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:
Layering Fabrics and Florals
November 9, 2015
Inspirational Art
I’m riding the coattails of last week’s theme, layers on simple forms, and segueing into a week with a focus on combining with other materials. I thought this particular idea shown here, using organza as an overlay onto polymer, was a fantastic idea, both for visual and tactile texture. It also could be a great alternative to silk screening or stencils when you are looking for graphical or well-defined additional imagery for your piece.
The generous artist sharing this little tidbit is Marcia Tzigelnik, a masterful caner that hails from Israel. She wrote up a tutorial for Polymer Clay Central some time back, but I think it’s time to pull it back out and see what more we can do with it these days. It seems to me, from this tutorial, that you could use any kind of sheer fabric, thin lace, tulle, and other fabrics that will allow the layer below to show through. Additionally, using the liquid polymer on top gives you an instant finish to work with.
I might add to her notes that you will want to work with a clean bit of cloth, free of any kind of dirt or debris including lint (try running a piece of masking take over both sides to help). Every little possible floater you have can mar the finish on the liquid polymer. Alternately, if you have a fair amount of experience laying out thin layers of translucent clay, you could use that too. Just be sure to burnish the cloth into the translucent clay and then burnish it onto the raw clay form to eliminate any air pockets.
Take a look at the full tutorial here. You can find more tutorials, and Maria’s beautiful canes, in her Etsy shop.
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Mysterious Layers and Views
November 6, 2015
Inspirational Art
So, I’ve been staring at this piece and the several other views of it, as well as similar pieces by Lorraine Vogel of Wired Orchid Jewelry, trying to figure out what she might have done to achieve this effect. The layers are both in the slightly raised form of the imagery as well as in the application of color. I can usually figure out the basics, but I’m a bit stumped. Is it stencil? Purely impressions on clay? Did she use liquid polymer for the translucent effect, or oil paints, perhaps?
I think what I like best about a piece like this is that the look transcends the material, so you are admiring the look long before you stop to consider what it is made of or how it was accomplished. My brain jumps to how it is done pretty readily, no matter what the piece, but work like this makes me stop a moment before I go there. As always with Lorraine’s work, I’m first struck by the quiet, rather unassuming beauty she imparts in her pieces. This is aided by muted tones and limited palettes, as well as simple forms that just happen to be canvases for intricate applications.
Lorraine also has a very interesting eye for photographing her work. Take a tour through her collection on Etsy and on Flickr and look at the angles and set-ups she uses to show off her pieces. Her photos alone are pretty inspiring, but take a close look at her work and you’ll notice that flawless finish on every piece. There is something so admirable about an artist who considers every aspect of their work down to how us online viewers get to see it.
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Dreaming of Spring
November 4, 2015
Inspirational Art
Today’s beautifully layered pendants come from my dear friend Nevenka Sabo, who is quite the exploratory soul. She is always trying something new, so it can be hard to pin down her signature style, but her work is always fashionably detailed and beautifully finished.
These unseasonably fresh Spring earrings (it is Spring down under, isn’t it?) are a nice departure from the Fall-moving-into-Winter look that we’re seeing everywhere here in the states. It’s another, but very different, example of layering for this week. There may not actually be a lot of layering here; it’s hard to say. But between the alcohol inks and what might be stamps or image-transfers laid one over the other, the details look to be buried in the translucent clay.
One way to find out would be to jump over to her Etsy page and buy the tutorial. Personally, I am refraining from doing just that at the moment because I have too much to do to get the Winter issue ready to get out to the printers, but why don’t you give it a try?
Nevenka shows off her fashionable goodies on her Flickr pages, her Facebook page and in her Etsy shop, where you can find other tutorials to pique your interest and keep you busy as we slide into Winter still dreaming of Spring.
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Layers of Interest
November 2, 2015
Inspirational Art
This past week, during my usual hunting excursions for fabulously interesting pieces to bring to you, I noticed I was seeing a lot of beautiful applications created in clean, simple pendant and earring forms, primarily in the area of layering.
This pendant popped up on my Facebook timeline just last night. It’s by Eriko Page who has been toiling away trying to perfect her crackle technique with, what I believe is, Kroma crackle. She mentions Jeanette Kandray’s Kroma Crackle tutorial on the Polyform website in a comment attached to another similar piece on her Facebook page and it does look just like it. I like how she uses the gradient colors and texture as a background for a simple caned tableau for this pendant. There is actually a lot going on that would catch and hold the eye on this simple, organically formed rectangular pendant.
