A Lack of Absolutes

Helen Breil’s variations lean on the principles of emphasis and movement using line, in particular, to create a feeling of unity and a sense of complexity even though these are not particularly intricate. The design just feels so complete and satisfying.

Do you feel, or have you felt, that design is a very confusing subject? I wanted to ask because as of next month, we dive into the PRINCIPLES of Design. We’ve been working on Elements thus far. Yes, there are two categories to define the ways we use design. So, before I go further, let’s define those.

Elements of Design – the components used to create designs. They are like the ingredient in a recipe, only they are not the materials or tools you use but rather the individual elements you create with them.

Elements of Design (my list for mixed media arts) include:

    • Line
    • Marks
    • Color
    • Shape
    • Form
    • Texture

Principles of Design – the concepts used to arrange and organize the elements of design. These are like the methods and choices used to combine the ingredients in a recipe in order to create the desired outcome.

Principles of Design (as I am going to teach it here) include:

    • Balance
    • Movement
    • Contrast<->Variety
    • Emphasis<->Hierarchy
    • Repetition<->Rhythm
    • Scale<->Proportion
    • Unity<->Similarity

Don’t they look so manageable in those simple lists? Well, Elements does, I’m sure. Principles … they are concepts, so they’re more complicated. But don’t worry. I’ve been fiendishly sneaking them in all along so you are actually familiar with many of them if you’ve been reading my blog even for just this year. Just in the last couple months, I’ve been drilling in the ideas of contrast, similarity, movement and even a bit about scale.

There may be two separate lists above but they are completely dependent on each other. You can’t use principles with out the elements to create with and you can’t create with elements without the principles pushing you, consciously or unconsciously, towards the beauty and satisfaction that comes from a good design.

 

The Ultimate List of Design

Now, you may be asking yourself, why are the notations above about these lists my version? Aren’t these things standardized? Well, unfortunately, they are not and that’s the crux of the problem I want to peel open today.

When I talk about elements and principles of art and design, I’m giving you what I believe would be the best set of these for what we do in polymer and mixed media art. If you go online and search for just a list of the Principles of Design, you will find everything from a list of 5 up to a list of 20 principles. That’s pretty crazy!

It is understandable when some people think one or two things don’t belong on a list but when you regularly get this whole range, with some items paired up (like I did above) and others listing those same paired items as separate and distinct concepts, it can really make you wonder how you will ever learn the “right” set of concepts?

To make it simple (but possibly no less frustrating), I’m here to tell you there is no single ultimate list of elements or principles of design. And, no, it’s not because people have different opinions, although they do, but it has to do with the type of creative work each source assumes the reader will be considering.

These lists of elements and principles change to best serve the medium the writer or instructor assumes you, the reader, are dealing with. For instance, in painting and illustration, value is its own element discussed outside of color because value is what allows painters to define dimensionality, space, and perspective in the work. Our work in craft is primarily dimensional to begin with which is why I simplified my list to included value as part of the color element discussion.

Likewise, mark making in crafts is extremely important while mark making in graphic design is nearly nonexistent or is replaced with the concept of motif or pattern. And motif is an extremely important element in interior design but it is usually a side note, if even that, in fine arts.

So, all those lists out there are customized and created for the particular creatives the creator of the list believes will be using it. Right? Right!

I just wanted to clarify that before we jump in the principles of design so if any of you have learned or been taught something different than the list I’m going to give you, you understand why. I do believe my lists will best serve you as a mixed-media artist but you are welcome to build your own as needed.

The bottom line here… Don’t worry about whether you’ve got design terminology down precisely. Worry about understanding the concepts, identifying them, and working with them.

 

Ack! What’s a Creative to Focus On?

If all these lists and their imprecise ways make you feel like you’re going to hyperventilate, take heart. When it comes down to it, there are really just a few things you need to focus on as I can distill what I am trying to teach you into just three things. If you concentrate on these, you can just read my posts and the club’s mini-mag content and all this design knowledge will work its way into your brain by osmosis:

Your Artistic Keys:

  1. Create with intention, whatever that means to you.
  2. Draw your intention from that authentic and unique core that is you.
  3. Aim to make conscious, intentional design choices on every aspect of your work.

If you can do these three things, you can and will be an incredible and fulfilled artist. The rest – the terminology, concepts, elements and such – you can gather like you do art supplies. You pick them up as you can and then use them at every opportunity that makes sense. It would be great if you actually thought of them as new shiny tools and materials on your studio table. They can be, and usually are, the most valuable tools you have at hand.

 

The End of Free Lessons is Nigh!

In the coming months, the Principles of Design lessons, although they will continue to appear here in some fashion, will be largely moving to the weekly Devotee Club mini-mags. I need to start transitioning the bulk of my content to the Club content as the full free lessons were intended just to help get us all through this tumultuous year, but I do have to get back to bringing in the funds so I can keep at it!

So … if you have been enjoying the lessons you’ve had here in recent months, come join the club! Not only will you be getting the full lessons, but I also have a lot of other content from tips on living a creative life to community news to subscriber only specials and first dibs on new products.

And for the rest of this month, get a 14 day free trial! Offer ends October 31st.

(By the way, the Success Club, which combines coaching with the weekly content, is full, in case you are wondering when you get to the page and don’t see it to add to the cart. I am taking names for the waiting list only at this time.)

Come support your design knowledge, creative growth, and these Tenth Muse Arts projects with a subscription to the Devotee Club. Just click here.

Beating Burnout

October 18, 2020 ,

Corvid sculpture from the rich imagination of Ellen Jewett. I don’t know where she draws her creative energy from, but I’d take a sip or two if she bottled it!

Do you ever get artists block? I’m not talking about times of procrastination or being afraid to start something but literally not been able think of anything to do. Does your brain ever just feel empty?

Well, this weekend, mine was, which was weird. I’m not usually at a loss for words, especially when it comes to blogging or writing articles. I usually feel like I can write about art and design nonstop and never run out of ideas. But, this weekend, I hit a bit of a wall.

What is that all about? Honestly, I think it’s about burnout and not just from my usual mad pace. I think many of us are running into burnout this year.

Burnout and blocks are often related in their causes. We all have an infinite number of ideas inside our heads all growing from our countless experiences, ever-growing knowledge, and ever present desires. So, I believe that it’s not that we don’t have ideas sometimes but rather that we are missing the keys to access them.

Without Resources

Although so many of us supposedly have all this extra time and flexibility this wacky year, we don’t always have the energy needed to navigate the constant changes, the stress, the worry, and, probably more than anything, the uncertainty while still juggling our family, jobs, and creative aspirations. Some days it’s just too much. Our well of energy goes dry.

I’m hearing this from a lot of artists. Some are wondering if they are burned out on their medium or their studio space or their creative time in general. Others are lacking motivation because there aren’t shows and fairs to give them those all-important deadlines. Still others, having lost major avenues of income with both in-person teaching and live shows on hiatus, are questioning the fragility of their chosen path.

What it comes down to is that the usual motivations that push us to create are missing. We don’t even have social engagements for which to create new pieces of jewelry for ourselves to wear or guild meetings to encourage us to complete work so we have something new to share. Many of our usual energizing motivators just simply aren’t there.

Signs of the Times

It has been noted throughout history that when there are traumatic and life-threatening circumstances within a society, such as war, famine, or major natural disasters, the people first focus on survival, initially neglecting most other pursuits. However, one of the very the first things that come back into society, once people begin to feel safe and secure, are creative pursuits. Perhaps we don’t all feel quite safe and secure yet, not feeling settled enough to bury ourselves and creative work but as the world starts to right itself, the creative urge will return. Take heart from that.

