Parallel Lives
February 14, 2015
Inspirational Art
This last story was actually requested. By several readers. Why this handful of people knew there was this story to be told, I’m not sure. It is a lot like yesterday’s story, but with some significant differences, as well as a different kind of significance here. I think you’ll know what I’m getting at when you read it
The artwork here is not a piece by either in the story, but it’s something I’ve had saved for a while. Its not even polymer. But, really, it could be, and someone really needs to try this! It’s a glass mosaic created on a rock.
That is what artist Liz Tonkin does… she builds mosaics on rocks. Isn’t is gorgeous? Take a look at her Facebook page to find the most eye candy of this sort. Okay, enjoy that while reading the last of our ‘lovely’ stories this week.
Parallel Lives
Once upon a time, in a Los Angeles high school drama class, a charming boy with an amazingly cute smile sat down next to a very shy, self-conscious girl (who had unintentionally ended up in the class) and asked her to do a scene with him. She didn’t know why this guy, who every girl in class seemed to have a crush on, would ask her, but she said yes, so he suggested they get together that weekend and go over scenes.
That was the first of many weekends and many hours spent together. She was his first girlfriend and his first kiss. He was the first guy she actually fell in love with. Being young and uncertain though, they didn’t really know what they wanted and a rift developed. But, it wasn’t long before they worked out how to just be friends and would spent long hours at dingy coffee shops, comparing personal philosophies and talking about their art and writing. It was always so easy to just be themselves with each other.
They stayed irregular friends for nearly a decade, unintentionally following each other around, but rarely seeing each other. They went to the same community college, then the same four year college. Then he went on to a prestigious animation program north of L.A., and she moved to New Mexico. A a couple years later, they both ended up in San Francisco at the same time and returned to L.A. for a while when both were between jobs.
During that time, the girl turned to poetry, and he to painting, both looking at what filled their souls but not their pockets. Christmas day of 1993, they spent the afternoon with her family and still talked like they always did. But, it would be the last time they would talk for 20 years.
Soon after the year the girl met another guy, got married and moved to Colorado. The boy got serious about his career and soon met a woman through work and eventually got married. Neither marriage was good but, they were both the type of people who don’t give up easily, and they stayed for far too long in relationships that crushed their spirits. She had stopped writing her poetry, and he did little more than work.
After her inevitable divorce and several years of near solitude, she tried to find something meaningful with someone else, but there would always be angry words, or they would want her to give up her art or her writing that she kept trying to resurrect. So, the girl gave up on love and sunk herself into her work.
She would think back, however, and remember those few people in her past with whom she could always be herself, those bright lights on the horizon of her past, and started looking for them. Some she found, but not the boy from drama class who she wanted to see again more than anyone. She knew he’d become successful in animation as his name would roll by on the TV screen sometimes when her roommate watched cartoons, but she had no way to reach him.
Then one particularly trying day, when she looked back at the mess of a life she’d had, she thought of that boy again and decided she would search for him one more time. Suddenly, there he was, his still very cute smile staring out at her from a new blog of his. She wrote him and hoped he’d just say hi back. A few hours later he did. But he didn’t just say hi.
They talked every day from then on, in the same way they did 20 years before. A couple months later, the girl’s father became ill, and she drove out from Colorado to Los Angeles to help. The two old friends managed to meet up and then went out for a dinner that they lingered over until the place closed. It was then that the girl realized she was still in love with that boy, and, as it turned out, the boy had the very same realization about her. The girl, however, had been resigned to being alone the rest of her life, but the boy, he jumped off the deep end and just told her how he felt. She made him wait 6 weeks before she could finally say, “Yes, I feel the same. Now what?”
That all started just over a year ago. Somehow, even living a thousand miles apart and being about the two busiest people anyone could imagine, they make it work. They talk every day, try to see each other every month and are slowly breaking down all the cynicism built by the many years in between. Their lives still parallel each other, too; both working jobs that combine art and writing. Their big deadlines even land on the same weeks. They live in a similar rhythm, but, more often than not, many miles apart.
And yes, they sometimes wonder what would have happened if they had realized when they were young just how rare and precious it is to have someone you can be yourself with and who loves you just as you are. But, that boy and girl who met in a high school drama class are not the same boy and girl who met again last year. Maybe the years in between were not always happy ones, but it allowed them to become the kind of people who can appreciate and love each other the way two people really should.
