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:

Sunday Serendipity

October 13, 2019

Are you, like me, one of those folks that just wants everybody to share your joy in creating art and especially your favorite medium? I think my family is pretty tired of hearing about the many wonders of polymer although no one objects to the handmade Christmas gifts. I have, however, gotten one niece and one step-grandchild into it so all my talk has had, at least in part, a desired effect! I just want everyone to experience that same kind of joy that I find in creating with a fascinating medium like polymer.

During this break I’ve been taking from production, I’ve been thinking really hard about how I can best share this joy as well as consider what this community needs and how we can help spread the word about polymer and the benefits of having a creative outlet in general. It wouldn’t really matter to me whether people work in polymer or some other medium, as long as they have the chance to discover how creativity, in whatever form it takes, can enrich their lives. But, since I am so integrated into this community and would like to see it stay vibrant, I’ve been pondering ways to increase our reach and bring in some new blood or at least get other artists interested in using polymer in addition to their primary medium.

To that end, I have been researching and talking to various non-polymer specific outlets to see how we might be able to increase polymer’s exposure. My first successful foray this round was with the Craft Industry Alliance with an article I wrote on the possibilities of polymer clay, their first on the medium, published on their website early this week. You can see it at the link here.

I’m excited about this because polymer has such a potential to add truly unique and inexpensive additions and accents to so many other types of art forms. And you just know that some of those people will be complete converts before all is said and done. I was a sporadic fiber and found objects artist before polymer was put into my hand. Actually, come to think of it, that happened in the very room I’m sitting in right now in Aurora, Colorado, almost exactly 13 years ago. My polymer centric path was nothing I could have envisioned back then, but then, oftentimes, the best things we end up with in our life were not planned.

That’s why I like to encourage serendipity as often as possible. Magazines are a serendipitous source of information in that, although you know you have an interest in the subject, you don’t know what you’re going to get out of that publication until you open it up and flip through. The opening image of this post is of a bracelet by Jill Palumbo who, some 8 years ago, opened The Polymer Arts Winter 2011–Education issue and found my article on a wax impression texturing technique,  shown here with the wax and polymer clay impression made from it.  She fell in love with it. The bracelet shown above is from 2018 using the same basic technique although she has taken it much farther than I have and has made it her signature technique. And that happened by just opening a magazine with no expectations.

Same goes with this blog. You don’t know what I’m going to talk about each week but I hope, on a somewhat regular basis, you find something that gets you thinking and helps nudge you onto a path where you find more and more joy and fulfillment in what you do and create.

Inviting Serendipity

To that end, while I am here in Colorado, embroiled in the fun and frenetic event that is my baby sister’s wedding while visiting with family and friends including the coincidentally present Debbie Crothers and Christi Friesen, all on the one weekend, (and thus my time for research and pulling and prepping photos and all that has been severely limited) I am going to suggest that you consider pushing your creative boundaries a little this coming week by going out and finding serendipitous inspiration around you. Here are a few suggestions on how to do that:

  • Play with the medium that you’ve never worked with before. Take a stroll through a local craft store (because that’s always a fun thing anyways) and pick up something unfamiliar that catches your eye and see what you can do with it.
  • Go to your local bookstore or newsstand and find a book or magazine on a craft or art form you haven’t worked in and flip through it. If something really catches your eye, buy it and try it.
  • If you don’t have time to try a new thing, at least try to photo hunt. Photo hunting requires nothing but looking around for things that you find interesting and taking pictures of them with your phone camera. Aim to take at least three photos a day (although more would be better!) and then when you are next in the studio take a look at the pictures and see if you can integrate textures, forms, lines, colors, or whatever caught your eye, into a practice piece or even into your present work.
  • Write about your work. This doesn’t have to be poetic or sound like a museum catalog, just write about how it makes you feel or the concepts behind where your ideas come from. Working visually often means working instinctively and so you may not be identifying what you are doing with your artwork. By writing about it, you can really define and illuminate your approach and why you’re doing it which can give you more focus and success as you move from one project to the next. If you find this helpful, spend 5-10 minutes every day before you sit down to your studio table writing down your thoughts about your artwork as well as what you want to accomplish that day.
  • Collaborate! What other artists do you know and admire? Sit down to tea or coffee or have a Skype call with them and see if you can’t come up with something that you both get jazzed about. The conversation should be enlightening and invigorating even if a collaborative project is not the result.

Serendipity … It’s Up to You Now

So, again, my apologies that this post is a bit spare on images but hopefully these suggestions fill your mind with ideas. You can start right now. Turnaround and take a picture of something near you or walk outside and find something to photograph. Call up an artist friend for that cup of coffee and talk of collaboration or head on over to the craft store to find a new and invigorating publication. These are small things, but they could end up changing your entire life. A random discussion with a friend is what brought me to polymer. What moment or event brought you to polymer? There may be another great discovery for you out there—just open the door to your own bit of serendipity.

Today I’m off to spend time with family and friends and then show off my previously adopted state to Debbie Crothers. I will take lots of pictures! Maybe serendipity will drop something amazing into my lap while I’m at it!

 

 

Creative Courage (and Survey results!)

October 6, 2019

Do you consider yourself an artist, an artisan, or a hobbyist when it comes to your creative work? You might remember a similar question being asked on the recent survey we sent out (and for the curious, I’ll reveal some of the results at the end of this post.) Does the question make you stop and consider how you see yourself or maybe what those terms actually mean? Or did you answer that question without hesitation? Personally, I really dislike labels, but they are necessary for us to group and categorize the many people we meet and learn about. Our brains simply can’t file everybody in their own little space in our heads. It would be like throwing all your beads in a bucket and then hoping you can find the one you want when you need it. So, we have labels for others as well as ourselves. The label for ourselves gives us a way to identify our “tribe” – those people that approach their life or work in a similar fashion or think or see the world in a similar way.

Of course, to group ourselves with others we have to have a common definition, but definitions related to creative and skilled practices can be so extremely vague and wide ranging. This is, in part, due to the history of the concept of art and artists themselves. Did you know that the idea of an artist as a respected individual with skill and expressive intention was not a solidified concept until the early 19th century? Early on, among the ancient Greeks for instance, people who created in what we now think of as the fine arts, such as sculpture and painting, were often thought of as lowly craftspeople, not much better than slaves. The word “artist” didn’t even exist.

Even after the word “artist” came into use in various parts of the world (circa 1507), it only helped to define those crafters that were highly skilled. That which was called art was not produced as a product of self-expression but was largely created in the service of organized religion or government, quite frequently as a kind of propaganda. Art as a form of expression, an extension of the creator’s unique view of the world, and created for its own sake, was not a well-formed concept until early in the 19th century. That’s a mere 200 years ago! How crazy is that?

Nowadays, we play with the idea about what makes one an artist. I am all for including the requirement that it is an act of unique and intentional personal expression but, as most people proclaim, it’s really up to the individual as to whether they want to call himself an artist or not. However, I don’t think one has to have a certain level of skill or experience, they don’t have to sell their work, or have the value of what they do be confirmed by others. When it comes down to it, I think the only thing that matters is that an artist is willing to put a bit of themselves out into the world, bare their soul some, and share themselves with others.

Because art involves a bit of personal vulnerability, it does take an immense amount of bravery to keep producing, growing, and discovering. Even if you don’t show your work to others, isn’t it a tiny bit scary to sit down and work on something new, not knowing if you’ll create something you find successful? We don’t like to fail, even when we are the only ones judging it, but trying (and failing sometimes, maybe a lot of the time) is the only way we can get to the point of creating something truly satisfying and accomplished.

But even then, even when we create the most magnificent thing we can imagine, we will want to keep at it, to try something new even if just to tweak our best successes, and that takes more brave exploration. I think that being an artist is, in large part, about constantly striving, and regularly failing, but calling up the courage to keep trying regardless.

Why do we put ourselves through such torture though? Because when we create something wonderful, that is uniquely our own, there is just no better feeling in all the world. And you know, those times you don’t succeed are really what makes the successes so intensely satisfying. We just can’t fully appreciate the highs without experiencing the lows. It’s the contrast between them that makes it feel so good when we get it right!

So, this week I wanted to share with you the work of just a few people who are really putting themselves out there, looking honestly at themselves and their work, even though it’s scary. Being brave doesn’t mean that you’re not afraid. Being brave means you do it even though you are afraid.

Brave Artistic Souls

There are several Facebook groups that invite and encourage crafters and artists to share their work and ask questions. It was in one of these groups that I saw this beaded pendant from Amy Jamroz posted with a note about this being part of her quest to create work that she really enjoys making. She was very honest about her fear of moving forward with these new changes. It’s hard enough to try pushing yourself in a new direction but it has to be more nerve-wracking to share it.

First, I want to applaud Amy for posting in the “Polymer Clay Success” group about her journey and her fears. Just that inclination shows a tremendous amount of dedication to her work and herself as an artist. You can definitely see the joy and confidence in what she’s doing now in the color choices and the skills she’s gained with her dedicated focus.

