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:
An Accessory with Room to Play
April 22, 2015
Inspirational Art
We’re going to move from container pendants to another type of container accessory, the purse. Purses are not the easiest creations to make in polymer, but with all that open space, there is so much that could be done. And, this is one of the huge advantages of artistic container accessories–you have a lot of real estate and several sides to work with. For those of you that sell, also consider that handbags have a high price point, so all the hard work that you put into your masterpiece is more likely to be well paid for.
It would be impossible to bring this form up without mentioning the queen of polymer handbags, Kathleen Dustin. Over the last year or so she has been working in a beautiful series she calls The World Traveler, highly influenced by the amazing ceramicist Vicki Grant who I’ve featured on here a couple of times before. Kathleen’s work has a wide breadth of texture, motifs, forms and color palettes, but the approach and craftsmanship is still quite readily recognizable. She has created some very complex purses in the past, but I found this one particularly appealing because it is a bit more straightforward, and its relatively simple structure allows the treatment of the clay to really shine. I also figured, if you ever wanted to try your hand at polymer purses, you can readily see here that it can be typically purse-like but highly artistic with so much room for play.
It seems like only a handful of purses and necklaces from her recent collections have been making the rounds on the Internet, so do stop and treat yourself to a more extensive view on her website. And a happy birthday to Kathleen who, yesterday, celebrated another year on this earth and another year regaling us with her beautiful work. Keep it up for many, many more years if you would please!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
The Form of a Box Pendant
April 21, 2015
Inspirational Art
Here is another take on the inro form; although, the creator has labeled these “Box as Pendant” pieces. Enkhtsetseg Tserenbadam’s versions are not as heavily decorated as what we saw yesterday, but the variety of forms is a pleasure to see. The interest lies in the surface treatment and color combinations, which subtly accent the primarily organic forms.
Enkhe’s work is often hollow, although, not always in order to hold something and not always as a jewelry. She makes purses and table top boxes. She does play a lot with hollow forms in her jewelry but with many a revealing opening. Her largely minimal palettes make her forms particularly important, and that is where most of her focus lies.
Enkhe’s work can be found online, primarily on her art website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
A Round Take on a Traditional Case
April 20, 2015
Inspirational Art
What would you say to a week of small, wearable containers? I personally have a very particular interest (maybe a tiny bit of an obsession) with things that little treasures and secrets can be stored in. So, I’ve been digging up a number of interesting examples of wearable cases, and there is more variety in this than I would have thought.
This little beauty is styled after an inro; a traditional Japanese container that would have been hung from a waist sash. Traditional Japanese dress did not have anything like pockets, so the inros would be the method by which small necessities could be carried. They grew from purely functional objects to works of high art and have, obviously, been adopted for adornment beyond what would accompany traditional Japanese dress.
This inro style container is by Pavla Cepelikova. She created a series of these over the last couple years that she calls Beatle Inro Boxes. I believe the reference would be to the insects not to the band, but I could be wrong. The wing-like shapes created by the polymer inlay is certainly reminiscent of a beetle. The flat top works as a cap, sliding up the cord as an inro top would. Yes, we would usually see the inro in more of a box shape and with an overlapping cap, but this does work the same way. The shape and surface decoration make for an original and charming version of the traditional case. It’s a good example of taking a traditional idea and moving beyond what is usually done with it.
You can see the rest of the series on Pavla’s Flickr pages along with many other little beauties. Enjoy!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
Graphical Pattern Play
April 18, 2015
Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
Well, has this week’s cool patterns got you hankering to try a some new dramatic patterns yourself? Here, I found a great online tutorial that uses the drama of graphical black patterns edged by white to pump up the color and pattern of scrap canes. It’s a beautifully simple technique brought to us by Pinklily of France. I decided to show you just the resultant sheets here and hope you’ll go see what can be made from them on her blog post. Because the options are too fun to miss I thought you might just get curious and click through.
The instructions on here are in French and can’t be copied into Google translate, but I think the images are pretty self-explanatory. Although she uses canes for the background, you could really use any kind of pattern from marbling to leftover mokume to Stroppel canes. You could even keep it simple with a solid or Skinner blend background. The general effect will be the same.
Pinklily is pretty generous with her tutorials on her blog, so if you like this, take some time to wander about and see what other fund stuff she might have for you.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
Outside Inspiration: A Burst of Swirling Spots
April 17, 2015
Inspirational Art
I pulled this one out particularly for you mad cane slicing artists who might want some fresh ideas for creating patterns with your slices. Barbara Takenaga is a painter who works solely in pattern rather than imagery or abstraction. Her paintings have the illusion of depth and movement that creates wonderful drama, as well as an often mesmerizing effect.
Since the energy and movement is created by the arrangement and size of the forms–spots, in this case–one can easily imagine creating such movement with cane slices using canes of various sizes. A few extruded snakes to emphasize the lines and you could end up with some pretty amazing wall or decorative art.