The girl’s name is Sage. The boy’s name is Brett. We will spend this Valentine’s day a thousand miles apart, but still, we believe we are the two luckiest people in the whole darn universe.
Happy Valentine’s day to everyone out there. Cherish and appreciate the love in your life in all the forms and from all the souls that give it to you.
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Painterly Color
December 17, 2014
Inspirational Art
Although polymer is certainly a wonderful medium for precisely applied or built-in color, I have to say the painterly effects that we are seeing a lot of these days are so intriguing. The approach and application usually involves the inclusion of another medium, which opens the color quality to a wide range of possibilities beyond what the clay itself has to offer.
Margit Bohmer has been playing with pastels and polymer for quite a while. I can’t recall off the top of my head anyone else that has been quite so exploratory with this combination. Much of her work looks like color-stained wood or stone. The way she forms, carves and antiques her beads results in a rough, almost tribal quality; although, contemporary shapes do regularly emerge. Considering those characteristics, I thought this fun and beautifully colorful piece really stood out in her collection on Flickr. The wavy line contrasts rather strongly with the scratched tube beads, but with all the pieces treated with the same painterly color application it all comes together.
Jump over to Margit’s Flickr photostream or Etsy shop for a non-stop painterly color parade.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Our Interaction with Color
December 16, 2014
Inspirational Art
Today’s piece pays homage to one of my favorite painter’s of the last century, Wassily Kandinsky, whose birthday happens to be today. Kandinsky is considered the first artist to create purely abstract art and was one of the foremost Expressionist painters, as well as being an artistic theorist. He was especially concerned with our personal reactions to color, as in how we interact viscerally with what we see. He wrote in his book Du spirituel dans l’art (Concerning the Spiritual in Art), “Colours on the painter’s palette evoke a double effect: a purely physical effect on the eye, which is charmed by the beauty of colours, similar to the joyful impression when we eat a delicacy. This effect can be much deeper, however, causing a vibration of the soul or an “inner resonance”—a spiritual effect in which the colour touches the soul itself.”
Isn’t that just lovely?
This necklace was created by Cecilia Leonini of Italy. To honor Kandinsky’s thoughts and not influence your reaction, I’m not going to comment on this piece. How do you find yourself reacting to it, to the color, form and imagery? Do you see what Kandinsky was referring to in terms of our interaction with color?
You can find more of Cecilia’s work in her Etsy shop. I only just discovered her through the Polymer Clay Artist’s Guild of Etsy which I am a member of. If you sell on Etsy and aren’t a member of the PCAGOE, do consider joining–start by clicking here. This group was key in encouraging and inspiring me when I was still new and uncertain, and many are what we affectionately refer to as the midwives of The Polymer Arts magazine, helping to form the concept and vet ideas for its creation and content when it first started out. They are a wonderful support group and a wealth of information and inspiration!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Color Indulgence
December 15, 2014
Inspirational Art
Do you ever have those days when you just want to sit down with a box of chocolates, a bag of pastries or a giant pizza with everything on it and just enjoy a little over-indulgence? Of course you do! I’m kind of feeling that way this week, but more about color than candy. Actually, I’ve had enough candy and pastries (gets rough on that account this time of year, doesn’t it?), but bright, saturated painterly color, I have not had enough of lately. So this week, let’s just indulge. We all have enough going on with holiday plans, shopping, selling, making trips to the post office and such. Let’s not get too serious and just enjoy some pretty things.
A quick jolt to the system came across my screen the other day in the form of this incredibly bright and mesmerizing bracelet by Viviane Depasse. She created this during a class with Carol Simmons this past April. Why is that not so surprising? This presentation does not have Carol’s precision kaleidoscope arrangements, but I, myself, am very much enjoying the meandering color. It is like the epitome of the phrase “eye candy”. It is bordering on overly-bright, but like really sweet candy you keep eating anyway; it’s hard not to keep looking.
Viviane posts her work both from classes and independent exploration, as well as her thoughts on her blog Mon Jardin Merveilloeufs.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Outside Inspiration: Beautiful Empty Frames
December 12, 2014
Inspirational Art
Yep … back to frames again today. There are just so many beautiful pieces with unique ways to incorporate frames.