The other things very particular to this pandemic that may be making it hard to create are that we aren’t having as many novel experiences and are certainly deprived of a normal level of social stimulation. Both these things provide us with inspiration and energy to be creatively productive but they are rare commodities right now.

In other words, while the world and all the bad news is slowly but surely draining us of our day-to-day energy, our sources for renewed energy are spare to nonexistent. It’s really no wonder that so many people are feeling uninspired or burned out right now.

Filling Your Well

So, the first thing I want to say, to myself as well as you, is that it’s okay. Burnout is normal. Our creative path, and life in general, is not a smooth and even highway but more of a roller coaster. This will happen sometimes, especially in times like now.

The other thing I’d say is, rather than worry about any lack of productivity or trying to force it, do what you can to recharge your creative battery. Get out and go places and do things that you don’t normally do. Obviously, stay safe and follow all recommendations in your area, but go take a hike in a nearby forest or walk through an unfamiliar part of town or go photo hunting (a kind of self-structured scavenger hunt but you are gathering photos rather than things). Just come up with things that you can do safely but that are brand-new and interesting to you.

Getting out and doing new things will create new pathways in your brain which will, in turn, energize it and keep your mind fit and flexible. As you get older, new and novel experiences become more and more important so never lose your adventurous spirit. Those same mechanisms that help keep your brain young also keep your creativity flowing, as shown by a number of recent studies. In fact, at least one study suggests that creative thinking is boosted most after weird or even traumatic experiences. If that’s true, we should all be insanely creative when this period in world history is over! There’s another reason to take heart I suppose.

Besides novel experiences, also be sure you are getting some kind of social time in. Sure, it might have to be a zoom call but, if it can be done safely, a socially distanced backyard or front yard gathering (while we still have some weather we can sit outside in) with a handful of creative friends or family can do so much to boost your spirits and energy level.

I myself am going to heed my own advice. Next weekend we are going to take out the camper van conversion I’ve been working on and do a little van camping. That’s the other thing. Sometimes burnout or creative blocks just simply need space and time. We can try to barrel through it – and I often do just that – but sometimes we really just need to kick back and relax and let the mind “marinate” on life and our present experiences. Combine some downtime with some new experiences and, if you can swing it, some socially distanced social time, and you are sure to come back with renewed energy and inspiration.

Why Size Matters

Fanni Sandor creates exquisitely small and biologically accurate creatures in polymer clay and mixed mediums. Her choice to go small is born of a fascination with minature art and we, likewise, are fascinated by the tiny masterpieces. See more on her Instagram page.

What size art do you work in? Have you even ever thought about that? Do you work small, big, or a nice moderate middle size?

I think many of us have a limited size range that we feel comfortable working in and rarely, if ever, venture outside that range. There’s nothing wrong with that but it does beg the question, do you think about what the appropriate size is when you create something?

As you might be guessing, if you’ve been reading my blog or design articles for any length of time, I’m about to point out that making the decision about the size of your work can help to fulfill your intention.

(Do you ever think, “If she says something about intention one more time…!” Well, I do hope it’s not annoying. It’s just that important!)

Size in art simply refers to how big or small something is. It is used in a variety of ways to emphasize, organize, assist in functionality, and symbolize the intention of the artist. A lot of the size choices made have to do with relativity – something can only be called small if something else is big and vice versa.

In design, this is actually a principal known as proportion and scale. Proportion is about the relative size between two or more objects or elements when they are grouped together or juxtaposed. Scale refers to how big or small something is compared to the general understanding of how a thing usually is or should be. For instance, we expect a chair to be sized for human beings to sit in and a teapot big enough to hold several cups of tea. Anything significantly larger or smaller than these expectations would be a change in scale.

Scale represents an interesting concept in that it makes note that we do have expectations about how big or small thing should be. That may sound like we have some kind of undue constraints placed upon those of us who create, but actually, scale gives us an opportunity to step outside those expectations and make a point.

As mentioned above, size can be used emphasize things. Making something bigger than expected usually draws attention, so if you created a beaded necklace with beads as big as golf balls, those are definitely beads that are bigger than normally expected.

The same concept of emphasis works with proportions. Let’s say that you only made one of those beads as big as a golf ball in the previously mentioned beaded necklace and the rest of the beads were of a more reasonable size. In that case, you would be drawing attention to the big bead as a focal point. Size allows you to direct the viewer’s eye and their impression of the work.

It may seem that bigger items will be more impressive or have a bigger impact but, honestly, very small artistic creations can be just as fascinating, sometimes more so due to the skill needed to create beauty in such a small space. I think you can see that in the opening image of this post. Small art requires the viewer to come close to it to really see the details, creating an intimacy between the viewer and the piece.

So, have you ever thought about these considerations for size when creating your work? Don’t worry if you haven’t. It’s not that uncommon for size to be determined in some arbitrary or organic manner. And I’m not saying that doing it that way is wrong, but you could be missing out on an opportunity to better express your intention if size was a conscious decision.

 

A Sizable Story

One of my high corset collars with stitched copper and polymer embellishments.

When I was a working artist, I often made decisions about size based on what I thought people would want. It wasn’t a particularly conscious choice, more of an aim not to make pieces too big. I was not trying to make statement jewelry, but rather something that could be comfortably worn all day, or so that was my train of thought.

I can’t say what got me to start thinking about size, but at some point, I started to ask myself why I was afraid to go big. So, I started to push myself, making big collar pieces that would sit as high as the jawline and come down to the collarbone. Some were a little crazy, some were so uncomfortable, but I still found so much joy in making all of them.

I found something freeing in pushing myself beyond what I thought my market would like. And, as it turned out, my market liked them big too. I sold every one that I put up for sale. They never came home with me after a show. So, what I discovered was that the sizes I had been working in were completely self-imposed without any supportable basis for my choices other than my own fear of not being able to make a sale.

Once I realized why I had been working in those smaller sizes, I was able to start making decisions based on what the work needed to be instead of what I thought the market might want. For example, if I was going to make an ornate piece with the intention that the wearer feel like a queen, I would probably decide that it should be big and bold, not small and delicate or demurely moderate, to better emphasize the feeling of nobility I wanted it to embody.

 

Georg Dinkel works large when he is trying to make a point about our reverence for technology, like with this iPhone docking station titled IReliquary.

What’s Your Size?

So why do you work in the sizes that you do?

Is it purely functionality or rooted in the idea of what people would expect the size to be?

Is it limited by the tools or forms you have on hand, or by the capability of the materials being used?

Do you let the size come about organically or unconsciously or do you make a conscious decision about size based on the impact or response you would like the viewer to have?

I truly don’t believe that there’s really a wrong way to determine the size of your work but, like any design element, you are only truly a master of it if you are aware of its possibilities and make conscious choices.

So maybe this week, think about the size of your artwork in terms of your intention. Look at pieces that you’ve made in the past and ask yourself how the look and message, if there was one, would have changed if the piece had been smaller or larger. And in the next few things that you design, ask yourself what size piece would best serve the artwork before letting your tools or expectations of scale determine it for you.

 

Goodies are About Gone

Support this blog and your creative endeavors … join the club!