 

Israel’s Yudit Yitzhaki was one of those brave folks who sent me links of her work directly. I do get this a lot but, to be honest, most of the time, it is from people quite new to the material, people who really need to invest in their work a bit more by putting time into honing their skills and finding their own beautiful and unique voice. It can be quite a long and bumpy road, and I do know how enthusiastic one can be when the polymer addiction first sets it, but we all need to take the time and invest in our creative self before putting new work out there. Remember … the internet never forgets so you want what you post, or ask others to share, to be something you believe you will be happy to have others see a decade from now. Don’t rush it. The thing is, once someone’s skill and voice have come into their own, chances are that others, upon recognizing a unique and passionate voice, will do the sharing and promoting of the work for them.

The work Yudit sent me was obviously already there but I think coming from a non-English speaking country, it was harder to break into the very active English sector of our community. So, sending her work to me and others was a good idea. She has such brave and bright sense of color and her obvious love of the world around her where she lives in Israel, just jumps from the work.

 

Back before EvaMarie Törnström made such a tremendous breakthrough in her art, I had an email conversation with her about her Malta horse, seen below, which I also blogged about in January of 2015. My then assistant, Paula Gilbert, championed her work for consideration for the magazine but I was hesitant to do so, not because I didn’t think it had merit but because I felt like her previous work was not quite there but the Malta horse was amazing and I wanted to hold out a bit and see where she was going with that.

I wrote her to express my thoughts and yes, she was thinking about heading in a new and exciting direction and within a year she came out with some of the most expressive animals sculptures I’d ever seen. I could tell from our email conversation that she had been a little uncertain about the new direction although I wasn’t sure why, but she did the work and really let her own voice shine and the response to her new sculptures was so very enthusiastic. I am so glad that I listened to my gut and waited to feature her a year later when we could show her very emotive horse sculptures, like the piece this post opened up with, that she is so well known for now.

 

Now, is there something you have been hesitant to try or a new direction in your work you’ve wanted to explore or maybe a change in your art business that gets you excited? If so, why haven’t you started down that road?

Sometimes we are fearful for good reason and that emotion always warrants a bit of consideration before jumping in but if you feel driven to do it, don’t let the fear hold you back. We have to take some risks to make progress. I find it helps to ask, “What is the worse that can happen?” Usually the worst thing that can happen is that you temporarily fail but can readily get up and try again. You’ll learn more through your failures than through your successes so be open to the learning and go for it!

 

Thanks for the Survey!

Thank you to everyone that completed our Reader’s surveys. I LOVE to hear what you have to say. Nearly 400 people responded, and a lot of you left custom suggestions which I am still going through, so I’ll need more time for that. However, there were a few interesting results. So, here is a rundown for those of you who are into statistics or are curious about your fellow readers here.

I have had the sneaking suspicion for a while that my readership was no longer just polymer artists and sure enough, 1 out of every 4 readers that answered the survey did NOT identify polymer as their primary medium and half of those folks didn’t even consider polymer as their second medium. That was a surprise but a happy one for me as I do hope what I write, here especially, appeals to a broad range of crafters.

Also surprising was that only 7% of survey respondents said they work exclusively with polymer while the majority worked in a mix of polymer plus another medium, most commonly beads, mixed media, and metal. And the most surprising statistic, for me, was that only 58% identified jewelry as their primary art form. I thought it’d be a lot more! Tons of readers said they worked primarily in home décor, wall art, and sculpture. So, okay … I seem to be speaking to a wide range of artists and crafters here and I am sure glad to do so.

Remember the opening question of this post …. Well, 55% of survey respondents identified as artists, either part-time or professional, which I was glad to see since I think in terms of what artists would want or need when I write these blogs. The vast majority of the other 45% said they were avid hobbyists and much of the design and aesthetic talk is good for those folks as well!

When it came to content, I was rather surprised but encouraged that only about 1/3 of the survey folks thought project tutorials were a must have in what I post and publish. That has not been the case in past surveys where half the respondents were clamoring for them. Is there a shift in the community or in my readership? It’s hard to say.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I push for people to find their own voice and although project tutorials are a fabulous way to hone one’s skills, it really looks like you all are clamoring to learn  more about design, with a good 40% saying that’s a “Must Have”, another 40% saying they looked forward to that kind of thing and absolutely no one saying they didn’t want that kind of information. That was the only category of content preferences that didn’t have anyone say they weren’t interested in it and it had the highest level of interest although learning about other mediums came in a close second. I just love where your focus is, all you beautiful readers!

The only other thing I thought was of particular interest was how many people pay for digital media such as blogs, Patreon accounts, and membership sites. It looks like almost ¼ of you do, even with all the free stuff out there. That is wonderfully supportive of your fellow artists who put together digital online content. It looks like that goes up to about half if you if we include downloadable PDFs and videos. Of course, the majority of people put their money into books and magazines. After all, this is the readership of Tenth Muse publishing but it good to know a lot of you are open to other options that can monetarily support what I do!

I doubt it would be a surprise to you all to hear that over 85% of the folks on the survey access publications and online sources primarily to improve their skills. So, no matter what I do, I will endeavor to help you do that, but I am really going to have to think on what these results mean and how I can help you all get the content you need and want.

As for the drawing winner … Congrats to Judy Santini who is $50 richer! And tons of people are richer in information for taking advantage of the 15% off coupon! If you answered the survey but didn’t get to use that discount yet, give me a few days to get a mailing list together to resend you the code and a reminder.

 

On the Road

On that note, I need to ask for a pardon as next week’s blog will not be quite the same as I have been doing. Getting internet access during all this traveling, as well as free time while visiting family and taking care of other business, has been trying. I will get you something next week but as you see in this one, there’s not as many examples and I don’t know what I will be able to pull off this coming week as I help my sister get ready for her wedding. On top of that, Christi Friesen and Debbie Crothers will drop into Denver in the midst of that so free moments will be spent sneaking off to commune with my like minding polymer pals. But if you are in Denver next weekend, look into the classes Debbie is teaching at the Great Create. I will try and drop by on Saturday to say hello there as well and maybe I can at least share some photos with you next weekend.

 

Ok, my design minded, skill honing, courageous creatives. Go forth and conquers those fears and create bravely this week!

 

 

The Colors of Now

September 29, 2019

Where does the inspiration for the colors you use come from? I think more than a few of us simply have our favorite colors and keep returning to them while a good handful make a conscious effort every year or even every season to come up with a new palette or variation on an old palette to work with. But regardless of our usual approach, we are, constantly getting input on color. We differ in how we process it and whether it affects our tastes and, more to the point here, how it might affect our color choices in our artwork.

Color constantly changes in our surrounding world, most commonly in goods like clothing and cars and such. There are even announcements about the upcoming colors of the season and articles on color trends. These can be useful if your market is sensitive to these changes, but it won’t necessarily feed your personal color cravings. I myself am quite aware that I lean towards a very autumnal inspired palette. Well, lean is a bit too soft a word … I cling to it like a shy child with a favorite worn out blanket! I have to constantly push myself to broaden my palette not because my choices are bad or are getting stale but because if I don’t, I won’t know what I might be missing out on.

However, right now I get to have my fill of my favorites as I glory in the fall colors of the Western United States. I headed out a couple days ago on a 3-week trip that will be primarily rooted in Colorado, starting my trek with a drive across the deserts of the west and into the quickly changing foliage of the Rocky Mountains. There are so many colors out there in the wide-open spaces and the majesty of the mountains this time of year. The yellow of the aspens leaves me in awe but I rarely work with it. This trip may inspire me to do so!

I thought we’d take a casual Sunday stroll through what others are doing with their colors palettes these days and see if any don’t inspire you to play with something new.

 

A Trip Over the Rainbow

Let’s start with Liska Flower, whose work graces the start of this blog above, as I can segue from last week’s visual movement to color. Because, wow, this has so much visual movement! Remember me saying curved lines are an easy way to create a feel of movement and energy? Well, she has that here in every corner of the piece. It creates its own dense texture too but for all the busyness, it’s not overwhelming as the colors are all slightly lightened from their full saturated hue, giving the wall piece a rather easy going feeling. The heavy use of blue and the idea of looking at an ocean helps that too. The little creature poking out from the waves and ripples give focal points for your eye to rest on so you don’t get lost in the swirling texture and, aside from those design notes, the little signs of life are so cute! Cuteness should be made an official design element, I just decided.

 

Angela Barenholtz has a great sense of color and can get quite wild with it but always in a way that feels intentional and controlled instead of chaotic. She’s also gotten into creating “paintings” with chopped raw polymer recently, reproducing images from other artists with her own interpretation. I’m not sure if these are just color studies or practice with the techniques but I am hoping we’ll get to see original images soon too! This one is from a 1970 album cover for Derek and the Dominoes. I put the original in so you can she how far she ran with it color wise.