Here, we have earrings by metal jewelry artist Nisa Smiley that are more than just frames. In actuality, what the open spaces frame is negative space. That negative space is filled with whatever your imagination comes up with or with the background beyond. Open metal work like this feels airy and light, which matches the wing imagery here.
Nisa works her pieces to bring elements of nature to the metal. She says “When creating a piece of jewelry, I strive to combine five elements of nature that speak most strongly to me: color, pattern, texture, organic shape, and metal. My sense of design recognizes these patterns, textures, and colors to be the ultimate complement to the human figure.” Can you discern the five elements she is working towards in this piece?
Although these frames may seem a bit delicate to create in polymer, open work and the framing of negative space is still a viable idea to work into your pieces when that airiness or space for the imagination are desired. You can see a bit more of this along with beautiful stones and colorfully treated metals in more of Nisa pieces on her website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Framed Opportunity
December 9, 2014
Inspirational Art
I think we are all rather familiar with the idea of a decorative frame. We’ve seen them on old paintings, antique mirrors and even around windows and doors. Frames can be a work of art unto themselves. So when framing your own work, why not go ahead and consider pushing the decorative aspect just as you might with your bails, clasps, spacer beads or any other element added to your work? Just how far can you take it?
Well, one possible answer as to how far you can take decorative framing can be found in the work of Julie Eakes, who is the featured artist in Maggie Maggio’s “Color Spotlight” section of our winter issue. These highly-detailed and deeply, layered frames may not fit a lot of work since the business of the frames would compete with the image it is surrounding, but in a case like this, it rather matches. Julie is best know for her face cane and pointillism, so the images she frames are the strongest types of images we are drawn to (we gravitate to faces before any other easily, recognized imagery), and her canes are quite complex, so the frames work with these images rather than drown them out.
How far could you take your frames so that they work with what you are framing? Or could fun with complex frames push you to create more complex images? You can read more about why and how Julie creates these canes and frames in the article and read more about her work on her blog.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Round and Round the Edges
December 8, 2014
Inspirational Art
So the Winter 2014 – Boundaries issue is in hand or on its way to all our readers and retailers. If you’ve read through your copy, then this week will be a little addition to the lessons to be learned there. And if you haven’t gotten your copy yet, this will be a bit of a preview and introduction to the concepts we explored.
The theme of Boundaries encompassed anything that delineated either elements in polymer art work or boundaries developed (or not) in the way we live and work. One of the recurring concepts is about edge. There is an entire article on the concept in terms of how to look at edge as a part of your design including ways to finish off an edge and what the different types of edges can convey within a design. In the issue, we weren’t able to go into some of the more complex angles of that concept including considering multiple edges in a piece.
Debbie Crother’s newest pieces are featured in the gallery section where you’ll see she works with a lot of open edges (not framed or otherwise treated.) The open edge can allow a piece to feel bigger than it is since there is no frame or treatment to stop the viewer from imagining the scene, images or lines from going off into the space beyond what they see. This piece is actually both framed and has open edges. It’s actually like a series of frames, but instead of the frame holding in and drawing focus to interior elements, the frames are one of the primary elements of the design itself.
The even, nested circles create a bulls eye, which would usually bring you to focus on the center, but between the open edges, the lines within the surface treatment and the white drops, your eye is kept quite busy and is directed across the width of the piece with the occasional stop where the white spots have landed like scattered stars. The series of edges, however, slow down your visual glance across the landscape, so you find you spend a little more time taking it in. Which is a good thing. Also, the natural, uneven landscape lines of the surface contrasts with the orderly rings just to keep things interesting. The overall result is a piece that is not overly complicated, holds your attention and feels rich with small, but satisfying details.
Debbie creates these with variation in the surface treatment of each ring which makes those pieces much more about the contrast of each ‘frame’. She’s explored this design in great depth bringing her around to a number of well-designed options. This particular design, along with painted polymer veneers, is the subject of her newest class on Craft Art Edu “Concentric Circle Pendants”. So, should you find yourself intrigued, go get yourself a class. You can also see some of her other new designs in the Gallery section of the Winter issue of The Polymer Arts (get your copy on our website or from one of our retailers listed here) or take a trip through Debbie’s Flickr photostream.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Blended Approaches
November 26, 2014
Inspirational Art
This gorgeous brooch, created by polymer and precious metal clay artist Kelly Russell, is actually a combination of techniques, with mokume being one of the primary ones. Do you actually see the mokume as mokume when you first look at it, or do you see the sections as kind of blending together like a series of textures and melding of color?