Time spent wandering her gallery is like a trip through a galactic field of stars and sometimes kind of like an acid trip, but it’s wonderfully engrossing. You will get lost in the work. You have been warned.
http://www.barbaratakenaga.com/
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
Spirited Patterns
April 16, 2015
Inspirational Art
A week of dramatic patterns would not be complete without a little Jon Anderson. You have likely seen at least a few of his larger, cane covered animals or maybe his bowls or even his guitars. But, have you seen his jewelry?
Jon’s fascination with canes is all about the pattern. The forms he covers are more of a canvas than the source of inspiration. Of course, animals and the spirit of them is where his finds a home for his patterns, but his canes come from what he has seen on his travels in other decorative artwork, as well as architecture and the decorative elements of buildings.
Jon has such an amazing eye for how to lay out the canes in a way that enhances the form. Also, his canes are so carefully created and reduced that he can bring them down to a size that can be applied onto forms as small as the pendants you see here. This means that many of us can afford to collect a few, even when our budgets are small.
Although Jon is American, he lives and creates in Bali with his wife who takes care of his promotions and PR. He also has an agent in the US who takes care of the sales and distribution of his work, so Jon gets to just focus on his art. Lucky, lucky guy.
You can read one of his only personal interviews in the Spring 2012 issue of The Polymer Arts and see more of his work on his website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
A Patterned Rainbow
April 15, 2015
Inspirational Art
Consistent forms or motifs in a pattern can get a bit stale, but they can also be raised to sublime heights with the judicious use of color. In this case here, Angela Garrod uses a gradient wash of color across a series of alternating lines consisting of triangles, more like arrows, to bring in variation and change the atmosphere of the piece.
The arrows create energy that pushes the eye back and forth across the width of this ‘neckring’ as she calls these forms, but the soft colors bring in a calming element. The gradient of color in the rest of the circle is deep and rich, and it borders on almost being too much of a contrast to the soft color of the center texture. But that tension may be just what Angela is after, and only the viewer or–maybe more importantly–a buyer can say whether it really works or not.
Angela has been playing quite a bit with patterns of late, as well as this interesting form of neck adornment. To see just what she has been up to, flip through her shared photos on Flickr and the gallery on her website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
A Nod to Klimt
April 14, 2015
Inspirational Art
A bit of dramatic patterning can be accomplished with a combination of patterns. Here we have an attractive combination of very Klimt-like colors and lines along with a few jeweled accents to give our eyes a stopping place here and there to rest. The accents also visually anchor the patterned clay in order to keep our view from regularly wandering off the edges.
I originally found this set on the ever intriguing blog Parole de Pate (translates as “Word of Dough” by Google, but let’s go with “Words of Clay” or its subtitle “Petit Journal de la Polymere”, which shouldn’t really need translation.)
In any case, that is where I found Arliane of Paris who made this set. She is very heavy into visual patterning, especially in the mokume techniques with some really gorgeous color palettes. For more of Arliane’s work, take a look at her blog pages.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
A Burst of Dramatic Pattern
April 13, 2015
Inspirational Art
After a very pointed week of focal points, I thought it might be fun to follow-up with dispersed drama in the form of repeated but highly interesting patterns. Although focal points are highly desirable, they aren’t absolutely necessary. It really depends on what the artist wants to convey or have the viewer experience.
In this mirror by Russia’s Julli-ya (julliyaa on Flickr), there is no focal point in the traditional sense. The reflective glass dominates the center, but it is not where our eye goes (unless we’re looking into it.) Instead, we are fated to wander the spaces around it in the fun and busy clusters and paths of colors. The consistency of the patterning–using the same round concentric circle cane slices in a scattered manner–along with the regular islands of warm color on a sea of cool blues and greens helps to keep this from being purely chaotic. It becomes all about the visual texture and the fun, bright colors.
This regular patterning is something that Julli-ya comes back to again and again. You can see larger images of this and other work like it on her LiveJournal pages (scroll down on this link to see the nice big photos) and on her Flickr photostream.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
Bringing it back to the Center
April 11, 2015
Inspirational Art
I was trying to find a piece that kind of brought together all the various approaches that we talked about this week. Finding something that specific is a little tough, but this piece by Slovenian artist, Tina Mežek hits on a number of approaches to create a really dramatic focal on her necklace.
Obviously size is helping to make the focal bead stand out, but also those lines on the gold layer of the frame all move inward, drawing the eye that direction. The red against black is a classic dramatic color combination as well, and that black is so dark, it can work like negative space, especially if worn on dark clothing. So you see, many approaches can be brought together to heighten the drama when that is what you are after.
If this subject has piqued your interest , you can get further ideas by simply keeping an eye on how other people have used contrast, composition, negative space, line, etc. to bring about some really dramatic focal points.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