 

Irina Akulina definitely leans towards high contrast in her color choices but otherwise the whole rainbow is up for grabs in her studio. Being in Denver, I’m seeing a lot of orange and blue due to the hugely popular Broncos football team here but nothing quite so gorgeous as this combination with the slightly tinted and varied orange and the blue leaning towards teal. Taking your color a little off from the primaries and secondaries or pushing them to be a little muted (easily done with a pinch of contrasting color, black, or white mixed in) can result in such elegant combinations.

 

 

I think Laura Tabakman and I are similarly enchanted by the dark, rich colors that dominate fall. Here is a set of leaf brooches she made this past summer, perhaps in preparation for the new Into the Forest exhibit in Atlantic City New Jersey. If you are anywhere nearby while this is up, you have to go. So much great polymer work in one place! Its mind boggling.

 

The dramatic color choices of this recent piece by Christine K. Harris just stopped me in my tracks. I am used to seeing muted tones with drama in the use of reds but this is really striking. Blue is usually a color of calm and control but this dream inspired piece is not really either of those and yet, it works, perhaps because the blue grounds it a bit, making it more magnificent than frightening.

I find it interesting that it started, color wise, here.

 

So, how about you? Do you tend towards one color palette or do you change it up with the ebb and flow of trends? Are you ever just driven to recreate the colors you see out in the world or do you primarily work from packaged colors? There is no right or wrong way to choose the colors you work with but if you haven’t changed it in a while or are feeling like you’re in a rut, take a look around and let yourself be inspired by the incidental color you run into

 

Survey and Cash Drawing Reminder

Today is the last day to be heard and to get in on the drawing for participants of our latest Reader’s survey. If you haven’t already, would you give me just 2-3 minutes to fill out this survey? Not only does it help us help you get the information you want and need, but survey respondents will get a 15% off coupon for your entire cart on our website and a chance to win $50 cash! Who couldn’t use a few extra bucks, hmm?

Look for the 15% off code on the page that comes up after submitting the survey and write it down. Its good through the end of October. The drawing for our one $50 cash prize winner will be done tomorrow night, Monday the 30th.

 

Here, let me bring you along on my travels. These are a few pics from my drive yesterday–views right off the I-70 highway. Hoping I have a couple days to go see the interior between a couple weddings and family and friend visits. The color changing here is mostly yellows but there are swathes of deep red brush that are mindblowing but you have to dive farther into the mountains in for those. I have been quite a few places throughout the world but I still find Colorado to be one of the most beautiful spots on earth. Put it on your bucket list if you’ve not yet visited!

Ok, I need to go get some sleep. Road weary and dealing with the elevation gain has made me quite sleepy! I hope I caught all the typos and wonky grammar but if not, please forgive me!

 

I hope you’ve had a beautiful weekend and have yourself a colorful week!

Dynamic Visual Movement (And Survey!)

Forest Rogers, Badb Catha

Conjure up in your mind, as best you can, some of the most dynamic and energetic pieces of art you’ve ever seen? They are probably something that really moved you (pun not originally intended) or to which you were drawn and just couldn’t look away. Dynamic movement in art is just what it sounds like—it’s lively, energetic, impactful and, well, moving. More specifically, it refers to something in the composition that inexorably moves the eye from one thing to the next.

Just look at some classic examples such as Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, Jackson Pollock’s No. 5, 1948, and Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2. In each case, it is hard to just plant your eyes at one point and gaze there. The lines quite insistently draw your eye along from one point to another. But why? Doesn’t all visual art, 2D or 3D, have lines of some sort? What makes these lines so dynamic?

 

Well, it is the combination of several characteristics that, when used together, can create dynamic movement visually. Although it would be nice to hand you a single, simple formula for this, it is not one particular set of characteristics but rather a kind of recipe you put together. The recipe includes some combination of lines, repetition, gradation, and/or the placement of objects.

Each “recipe” brings about a different flavor profile, a different atmosphere or emotion. The Starry Night has a breezy and calm feel, even thought the sky is very active, due to the fairly consistent repetition of brush strokes and the flowing lines they create. So, the recipe here is mostly repetition and line. Nude Descending a Staircase, on the other hand, even with so many lines, actually gets most of its movement from gradation, repetition, and placement. The shapes go from dark and unclear to light and more recognizable, are repeated more or less in each gradation, and the diagonal placement with the clearest form at the bottom of the diagonal slope moves our eye downward (which is easier for us to see movement in due to our lifelong relationship and expectation of gravity!)

So, if you want to add or just tweak a design to have more dynamic visual movement, try out a combination of these characteristics. Let’s look at examples of how they are used to create very obvious dynamic visual movement in polymer and other craft art.

 

Going with the Flow

The key to movement will be to focus on the flow of marks, shapes, colors, etc. in your work. This isn’t always fluid, mind you, but fluid lines and shapes do readily create a sense of movement. Some of the best inspiration for flow comes from things that we see physically flowing in the world around us.

For instance, Forest Roger’s work, although not themselves images that we see in the real world, regularly draw energy and impact from the representation of fluid movement. In the piece you see at the opening of this post, Badb Catha (Battle Crow), the flow of fabric and feathery wings are dramatically sculpted in a frozen moment of furious movement. To see this kind of movement in reality would be but a flash amidst a flurry of action. We never get to a solid glimpse of those moments when it happens in front of us, so our minds expect and kind of fill in the movement. That expectation of continued movement in nearly all parts of the sculpture is what imbues the piece with such intense energy.

 

Here is a similarly dynamic piece by a ceramic sculptor by the name of Yuanxing Liang that I just had to share. It’s hard to believe it’s not just an illustration the movement and details are so lush and yet delicate. You can see the many sides and more detail of this particular piece on Colossal here.

 

Forest does create additional drama with the vivid red of the fabric and the pointed and dangerous looking ends and edges. But movement represented in a frozen moment can also be coolly dramatic without being this intense. Just look at this silver and gold Wind Necklace by Chao Hsien Kuo. It’s delicate form and the repetition of undulating lines terminate in slightly rounded and gold tipped ends so that even though there is a tremendous amount of movement in the design, it feels contained and graceful.

 

There is a level of complexity in these first few examples that might feel a bit intimidating, but you can achieve quite a bit of movement with simple shapes and repetition. Ford and Forlano’s Vine Necklace looks rather like the rippling reflection of light on water in this zig-zagging necklace made up of right-angle tube beads and leaf canes. Stringing the angled beads, one after another, creates an erratic movement that doesn’t stop because there is no focal point or other place for the eye to rest. The movement itself becomes the focus of the necklace.

 

I have found that one of the easiest and most graceful ways to show movement is simply to use curved lines, particularly ones that are repeated and nestled or otherwise follow the lines of the adjoining or nearby lines or forms. In this necklace’s layers of leather (yeah, I thought it was polymer first time I saw it!), a piece created by Irina Fadeeva, the folded edges start from a point along one of the focal stones and then radiate out, following the curve of the layer below. That repetition of curved lines along with how one section flows and fits along the edges of the adjoining sections keep your eye flowing back and forth across the piece even though there are three very prominent focal points to stop and focus on. Those lines pull on your gaze to keep looking around.

 

Here are a few more beautiful examples of nestled lines but this time as surface design. Ceramicist Natalie Blake creates the most gorgeous movement in her textures by lining up carved line after carved line then developing the atmosphere of calm or blossoming energy through the use of delicate or dramatic, but always glowing, color.

 

Keep in mind that when creating lines for surface design, they do not need to be well defined, especially if you have gradation in your design recipe. Look at the delicate, sometimes barely there, lines in this beautiful enamel brooch by Ruth Ball. The lines encircle each other like a ripple in a pond although it’s actually a swirl, moving from the center point outward. The lines get gradually more delicate as they get farther from the center. It is, however, the gradation from that black to purple to a wisp of sky-blue that brings in the drama and heightens that sense of movement as the whorl swoops around and up towards the top of the brooch.

 

All the above examples use repetition to some extent to assist in the sense of movement. However, you can leave repetition out of the recipe and still have a sense of movement. For this you need to add placement to the recipe.

Here is a beautiful example by Donna Kato showing how placement creates flow by making things look like they’re about to fall over or roll off. This is accomplished with the use of tension points – where elements are just barely or not quite touching each other – and diagonals. This combination makes things appear unstable because we expect things that are not firmly attached to roll or tumble downhill. This works much like the frozen dramatic moment of movement we saw in the first couple of examples, in that it gives us a sense that movement is impending, adding energy to the design.

 

So now, after all these examples, do you recognize elements that show movement in your own work or have you come up with some ideas you’d like to try to add more movement in your work? It’s not that a sense of movement is necessary in any design, but you need to decide whether or not movement is important for your piece and the energy level you want to convey. Like any other design element, you want to give yourself the opportunity to include or exclude it intentionally.