It’s probably obvious from the length of that second question that I think the choice of components are pretty synergistic so that no one technique stands out. The jewel tones, subdued to bright pastels, run through all the components for cohesiveness. It’s also not that heavy on contrast, but rather sticks with a light to mid-range set of values, which makes it feel calm and serene.
I like that Kelly does not restrict her materials or her techniques in her pieces. She mixes it up while keeping it unified through color palette choices. Take a look a more of her lovely work on her blog and website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Mokume Color & Contest Winner
November 24, 2014
Inspirational Art
I know we’ve looked at mokume before, but I have quite a few pieces that I’ve been storing up and want to share. Since the question of color palettes came up almost every day last week, let’s look at mokume and the chosen colors palettes as a jumping off point for this week’s discussion.
This set of mokume pieces was created by Carrie Harvey using a tutorial by Albina called “Hidden Flowers” (find it on Clay Lessons here.) I don’t usually post student renditions of other people’s techniques, but I think this was well done, and the color palette and shapes were a decent departure from that in the tutorial (as least as far as I can tell), which is as it should be. And the technique is really a take on mokume polymer, so it’s not particularly exclusive. It does, however, offer us an opportunity to talk about color choices.
This palette is pretty straight-forward, but can you recognize right off why it works? You have a sky blue, a coppery brown and a rust red. The blue and copper (basically orange for the sake of this conversation) are color opposites while the rust red is analogous to the orange (next to each other on the color wheel), which makes it a close contrast to the blue. In other words, all the colors have a relationship to each other, either contrasting or close enough to give the color palette cohesiveness. Although, this is a rather scientific look at these color choices, the instinctive connection comes from nature. The copper and rust red are fall leaf colors you might commonly see against a clear blue autumn sky. Nature knows how to use colors well herself, so if you are every stumped, take a look outside!
And drum roll please … The winner of our active critique week is Debbie Goodrow. Congrats Debbie. You should have an email in your inbox to let you know how to claim your giveaway. Thank you all so much for commenting. I think you all win in this little contest–the comments were incredibly insightful, and the varied point of you certainly demonstrates how much of art is really in the eye of the beholder. I hope you all found that it helped inform your view of the work and that you will keep it up, if not posting comments (and I would love to see more comments just any time), at least in your own viewing of the posts and art work. I give my opinion and my view, but as you saw last week, there are many, many ways to see a work of art.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Are you familiar with something known as the flow state? This is that space you get in where you are lost in your own little world because you are so wrapped up in what you are doing. It happens quite commonly when people are working on creative projects and it’s a really good thing for you, both because it dissipates stress and because it increases your level of “feel-good” chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. It’s also defined as an “optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best.” Now, who wouldn’t want that?
I bring this up because I want to talk about mosaics. I think a lot of people look at all those tiny pieces and think, “That looks like a ton of work!” And, yeah, there might be a lot of steps to putting a mosaic together, but the technique is also one that really gets you deep into a flow state. It can be kind of like doodling but with little pieces.
It would not be a hard thing to start on. Most of us have access to tons of tiny pieces, either through leftover canes, unused polymer sheets, or failed projects we haven’t had the heart to toss out. Just slice up those canes, cut up those sheets, and/or start chopping up those cured elements and you have all you need to start creating mosaics. Of course, you can make pieces specifically for mosaics from fresh clay, too!
Mosaics have been on my mind these last couple weeks because, while working on the latest book, Polymer Journeys 2019, it became quite apparent that one of the bigger trends making a splash right now is polymer mosaics and so I thought we ought to take a closer look at this not so new but definitely interesting and flexible technique. (By the way, today is the last day to get the Pre-order Sale pricing on Polymer Journeys 2019! Go to the website to get it at 30% off the cover!)
Mind you, being the insanely creative and exploratory artisans and crafters that they are, polymer enthusiasts aren’t just slapping together any old standard expectation of a mosaic. They are mixing mediums, trying out every shape in the book, using three-dimensional forms, and generally just pushing the boundaries of what the mosaic technique is. Gotta love polymer crafters!
So, let’s take a look at what some people are doing as of late and we’ll end with suggestions for getting into the mosaic flow yourself.
