The Party is in Full Swing. Come join us!
May 31, 2023
Polymer community news, The Polymer Arts magazine news
What party is this? The latest project from little ol’ me, Sage. The Sage Arts podcast is more than up and running… I have 25 episodes up as of this posting, ready on your favorite podcast player (New to Podcasts? Click here to find out how easy it is to enjoy them!) and a new one coming out every week.
What’s This Podcast All About?
This podcast is all about feeding and exciting your muse. By enlightening or reminding you about important and maybe unconsidered aspects of creating and living as an artist, I hope to help you find more joy and satisfaction in what you do, sharing ways to create with authenticity and fearlessness, while supporting your uniquely defined version of success.
Now what the heck does that all mean? Well, let’s look at what this is and what this is not…
It IS…
… a way to consistently feed your muse
… all about you. Myself, my guests, and my guest co-hosts speak to the issues, curiousity, and hurdles that you as a creative deal with on a regular basis.
… focused on creating a more fulfilling, joyful, and meaningful artistic journey.
… a conversation that goes both ways with lots of opportunities for you to be heard.
It is NOT…
… all about polymer clay or any one medium, as it’s important stuff for all artistic folks.
… focused on “how-to” or the latest tools and materials.
… just interviewing successful artists and talking at you. Rather it is like a coffee house chat or other friendly gather and I include you, the listener, in every way I can.
I created this podcast to supercharge your creativity, motivation, and artistic style through novelty, story, conversation, and community. Everyone has how-tos and ways to increase your sales – valiant and necessary stuff, of course! But what does your muse need? What does your work and your love of your art need to thrive? That’s where I want to help.
I aim to give artists ways to further hone their unique voice, increase their joy and productivity, and create a version of artistic success that is meaningful, satisfying, and anything but ordinary.
Come Join the Conversation
If you have something to share, would like to be a guest (for a chatty interview), or be a guest co-host (you and I banter on a particular subject) drop me an email me via my contact page on the show website: https://thesagearts.com/contact/ or send a voice mail (use the red button on that same site, bottom right corner of any page.)
And join me on social media!
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thesageartspodcast/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheSageArtsPodcast
And don’t forget to click “FOLLOW” or that little arrow on your favorite Podcast player so you get notices of new episodes. New Episodes come out weekly on Friday evenings, barring natural disasters or other bits of interference, of course. I hope you’ll join me there, on The Sage Arts podcast!
There are new artists and creatives joining every day with tons of great things to say…
“Just what I needed!”
“I just binged-listened … and I can’t wait for more!”
“There is so much validity in your presentation…”
“Looking forward to all the thinking and creating that they prompt.”
Taste test on my RSS website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thesagearts/
Or on the podcast home website: https://thesagearts.com/
Or start with this episode:
Beauty in Perfection
May 26, 2014
Inspirational Art
This week, I just want to put up some examples of perfectly executed and finished work, to focus on skill and craftsmanship and look at how that attention to detail and care in handling can be, and often is, at the center of what makes a piece work.
Daniela Klein is not a master artist, not yet, but her efforts point to really excellent potential. Looking through her Flickr photostream, you can see that a good looking finish is important to Daniela but execution has had its challenges at times. But then, in her timeline you see two pendants and the couple of pieces that come after, that show an increased attention to the fine tuning of the pieces final look. The two pendants were created in a class with Dan Cormier’s, one of our community’s absolutely perfection obsessed craftsman. This pendant, although made in Dan’s class, doesn’t look like a Dan Cormier piece but the techniques are recognizable. The color choices and lines follow trends in Daniela’s past pieces making me think she followed her own creative muse in the class but made a great effort to emulate the fine finishing details that are a large part of Dan’s signature look.
As far as I can tell, Daniela’s work is only present on her Flickr pages right now. But take a look at her journey there and then keep an eye out for her in the future!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Intricate Eggs
May 25, 2014
Inspirational Art
I know we already looked at some filigree this week, but I couldn’t resist sharing these detailed filigree eggs by Czech artist Monika Brydova. From looking at these beauties, it probably won’t surprise you to know that Monika also loves quilling. These designs are reminiscent of the technique used in quilling, except here we have coiled polymer instead of paper. She designs the filigree eggs, bakes them, and then enhances the color with her own techniques. She uses a pasty pigment in a beeswax and orange oil base that is applied to the surface of dark colored items to give them a shimmering metallic effect, which changes color according to the incidence of light on the subject. She will also accent with Pearl Ex powders, and if applied after baking, she sets them with a spray fixative…and voilà…you have these intricate eggs with old world charm.
Monika has many examples, tutorials, videos, and materials and supplies for sale on her website. She explains this technique in detail and even has a video clip illustrating the process. You might want to give it a try on some of your own work.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Density Vase
May 24, 2014
Inspirational Art
Intricacy in construction can be achieved in a variety of ways. The simple repetition of a single type of element can create rich texture but like everything we talked about this week, takes a bit of patience. Ukraine artist, Iryna Osinchuk-Chajka, created this intriguing vase in this manner, applying small petal shapes over and over, for rows and rows, to complete the design. This piece is part of her home decor line. She take vases, office organizers, soda cans, and any other shape that interests her and then applies these repeated shapes to the surface, to create the enticing texture.
When you look at Iryna’s Flickr Photostream, her Etsy shop, and her live journal, you can see how much she is influenced by nature, particularly florals. Have you ever tried one of these layering techniques in your work? It is time consuming, but the results can be well worth the effort.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Outside Inspiration: Patience in Black
May 23, 2014
Inspirational Art
I am a sucker for nice recycled work. Reducing the impact on the environment and creating amazing art in the process is, well, a beautiful thing.