 

Moving Down the Road

So, this weekend is the first of four weekends in a row that I’m going to be traveling so I’m getting these blogs together ahead of time, but I’ll try and sneak in some photos from the road, especially if I see anything artistically inspiring.

For those asking how I’m doing, all I can tell you is that the progress on my arm is still very slow. I’m going to check in with my favorite kinesiologist when I am in Denver in a couple weeks to see what more can be done but I am preparing to handoff or otherwise get around doing the print production that is so hard on my arm which, unfortunately, is primarily the project tutorials with their tons of photos and a lot of layout tweaking. But I have to tell you, I’m already having withdrawals (I love doing layout!) but my brain doesn’t stop planning and have a bunch of ideas, but I need your help …

Survey, Discount, and CA$H Drawing

As I think I mentioned last week, my editorial assistant and I are working out our options for getting inspiring information to you, but I don’t want to create what WE think you want. We want to KNOW what you want.

To that end we are asking you to help us out by filling out a survey. The survey will help us determine what kind of content you might be looking for and see how it can mesh with some of the ideas we have in mind. It will also help us with final decisions about content for the magazine this next year.

So, would you give me just 2-3 minutes to fill out this survey? Not only does it help us help you get the information you want and need, I’m giving away a little something to make it worth your while …

All survey respondents will get a 15% off coupon for your entire cart on our website and … drum roll please … CASH money! A randomly drawn survey filler-outer will get $50 cash! Who couldn’t use a few extra bucks, hmm?

Look for the 15% off code on the page that comes up after submitting the survey and write it down. Its good through the end of October. We’ll send a reminder mid-October as well so you don’t miss out.

Survey closes on September 29th. The drawing for the cash, a purely random drawing, will take place on September 30th and winner will be notified by email.

Okay, that’s it for this weekend. Have a beautiful week and have fun making note of all the visual movements you find in designs every day.

Moving Objects

September 15, 2019

Don’t you love when something you put out in the world actually has a real and positive effect on other people? Last week’s post about movement really hit a chord with a lot of people. I just love that! To get such a lot of you thinking and jazzed about trying something new really makes my day! Thanks to you all who wrote me or posted messages. Please keep the feedback coming in. Criticism and suggestions as well as stories of your inspired studio ventures are all most welcome!

Last week’s discussion about movement was all based around jewelry, largely because kinetic movement is necessarily a consideration of good jewelry designs because anything worn has the potential for movement. The human body does move about a lot. But functional and even decorative objects as well as sculptural artwork can be designed to have movement with beautiful and intriguing results.

I am pretty sure that the majority of my blog readers work in jewelry as a primary form and if that’s you, don’t think that design in these other forms I’m going to talk about today doesn’t apply to you because jewelry and sculptural objects have a lot of crossover. Most art jewelry is a kind of small sculpture with the added complication of wearability thrown in. So, if you work exclusively in jewelry, look at the way these artists add movement to their objects and sculptures and consider how their approach might be translated in jewelry. And if you work a lot in functional or decorative objects, well, I have some great ideas for you today, but I hope you look at the design of jewelry for inspiration as well.

Not Standing Still

Many, many moons ago, just a few weeks after graduating art school, I packed up everything I owned into my long bed Toyota truck and drove from southern California to the middle of New Mexico, eventually landing in Albuquerque. I had no job there, I didn’t know anyone, I had no place to live, and I was completely alone. I was there because I had been through there once and fell in love with the landscape and I had desperately wanted to experience something besides California.

That move was crazy and scary and eventually proved to be one of the most difficult times of my life, but it was also one of the most magical periods of my life. To this day I will declare that my sudden uprooting then was one of the best things I could have possibly done. I knew it was a risky thing to do but you never really know who you are, what you can do, or how strong you are until you really push yourself way beyond your comfort zone and introduce yourself to completely new things.

Think about it… what would you say the most magical time of your life was? Not places but experiences, things that really opened up your eyes and fired up your passion. I bet it was something very new to you and probably a little scary and maybe even something that made you very uncomfortable initially. And I bet you wouldn’t trade it for anything. And why would we not trade in these often difficult and life altering experiences? Probably because they opened up new vistas in our life, helped up to understand ourselves, allowed us to grow and believe in ourselves like we never had before. Well, that crazy move alone was what I think of as the most magical time of my life.

Santa Fe, New Mexico was at the center of this magic back then. There were no jobs in Santa Fe so I couldn’t live there but I drove up there every chance I got to wander through the galleries and the artist studios and explore the truly deserted ghost towns that dotted the land around there. I remember walking into one gallery and seeing a small inverted teardrop pot just inside the door in glazes of matte oranges and greens. There was a small protrusion, a loop of clay, at the throat of the pot from which hung beads, a tiny bundle of reeds, and feathers and they fluttered lightly in the breeze as I entered. Talk about magic! I was mesmerized by the mix of those colors and the liveliness of those gently dancing accents. I was working in wood and wearable art at the time and suddenly decided everything would have something that moved. That’s when I first fell in love with the idea of kinetic energy in art and although it fades to the background sometimes, I always drawn back to it. What are you drawn back to over and over?

 

Nowadays, a leather thong with beads and feathers around the neck of native American pottery is not an unusual thing. You see them in gift shops throughout the Southwest so that whole idea now has a kitschy, touristy vibe but done right, it can still make a piece feel alive in a way that no amount of surface detail can. For that reason, I find it surprising that there are not more examples out there. In fact, the only person I could find working with dangling components on polymer vessels is Christi Friesen. I mean, what would this vessel be without its many pretty dangling bits and how alive must it look when they are swinging?

I am sure there are other polymer vessels with dangling accents or more, but I couldn’t find them for this post. if you know of others doing that kind of thing on vessels, please send me the links in the comments here. Commenting is better than sending me an email because then we can all see what additional sources of inspiration there might be. If you get this by email you could always click the title of the post at the top to take you to the online blog where you can post a comment.

 

Dangles are not the only way to enliven a decorative object that would otherwise sit in relative stillness. There are a number of people who add airy, springy bits that will bounce and wave in passing. Jeffrey Lloyd Dever is one of those in the small circle of polymer vessel makers for which movement is often added. It doesn’t hurt the liveliness of his pieces that they also look like they might get up and clamber off at any moment.

 

Ok, let’s set my fascination with lively vessels aside and look at the most kinetic of artwork–mobiles. Mobiles are all about balance and movement. They are inherently energetic because, even when still, we know that the slightest breeze will get these hanging (or sitting, in the case of mobile’s desktop cousin, the stabile) creations moving. Mobiles are often credited to the 20th century artist Alexander Calder but only because his work was given the name “mobiles” (by Marcel Duchamp not Calder himself actually) in 1931. Previously deemed “kinetic sculpture”, mobiles and decorative pieces that move have been around since prehistoric times, primarily in the form of windchimes and complex hanging charms and ornaments.

Kinetic sculpture was recognized as an art form only around the second decade of the 20th century, primarily due to a handful of Russian artists. The first artist to use the balance construction that is so familiar in mobiles today was actually the visual artist (best known for his photography) Man Ray. Using a series of wooden coat hangers and a cart and plow pulling design used for centuries all over Europe and elsewhere (Yes, the hook up to the animals is not a hanging one but the pulling weight of the animals is the same as the hanging weight of elements on mobile), Man Ray figured out how to perfectly balance multiple layers of coat hangers. You can go to mobile artist Marco Mahler’s website for his brief account of mobile history and pictures of Man Ray’s first mobile, complete with his early instructions for making your own.

Now, if you want to attempt a not so complex mobile design and in polymer, you might take inspiration from Marie-Charlotte Chaillon whose mobile opens this post. She smartly mixes her version of Carol Blackburn’s moebius twists with loose spirals and scattered balls for a very energetic and fun look. It might seem a complex piece at first but a quick inspection will show that all parts are hooked onto a simple set of crossed bars. You could do that kind of thing, right? Or you can go even a tad more simplified and hang a series of elements vertically, like with this mobile of hers.

 

Debra Ann, the inventor of the NeverKnead (that fantastic machine that saves you from tons of cranking on your pasta machine and readily works to soften hard clay blocks) is also the artist behind Atomic Mobiles. Although she makes her mobiles (or her stabiles, verticals, atomic screens, or earrings … she is very much into kinetic art!) from acrylic sheets rather than polymer clay, the principles are all the same. Here is one of her stabiles with a painted acrylic base.

Although she probably could have made the above stabile with polymer, the use of the acrylic material is more practical, probably quicker to create and more stable, especially for the base. Get a nice stable base out of whatever material makes the most sense for the construction of your own piece then polymer can take over for the hanging elements.

 

And as I mentioned at the beginning, kinetic sculptural art can readily be translated into jewelry and I couldn’t resist at least one example. Just look at this pair of earrings by TyAnn Zeal, with polymer for the earring base and brass for the dangles. The weight of the metal dangles will quickly get the closely arranged pieces back in position after any vigorous headshaking. With polymer, if you make mobile like earrings, you may want to make the dangling pieces somewhat thick so they too have some weight to keep them from flipping all over the place all the time.