Different Kinds of Bits & Pieces
One of the folks who, at least initially, takes a classic approach to the art form of mosaics but certainly adds her own flavor to it, is Christi Friesen. She cuts out squares of polymer, lays a base to adhere them to and then arranges the pieces in pleasing and energetic patterns. But of course, Christi can’t leave well enough alone — she has to add bling and embellishments of all kinds! She’s been mixing in glass, wire, charms, beads, and probably a bunch of other things I will never be able to identify, to create her whimsical tiles, vessels and jewelry. Can’t you just sense the depth of the flow state she must have been in creating this beautiful maelstrom?
You could say that Claire Fairweather is classically inspired too, but her work has a twist to it. That twist is a commitment to circles used to create these wonderful images of graduated color and varied texture. Using round elements instead of squares and straight-sided shapes that join neatly together, leaves more open space but it’s one that has a fairly regular rhythm that flows in and out of the carefully placed circles. This gives the imagery more orderliness and a softer look as you can see in the many sides of her mosaic globe below. (Be sure to jump over to her blog to get the rundown on what each side is showing.)
Keep in mind that a mosaic piece does not have to be all mosaic. Large swaths can be made up of other types of polymer elements such as textured, silkscreen, impressed, or hand tooled layers or forms. A lot of Susan Crocenzi’s work, especially earlier in this decade, consist of entire halves of her pieces being a kind of polymer landscape, surrounded by glass mosaics or a mix of mosaic mediums. Here is just one example below but you can find more on her website too.
For all of you mad caners out there, here is an example of how beautifully energetic a piece can be just by arranging thick cane slices on a simple form. This bib necklace is a yet-to-be-hung creation by Ivy Niles, who makes some of the most impressive canes. You can see how much more impressive they are when working together in this off-center mandala type pattern.
If you really like the idea of doing mosaics don’t relegate your sources of inspiration to the work of polymer artist’s, as unique as they may be. Take a look at what glass and tile mosaic artists are doing these days as well (just type “mosaic art” into your favorite browser or an image-centric site, like Pinterest or Instagram) if for no other reason than there is some amazing and gorgeous work out there to enjoy. Here is a gorgeous piece by Francis Green in what seems to be a rare piece of wall art. This woman will mosaic anything she can get her hands on! She kinda reminds me of some unbridled polymer artist with their canes. Just take a look at her website.
The How-Tos of Mosaics
So, are you itching to try some mosaics now? Here are a few places you could start:
- If you want to start with something classic, even, and orderly, check out this straight-forward mosaic tile tutorial by Korrina Robinson on her blog.
- Prefer a more open and visually textural approach that is flexible enough to use any type of clay sheets or even canes? Take a look at this mosaic vase by Kathy Koontz on the Sculpey website.
- If you’re ready to really dive in, might I suggest you invest in this great tutorial on micromosaics and faux glass by Pavla Čepelíková. The opening image of this post shows examples of some of the things she’ll teach you to make in this downloadable PDF.
- If you want to use mosaic as a way to diminish your pile of scrap clay and cured bits, take a look at Christi Friesen’s mosaic video tutorial here. You can also have fun creating mosaics Antoni Gaudi style on an unusually formed box with Christi in the Polymer Art Projects – Organic book (go to our website to get your copy!)
- And if that’s not enough, Christi sells mosaic kits on her website where you can also find tons of other embellishments and bobbles to assist in your mosaic flow. Just click here!
- I even have some exciting mosaics for you to look forward to too … We just found out that Staedtler/Fimo is going to sponsor Ann and Karen Mitchell, the Masters of liquid polymer clay, to create a mini mosaic tutorial for the next issue of The Polymer Studio magazine. This is a changeup to Karen’s tiny micromosaic technique published in The Polymer Arts back in the Fall of 2015.
Whew! I got into a flow a bit there myself writing excitedly about all this fun stuff. I hope you’ll give mosaics a try if you have not already, or at least give yourself some time to just get lost in your craft today. It’s good for the brain and the soul and you never know what will come of it later in your creative journey!
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I know I just featured Katie Way in February, but this is such a great example of taking a technique and making it your own that I didn’t want to pass by this opportunity. This seemed particularly apropos after an incident came up a week or so ago that I was consulted about involving a student submitting something to a contest that they created either in a class or based on a class. The problem was not in taking something that was learned in a class and creating from that knowledge but using the design choices that the teaching artist used. So, let’s just review what that means. In a way, it’s very simple – you can replicate technique, but you cannot use the design decisions of another artist.