If you didn’t see the newsletter yesterday, I shared the stock I have left for a few special items that were first offered to Art Boxer Club Members, but a couple things are sold out or nearly so already. These are limited items that I will periodically offer publicly, without the discounts or freebies club members get, when there is extra stock, so if you can’t join us in the club, keep your eye out for my newsletters and sign up here if you aren’t on that list for my next offering.

Getting first dibs as well as discounts and freebies is one of the advantages of being part of the Art Boxer clubs, along with the weekly mini-magazine pick me up you get in your email. (The Art Boxer Success club that includes coaching is also unavailable at this time as spots are full up but I do have a waiting list going – just write to me if interested.)

These limited supplies are available on this page if you are still interested.

 

All Quiet on this Western Front

I have little to report on the home front. I did go in in for a small surgery Thursday only to find out I’m going have to go back in six weeks or so from now to have it completed. Nothing is straightforward and simple this year, is it? So, just trying to make myself take it easy this weekend although I am just a horrible patient in that regard.

Next weekend, assuming nothing else weird happens, my better half and I are going to slip away for the weekend to test the camper van conversion we’ve been slowly working on. I do plan to put something for you together before I go so you should still be able to visit with me next Sunday.

In the meantime, all your hopes and plans, big or small, all go off as intended this week!

Preciousness

Kathleen Nowak Tucci going big with not-so-precious intertubes and other disposables.

What would you say if I suggested that you create a piece and then, after you are done, remove your favorite bit? Yes, I realize the request might be physically impossible without causing complete destruction but, alternately, what if I asked you to destroy something you just spent your valuable time and effort creating?

I know you might be wondering if this is some kind of dreadful crafty torture. Why in the world would anyone ask that of you and what would be the point?

Well, this was done to me and a couple dozen other classmates back in college… twice.

The first time was in a creative writing class. We brought in a piece we had been working on all week then were asked to highlight all of our favorite lines. We passed the highlighted sheets to the person next to us and then the professor asked that we scratch out all the highlighted lines in the story we had in hand.

Of course, all us sensitive little budding Hemingways and Dickinsons sat there stunned and appalled as our pieces were read aloud without the sparkling gems that we thought would certainly reveal our genius. Strangely enough, all but one of the pieces still made sense and sometimes, the author even admitted it sounded a bit better. The point was, the professor said, that we tend to fall in love with phrases or sentences and will leave them in even when they don’t serve the piece.

The point was that without our wittiest word choices we could, in theory, make better editing decisions. In art, is it possible that we could make better design decisions if we were willing to set aside the glitzy accents we love so much or not fall back on our favorite tried-and-true textures all the time?

The second time I had a professor crush my little angsty ego was in a ceramics class after we each had done a small series of slab vessels. The professor asked us to pick up our favorite piece, bring it to the center of the room, and hold it up. We were then asked if we would be willing to drop it from a height into the trash bin that sat there. Of course, no one did it at first and he just stood there waiting until a couple brave souls let their pieces go. Then the pressure was on for the rest of us to follow. Even though I wasn’t particularly attached to the piece I had in hand, it was still so hard to drop it but I did. I seem to recall that a handful of students did refuse.

Sounds like a real jerk of a professor to ask such a thing, right? Well, I have to say that, at first, that’s what I thought but then he started to talk about preciousness. His conversation had something to do with becoming too attached to particular pieces. He wanted us to put value on our process, our growth, and learning, not on impressing him or our classmates. I think he was also looking for a way to wake us up as he had been getting frustrated with our attention span during the lecture portion of the class. Well, he sure did that.

I remember thinking about that lesson some years later, when I was better able to take it in. It made me realize that each successful piece I made was really just a step in a journey more so than an end goal unto itself. That changed the way I looked at my work. And it somehow made me braver.

I still did, and do, have favorite pieces that I cherish and will never sell, but seeing the work as steps and creation as a process rather than an investment of time in an end goal has allowed me to work a bit more freely. I have a ton of pieces that remain unfinished, and although it’s disappointing every time to come to a point where you realize it’s not going to succeed how you wanted it to, I don’t have any qualms about setting it aside. I don’t see the work as wasted because I know I’ve gained a little bit more experience and a little better understanding of the process. I’ve let go of the preciousness I used to have about everything I made.

Preciousness arises not only in our valuing our time to such an extent that we will not give up on a piece even when it’s no longer salvageable, or ignoring possible design solutions because they would eliminate our favorite part, but it also happens with the material itself.

Liz Hall creates in polymer and (a lot of) precious metal clay.

Quite a few years ago, I was itching try precious metal clay but it really wasn’t in my budget. Then I found some at a really great price and bought it. But you know what? I never even opened the packages. I just couldn’t get myself to work with this very expensive material for fear I would ruin it. But, of course, it’s rather wasted now that I’ve had it so long that is not workable. Pretty stupid, right? But we can be like that, putting value on the material and not on the process and the joy that we get from learning and creating.

Preciousness is tied into fear and failure in a lot of ways. Our idea of what we think we can do or what we think we should be able to do may be so lofty or so dear and treasured that we are afraid to try, fearing that we will make a mistake and ruin our efforts or that it will not come out as we imagine it. So, we do nothing, which is the same as ruining it, just really early on.

We may also get to a point in a piece where we love it so much that we are afraid to take the next step, a step that might spoil it, and so we set it aside, with all the best intentions to take that next step at a future time but all we’ve done is deny, or even end, the work’s potential.

I thought we’d start out this month on the concept of preciousness because it felt like a good segue into discussing October’s design theme – size.

Preciousness is one of those factors that comes into play when we decide on the size or scope of the work we will take on. Our sense of preciousness can make us hesitate to do something large or particularly complex, as we may fear that we will invest a lot of effort, time, and materials into something we are not assured will be successful.

Julie Eake’s cane mosaic portrait of actress Sophie Turner was, like most of her cane mosaic portraits, a huge undertaking. But aren’t we glad she takes those risks?

But, again, have we not already failed by not attempting it in the first place?

If we looked at everything we create as precious, all the time and effort that we put into it as well as the finished work, we would have to play it rather safe in the studio. However, art is not about playing it safe.

Art is largely about the risks you take.

If you’re not taking risks, then are you actually creating art? There’s nothing wrong in creating just for that sense of accomplishment or the high of that Zen like flow we fall into when the work is familiar and comfortable. It is more than valid to have the process of making things with your hands be the primary purpose in what you do. However, it’s the hours of exploration, the failures, the false starts, our vulnerability, the deep digging, like miners looking for gold, that makes the work that we inevitably uncover truly art.

The risks we are willing to take is the thing that is truly precious.

 

So, keep the concept of preciousness in your mind as we talk about size this month. Of course, we’ll talk about variation and contrast in size since that is what is primarily being referred to when speaking of it as a design element, but there are other things about size that we can take into consideration as we create, move forward, and grow as creatives.

 

Speaking of considerations…this week, I am going to have to take my health into consideration, so although I do plan on preparing a blog for next weekend, if it ends up being short or skipped it’s because I’m having a little surgery towards the end of the week. It’s just my esophagus and I should recover in all of two days. I have to fit in all my usual physical therapy before then though, along with all the regular weekly business tasks so it will be a full week.

Don’t worry though – all you club members will get your Midweek Mini-Mag as usual including a goodies giveaway so you can look forward to that if you signed up for one of the clubs.

 

If you haven’t signed up for one of the clubs yet but really appreciate the information inspiration you find in this blog, help support this project by subscribing! Get your weekly mini-mag, exclusive discounts, giveaways, and special offers along with your support. With everything you’ll get, you can also think of the club as a unique and special way to acknowledge the preciousness that is your creative self!

