look even more brilliantly white and those with a hint of purple definitely head towards looking gray or even silver. But pastels are more definite in their expression having strong associations for us with springtime, delicacy and femininity. However, cool versus warm pastels do have different connotations.
In this piece by Cecilia Button (Mabcrea), you can easily see here how the warm colors come across compared to the cool colors. The warm ones still retain some of the energy associated with their fully saturated hues but it’s very muted while the cool colors, associated primarily with calm and relaxation, still feel that way, maybe even more so with their paleness. Juxtaposing warm and cool colors usually makes for a riotous presentation but being all things graduate to white, there is a cohesive feeling of peace and a surprising sense of simplicity event though there is really nothing simple about this piece. But simple and peaceful are meanings we closely associate with white so it’s dominance here literally colors the whole piece.
If you have not discovered Cecilia’s intense explorations of polymer, you might grab a cup of something and spend some time wandering through her her Flickr pages and her blog site.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Mix some pastels (start with white and add pinches of color, not the other way around, as you usually need a lot of white compared to colors for a pastel) and play with them using some of your favorite forms or techniques. Compare the feeling of the pastel colored pieces to how a more saturated color palette works in that same approach. How does the tint of the color change the mood or message?
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The Off-White Canvas
September 28, 2016
Inspirational Art
Let’s look at a little more off-white today. In general, off-whites on the warm side tend to look older or antiqued. This would be due to most whites aging warm, not cool. Hence the term ‘yellowing’ for aged white materials, because they take on a yellow cast which is a warm color.
This is something to keep in mind if you choose to create something in a warm off-white. There is a very good chance it will look aged which, if you are going for the look of faux bone, antique ivory or are pulling inspiration from an ancient society, is precisely what you want. This piece here is an example of using that warm off-white to give a piece an ancient look. In the piece seen here, Marina of Clay Carousel looks to be drawing on inspiration from the Mayan culture, with the art work titled “Mayan Princess”. She created a perfectly symmetrical but still energetic necklace with an off white canvas for all her accents and details. The dangles are what really make the design work with their strong directional downward lines and, of course, their actual swaying movement while on the wearer. Choosing the off-white background allows the lines and accents to take center stage as well as automatically giving us the impression of age even when we aren’t aware of what it has been titled.
The link on the image here goes to her second version of this necklace since the first, not surprisingly sold already in her LiveMaster shop but take a look at how she changed up the design. I think the way an artist alters a design can be so interesting and so telling of what they were after.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: If you don’t still have that cool and warm white clay from the last post’s challenge, create a couple more balls, one warm off-white and one cool. Then create the exact same design, one with the warm clay and one with the cool clay. Can you see how the color temperature changes the look of the piece? Cool whites look cleaner and brighter. Where would you want to use a cool off-white?
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Not Quite White
September 26, 2016
Inspirational Art
If you’ve had a chance to read through your latest Fall issue of The Polymer Arts, you may have enjoyed the Color Spotlight article on Sonya Girodon whose work also graces the cover. In the article, our writer, Lindly Haunani, brought up an interesting point about working with white. She noted that Sonya’s work is rarely pure white but is rather just a touch off from white, being mildly cool or warm in color. To illustrate this, she included an image created with pastels over a variety of lightly colored washed paper, showing how pastel colors shift depending on what off-white paper they are placed on. It brings home the idea that moving beyond pure white can add richness and change the look or mood of the colors around it and the work itself simply by choosing to go a little cool or a little warm with the white.
Here is an example of going warm. Warm means the color exists on or leans into the warm color side of the spectrum. Warm colors include red, orange and yellow (think of the colors of fire and the sun) which in an off-white include things like ecru, beige, pale pink and other whites heading towards browns. This is the palette that Australia’s Kelly Chapman chose for this particular tasseled pendant of hers. The near whites give way to a couple of variations of beige in the polymer and eventually a series of browns in the tassels. The warm whites all blend together to give the pendant a rich but serene cohesiveness.
Kelly tends to work in quieter palettes although the occasional brilliant lime green or cobalt blue shows itself but never in a loud way. I can almost imagine that she starts with the idea of white and lets the colors grow from that. I think you’ll see what I mean if you spend some time with her work in her Etsy shop.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Start with two small balls of pure white and add just a small amount of a warm color to one and a cool color (blue, green, violet, etc) to the other. Now sheet or roll snakes from each and make them the background or frame for a finished cabochon, cane, or other element you have on hand. Can you see how the slight variation changes the way the colored element works? Now try using an off-white next time you want white in a piece to see how it supports or enriches your design.