 

Although these blog posts can never be completely comprehensive on any one subject, and there is so much more I could share on this subject, I would really be truly remiss if I did not include Georg Dinkel’s artwork in a discussion of kinetic sculptural pieces. Although not all of his work has moving parts, they all look like they could. He does love creating his mechanical pieces though and he loves putting videos together to show off the movement. They can be quite entertaining.

Ok, Georg’s hand cranked pieces might be hard to translate into jewelry but maybe some moving gears on a pendant? Or a hand-cranked brooch? They have potential, right?

 

Moving Forward  

I’m hoping these items might get a few more of you thinking about movement and how it might work in your own creations. Next week I’m going to share with you the secrets of creating visual movement. There are some pretty simple tricks to add high-energy and liveliness to your pieces without attaching separate actual moving parts. Although the kinetic energy is fantastic, it is sometimes not the most functional way to instill that level of energy. There are many other ways!

In the meantime, especially if you make decorative or functional objects, consider how you might be able to add a simple dangle, a string of beads, or a springy stalk with an accent on the end to bring some liveliness to a design that seems to need just a bit more energy. Or, using spare beads or unused elements you already have on hand, why not make a simple vertical mobile or even try your hand at balanced mobiles if you’ve never done them. You can find full instructions for creating polymer mobiles along with kinetic jewelry in the Summer 2016 – Movement issue of The Polymer Arts available on our website. It’s only $7.95 to get those tutorials in print (or $5.95 for a digital edition) along with all the other great content.

 

Slow Progress 

For those wondering how I am doing, I’ve hit some kind of plateau with the arm. It has been flaring up randomly all week after a fairly good week last week. It’s frustrating that for all the care and physical therapy, its not that much better than a month ago. But there will be no giving up here. Just like with a design or technique that has been giving you trouble, if you keep at it, you will break through. I am sure that will be the case with this arm too!

On the other hand, my metabolic issues are making progress and I am sleeping and feeling much better! So, there is progress somewhere. Yay!

There has also been progress on future production plans. I’ve been in some pretty intense talks with my managing editor, Anke Humpert, and I think we are close to a plan for getting back to some version of production with maybe some creative and practical changes. I do beg your patience for a little bit longer as its still hard to judge when I will be able to get back to print work but we are working on it. We will have some truly wonderful things to share with you in the not too distant future. I promise!

 

So, for now, go off and have a wonderful, energetic, and moving week!

You’ve Got to Move It, Move It

What are some of the first choices you make when creating a piece? Do you ask yourself, what colors are you going to use? What forms to make? What textures, what themes, what techniques? Do you ever ask yourself, what kind of movement will this piece have?

Movement is not one of the primary options that come to mind for most people when designing. If movement or kinetic components are not essential to what you are doing, it may not come to mind until much later on, if at all. And yet, in three-dimensional work and especially in jewelry, this is an integral part of the design. Sometimes the idea of movement doesn’t come along simply because it is created through another avenue – visual movement is created by lines while physical movement is created by the chosen construction. But where and how you placed those lines or the choices about the construction are actually choices about movement.

Movement is one of my favorite things about creating in three dimensions. It took me a long time to be brave enough to work in pieces that move. Why does that take courage? Because a piece that moves changes and has not one look but a multitude of looks. We are used to seeing artwork, when on display or in photographs, facing us in one neutral position where it hangs or sits still. But just as sculpture in the round will look different as you walk around it, any object that is worn or used functionally will look different as the wearer moves or the user works with it, especially when it moves and that means you aren’t always going to be able to have complete control over what the viewer of the work will see because movement means a piece will change.

Movement is actually such a big part of design and I have so much to show you on this subject, that I’m going to split this up into two or three posts. Today let’s focus on work that has physical, kinetic movement and in jewelry in particular, but keep in mind that movement isn’t just for jewelry!

 

Moving Right Along

One way to add really dynamic movement that also forces you to just rip the Band-Aid off and give in to the constant change in composition that the movement will create is to dangle a lot of individual elements in a cluster. As you see in the necklace by Natalya Aleksandrova below, the gathering of elements is going to sway and rearrange itself as the wearer moves.

However, unlike the designs of this type that utilize wire, each bead element is on a leather cord looped around a thick collection of cords, a combination that limits the amount of movement since leather on leather does not move smoothly. If this was a single cord necklace, or better yet, a thick metal wire wrapping around the neck, and the elements were attached using metal wire loops, the beads would swing far more freely. Here the beads still move but, for what is normally a very kinetic type of design, that energy will be restrained. I think that actually works in this highly organic design as you rarely see organic elements in nature swinging as freely as these would if on metal loops.

 

The above is really a subtle example of what I think this next piece does really well. You see, you can use your choice of movement to add a touch of realism or connection to the real thing it represents or was inspired by. The feather set below is also Natalya’s work. You can see how well polymer can emulate the texture of a feather, but you know it could never move like one. Breaking these feathers up into multiple sections allows the pieces to flutter and at least harken back to the movement of a feather when on a bird.

 

Necklaces and earrings are not the only pieces that this kind of energetic movement can be added to. The pin you see opening this post is by Celie Fago and was originally created for Dan Cormier’s fantastic Broken Telephone Project. It is not the still little creation one might normally associate with brooches. The leaves of the pin flutter, not unlike leaves on a tree. The light and almost whimsical movement of the leaves plays well with the very open design and its flowing lines which themselves create visual movement (more on visual movement in a week or two).

 

Celie’s work also tends to include a lot of movement, so we’ll look at one more of hers as well, but this time her bracelets. Bracelets move up and down an arm, making movement almost inherent in the idea of a bracelet. Dangles and charms are also not uncommon for bracelets, especially chain types, but they are fairly uncommon for bangle versions. The way Celie adds movement to her bangles is genius – the rings and charms on these bangles move the way the bangle itself would move up and down an arm, like tiny bangles on the bangle. This type of movement creates some of the most dynamic movement you can get in a bracelet.

We’ve been looking at a lot of horizontal or circular compositions for movement but another way to have movement in a design is with a stack of elements that you hinge so they can swing somewhat independently. I love this design because the long vertical automatically gives the piece a sense of strength and boldness—characteristics intrinsic in vertical designs–especially when it’s really long. The movement as a kind of sophisticated energy because instead of pieces swinging in multiple directions, the whole line tends of beads or elements tend to move together.

Below is a piece by Carla Benedetti, with each component being attached to the one above it by jump ring hinges. The whole vertical line of elements will swing side to side and forward and back, fluidly, and all together. Using relatively large elements gives this vertical stack some weight which pulls the whole piece against the body when the wearer is upright and helps to keep the pieces lined up as it swings. In other words, the composition of this piece really doesn’t change even though it will move and sway. This allows for all the elements to be easily seen and gives you more control over the composition that the viewer will see while still harvesting the energy that movement imparts.

Let’s make this a two-pieces-per artists-post with a second piece by Carla! Another way to add movement while holding onto the composition somewhat, is to create layers of chains or beads that can move individually or altogether, to varying degrees. Multi-strand necklaces like the one below gives you the opportunity to change up and create contrast between the strands with both the forms, elements, type of strand, and even how much each one can move. For instance, the chained strands on here will move much more than the densely beaded ones. As a result, this piece has more dynamic energy than Carla’s vertical composition above, but the construction keeps it from being just a jumble.

 

I’m telling you there is so much to this whole movement in design thing. There are tons of examples of movements in pieces that are not jewelry, but I don’t seem to have time for that this post. Let me get a bunch of those together for you for next week and then maybe we’ll get to visual movement after that if we are all still having just a ton of fun with this.

 

If You’re Feeling Moved

I strongly believe that all choices in a piece of art should be intentional in order to bring out all the potential that your design has and, of course, that includes deciding how much, if any, movement your piece will have.

You can start thinking about movement now by looking at pieces that you’ve previously created or designs you have in progress on your table or in your sketchbook. Ask yourself, “Does this have movement or stillness and how well does that fulfill the need of the design?” Or, “Would this benefit from more movement, less movement, or no movement?”  If you can get yourself to regularly think about movement in your work, you’ll be thrilled with the many options you have to add energy, atmosphere, and interest in your pieces. All you need to do is think about how movement should or could play into your designs to have a myriad of new possibilities suddenly open up before your eyes.

 

All Quiet on the Home Front

Strangely enough, I very little to report on the house and health situation. This is not to say that I’ve not been extremely busy, because I have. Getting this house back together is quite the huge task and there are dozens upon dozens of little things that need to be taken care of, things that might be barely noticed by others except if they were not done or finished properly.

I have started to feel some work withdrawal, however, and I think it’s keeping me up at night because some nights I just can’t fall asleep even though I don’t have anything overly stressful on my mind. I think I just feel a little out of touch. Thank goodness I have this blog to look forward to so I can connect with all of you!