Color Scheming

August 23, 2020

Noelia Contreras, stretches the idea of analogous color schemes by choosing pairs of colors that are in the same third of the color wheel then creating contrast by choosing tinted versions of one or both colors to create her stripes and spots.

As promised, this week we are going to start talking about creating color palettes. But first, because I love you all so much for following me as I blather about color and design, I want to make sure that you get in on the Damage Sale that is going on right now.

Damage Sale is on Now … and They’re Selling Fast!

Once every year or two, I pull out these boxes of publications that have been slightly damaged or marred and put them on sale, usually for 40-50% off. This time though, I marked it all down by 50-60%.

I started that yesterday and sold nearly half of them before lunch! Not wanting my blog readers to miss out, I went through my backstock boxes yesterday and pulled a number of imperfect copies that got shelf wear from storage so I’d have something to offer you.

Those got added to the sale inventory last night and so you all now have a fighting chance to grab some too. Just click here. But best be quick. It’s not quite toilet paper but I think there is a pandemic response thing going on here!

(If you got in on this Saturday but something was out of stock and is available now, buy it and I’ll combine the orders, refunding the difference in shipping if the order comes in by noon EST on Monday.)

 

Color Combo Considerations

Okay, now on to the business of color. Choosing colors to use in a piece takes into account quite a number of things but let’s hit on what I think are the three most important things to keep in mind:

Intention – What is your intention in creating the piece? What is the piece about? Go as far as writing it down and come up with some adjectives. Now, what colors go with those words and match your gut feeling about what you want this piece to be. I believe one should never ignore the gut but you do need to discern between instinct and taking the easy road or simply being dazzled by a color. That’s the hard part of using instinct but keep at it and hone it!

Importance – Should color play a major, supportive, or minor role in your design? I think this question is more important for color than for most design elements because we have such a strong and visceral reaction to color. There is usually a hierarchy of design elements in a piece and you benefit from intentionally deciding where color lands in that order. If you create a super tall vase, size is probably the major player in your design so do you want to draw attention away from that by making it a rainbow of bright colors? You absolutely might want to, but the size can make the colors even louder, which is great if that’s what you are after. However, if you want to focus on size because you want people to feel how monumental the piece is, one or two analogous colors in a supportive role might better support your intention.

Susan Dyer’s work puts color at the top of her design hierarchy with lots of contrast in hue and value but not a lot of contrast in saturation, going for bright and playful in most of her pieces like the one here.

Contrast – What level of contrast does your piece call for? High contrast creates high energy, low contrast creates calm, while something in between can be comfortable but still energized. Levels of contrast in a color palette can be created between color values (light versus dark), saturation (bright versus toned down), hues (complimentary colors), temperature (warm versus cool), and relative quantity (how much each color is used versus the others.)

Like everything else, how much contrast you choose should fulfill your intention but also, high or low contrast can be chosen to balance the energy of the work as needed. For example, you might have a busy piece with a variety of shapes and lines plus a lot of marks fulfilling your intention to create high energy but if you don’t want it too chaotic, you might use low rather than high contrast colors. Some intentional restraint in contrast will make the energy of the other elements feel more grounded. Alternately, you could go high contrast on the colors but go less busy on other design elements, especially if you deem color to be of high importance to the piece and don’t want it to be overlooked.

This necklace from Sandra Trachsel has low hue contrast using an analogous color scheme of yellow-green to blue-green but has value contrast between the two to give it a subtle energy but enough punch to really highlight the dimension of the interlocking geometric forms.

Okay, so, yeah, those are quite conceptual points and are very important to keep in mind when choosing a color palette but now, how do you even begin choosing colors? There are actually so many ways you can approach choosing colors for a piece and once you work with color intentionally and intelligently for a while, you will find your own way. But this week and next, I’m going to make some suggestions to get you started. Here is the first for this week.

 

Go with Your Gut

It’s going to sound like I’m saying this quite blithely but I’m serious about this – the most common way to start choosing colors is to go with your gut. Yeah, as mentioned, it may be something you have to hone but your instincts are really a great place to start and will help make your work truly your own. Now, you may think you have no instincts about color but we all do. We all react to color so the connections you make to color are in there and those connections are exactly what you need to find the colors you need for your work.

So, you can think about your intentions and see what colors come to mind or you can, with your intentions or associated adjectives running through your brain like a little chant, start shuffling through your colored art materials, a collection of color cards if you have them, or browse about online. Find yourself a base color to work off of. It doesn’t have to be the exact color yet but think of it as an anchor point for the time being.

Once you have that, you can start adding in other colors based on one of the following color wheel schemes. Keep in mind, this is not math. You don’t have to be exact in these color schemes. Think of them as templates that give you an idea of what colors to pair up with your anchor color.

You’re going to recognize a few these terms from the post on color relationships if you read that one. Those relationships for color mixing are also great starting points for choosing color palettes but I’m going to add a few more possible color combinations to your repertoire today.

 

Complementary – This color scheme involves focusing primarily on two colors, ones that are opposite each other on the color wheel. It provides great color contrast but, sometimes, these combinations create an almost uncomfortable tension. Fully saturated complements, when butted up against each other, will even cause a visual buzzing where they meet. Again, the tension between the complements is not a bad thing if that is what you are after but, because of this, this kind of color scheme should be carefully and quite intentionally chosen.

 

Analogous – this involves choosing colors that are near each other on the color wheel. These are usually two to four key hues so although you’re limiting yourself to one section of the color wheel you can still have quite the range.

Combining colors that are near each other on the color wheel creates palettes with low hue contrast and low or moderate value contrast, at least between the key hues themselves. If you choose colors that are desaturated (have reduced purity) due to tinting, shading, or toning of the color, that can increase the value contrast between analogous colors. So, you could create in blues and greens but go for a dark blue and a bright green so color value and saturation will be contrasted but since there analogous it will be relatively subtle. That’s why analogous color schemes are often found in moderate to low energy designs.

 

Triad or Square – I put these together because they are simply choosing a set of colors that are equidistant from each other on the color wheel. In a triad you are choosing three and a square you are choosing four colors. These create quite colorful and moderately high contrasting hue schemes. These color palettes tend to work best if one color is dominant (like your anchor color that you started off with) while the others play supporting roles in the color scheme.

 

Split Complementary – This can be a combination of two colors although I think it is best used as a three-color scheme. Here you choose one color and combine it with one or both colors to the side of the color’s true complement.

The TMA website scheme is yellow-green with its split complements magenta and blue (both leaning towards its true complement violet but still no visual tension.)

These create beautiful, high contrast color schemes but without the tension that direct complements can create. The combination remains lively and high in hue contrast but it feels much more refined than direct complements, triads, or squares. This is because you actually have a pair of basically analogous colors set against a high contrast one but not with high-tension contrasting hues. It’s kind of the best parts of all the previously mentioned schemes.

 

Monochromatic – The term monochromatic itself is synonymous with boring, I know, but this color scheme is anything but that. You may have just one base color but you then create a variety of shades, tints, and maybe even some tones of that one hue. Although it lacks hue contrast, you still get to play with saturation and value contrast so you can scale your energy level up and down with great control. I personally don’t think there is any other color scheme quite so sophisticated and clean as a monochromatic one so if your design is primarily about refinement, this color scheme should be seriously considered.