Eriko hails from California and, according to her Facebook page, from Tehachapi of all places. Tehachapi is also home to Christi Friesen and Karen Lewis (Klew). That’s a lot of polymer talent in a town that is all of ten square miles and sits out there on the edge of the vast Mojave desert. What about that breeds such immense talent, I’m starting to wonder?
Well, while I am pondering that mystery, you can search out more of about Eriko and her work scattered throughout the web but most notably on Fire Mountain Gem’s website, Sonoran Beads where you can find her beads for sale and on her Facebook page.
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Halloween in Lichen
October 30, 2015
Inspirational Art
I have to say, my travels have wiped me out. The long couple days on the road, along with the thin air up here in Denver and my waiting for my allergies to calm down and get re-acclimated to my kitty, has left me pretty useless, so I’m going to lean on a fellow polymer artist and fungi enthusiast, Maria Belkomor, to grace us with a collection of nature’s beauty.
We’ll get started by featuring this Halloween-themed palette in lichen. It’s unbelievable that these colors and forms were created by the pairing of two types of organisms–fungi and algae. Yes, I had to go research what lichen actually is, and Wikipedia says, “A lichen is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria (or both) living among filaments of a fungus in a symbiotic relationship.” Confirmed through multiple other sources, it does look like lichen is fungus-possessed. Which is pretty cool. And Halloween-esque. And, in this case, really beautiful.
Maria gathered this page of fungi in nature and fungi in art last November. What a beautiful and strange thing nature is. I will never stop being amazed and awed. Go be awed as well by following this link to Maria’s little fungi festival.
And have a fun and safe Halloween tomorrow.
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Out Of Hiding: The Winter 2015 Cover of The Polymer Arts
October 28, 2015
Inspirational Art
For our Winter issue, we present to you this dramatic cover with a beautiful piece by the very talented Jeffrey Lloyd Dever. As you see here, the theme for Winter is ‘Hidden’. We’ve been super excited about this issue and got started on it early in the year, actually. There are a lot of techniques and tips in this issue. We wanted to give you a lot of juicy ideas to work on over the Winter (or while escaping the heat down in the southern hemisphere) and for the New Year.
Articles will include things to create:
–Hidden Patterns: Variations in Mokume
–Hidden Composition: Creating Unity with Geometry
–Concealed Light: Polymer LED Jewelry
–Hidden in Plain Sight: Seamless Front Closures
–Secret Spaces: Polymer Box Construction
–Hiding Loose Ends: Finishing Options for Stringing
And things to ponder:
–Of Values and Intentions: The Art of Jeffrey Lloyd Dever
–Behind the Wall: Breaking Through Artistic Blocks
–The Hidden Cost of Doing Business
–Muse’s Corner: A Hidden Polymer Pioneer
… and so much more. Due out November 22nd.
I’m still on the road here, so my apologies for the brevity of this post. I’ll get more information out in our newsletter Thursday or Friday and we’ll get pre-orders going by then, as well. We’ll confirm that here on Friday, too!
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There Be Creepy Crawlies Here
October 26, 2015
Inspirational Art
It’s almost Halloween and I had been considering a dark beauty theme this week, but the real world has, as it so often does, presented me with another source of inspiration for this week. It is no less frightful, though, let me tell you.
Here in California, where I spend about half my time, we have found ourselves in a very scary house. No, really … it’s quite unsettling here. It’s not haunted exactly, although the frightening presence within the walls, unseen for years but slowly taking over, is pretty spooky stuff. Its was revealed when this strange spongy whiteness came creeping out into a closet, taking over a stack of my dear man’s t-shirt collection and his shoe rack. An inspector came out, looking very much like a guy from Ghostbusters with his large beeping machines and funny probes, and after running them back and forth across the suspect wall, determined that, yes, the house was possessed … by a myriad number of mold types and other fungus. So, guess what is happening suddenly while I am neck-deep in editing and layout, trying to get the next issue of The Polymer Arts together? We are being run out of our house.
So, I have my mind on mold. Which brought Jasmyne Graybill to mind. She had the honor of being the very first artist featured on this blog back in 2012. Because she creates these polymer clay textures in a context in which we see it as an unwanted growth, it appears rather disgusting to us. But look closely at this plate. If you recreated that texture on a bracelet or as a constrained band around a vase, we’d think it were quite lovely. So, it’s not the texture that is inherently repulsive, it’s just our knowledge of what it represents. Beautiful textures can be found in even the creepiest of natures organisms.