 

Last Days of the DAMAGE SALE

 

The last few days I actually did do a fair amount of work although it wasn’t in production or writing. We had our Damage Sale and, holy moly, was that crazy! We sold out of half the stock in the first two hours. I think that may be a record!

Feeling bad for anybody who didn’t get to read the newsletter right after it was sent out, I went through the unopened boxes in my storage space, opening and pulling out many of the so often damaged first and last copies in the boxes, and found some publications that took some damage during shipping that was unnoticeable until boxes were opened.

So, the sale items were restocked some and even today there are still a decent number of magazines and books, in slightly imperfect condition, that are available for up to 60% off. You can get to the sale page here.

The sale will go on through Wednesday September 11th, or until all items are sold out, whichever comes first. I only sell the imperfect copies for one week each year because it’s a bear to track them separately from the other items on an ongoing basis, so you’ll want to grab these deals now while they are still available.

 

Well I am off to work on the Mosaic backsplash I am creating for the kitchen. I promise to share that when there’s any real visual progress but right now it’s just a lot of cutting little tiles. Do enjoy the rest of your weekends and have a beautifully inspired and moving week!

 

A Sharing Week

Out of necessity, I’m going to do something a little bit different this week for you. It’s been a whacked-out week. You’ve had them, right? You think everything’s going so well and then one unexpected thing after another pops up, and next thing you know all your top priorities become bottom of the list items, and you can barely find time to sleep much just do the work you intended. Yeah, it’s been like that.

Now, mind you, nothing serious is going on. It’s just a lot of things happening at once. Well, I did seem to do something to my arm – yes, the one I’m trying to heal – but I’m considering that to be a little reminder that just because it’s feeling better doesn’t mean it is. *sigh* Back to being super diligent with how I use that arm!

So, as hard as I have tried every night to sit down and work on this blog these last few days, I’ve simply been unable to. One of the maxims of this break for me has been to listen to my body, resting and sleeping when I need to rather than when my schedule can afford it and so, by the time I sit down to work I’ve been utterly exhausted and just need to sleep. For that, I send my sincere apologies. I promise to get back to it next weekend!

But I can’t leave you on this Sunday without food for thought. So, here is an article that was shared with me some months back by Donna Greenberg. I think the philosophies here are so important for all types of artists and even hobbyists. It’s an article about fiber artist Anni Albers and an extrapolation of her writings fitted into 4 lessons for being an artist. They are this:

Lesson #1: Embrace accidents

Lesson #2: Bring play into the artmaking process

Lesson #3: Listen to your chosen material

Lesson #4: Experiment with new technologies

Sound familiar? I think you’ve heard all but #3 from me a few times on this blog over the years. However, I really like how it’s worded here. Whether you are a beginner or veteran crafter, I think you will find something to spark your work this week. Click here to read it. Then, you might want to bookmark that website, Artsy.net, the Education section, for more wonderful articles and interviews!

If, however, you are one of those who have found it hard to just sit down and create, might I suggest sitting down for 12 minutes and watching this video? They talk often about art in the context of fiction writing but the concepts of resistance and persistence might just hit home for you and get you off to work!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lTcgSzf0AQ

 

Upcoming Damage Sale  … a Head’s Up

In the meantime, I am going to spend the rest of this US Labor Day holiday weekend catching up on sleep so I can set up our big Damage sale for you all this coming week. This is the biggest price cut on publications I do all year, taking shelf worn and corner dinged publications and selling them for half price or less. I am giving you a heads ups because it’s a limited inventory and many issues disappear within the first day.

The sale will be on Wednesday, Sept 4th. I will send out a quick announcement here so everyone gets a fair chance but otherwise, look for our newsletter with all the details. Sign up for the newsletter here if you are not already on it.

Thank you for your understanding this weekend. I hope you have a wonderful week!

Of Polymer and Paint

August 25, 2019

Have you ever used paint on polymer? If so, why did you chose to paint it rather than use the inherent color? This question is at the heart of a kind of prejudice against paint that used to be rather prevalent in the polymer community. I think painting on polymer has found its place in our repertoire of techniques but statistically (and I’m just looking at the stats I have available from the blog and the general response to articles) I don’t think it gets quite the regard that other techniques do and it makes me wonder if people still steer away from it, even when it might be the best choice.

Ages ago, I unintentionally incited a heated conversation about painting on polymer through a blog post where all the color and the focal point of the piece was painted. There were many comments about how painting on polymer was not “working in polymer” and therefore I should not be writing about it on a polymer blog. This sentiment was rooted in the thought that since polymer is already colored, painting would be superfluous if not downright heretical. This was also a time when polymer was fighting for its place in the art world and competitions for polymer were being won by pieces that were not wholly polymer which heavily irritated those who strove to create only with polymer clay. With a strong love for the material, those crafters were simply strong proponents of letting the material shine through.

Well, a material can be gorgeous on its own, but what the artist wants out of that material may be other qualities beyond its inherent visual ones. For instance, I prefer woodwork that has been treated with nothing but oil and wax to let the natural beauty shine through but wood that is stained or painted can result in beautiful work as well. It’s not wrong to change or obscure the wood’s natural look. It’s just different. Polymer has other qualities beyond it’s color, primarily its sculptural characteristics including the ability to hold very fine detail. So, if its sculptural qualities are primarily what the artist needs from the material, then why not use whatever kind of treatment gives the surface the color and feel the artist finds most appealing or fitting for the work?

The fact is, the color in polymer clay only pieces tends to be fairly uniform since we are working with a material which is colored throughout making it fairly difficult to achieve an organic variation and imperfect diffusion of color. On the other hand, paint which is applied in layers can so readily be everything from dense and uniform to translucent and feathery to gritty and splattered. The facts are that it is easy to get smooth, uniform color using polymer clay but can be tricky with paint and it is easy to get variation in a field of color with paint but takes more work than it is often worth to get a similar effect in clay. In other words, each material has its strengths and so why not employ them based on those strengths?

As an artist, one should use the material that suits the end result desired if the material and the skills to use them are available to them. We’re not talking just paint here either—this applies to any material. Sometimes real metal, with its strength and shine, will work better than faux polymer metal or real stones will glimmer and give a piece the needed weight that faux polymer stones cannot. I am not saying that the real thing should always be used though. Faux materials in polymer do have distinct advantages such as faux metal being lighter and more flexible than the real thing and faux stones are usually cheaper to produce and can be formed in ways that real stones cannot.

Ideally, you start designing a piece with the idea of what you want to make, then figure out what materials would be best suited to the look, construction, durability, and cost of the work as well as your skillset and interests. With this approach, you can make the best work possible rather than limiting yourself because you feel some sense of loyalty to a single medium or the tribe of artists that identify themselves by that medium. That loyalty, like not painting color onto polymer, can be unnecessarily limiting and you could be missing out on wonderful new ways to express yourself and create.

The fact is you and your work do not need to be defined by your primary medium. You are an artist or a crafter or an artisan. You can choose to tack a medium on to one of these basic labels in order to be identified by a related community or as a way to explain very succinctly what you do, but if one day you get up and decide you want to try working with something else, are you going to feel locked into that label? Because if you do, you may be less inclined to explore and that would be sad. As I see it, every true artist is an explorer and one that should not be limited by any one material if their path of exploration leads them elsewhere. That’s just my humble opinion!

So, if you think paint would look good on your polymer, I think you should go for it. Let’s look at a handful of artists who combine paint and polymer in ways that polymer alone would not readily be able to create.

 

Color on Color

If you are a fan of Doreen Kassel’s work, you’re probably in love with either her whimsy or her exuberant color. But did you know, she only works with white clay? Or at least this is what she told me a few years back. Polymer is a sculptural medium for her. Its potential color possibilities do not come into play. Instead, she paints her polymer work primarily with oil paints. The wash and translucency of the oil paint layers gives a unique depth and glow to the colors that you just wouldn’t get with polymer alone. Her use of white as the base, like oil on canvas, does much to brighten the colors as well.

 

 

Miniature polymer creation is another area where paint seems to be indispensable. Now, I am no expert in this area but after working with and publishing articles and projects with Stephanie Kilgast, I have learned just how important paint can be for creating lifelike miniature objects. The clay does provide a large amount of the color in Stephanie’s work but painting is what punches up the realism and her amazing sculptures. Highlighting and antiquing play a major role in the realistic look of pieces like this fungi and coral inspired piece.

By the way, if you’re wondering why Stephanie sculpted this on a tin can, it is because she is very active in promoting environmental awareness and uses discarded objects to celebrate “the beauty of nature in a dialogue with humanity, questioning the lost balance between human activities and nature”. If you like what she’s doing you should consider supporting her on Patreon, a platform for supporting artists you admire with a monthly donation of just a couple dollars. You are then given access to privileged information and insight on the artist and his or her work as well as, sometimes, demonstrations and tutorials. Check Stephanie’s page on Patreon here then check out the service in general. There are some really cool artists sharing some really exclusive stuff on this platform.