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Never Boxed In
September 23, 2016
Inspirational Art
Here is another artist that is pushing the boundaries of his usual forms. Not that Jon Stuart Anderson has ever keep strictly within a certain form although he is widely known for his intricately patterned animals. He has also put his cane work to guitars, shoes, vessels and sculptures but all have had some reflection of his flowing forms and repeated patterns.
These box lamps seems like a huge departure for Jon but one that definitely suits his love of pattern. They are copper boxes just shy of 7″ (18cm) square, with translucent patterned ‘lenses’ as he call them. One would assume the lenses are canes but I suspect there is a bit more going on. It’s just really hard to tell. Maybe a layering of canes or something related to some transferring techniques he had been working on. Not that it matters too much. They are just lovely.
But back to the main point … they are some rather simplified patterns for Jon–a matter of relativity being that they aren’t simple in and of themselves. The difference is that these forms have no lines of repeated canes working their way expertly around the form to create another pattern from their arrangement. Instead, one beautifully patterned convex circle shows off Jon’s sense of balance in both symmetry and color. Some have different patterns on the lenses of a box while other’s are the same on every side. You can sense the exploration as you examine one box after the other. See what I mean by looking through his first images of this series on his July 8th postings on Facebook.
Jon has never stopped exploring and pushing what he does, making exploration the one strong thread of consistency in his work. If you enjoy his creative meanderings, the best place to keep up with his adventures is on his Facebook page although his website is always worth a visit. He also has a great little video of his cane making which is pretty entrancing.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Break out of your usual form. But instead of just trying a form you don’t usually work with, try to expand on forms you already work with. So if you create primarily flat jewelry elements, go more dimensional with half lentil forms or free form the shapes in waves. If you create round beads much of the time, try squares or twisted oblong shapes. If you like making round bowls, what about boat shapes or cones? Where can you push your forms?
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Mokume Squared
September 21, 2016
Inspirational Art
There seems to be an explosion of innovation in polymer design as of late. Maybe as a whole we fell into a rut of creating within a fairly small circle of ideas but it seems that more and more, clayers are pushing the ideas or just going off into their own little worlds which creates some very unique design.
Melanie Muir sent me images of a new series she’s recently been working on and I have to say, it would never have occurred to me that Melanie might go in a home decor direction, not one with such a graphic look to it but it really does work well. After admiring her beautiful organic shapes and mokume patterns for so long it’s quite a shift to see the same type of mokume squared off like this but the contrast between the organic patterning and the very precise placement of squared off color makes for some lovely vessels.
I had the hardest time deciding which of the new vessels’ images to share here as she has them in different colors and mokume pattern sets as well as a series she calls ‘Coastline’ where the mokume is not framed at all but rather is blended into the background over the joint of two wide bands of color. Go see for yourself on her Facebook page here for the whole recent collection, debuting this week at the London Design Fair which starts tomorrow.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Do you work primarily in one style such as organic, graphic, tribal, floral, or something else? Take what you usually lean towards and contrast it with a style completely opposite from it. The key to contrast is making the contrast relate on some level. Melanie made her graphic versus organic relate in terms of color. You can also make the two relate through elements that have the same type of pattern, shape, size, lines or that create similar texture.
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Simple Grace
September 16, 2016
Inspirational Art, The Polymer Arts magazine news
When putting together the Simplicity article, we contemplated showing a few non-polymer pieces because there are just so many beautiful designs in other materials that could be inspirational to polymer artists but alas, there was only so much room and much to discuss.
Alice Ballard was a top pick on my list for this because her work shows simplicity that somehow doesn’t appear simple. These ceramic leaves and pod are not super minimalistic but the white center piece is definitely about the essence of the form and image. The colored leaves feel like they are the color and impression of the center piece, taken out and set aside, as if saying the form is first and the color is secondary. It’s the pod set in the middle that brings both a focus to the trio and a bit of mystery. Why is it there? This is not a common arrangement, not in nature, but it does feel natural. For all that this is minimal in form and color, there is a lot to explore.