I am presently trying to see the beauty in the natural organisms that are invading the house, but I have to say, even though I do find beauty in all forms of decay, I have now come to terms with the fact that I do still prefer it stay outside and away from our apparel, at the very least.
That is my spooky-themed story right now, and as soon as I finish writing this I must get back to boxing things up so I can move operations back to Colorado tomorrow. So I’ll be on the road tomorrow and Wednesday, but by then we should be ready to reveal the Winter issue’s cover. It’s quite dramatic if we do say so ourselves. Stay tuned for that not-so-spooky installment of “The Polymer Zone”. And if you find yourself attracted by the beautiful fungal texture here, take a look at Jasmyne’s collection on her website.
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Variation on Owls in Autumn
October 23, 2015
Inspirational Art
You may recall a certain blog post at the beginning of the year with a clever necklace much like the one you see here but white and with a barn owl. Well, that wasn’t the only owl necklace of that kind she created. She took that and created a very lively variation on the design.
Now, I usually wouldn’t post the same type of design twice in a year, but there is something to be said about seeing how an artist stretches a great design. And it goes with our Fall color palette theme. And it’s really beautiful. So …
If you didn’t see or don’t recall the first post on the owl necklace design by Dorota Kaszczyszyn of VaniLlamaArt, you can jump back to it by clicking here before we go any farther. See how the structure is the same but she’s opened things up and moved from a minimal neutral palette to something wonderfully rich. The use of Skinner blends throughout gives a liveliness to the creature, with the illusion of light hitting what would be its shoulder wings and that blue on the body echoed on the end feathers. It’s a beautiful departure from the tight, stylized design of the first, which is equally stunning but with a different feel.
She has also recently created a metallic owl to add to her family which goes in the very opposite direction being very stylized and all silver. You can jump to this page on her blog to see all of them but do dive into the posts as well, especially the one on the piece we are looking at today as she reveals how she designed and created the smooth transition in Skinner blend beads. Click on the image to go directly there.
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Autumn Stone
October 21, 2015
Inspirational Art
Is it just me, or do the dark colors of autumn seem so much more dramatic than any other season? I’m not knocking the spark of those first Spring flowers or the brilliance of a sunny mid-summer meadow, but the brightness and purity of those colors are beautiful and cheerful while Autumn’s palette speaks of deep emotion and, well, drama. At least to me. Life is not all bright and cheery and I think that is something we actually need. The tempered days of troubled thoughts and the rough patches we experience are what truly make us appreciate the good times. Life is for living and it’s one bumpy ride. But even the bumpy times can be beautiful.
Similarly, days like those in Autumn, with the foliage falling away, plants returning to the ground, and the days getting shorter, have their own wonderful beauty. The idea of beauty even in the process of decay has always interested me, so it’s no wonder Klavdija Kurent‘s liquid crystal stone caught my eye as I scoured for more Autumn palettes. The technique itself is gorgeous with the translucency of the shuffled layers, but also the colors in those reds, rusts, oranges and creams are so vibrant when juxtaposed. The play of this almost monochromatic palette is where the drama comes from. The many textures of this piece add to its drama and impact as well.
This image is from a promotion for a class Klavdija had last month in which she taught this liquid stone and a liquid rust technique. Hopefully she’ll teach this again in some fashion that might allow us in on her secrets. In the meantime, you can look at more drama and fun pieces on her Flickr and her blog.
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Fall into Autumn Colors
October 19, 2015
Inspirational Art
Well, it’s finally cooling down here in California, where I’ve been bouncing around the last several weeks, and I realized that I haven’t seen any Fall-like scenes yet. In Colorado, of course, we have some wonderfully dramatic color changes in our mountains and trees, but I’ve missed that. So, mid-season and a bit past-peek for Fall colors in much of the country, I want to delve into some of the richness a Fall palette provides.
This set of earrings is a classic example of the deep greens, rich rust reds, and brilliant yellows nature shows off this time of year. I found these on Livemaster.ru in the shop that the Google translator says belongs to Nina Kotlyarevich (I don’t trust the translators, especially when it comes to putting an English version of a name up, but the address on the photo goes to Nina’s shop so we’ll assume it’s close).
Such patience she must have to apply such tiny detail using those thin snakes of clay and little dots. The resulting texture is lovely and takes the simple autumn leaf design several steps beyond the norm.
The dense texture with thin clay snakes is something Nina looks to have done a bit of. She has some amazing pieces in her shop right now including an ancient ivory looking box with swirling and finely dotted detail that will make you hunger for a closer look. Which you should do.
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