 

Lorraine Vogel applies paint to the surface of textured polymer clay using stencils. Polymer clay allows her to create textures that gives the paint variation and dimension, an approach that softens the sharp edge and graphic effect that stencil painting often has.

By the way, you can learn the technique in the above pendant from Lorraine’s tutorial in The Polymer Arts’ Winter 2016 issue, available in digital or print on our website of course. Or you can go to her Etsy shop and purchase one of her comprehensive digital tutorials.

 

And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that in the last issue of The Polymer Studio, Debbie Crothers shows the possibilities of acrylic paint and polymer in a very comprehensive, exploratory article with numerous short tutorials to get you exploring as well. Acrylic pours on polymer is the technique on the beads that grace the cover. The resulting mix of color and its visual texture is just flat out yummy.

 

Although I am talking paint here, the idea that other materials can and should be used on polymer where they can add or express your ideas best extends to all colorants including alcohol inks, pastels, mica powders, iron oxides, or glazes. Most of these other colorants have been better accepted in polymer work, probably because they change the clay color but don’t obscure it the way paint can. But even in traditional paintings, the type of substrate the artist uses to paint on greatly effects the feel and look of the work. Polymer can be a wonderful substrate, especially since its sculptural properties allow for such a great interaction with the paint and such creative potential for the form of the piece.

So, if you’ve been curious about the various effects you can get with paint on polymer or have wondered if you can combine some other material interest such as fiber, metal, paper or whatever, try it! Mess around and explore. Search online to see what others might be doing with these combinations and let their ideas motivate you to try stretch your skills and creative interests.

So, what new material will you be trying out this week or in the very near future?

The Sage Chronicles

My so-called break has yet to feel like a break, I have to admit. There have been some family matters and siblings who need my support and getting the house back together (and getting rid of all this dust!) is slow going as I try to take it easy with the one gimpy arm. So, I still have a full schedule between that, the family stuff, my physical therapy, and my efforts to come up with a plan for returning to production without getting in this state again. You know, some day, I just want to know what it’s like to be bored. Yeah … that’s not likely to happen any time soon.

For those following the saga of the broken drain turned into a major renovation, here’s a photo of the kitchen after I laid in the first line of slate on the backsplash last week so we could at least make the kitchen fully functional and I could get to cooking properly again! I can’t wait until I actually get to start putting in the design on the backsplash. I’ve never done a mosaic project this big but I am excited and so glad I am giving myself the break just now so I can enjoy the process and not rush it. Or not take 6 months or more to complete it!

So, I’m off to rest up now. I hope you have had a great, creative, and inspiring weekend. Here’s to a creative and inspiring week as well!

 

 

Pretty Little Bits

August 18, 2019

Shing Yin Khor Title: Curiosity Cabinet #2

First of all, I have to shout out a thank you to all of you who have been reaching out to me while I am relatively out of commission this month. I received so many well wishes by email and messenger that I’ve not been able to answer you all yet and for that I do apologize! I’ve also received cards from as far away as New Zealand and even a book! I can’t tell you how touched I am! You all are so amazing and so supportive!

I feel almost guilty because while I deal with silly little stuff I could have prevented if I wasn’t such a workaholic, there are others of you out there are dealing with the really hard stuff like fibromyalgia or cancer. I just want you all to know that I’m thinking about those of you who are struggling with your own pain, debilitation, or illness as well. It is easier to get through the rough patches when you know so many people care! In fact, might I encourage you to reach out to someone you know who is having a hard time and just say you are thinking of them and wishing them well? Just those little words can do wonders for one’s spirit. It has for me!

Now let’s talk about pretty bits!

Do you have a bin or box of pieces and parts of your handiwork yet unfinished but which you are too in love with toss? If you regularly create, I can’t imagine that you don’t. But what exactly are we going to do with these pieces?

This is a question we all end up pondering at some point. Do we hold onto them, hoping that they will be just the thing needed someday or do we toss them? It can be quite the dilemma, one that even Marie Kondo can’t easily help with because, hey, these do spark joy for us! And we do see value in them, in that they represent our creativity and what we can accomplish. But do such little jewels of our work belong in a bin where we don’t get to admire them?

I’ve been thinking about this question for a while and came up with a few solutions of my own, but I am hardly alone in searching for and finding ways to display pieces that might not otherwise see the light too often. Let’s look at options for what you can do with your pretty little bits as well as how to extrapolate possibilities from what other people are doing for jewelry display in general.

Out into the Light

If you read and perused through your entire copy of Polymer Journeys 2019, you would have seen, at the very last entry, my contribution which is a display case of small exploratory items for which I had no particular use in mind when created. In other words, I created them without thinking “This is going to be a pendant,” or “This is going to be a set of earrings,” or “This is going to decorate a vessel.” I just made them to see what the material would do, most of which I liked, and which represented a little exploratory learning experience. I had already been tying bits onto ribbons and hanging them off the edge of my studio corkboard as little festive decorations but that didn’t work for the pieces that really only had one viewing angle as they would twist around on the ribbons.

Then I was out talking to the butterflies in my backyard (Yeah, I talk to the creatures in my yard. It’s a hazard of working alone from home all day. You’ll talk to anything!) and remembering how I used to catch and collect them in shadow boxes as a kid and it just randomly struck me that my little creative bits were like butterflies in a way. They are lovelies that I caught in a moment of exploratory creativity and in that small frame of time, they became a kind of an unexpected friend, going through that creative time with me. I didn’t want to toss my little friends even though I had no end-use for them. You don’t do that to friends! You hold onto them around and support each other, right?

Does that sound silly? Maybe it is, but it was revealing to me to realize that I kept certain pieces not because they were so beautiful or well done but more often because I felt connected to them. So, why not collect them and put them out like a collection of butterflies or a collage of photos of one’s friends? And this is what I started making. We find shadow boxes at garage sales and thrift stores for cheap and because they have character. I’ve made half a dozen of these so far.

By the way, I use a hot melt glue gun to tack the pieces onto a bit of mat board cut to fit the box. The nice thing about the hot melt glue is that if you do every want to take a piece out of the collection, you just pop it off the board and heat it up with a hairdryer to remove the glue from the back of the piece. So, your “friends” can come out and play in another piece or a new collection as you like!

 

If you don’t want to display pieces quick and easy, you could tack them up on a corkboard, as I bet many of you do already, but you can also make a nicer, more intentional display like this reed shade like Lauren Valenzuela does with this earring collection. Now, she is using this to photograph her collection, but you can pop up your bits by looping wire that ends in a hook around it. You could change out your collection on a whim that way. This is also a great idea for hanging up earrings, brooches, and necklaces so you can admire them even when not wearing them.

 

You can use collection displays or anything with dividers that can be hung on a wall. This would work especially well if you make little sculptures are pieces that would sit upright and are better seated then hung or glued but it can work with both as seen in the piece by Shing Yin Khor at the top of this post. Gerard Collas used an old printer’s letter set tray to display collections of his little wood sculptures.

 

You can also use wall art to display your artistic bits. This canvas covered with brooches is an ingenious display put together by Kathleen Dustin. She used this display in her show booth in 2016. I’m guessing she’s still using something of the sort because it’s just such a fabulous idea. But you could do the same basic thing with your bits. Get a canvas and have at it with paint or whatever you’d like, and attach your pretty bits, maybe with the hot melt glue gun or even hang it with the wire hook method. You could, alternately, find a finished piece of art, maybe at a thrift store or home goods store, and attach your pieces to that as it hangs on your wall.

 

Earlier this year, when I was in San Francisco, I saw this great wall of jewelry displayed on life-size artistic portraits. Again, this is showing completed work, but you could print out a large portrait image or, sketch or paint your own, and adorn and the image with your little lovelies or even with finished jewelry.

 

Now, if you simply have a lot of beads and bits that may not be your special “friends” but you have held on to them because you are sure someday they will come in handy (but maybe you are starting to lose faith in that idea), you can use them to create decorative wall pieces when used collectively. I didn’t know that this was a thing but there is a ton of this type of thing on Pinterest and general home craft blogs. People are doing everything from simply arranging spare bits into heart shapes to creating elaborate scenes in a kind of mosaic manner. Here is a fairly straightforward example fashioning tree imagery out of spare bits and bobs. It looks to have been created by Berdean Mante.

By the way, I found this jeweled topiary wall piece in an article about what to do with old vintage jewelry. It is all about creating wall art or decorating home decor objects with lots of pretty bits. If that interests you, pop over to that here.

So… Do I have your little wheels turning in your head? These should give you ideas not just for what to do with your extra bits but many of these could be a jumping-off point for creating your own unique show displays and photo setups.

Do you have a cool and unique way to display your extra bits or jewelry? Send me links to images if you do. Put it in the comments below, or if you’re reading this by email, click the header for this post to get to it on mine to leave a comment.