 

So, now you have one, somewhat structured way to start choosing colors. I would suggest this week that you play around with the various color schemes above. It could be as simple as pulling out your art materials and shuffling colors around on your tabletop to find complementary, analogous, triadic, and split complementary color schemes or continue practicing your color mixing by at least mixing up one luscious monochromatic scheme. Go with your gut and play with the colors as you feel you need to.

 

Not Much to Say

I know, I usually catch you up with what’s going on with me at this point, but it’s been a rough and tiring week for a variety of reasons and I am a bit talked out. I’ll tell you about drowning my sorrows in my minvan camper conversions project at a later date, okay?

I’ll just leave you pondering classic color combinations for now but next week we’ll going to get into some slightly more advanced ways of choosing color. Don’t worry, it’s nothing too difficult and you have all the tools to do it. In fact, I think a lot of you will be quite surprised at how easy and fun it will be. All this color study has been great fun, hasn’t it? I do hope so!

 

So, enjoy your week and fill it full of color!

Connected to Color

June 14, 2020

Cornelia Brockstedt communicates her sense of each season through color sets (cones and the cord) that speak to her idea of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

So, here we go with the second installment of this summer’s color adventure. If you didn’t read last week’s posts, you can find it here. That post really lays the foundation for a lot of what I’ll be talking about over the next few weeks so you might want to read or review that first.

This week I want to expand upon your knowledge of hues but, more particularly I want to talk about the expressive nature of color. I know last week I may have forced a shift in your thinking about primaries but to confirm that and as a way to connect last week’s post with this one, let’s ride this CMY train a bit farther down the tracks.

Hopefully, we are now all in agreement that the most accurate pigment based primary colors are cyan, magenta, and yellow. That is particularly helpful to keep in mind when mixing but that hardly gives us enough categories to work from in order to have a sense of how colors communicates or how to choose color palettes. I would like you to add a few more, starting with the CMY secondaries – the colors that result from mixing two primaries together – red, green, and blue.

Hmm. RGB, you say? Doesn’t that sound familiar? If you remember from last week, RGB are the primary colors for mixing light (such as the light that creates images on any digital screen.) Yes, CMY’s secondaries are the primary colors used to mix with light. And the reverse is true – CMY is the secondary color set for RGB. Why do you think they are interrelated like that?

You may remember from last week’s post that RGB is considered an additive color while CMY is subtractive so it’s not surprising to find them as opposite sets on the same color wheel. This is not the same RYB color wheel that painters have been using for years, mind you, so if you have a color wheel that depends on bread, yellow, blue, you might want to either get a CMY color wheel like this one by the Color Wheel Company. Or use a CMY color diagram like this one below. (Note that colors in this image below will shift if you print it and may be off due to your display already. Also the percentages listed are just guidelines when mixing colors as quality and concentration of pigments between types of materials and brands can differ greatly.)

Click for full size and to print. Created by SW Pryor, 2009

 

Back to color categories. Right now, you have six – cyan, magenta, yellow, red, green, and blue. How about we add four more for a nice even 10?

Since the majority of the art world has been working with red, yellow, and blue as primaries for the last 200 years, their secondary hues have been widely referred to in color psychology and communication. Those are green (which we already have), purple and orange. Purple and orange carry very particular associations so we can’t leave them out.

The other two I feel necessary to include are black and white. For the sake of simplicity, I’m not going to wander into the mire that is the argument about whether these are actually colors. I think that argument is really based in the one inarguable fact – they aren’t hues. Depending on the color mode, either black or white is the inclusion of all hues or the exclusion of all hues but the argument on whether they are colors is just semantics so for our purposes I am proclaiming them color categories.

 

Connecting in Color

Now, why is it important to have categories? Well, you have to realize you’re going to be communicating something specific with the colors you choose so it’s best to choose with intention. Having color categories and knowing their specific association gives you a base from which to begin making those kinds of decisions.

We all react to color on some level, so color choices are no small thing. For instance, if there are a set of sisters who are triplets, all dressed the same but one has fire engine red fingernails another cobalt blue fingernails and the third has sunshine yellow, do you not draw different conclusions about each of the women? The one with a red nails might come across as strong but conservative, the one with the blue may strike you as audacious or even rebellious, and the sister with yellow nails may seem carefree and funky. You might draw a different conclusion that I did but I’m guessing we’d agree that we would think of each of those women at least a little differently based solely on the fingernail color.

Strangely, those conclusions I made about the fingernail colors are not necessarily associations common with those specific colors but that’s our curveball here. It goes to show that it’s not just the color that creates what you are communicating – it’s also the context. And you.

Since there is a lot more to communicating with color than what we might assume is inherent in each hue, I’m going to give you very general associations as a kind of jumping off point, but you may very well have other strong associations not listed for these colors. We’ll get to that in a moment.

For now, simply read through this list but don’t try to memorize it. Just let it sink in as you read it, maybe just asking yourself what associations are true for you that I have listed, and mentally (or in writing) adding your own as you go. Then I have some thoughts about how to use these categories for your own authentic creations.

 

Color Associations by Color Category

Here are the color categories we’ll work on for now. We’ll get to the grayed out sections later.

 

Magenta – uplifting, balancing, and cheerful, this color can convey and encourage happiness, creativity, and compassion.

Purple – often thought of as the color of luxury and grandeur due to its historical rarity, it is now also associated with drama, ambition, and dignity. Purple also encourages daydreaming which may be why it is associated with mysticism and imagination.

Blue – one of the most liked colors in the world, blues can feel uplifting, quiet, calm, and reliable, as well as communicating trustworthiness and comfort.

Cyan – lively but calming, cyan invokes the serenity and brightness of tropical oceans along with a sense of cleanliness and focus.

Green – relaxing and reassuring, green is a very positive color that is easy on the eye, literally. It lessens glare and absorbs ultraviolet light reducing eye fatigue. It also represents growth, freshness, nature, and harmony although in certain contexts and tones it can also be associated with illness.

Yellow – considered the happiest of colors this is associated with joy, optimism, and spontaneity. It is visually dominant which means it can drown out other colors, so it is often used in small amounts or as a background color.

Orange – energizing, cheerful, and friendly, orange literally wakes us up by encouraging oxygen intake in the brain. It is also highly visible which is why it is used for construction and warning signs even though emotionally it feels playful.

Red – well-known as representing love, passion, power, and excitement, it is also associated with danger and blood. It also appears hot so much so that a beverage will seem hotter in a red cup than any other color. It is also the most eye-catching, so it gets noticed regardless of how little is used.

Black – is often associated with death but in the absence of a context with death associated symbols and imagery, it will more likely convey authority, respect, seriousness, and decorum while sometimes feeling aggressive. It can make objects appear deeper or heavier than light or white versions.

White – purity, cleanliness, goodness, and innocence are the more common associations with white although it can also be thought of as formal, cold, sterile, and stark. When it is not a dominant color, it is overlooked, reading as an inconspicuous background.

Now, you might be asking, what about brown? Or gray? How about pink? Yes, we do have very specific associations with those colors, but they are variations on hues, not hues themselves and I am aiming to give you baby steps, more or less. Trying to figure out how you feel about 10 colors is a pretty big baby step already. We’ll get to the rest in future weeks.

 

Real and Authentic Color

Okay, now that I you’ve read that list, let’s talk about the only color associations that really matters – your specific emotional connection to color.

Choosing the colors you want to use to communicate your intention really should be based on what you feel, not what you THINK, about those colors. This can be tough to figure out but if you’re up for it that’s what I’ll suggest you work on this week. Let me explain.