I think part of the issue is that there is some confusion as to what’s is technique and what is design, so let me try to define that.
Technique is how you manipulate the material including how you apply texture, the process of forming/sculpting, the mixing or application of color treatments, the creation of mechanisms or use of materials for constructing the piece, etc. In other words, it’s about the process of creating.
Design is about the specific choices you make about how something is going to look. So, your choices about the type of texture (not how you apply it), the shapes you create (but not how you create them), the colors you choose (but not the source of the color), and the arrangement of your construction (but not the mechanisms used to put pieces together), are all design choices. If the majority of your choices are based on someone else’s examples, then you’re in danger of copying their design. Changing the color or shape is simply not enough, nor is it fair to the artist that inspired you and, equally so, it’s not fair to you and your creative growth to skip the exploration of what a piece could be by not making the design decisions yourself.
In the piece we see here, Katie Way took a class with Alice Stroppel and made a piece that is uniquely her own. You can see the influence of both artists in this work. The big, bold cane work shows Alice’s influence, but the color choices and all those bulls-eye circles are absolutely Katie. I would’ve known this was Katie’s right away, but it would’ve taken me a few moments to realize where her change in technique came from if she hadn’t made note of her influencer. And that’s really how it should be.
You can absolutely copy the work of the teaching artist in class as a way to learn. Most of them do prefer that. But when you go home, don’t make that same basic piece ever again. Have enough confidence and belief in your artistic self to work out your own designs. It is far more fulfilling to create from your own sense of aesthetic and ideas than to simply be successful with someone else’s design.
Okay, getting off my soapbox now. If you’re intrigued by Alice’s cane mapping class, go to her website to check out where she will be teaching next. And if you’ve somehow missed Katie’s work, check out her Etsy shop and her Instagram page.
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I spent a lot of time looking for differently constructed clocks in polymer and couldn’t find much that really illustrated the point I was hoping to make. What I wanted was to show that a clock does not have to be on a flat surface. It can be made of many parts, attached or not, and fully dimensional. As long as you have something that can house or hide the clock mechanism while holding out the hands, the rest is wide open. You can have the hour markers designated by any form and attach them with sticks or wire or be free floating–whatever suits the piece and your inclination.
These two examples are commercial designs rather than polymer art but I think they give you the basics of this idea of moving beyond the flat clock face. Not only do these kinds of clocks make for really interesting wall pieces, they give you the freedom to use pieces you may already have such as large hollow beads, faux stones, unhung pendants, small figurines, flowers, etc.
As a gift, giving a clock that has separate pieces might be best attached to something that can be hung as one piece, like a backing of Plexiglas or painted plywood. Or include instructions for a template to mark on the wall where each piece goes. There is little to no construction to deal with but you will have to make concessions in the design for how the individual pieces will be hung. Alternately, go for a design where the elements are attached like the flowers you see here.
The sky is the limit with these kinds of designs. For more ideas, try searching “DIY clocks,” which was the keyword set that brought me to these two pieces. I hope these sparks some ideas and I look forward to seeing inventive clock designs this month!
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In my search for clock inspiration, I veered a bit off the polymer path, but then again, I kept running into pieces that I thought were polymer but were not. Of course, pieces like this splendid celestial clock by Natalya Polekh could be created in a very similar fashion with polymer. Large textured sheets and fun with alcohol inks and mica powders could produce similarly stunning results so I took a closer look.
Natalya looks to be a well-known mixed media artist in Eastern Europe and Russia and when I say mixed, I mean all kinds of things. Her primary materials look to be various types of acrylic paint, dimensional and pearling paints, 3D gel, embossing paste, and glass and metal accents of different types. She works in texture, mosaics and layered media that is applied in such a way that knowing the materials is rather superfluous. She creates a beautiful complexity of texture and motif with shine and shimmer applied in abundance but always in a tasteful and often intriguing manner.
She does much more than clocks although she has done quite few of them. Take a look at her shop for more clock and textural ideas as well as very well priced tutorials on how she creates this work. Her VK.com page has more images.
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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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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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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 Korrina Robinson, 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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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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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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