I find the last statement to be true of the best of simplified design and Alice’s work in particular. Grab a cup of something comforting and take some time out for a visual stroll through her beautiful gallery of work on her website.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Create in white alone. Focus on the essence of some object or image that catches your eye and think about the form before creating it. What can you remove aside from color and still make it recognizable? After you decide that, what else can you do without? Ask this until you have in your mind that essential form of it. Then create that in clay.
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Simply Personal
September 14, 2016
Inspirational Art
I have been absolutely in love with Genevieve Williamson’s work since I first discovered it some 6 years back. It is so personal, the artist’s hand so apparent, and the design so expert. Perhaps it is more a connection that I have to these muted colors, the scratches and the imperfectly cut shapes, but the work has a high sense of emotion and vulnerability. So when Wendy Moore (of the Samunnat Nepal women’s project) sent me a link to this heartbreaking and inspiring post Genevieve wrote earlier in the year, I knew I had to reach out.
Genevieve graciously agreed to share her story and her work in more detail in the Fall issue’s Muse’s Corner section of The Polymer Arts magazine. Muse’s Corner is the section on the last content page of the magazine where we have a personal story illustrating how art and life intersect. I won’t spoil it if you haven’t read it yet but like many of the contributors that write for that section, personal challenges spill out into expressions in clay with beautiful results both in terms of the pieces and the therapeutic and cathartic process these brave people find in the creative experience.
This necklace here is a variation on the line of jewelry shown and discussed in the article. This “Longest Year” line came out of Genevieve’s first year of struggling with an autoimmune disease. As she says in her blog, this work has “come to fruition not in spite of but because of my autoimmune disease diagnosis.” Although the struggle is not apparent here, the beauty of the masterfully simple design is and it just sings with intention and a gracious presentation of the artist’s hand. Like a lot of her recent work, it is also reversible for those times when just the black and white is all one wants or needs for adornment.
The simplicity of design and beauty of intention is apparent in all Genevieve’s work as you can see on her website or in her Etsy shop as well as in the latest issue of The Polymer Arts magazine.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Make a simple piece that is all about you. Use the suggestions made on Monday’s challenge to make very intentional decisions, weighing every tiny choice, but instead of focusing on the design, focus on the expression. Choose colors, shapes and textures that are simple but at their essence represent you or a personal story of yours. Be careful not to judge what you do, just be sure every choice is true to who you are or what the story is about.
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Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
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As Simple as Can Be
September 12, 2016
Inspirational Art
The key article in the new issue of The Polymer Arts is probably the one on Simplicity in Design. As mentioned in it, simplicity is a very difficult concept to master for a variety of reasons. For one, people underestimate just how much goes into creating really good, simple design. It takes a lot of thought and intention as well as skill because with simple designs, every single decision and mark made is so obvious and visible. There is nothing to hide, distract, or camouflage the elements and condition of the work, especially in the most simplified designs.
Rachel Wightman’s work is a great example of this. When you first look at her jewelry you might think, anyone can do that. Her work is not even perfectly finished. But what you sense, if not readily realize, is that her choices are all very intentional. Colors don’t match in any standard sense but they do work together. Her spheres, tubes, and drop shapes are just slightly off but not sloppy. The surfaces are free of fingerprints but they have a nice matte finish and are strung on a perfect center or a well placed high point. The consistency in surface and stringing as well as consistent imperfections shows her intention. Her odd but interesting choice of color and balance makes it apparent that there is thought behind her choices. And as I am always saying, intentional and well-informed design choices will make a great piece, no matter the approach.
You would have seen Rachel’s work in the article but unfortunately, she doesn’t keep high-resolution images of her work. This is not a criticism since her focus in on wholesale and online retail sales so that kind of thing is not necessary for her business. But it is something to keep in mind. If you hope or foresee any reason your work might end up in print, keep high resolution files of your work, preferably the original images straight from the camera. You can simply keep them in the same folder as your adjusted and re-sized images by creating another folder marked ‘Originals’ and then you will have them to offer should any magazine or book editor come querying.
If you enjoy Rachel’s simplicity, take a look at her other simple but well supported choices on her website or in her Etsy shop.
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Make the absolute simplest shapes with great intention for a piece of jewelry, sculpture or to attach to home decor. Think through and carefully determine shapes, colors, sizes, finished texture (keep it simple too … matte, shiny, or lightly and consistently textured) and arrangement, asking with every small decision if that choice is consistent with your other choices or supports your overall intention.
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Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners.
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