Take the color blue. It supposed to be calming, peaceful, and trustworthy and is one of the favorite colors of all times. Well, strangely, I myself have a kind of aversion to the hue of blue. It’s not all blues, but I certainly steer away from it when it comes to my attire. Other than maybe a pair of blue jeans on a back shelf, there is no blue in my closet. I know I associate dark blue clothing with domineering personalities (my father wore a lot of navy, for instance) so I don’t find it comforting or uplifting like many people might.

So, if I wanted to create a piece that portrayed a peaceful calm, I would not choose blue even though that is supposed to readily communicate that concept to others. It would be like trying to laugh at something I didn’t find funny. It will come across as inauthentic. However, I might go with green or even cyan as a dominant color because those colors do feel peaceful to me. That choice, combined with my other design choices, all rooted in my personal intention to convey a peaceful calm, should result in a cohesive and authentic feeling piece.

I know you might be concerned that choices based on your personal associations won’t communicate well to a lot of people. It is true – it might not. But for the right people, the people that will love and feel connected to the authentic you they see in your work, it absolutely will. It will also be a more joyful and satisfying piece to create for you.

 

Connection and Context

You might’ve noticed my persistent use of the word “connection”. I’m using this as a kind of catch all term for the various objectives an artist might have for drawing people to their work. Sometimes we want people to feel drawn to, and therefore connected to, the work on a personal level so that they want to buy it. Or we may be more concerned about captivating them in order to elicit a specific emotion or to get them to think, which is another kind of connection.

You can also have the objective of not trying to connect to others at all but may simply want to please yourself, which is wonderful and more than valid. In that case, it is even more important to make design choices based on how they make you feel than about what they mean to others. Even though you’re communicating with only yourself initially, the authenticity of your choices will communicate and connect to others if and when you share your work. Personally, I think this is the best way to work.

If you haven’t already noticed, everything in design is about relationships. Although the relationship between your artwork and the viewer is one relationship, I am more specifically referring to how every design element is related to each other in a piece to create an overall feel or message. Your choice of color, as strong as it can be in relaying a specific message on its own, relates to the other design elements which can change how the color and the overall design feels.

Look at these two pendants by Melanie Muir. They are using essentially the same color palette, but they have a notably different feel. For those of you who were with me last month, or bought the May VAB about shape, you might have readily recognized how the softer, round shapes of the left pendant has helped create an inviting and fun feel in that pendant. Yes, orange is associated with a sense of joy to start with but then look at the one on the right. It still has a burnt orange with black and white palette but the sharp corners of those shapes make it feel more serious although still lively due to the orange.

 

Here is another comparison with two different color palettes but the same design by Christine Dumont. Do they not feel quite different? Even though I like the core design, I am more drawn to the blue-green (yes, even though I am not big on blue.) I am a huge fan of green and I don’t think of domineering men when blue is combined with it. It actually feels uplifting and comfortable to me. The magenta, a color known to be particularly cheerful, is quite elegant here but feels too loud for me. That’s probably because I am essentially an introvert so although I like my attire to be creative, edgy, and even weird, I don’t like it to be loud.

Which do you prefer and why do you think that is?

 

 

Exploring Your Version of Hues

So, if I haven’t fully confused you by giving you a set of rules and then telling you to toss them out window, I would suggest that, this week, you spend time investigating how you feel about particular colors.

Now, how do you figure that out? Well, honestly, it’s going to take a lot longer than a week for most people if you’ve not done this before, but you can start by simply making word associations and becoming more aware of your reaction to color.

Wrapped in Color Exercises

Try to put yourself in a place, physically or mentally, where you can respond to color that surrounds you.

Go and put on different colors of clothing, wrap yourself in various colored blankets, or, if you have a stash of fabric, pull out some solid colored bits and wrap yourself up in them. Then ask yourself how you feel in each color, especially if you can do this in front of a mirror (you know, when everybody else is out for a walk or asleep or something so you don’t have to explain yourself.) What colors make you feel more energized? What colors make you feel more relaxed? Do any of them make you particularly happy or make you feel regal?

Since you are likely to be wrapping yourself up with colors that are not a pure hue, you could start making note of how you react to the hues when they are dark, pastel, bright, or muted. You may be responding to that version of the hue, not the hue itself. Like I might feel very bold and confident in a plum dress, but I would probably feel a bit subdued and delicate in a lavender one. (More on color variations next week.)

If you don’t have sufficient colors to wrap yourself up in, just try to imagine yourself in a room painted all in one hue. How do you feel in the yellow room? Does it make you want to dance around or is it annoying? How about a red room? Does it make you feel impassioned and energized or maybe frightened? How about a white room? How about a black room?

You aren’t really trying to make any specific conclusions about your relationship with color at this time. Just try and become more familiar with how you feel about various colors. Color relationships are complex. Like I love using copper polymer when making jewelry, but I can’t imagine ever creating anything with orange. Orange just doesn’t speak to the things I want to express. But you should know, I also hate tomatoes but love salsa so, I’m probably just particularly weird.

As we work through the various aspects of color over the next few weeks, you can continue to ask yourself these questions about how you feel about particular colors. And when you are designing, you could also ask yourself what color comes to mind when thinking about the emotion associated with the specific intention of the piece you’re working on. You might be surprised with what you come up with.

 

Wondering about my references to Intention? Or how to support this content?

Read what so many VAB members have said was a life altering (or game changing or mind opening) set of articles on Intention in the February edition of the Virtual Art Box and catch up on the concept of marks, lines, and shape too. And they are all on SALE, 25% off right now – no promo code needed.

The purchase of a box would help support this free content that I am creating now as well as give you a stronger base for the conversations we will be having going forward.

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If your budget doesn’t allow such support, that’s perfectly okay. I just hope this is supporting your creative journey giving you more joy in your work. if it does, just let people know this is freely available so I can support even more folks.

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.

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 Dramatic Shift

April 28, 2019

Pier Voulkos boxes

Of all the fabulous polymer clay techniques, which would you say is the most dramatic? There are certainly a lot of them that can be bright and colorful, shiny and sparkling, dramatic and graphic, but could you pick out just one that you think has the most impact when first seen?

I have to say, the one technique that really pops for me is mica shift. It can be colorful, shimmery, and quite dramatic, and has the added effect of looking three-dimensional when it is not. And who doesn’t love a visual illusion?

Mica shift has waned in popularity of late. I’m not sure why because it is just such a gorgeous technique. But when I started researching the idea of making mica shift the theme this week, I found myself on really old posts and pages, looking at work that was created 10, 20 or 30 years ago. That made me all the more determined to bring this technique’s wonderful effects back into the limelight here.

For those unfamiliar with the technique or how it works, here is a little history and explanation for you.

The effect itself is a result of manipulating the mica in metallic clays into orderly layers that you can then manipulate in a controlled manner. This can be done because mica, a shiny, silvery, layered mineral, forms tiny flakes when ground up. The flat side of these flakes are reflective, but the sides are not (like a mirror.) So, if mica is flat side up, it reflects light, but a stack of mica seen from the side is just dark.

You control the mica in your clay by conditioning it in a pasta machine, folding the sheeted clay in half and running it through over and over. The pasta machine rollers, squeezing the clay down, also nudges the flakes to lay flat. Eventually, all the flat faces of all those tiny flakes are facing up in the sheet, causing it to be reflective and shiny.