 

Light at the End of the Tunnel

In other very exciting news, we have our house back! The construction crew did last small tasks on Friday and for the first time in four months, I’m off to sleep in a full-size bed in an actual bedroom! I love my studio but I have spent nearly every hour of every day the last four months sleeping, eating, and working from here. I’ve been getting a little more than stir crazy! But now, we basically have to move back into her house. I hadn’t thought about how the post-construction time was going to be like moving into a new place but, of course, it is because it is basically a new place. So, I have tons to do and did not have time to take pictures for you yet, but I will take some pictures for next week when it’s kind of back altogether.

Hopefully, I didn’t make too many mistakes in this post. I am dead tired and sneezey from all the cleaning and raising of dust. And yes, I am being good and cleaning away with my left hand to spare the bad right one. Well, mostly. I do forget sometimes, mostly because the pain has diminished a ton from not being on the computer all day. So, the break is working thus far, at least for my arm! The pre-diabetes has been tougher to crack but I am determined!  Having a full kitchen back and a real bed to sleep in should contribute greatly to all that. Yay!

So, until next week, I hope you have fun with the display ideas!

Radiating Variety

August 11, 2019

Would you say you creatively lean toward symmetry or asymmetry? Although humans are innately attracted to symmetry, we all lean towards one or the other when it comes to our aesthetic preferences. However, symmetry, which represents order, is generally found to be more pleasing to the brain than asymmetry but, interestingly enough, symmetry alone cannot make something beautiful. That’s because that orderliness can get rather boring.

This is not to say that symmetry is automatically boring, because it certainly is not. It’s all a matter of how much energy the other characteristics of that symmetrical design add to it. However, there is a kind of artistic prejudice against symmetry out there sometimes. It’s this kind of default line of thought that symmetry is not only boring but a kind of cop-out in design, that it is something primarily employed by the inexperienced and unskilled aspiring artist. That always struck me as really ridiculous. Did they think that Mother Nature should rearrange the flowers, the growth of crystals, and the patterns of butterfly wings? Because they are all symmetrical and yet, these are some of the most beautiful natural things in our world.

So, make note that it’s not symmetry that makes a design boring, it’s a lack of energy in the design. Making exciting, energized, and intriguing symmetrical work can actually be challenging so when someone does it well, it can be quite impressive. Asymmetry has an innate sense of energy simply because it is off-balance and our brain, the way it is, always thinks things are moving towards balance and thus sees asymmetrical design as something in flux. So really, asymmetry might be considered a kind of a shortcut to an energized design although, in truth, both symmetry and asymmetry have plenty of challenges to contend with when designing.

There is one type of symmetrical design, however, that does have both balance and energy almost automatically included. This is the beautiful radial symmetry seen in nature in everything from starfish to flowers to snowflakes. Its energy comes from lines or a progression of shapes moving out from a central axis. The movement in this kind of symmetry is strong and directional but it can still verge on the boring if the radiating lines do not have variation.

Let’s look at some examples of beautifully done radial symmetry.

 

Going Around the Axis

We see radial symmetry in polymer all the time, particularly in kaleidoscope canes. The process of slicing and reassembling the canes with the same point in the pattern arranged at the center creates radial symmetry. There aren’t necessarily radiating lines in these canes, but the mirrored shapes tend to create points or a kind of visual growth outward.

Here’s a beautiful five-sided kaleidoscope cane – yes, symmetry can have an and odd number of sides because the design is still consistent around a central axis – whose parts have a sense of growth moving outward. This is by the very adept cane artist Lana Fominicheva of LaFom on Etsy.

 

A more direct production of radial symmetry can be created by building with a collection of elements such as in this quilled cane design by Meg Newberg of Polymer Clay Workshop.

Cool canes, right? You can get Meg’s Quilled Cane Tutorial in her Esty shop and get to making your own as soon as you download it!

 

Radial symmetry that is neither straight nor separate lines or progressive shapes can still create energy and interest while still staying symmetrical and beautifully balanced as seen here in this locket by Ola of PinkLaLou on Etsy. The crossing over of the lines in the central image are highly energetic and flow out more than burst out from the central axis but flowing lines are still energized only in a calmer, perhaps more elegant, way.

This is a locket created with filigree and cold enamel, not polymer. At first, I thought maybe the design in the middle was cold enamel, but I think it may be an image under resin. Cold enamel is a pigmented semi-translucent resin created to look like traditional glass enamel. If you love the look of enamel but have neither the equipment nor the patience to learn that amazing craft, cold enamel might fill the bill for you. But in the meantime, you could start a radial symmetry design with the right graphic using a liquid polymer image transfer.

 

Okay, so now that you’ve seen a few examples, would you say this next piece below is radial symmetry? Scroll down before reading on and just take a quick peek. Its looks like it is, right?

Well, technically no, it isn’t, but it has all the initial markers with a central axis from which elements radiate outward in a similar pattern. However, nothing is actually symmetrical from one side to the other. Our brain perceives balance because the progression from the center feels consistent, going from radiating lines of inlaid polymer to an even boundary of solid silver to a filigree of swirls and set gems that fill the outside perimeter. But all the elements have an irregular placement, especially in the stones and swirls outside of the focal center but also in the thickness, pattern, and coloring of the inlaid polymer. So, this pendant echoes radial symmetry without being symmetrical thus giving it a tremendous amount of energy without feeling chaotic. Pretty cool!

This necklace, of course, is a Liz Hall creation. Liz has been one of my polymer heroes since nearly the beginning of my exploration into the material. She combines precious metal clay with polymer inlays, adding in stones, glass, and other shiny bits here and there as well. Her openness to other materials allows for this broad range of exploration in design and yet she has a very distinctive style. If you look closely at her work, you’ll see every regular pattern and design is just a touch off, including the pendant that opens this blog post. That’s part of her signature style. Simple but effective.

 

Of course, the most quintessential of radial symmetry design is the mandala. Much of the radial symmetry we see could be considered mandalas of sorts, if we are just speaking of the geometry of it. Mandalas are, however, traditionally a reference to a kind of spiritual map, one that was originally meant to be a model for the organizational structure of life, in both the physical and metaphysical sense, and consisted of a square with a circle and four T-shaped gates, one facing each side of the square. But, as you might have noticed, that definition and the base design has been broadly extended. As long as the design has a regular structure organized around a unifying center, it seems to be generally accepted that it can be called a mandala.

We see these mandala structures in polymer pieces created with cane slices a lot but it is also readily achieved with layered polymer elements like these layered ornaments Kay Miller used to make. She’s off focused on dimensional greeting cards now but we can still enjoy the images of her perfectly designed and finished ornaments.

 

Mandalas are certainly not relegated to polymer when it comes to artwork. And it’s not just about those dot painted rocks that are all the rage now either. Take a gander at this gorgeous mandala brooch created by Jima and Carlie Abbott of Mixed Metal Jewels.

So… do you use radial symmetry in your work? If you don’t or haven’t done much of it or simply haven’t thought much about it, maybe it’s time to try it out. It can be very meditative. See for yourself!

 

Best Laid Plans

Well, this week I was going to start casually working on plans for future publications and new projects between physical therapy and catching up on sleep, but chaos reigned here at the house. Again. There was light at the end of the tunnel when we suddenly went from being a couple of days from finishing the house renovations to a couple of weeks.

The appliances were in and the final painting had commenced but then we discovered that the floor had a problem along with more damage than was anticipated so instead of simply repairing our flooring around the construction areas, we had to tear out nearly half the flooring in our house! Talk about frustrating! And depressing. And nerve-racking. Blah.

But, long story short, we worked it and persisted until we found something we could afford and miraculously ended up with this gorgeous acacia wood flooring and a crew that rushed in and got it all taken care of pretty much in one day! It was nuts. There were so many guys here, it was like ants in the house. But it was by far the best work done on this whole project. Here is my husband Brett, just super excited about his new floors, in our nearly done kitchen.

 

I’m pretty sure his expression will change when we sit down to pay the bill though. But at least we can drown our sorrows over a glass of wine in a gorgeous new kitchen.

Or a glass of seltzer in my case. My metabolic issues are dampening my potential to celebrate or drown my sorrows in my family’s traditional Irish way. No sugars including alcohol for me for a while, not until my metabolic issues are under control and it’ll be minimal even then. It’s sad but it’s really nothing compared to what some of my other friends are going through right now. All you wonderful people … take good care of yourselves! I don’t want any more troubling health news. Ok?

On the positive side, my arm is much better even after this one week with minimal computer time. It is starting to hurt now though, but only because I keep forgetting to not type! Three decades of writing for a living and it’s hard not to use the keyboard when pain is not there to readily remind me not to. I’ll learn!

So, the word now is that we should have our house back in a week. Then I can start cooking properly and really button-down on the new diet regimen I have. So, keep your fingers and toes crossed for us as I will keep good, positive energy and prayers flowing out to all of you with challenges going on right now.

Have a beautiful, creative, and inspiring week!

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