This bit of work you see here is amazing. I thought it looked like an intricately carved tire. Upon close inspection I saw that, yes, it actually was an intricately carved tire! And so beautiful. I can’t imagine how long it took to do this but when seeing things like this, I feel like a bit of a wimp. Polymer is so immediately responsive–we can make highly intricate looking pieces quite quickly with stamps and textures. Even our work with hand tools is relatively easy. What if we just took a little more time, a touch more care; what if we spent days and weeks creating the most beautiful thing we could imagine instead of finding the shortcuts? What would we end up with?
The amazing artist with what must be an endless supply of patience is Belgium’s Wim Delvoye. Wim works in a wide variety of rather random materials, not just tires. If you like the intricacy and detail here, you need to see his stainless steel carvings–they are similar to the tire but with dozens of layers. His front page is cartoony and fun but the work underneath is quite sophisticated. Enjoy!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Spot on Gems
May 22, 2014
Inspirational Art
If you would like to add more three-dimensional and intricate surface designs to your work but coil and filigree don’t appeal to you, how about dots and spots and needing nothing more than a ball ended hand tool?
These goldfish designed by Kseniya Dolgopolova were stylized after the 1993 Avon brooch inspired by actress Elizabeth Taylor. Kseniya’s pin design was fashioned from polymer clay, rhinestones, glass pearls, glass contours, and bronzer. The limited color palette is charming with all those sparkling accents. A lot of sparkle can cheapen the look of a piece but here, it looks quite elegant. Exceptional craftsmanship, certainly involving a lot of patient work, as well as the limited palette play a major role in this piece being so successful.
You can see more of Kseniya’s very detailed and perfectly finished work in her Etsy store and on her Live Journal pages.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Monochromatic Intricacy
May 21, 2014
Inspirational Art
Today, let’s dial it down to something more attainable for us mere mortals. We don’t all have quite the level of patience to accomplish what we saw the last couple days but perhaps we could approach that with techniques where intricate work can be accomplished on a smaller scale.
If you’ve been following this blog for long, then you have probably noticed my admiration for filigree style work. Even when monochromatic, the lines and textures of dense polymer filigree can be so mesmerizing. Luana Sgammeglia uses this coiled filigree technique to decorate necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and even handbags. Even though this technique looks intricate, it can be made relatively quickly once you get into the rhythm of it. You just need to be patient and steady. Doing this kind of work can be quite zen like actually!
Have you ever tried incorporating coils into the surface design of your clay? You can either roll the ropes by hand or use a handy-dandy extruder. If you have never worked with coil filigree, there are some good video tutorials on YouTube and a number of free image tutorials floating around the web as well. You can enjoy more of Luana’s work on her Flickr photostream or on her Pinterest site.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Patience in Contemporary Art
May 20, 2014
Inspirational Art
I met Alev Gozonar in Malta as well, but it wasn’t until after I got home that I really got to see the extensive and painstaking nature of her work. She creates these incredible wall pieces with thousands of extruded cane sections. There is an easily recognized intention in the choices she makes, packing canes with slight but important variations and applying them with varying depths. Her pointillism approach creates stunning images at a distance but she also doesn’t shy away from celebrating the individual cane patterns, applying larger canes to the composition to illustrate the source of her primary elements which also break up the surface patterns. Instead of just seeing the one incredibly created image, your eye gets to wander and enjoy variation and pattern for the sake of pattern as well.
To see the details of this piece as well as the other many wonderful pieces she has created, grab a cup of coffee or tea, and take some time wandering through her website. It’ll be like taking a nice stroll through a fabulous gallery without having to play hookey at work.
Thanks to Randee Ketzel for sending me the link to the great photo above.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Intricacy and Patience
May 19, 2014
Inspirational Art
I always admire work that looks to be done with infinite care and patience. I can spend a lot of time working out the smallest details in a piece and do feel I have a fair amount of patience but some of the work that I have been running into lately has kind of blown my mind. It may have started with George Dinkel’s presentation at EuroSynergy earlier this month. George does some of the most intricate sculptural work in polymer. Images of his winning IPCA Awards entries have been circulating so I imagine many of you have seen those but maybe not this one. He even has a video on how he made this very intricate shrine, “iPad TonSchrein.”
You can find the video on his website. Look through the other pieces on his site and be sure to scroll down for the short videos that show you all the details on the pieces. It’s pretty incredible.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Cellular Flow
May 18, 2014
Inspirational Art
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the exact patterning in these fine little earring by Norway’s Liudmyla Heggland under a microscope in high school. Was it plant material? A water sample? I’m not sure but I am drawn to it. I like the lazy energy of the flow in the canes and lines as they move around the oblong beads. They feel like a Sunday on a slow Spring afternoon, don’t they?
Liudmyla creates intricate seed beaded designs in her jewelry as well, combining the orderliness of planned beading with the more spontaneous look of her predominantly marbled polymer. Look for more cellular inspiration on her Flickr photostream.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Complimenting Brooches
May 17, 2014
Inspirational Art
Loretta Lam has an obvious influence of nature in her work. These pins reminded me not so much of microscopic cellular formations as the growth of micro-organisms on plants and rocks. They naturally complement the pod and leaf forms and their surface patterns.
Loretta Lam is being featured in the Color Spotlight article in the upcoming Summer 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts due out the first week of June. But while you are waiting for that, check out her website for more beautiful nature inspired pieces.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