So then imagine what happens to all those perfectly flat flakes if you press something into them? The flakes get tilted, showing their dark sides (gosh, sounds like some people I’ve known!) That’s where the control comes in. You decide where to distort that perfectly flat sea of face up flakes with a texture sheet, a blade, or hand tools, and where there is distortion, there will be dark outlines of tilted mica. Those outlines are there under the surface too, as the flakes, like tiny dominoes, knock each other over under the invading lines of a texture sheet or a hand tool.

You can also just play with the difference between the shiny surface and the dark sides by stacking mica sheets and cutting it up, rolling sheets into a cane, or twisting or folding a narrow stack, just to name a few approaches. In these cases, the sides of the original layers stay dark and the surface stays shiny, so you have dramatic contrast.

Mica shift in polymer has been called by other names over the years. One of the original innovators of this technique, Pier Voulkos, (those are her boxes opening this post) called it her “invisible caning”. Later, Karen Lewis referred to Pier’s technique as chatoyant, a French term meaning to shine like a cat’s eye, which is used in gemology to describe the bright reflected bands of light caused by aligned inclusions in a stone. That’s certainly fitting for polymer mica shift too.

Let’s take a look at some truly dramatic and lovely examples of this technique.

Shifty Ideas

Around the same time period that Pier was experimenting with her invisible canes, Mike Buesseler was playing with mica clay sheets and “ingots”, stacking then cutting, twisting, texturing and curling up sections of these sheets and ingots to create beads and surface design.

Here is a beautiful necklace using a very simple technique of twisting a square strand of stacked mica sheets.

I would explain more about Mike but, instead, I’m going to let him explain for himself in what is, to this day, the best video class that I have ever viewed. No joke. I’d rather you stop reading this post and watch that video, if it’s all you have time for today. The video is well over an hour-long and it is twenty years old but, no matter how long you’ve been working with polymer or how much you think you know about mica shift, it is well worth your while. It also has an interesting little story about how it came to be a free master class for all. Check it out on YouTube here.

 

Grant Diffendaffer has long been my polymer clay hero. His mica shift and designs are breathtaking. Although he worked with techniques derived from all the early developed mica shift techniques, his most impressive are his impression pieces. This type of mica shift, sometimes called “ghost shift”, is created by impressing a texture into a sheet of well-conditioned mica clay and then the raised layer of clay is shaved off with a very sharp tissue blade making a smooth surface but leaving the illusion of dimension. Grant created his own texture sheets and then applied them to mica clay Skinner blends. His choice of blended colors surrounded by textured black makes for some very dramatic pieces.

 

Some of the most dramatic and graphic mica shift you’ll see to this day comes from the studio of Dan Cormier. A lot of his effects come from cutting and puncturing straight down through the clay. When using a blade, the clay shifts only in the cuts where the blade separates the clay causing just a hairline distortion and thus, very thin dark lines. Puncturing shifts more clay as the tool pushes clay aside to get through. The advantage of these distortions, however, is that the design is present and consistent all the way through the stack.

 

Here’s another take on mica shift from my own table. These gauge earrings might seem a bit more shimmery than a lot of mica shift as I add plain mica powder (bought from handmade cosmetic suppliers) and translucent clay to my metallic polymer clay to bring up the shimmer a notch. These are created from Skinner blend sheets that were stacked, twisted, and rolled smooth before curling them up. They also receive a lot of denim buffing. My mica shift effect is actually the same basic technique that Mike used for the necklace you see above but I twisted it tighter and rolled it smooth with an acrylic plate.

 

Just so you know, 3 of the artist’s mentioned here no longer work in polymer clay which is why you aren’t getting the abundance of information and links I can usually offer. Pier, Mike and Grant are all multi-disciplinary creatives who moved on to another creative form—Pier returned to dancing, Mike to music and Grant has stayed in crafts but has been exploring a variety of materials and forms. Regardless, we can sure be grateful for their time with us!

 

Curious Shift

If this little discussion of mica shift has you anxious to get to the studio table and try it out, I heartily encourage you to do so. In fact, I would like to challenge you all to create a little (or a lot) of mica shift this week. I’m going to do the same, creating some new designs with ideas I came up with after researching this post. I’ll share what I’ve done next week and post them to my personal Instagram page.

Do you think you can you get in one mica shift project before the end of the week? Try it and then please send me a photo or link you would be willing to share online, and I’ll see what I can share at the end of next week’s post. You could also just post to Instagram and tag with #polymerartschallenge or message me on Facebook at The Polymer Studio page or write back if you’re getting this by email.

If you have some great mica shift pieces to add to the discussion, leave a comment at the end of the post for us to check out.

And with that, I have to run. Its been a crazy week. There were some problems with production  and getting Issue #2 of The Polymer Studio wrapped up (the release for the new issue will be in a couple of days, April 30th, so keep an eye out for it in your inbox, if you have a digital edition coming, and your mailbox in the weeks to come. Or subscribe or order the issue on our website!) and then we’ve been having problems with the city getting our plans through so we can move forward with the renovations here at the house (many people are still rebuilding from the huge fires we had in November, so they are busy beavers at the planning offices) but, finally, the demolition begins tomorrow and there is still a last few things to prepare. Good news though … we put the refrigerator on the porch instead of in my studio! Yay! We moved the liquor cabinet in here instead. MUCH better idea. I think. Or will it be weird that I can pour a glass of port without leaving my chair here? Well, we shall see.

Until next Sunday my dear readers … have a wonderful week!

 

 

In Our Clutches

November 6, 2017
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At the end of this week, I will be heading off to Pittsburgh to see the opening of the Into the Forest project. I am intensely excited about that (go here if you are in the area and want to join for the opening on Friday and the talks on Saturday.) But even more exciting is that, at long last, my beau and I get to go on our honeymoon! So this week and next, I may be a bit quieter than usual but I’ve lined up some eye candy for you that my faithful little helpers will ensure you get while I am off gallivanting about.

Putting together a wardrobe for this trip got me thinking about new accessories. Although I don’t have time to make anything new for this excursion, there are the holidays to get dressed up for. So I was thinking, what kind of new polymer accessory would really wow at the next holiday soiree? Then it hit me … a polymer purse! An unusual handbag is always noted and often gets conversations started where no particular subject has yet made itself known. A polymer handbag is certain to be quite the icebreaker.

So let’s look at polymer purses this week and see if I can’t inspire a few of you to make your own. Of course, at the mention of polymer purses, many of us will raise the image of our favorite Kathleen Dustin purse in our minds but she is not, by far, the only one to create purses. She is one of the few that makes them almost exclusively out of polymer but any other variation–covered, embellished, or accented with polymer–can still be a most wonderful example of our art.

Ronnie Kirsch was making quite the fashion splash with her clay clutches in the early 2010s. Full of color and pattern, they were sold at high-end stores for a very pretty penny. She used a lot of canes but would also apply stripes of colors. This red one here would be visible from across the room. And I think that was the thing about these–they were for women who don’t mind a lot of attention.

Although I could not find news of Ronnie’s recent work, I did find her website with a gallery available if covering a nice metal clutch is sounding like a great holiday project. Just take a look here.

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Peeking Through Layers

November 3, 2017
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A lot of the peek-a-boo designs you see peer in at just one contrasting surface although there are a few out there who add in a little charm or an additional focal point. But I really like what Czech Republic’s Jitka Petrů did with this opening in her pendant’s surface.

The many overlapping layers look like they are moving back, one depth at a time and seem like we will soon see the inner surface although it stops at just giving us the tiniest of peeks. But that effect really draws your eye in. When you pull back, it even has a bit of an optical motion effect, in part because of the angling of the layers but also because of the very slight change in color value and hue which makes for a gradual transition to the center.

Jitka plays around with this peek into layers in a number of ways as you can see in her shop here.

 

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A Peek at a Letter

November 1, 2017
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Since we started out this week with a spooky something or other peeking out at us, I thought I’d try to make a theme of it and the idea of peeking into things is always intriguing. Spaces that allow us to look into things beyond is like the revealing of a tiny mystery, a look into a place that we might otherwise be shut off from. When this is part of a design, I think it automatically will draw the eye. Whether you can keep a viewer looking is up to the rest of your design.

The idea of a partly revealed letter that Samantha Burroughs chose for this beautifully textured pendant is certainly alluring. Who doesn’t get a little bit of thrill from the possibility of seeing the inner thoughts of another person? We are also very drawn to text in general as our brain wants to immediately read and decipher it so it was a good choice for the interior content of the holes here. It also creates a contrasting texture to the organic surface of the piece.

Samantha has honed her skills in a variety of established techniques and looks to be fully exploring quite a few of them. You can find her work on Etsy.

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A Spooky Peek

October 30, 2017
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Being that tomorrow is Halloween, I could not help but get in one last spooky bit of polymer creativity. The thing that makes something truly scary is the stuff you can’t see, or so I have always felt. The bogeyman under the bed, the creature in the closet, the shape of some beast in the bushes … just the hint that something is there allows our imagination to run wild. And in the dark and the shadows, our imagination comes up with some pretty scary stuff!

So, seeing the pair of eyes staring out from the forest in this polymer illustration by , what are you thinking is in there? You know I was thinking those eyes need to be glow in the dark and then I would so want this to be a light switch plate because how freaky would that be in a shadowy room to have to reach into that to get the light on and banish the very fears it invokes? Can you hear your inner voice saying, “Don’t do it! You’ve seen this seen in the movies and someone always loses a hand!”

Okay … enough with trying to spook you all. Especially since I think I am very much spooking myself in the process. But isn’t it neat how our imaginations can add so much to what we look at? And isn’t it great that polymer clay allows us to create any such thing our imagination comes up with?

For those of you who celebrate this holiday in which we face and often embrace our fears, have a very safe and happy Halloween.

 

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Snakes in the Shadows

October 27, 2017
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‘Tis the time to think creepy and ghoulish … if you’re into that kind of thing. And, yep, I am! I love Halloween, in large part because it is that one time of year the majority of our society looks at the darker side of life and has an appreciation for it, even embracing the scary and dark. I have always believed that you can find as much beauty in the dark and frightening things as you can in the sunshine. Mind you, I do love my sunshine, but I am very much drawn to the beauty of the night. So let’s greet the season with some dark beauty to set the mood.

And if anyone can pull off not just dark and beautiful but also elegant and enthralling, it would be the likes of Ellen Jewett. Her work, created in a variety of craft clays and hand painted, spins and swirls and teems with life but not just the life of the animal that the sculpture is centered on. Many of her sculptures also include other smaller signs of life, from insects to birds to flora that seem to be as alive as the creatures themselves. Her coloring fades from one shade to another, often giving the illusion of shadow and thus a bit of mystery.

The snake of this piece is accompanied by crows and wreathed in a vine of that hovers between death and life, black in places and blooming tiny white flowers in others. You can see by her detail shot on her website that photos are just not going to do it justice. There are shimmering greens and blues with dashes of copper among them as well as silvery and maroon scales along its length. And I’m just gleaning that from the photos. I can only imagine how intriguing this is in person.

Looking through Ellen’s galleries is always a treat. Treat yourself to a bit of that today by heading over to her website. 

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Vessel Unexpected

October 25, 2017
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I was going to start off a week of spooky ghoulishness but I have to delay that for one more post as I wanted to take the opportunity to share a beautiful piece recently created by the ever-surprising Beth Petricoin. The glass vessel you see here, accompanied by a similarly styled neckpiece was part of an entry for a decorated table contest in a local town. I choose this image so you could see the work but it is best displayed in a darker setting when the side-sitting vessel and the necklace both are lit up by hidden LED lights.

Beth did not win the contest which was a disappointment for her but if originality and hard work had been what they were primarily grading on, it would have been an easy winner I think. But as she says in her post, it is easier to have your work appreciated by fellow artisans and this, unfortunately, was not really an art contest. But I thought we all could sure show our appreciation for the beautifully applied and finished work as well as the ingenuity of the design, especially in regards to its function as an eye-catching table centerpiece.

I won’t go on too long about this as Beth has written at length about the event and the piece. I do hope it gets a few creative wheels turning with some pondering on larger polymer pieces and maybe a few of you will now want to keep an eye out for more unique shapes for polymer-covered decor. Do jump over to her blog to see the lit up images and to read about how she created these beauties.

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Crackle and Glaze

October 20, 2017
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Exploring technique is definitely one of the primary joys of working with polymer. Not only can the material do so many different things but within each technique, there are dozens if not hundreds of ways of applying it.

France’s Karine Barrera, like so many of us, has spent a fair amount of time exploring crackle techniques. This necklace, created for her mother, a painter, shows a slightly different variation of crackle along with a faux ceramic look. She is also working in a brighter array of colors than she normally does, taking inspiration from the more saturated colors she says her mother prefers. The exploration of all these elements resulted in a piece that, although presented in a balanced, symmetrical composition, has a lot of energy and intrigue to draw a viewer in.

To see Karine’s other work, which tends towards more muted colors and a tribal style, take a look at her Akak blog.

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Exploring Points

October 18, 2017
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Last week I had the very fortunate opportunity to spend a couple days chatting and exploring Los Angeles with Christi Friesen and one of my oldest polymer pals, Debbie Crothers. We definitely did more talking than anything else and one of the subjects that kept coming up was exploration. Exploration of a technique or of a design element in your work can reveal much about what you personally prefer to do in your work not just what the technique or element offers.

One great way to explore is to make a lot of elements using the same technique or the same design element. In this bold neckpiece by Hélène JeanClaude there are several variations on the dot. The dot as a colored accent, as repetition defining the structure of a visual pattern, and as negative space are joined together, linked by that same color of blue and the coppery brown. The curve of the shapes, as well as the colors and the dots themselves, create a cohesive whole of these three very different explorations of the way a dot can be used.

Hélène’s work often appears to be an exploration of a particular design element or perhaps she is simply not satisfied with an element being presented in just one way. Regardless, it presents a high level of sophistication and energy to her tribal-leaning aesthetic. You can explore the fruits of her explorations on her Flickr photostream and here on her blog.

 

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A Many Layered Thing

October 13, 2017
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To wrap up our week of looking at the effect of gathering a multitude of things, I thought I’d share an example that shows not just a collection of many things but also the proliferation of negative space.

This wall piece is the work of alcohol ink artist Jess Kirkman. Although the multiple layers are the physical aspect of the work, it is the many holes–the absence of material–that brings about the energy and texture of this piece. The negative space allows you to see past each layer and multiplies the colors and texture. The “cells” as Jess calls them allows for full participation of each layer in the composition. They create both shadow and light as well as density, in the texture, and airiness, with all the open negative space. It is a wildly enticing set of contrasts.

Jess has a whole series of these, scattered in among the more traditional 2-D work. But the colors and textures are all lovely to look at. Take it in on her Instagram page or her shop.

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