Beauty in Perfection
May 26, 2014
Inspirational Art
This week, I just want to put up some examples of perfectly executed and finished work, to focus on skill and craftsmanship and look at how that attention to detail and care in handling can be, and often is, at the center of what makes a piece work.
Daniela Klein is not a master artist, not yet, but her efforts point to really excellent potential. Looking through her Flickr photostream, you can see that a good looking finish is important to Daniela but execution has had its challenges at times. But then, in her timeline you see two pendants and the couple of pieces that come after, that show an increased attention to the fine tuning of the pieces final look. The two pendants were created in a class with Dan Cormier’s, one of our community’s absolutely perfection obsessed craftsman. This pendant, although made in Dan’s class, doesn’t look like a Dan Cormier piece but the techniques are recognizable. The color choices and lines follow trends in Daniela’s past pieces making me think she followed her own creative muse in the class but made a great effort to emulate the fine finishing details that are a large part of Dan’s signature look.
As far as I can tell, Daniela’s work is only present on her Flickr pages right now. But take a look at her journey there and then keep an eye out for her in the future!
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Sneak Peek at the Spring 2014 issue
March 9, 2014
The Polymer Arts magazine news
Today, we’re covering some public service announcements about the new issue just released. We’ll get back to regularly scheduled art work tomorrow getting into ‘intricate’ design for this coming week. So, here are share-able items, and the timeline for delivery, if you don’t have yours yet, below.
The latest issue of The Polymer Arts is out! Spring 2014–Wrap it Up was challenging to put together but it sure was worth it! Here is a small sampling flipbook of the issue if yours hasn’t arrived yet or you haven’t decided to buy it yet.
If you want to share this fun little flipbook or news about the magazine’s release, you can post this link: http://goo.gl/OkVlyX which goes to the flipbook or copy any of these images and link to www.thepolymerarts.com so people know where to get their own copy.
Your Copy of Spring 2014:
- Digital issues were released on Friday the 7th so if you expected a digital access email but haven’t seen one yet, check your spam/junk mail folder for it and if it’s not there, write us at connect@thepolymerarts.com. Don’t forget to add connect@thepolymerarts.com to your safe sender list and/or address book to help keep emails from being filtered to junk mail.
- Print issues started mailing out on Wednesday from Idaho. They can take up to 3 weeks to get some areas in the East, South and overseas but they are all on their way.
- If you don’t buy a copy of this issue yet, you can get your copy at our website or through one of our online retailers listed on that page as well.
Thank you all for your many kind and enthusiastic words about this issue you’ve sent my way the last couple days! And thank you ever so much for sharing the issue on your Facebook page, Pinterest and other online sites. It is very heart-warming to see how thrilled you all are about this issue. It is pretty amazing just how many people got involved in the content, contributing their thoughts, art work and talent into making this one very packed issue! Thanks to you all!
What Your Customers Are Buying
March 2, 2014
Ponderings
Edit to Post:
It’s almost funny how the posted quote image here not only highlights the issue of copying but is, as it turns out, a derivation of someone’s words (unattributed in the image as you might note.) I was able to find someone who gave Rebekah Joy Plett the credit for the quote so I could give credit but then Tracy Holmes sent me a Facebook post she found from the artist on this and the original words. I am posting Rebekah’s original words here but am not taking the prior quote image down because it is the link to this post for the email notifications (which will allow people to come here and see the correction) and so that you can help notify others of the misappropriation. If you see the second image below, please let the post person know about the original quote posted by Rebekah here: http://goo.gl/kRCxD7.
Okay here is the actual original quote:
And here is my original post:
I was going to make this a short and sweet post today, just a good quote to give you a little something to consider. But there has been quite the conversation online about a subject that this quote poignantly highlights. So first, read this nice little letter to the potential customer. The sentiment is fantastic.
Words by artist Rebekah Joy Plett … “You are buying a piece of heart, a part of a soul …” Great words, not just for the buyer to hear but for the creator to consider as well. Are you actually selling part of your heart or soul? Or are you selling someone else’s?
Yes, we are touching on the subject of copying here as well as giving credit. Over at the “Ask Harriete” blog, there is quite the conversation going on the subject and I have had several people ask me where I stand or what I think about it. Since I too have been having a lot of conversations concerning this subject in the last couple months, I actually have quite a bit to say but not in the same vein as what Harriete is discussing.
My conversations have primarily revolved around how to clarify what is stealing due to the upcoming release of an article in the Spring 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts. The article is titled “Stealing Talent”. Linda Stiles Smith bravely agreed to interview a number of artists for me , artists who teach and/or publish and regularly have their ideas appropriated–sometimes copied, sometimes worked by others into their own original pieces. In an effort to try and clarify what it means to copy and how to properly use what we learn from each other, we created a summary of what the artists interviewed said. Here’s a bit of a sneak peek that will also give you a chance to chime in on the subject since there isn’t a response option in a magazine:
Rules for Giving Credit
1. Do not teach a class or tutorial that someone else has developed presenting it as your own.
2. Do not directly copy someone’s design and call it your own – for any reason.
3. Do not copy and sell printed images or materials, tutorials, books, techniques of another artist.
I also chimed in with a few thoughts of my own. Here is the abbreviated version:
As for when to give credit, consider whether what you are using is design or technique.
Design is the art. It belongs to the creator.
This includes the choices one makes about form, color combinations, line, pattern, etc., as well as the combination of these choices. So, you do not copy someone’s designs—that is their art and their voice as an artist.Techniques are like tools in your tool box.
This is the how-to aspect of working in the material. You don’t need to list where your ‘tools’ originated when you sell something, but if you are teaching or posting your work you have an obligation to say where you your ‘technique tools’ came from. It would be unfair to keep aspiring clayers from being able to access the original source and it repays that artist for giving you the tool to work with.
I know this last paragraph has the potential to create some controversy because I do not say you do not have the right to teach or use a technique that another person has created. In the legal sense, you can. There is no copyright on technique (See rules 1 & 3 above as well). The gray areas comes not with someone using a technique but in HOW they use.
If an artist develops a technique and always applies it to a flat round pendant, someone making a square pendant would still be copying. However, if you see an artist apply the technique only to round beads and someone else uses the technique but creates square beads, most of us would recognize that it’s not quite stealing the design. Why? Because we recognize that creating a round bead requires a different technique than creating a square one and would likely require a variation on the application of the original artist’s technique, requiring different design and aesthetic choices. This doesn’t work for the pendant application because there is no difference in how the technique would be applied if all you are doing is choosing another shaped cutter.
Now, I in no way advocate taking someone’s work and just changing one aspect so you can call it your own. It doesn’t work that way–its still not your own. Read the quote above again if this concept of when it is not copying is unclear. If you are not making something that is of you–if all you are doing is borrowing from others–you aren’t making art, you are just reproducing and what you create is not that much different than any commercial product. If you are not making your own work, you are not giving your buyers the one thing that makes your work so much more valuable than a mass produced product … that little bit of yourself that imbues an object with meaning and personal connection. That is what buyers are paying for when buying art and handmade work. Don’t cheat your buyers. And just as important, don’t cheat yourself.
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Go Nuts with Patina
January 4, 2014
Tips and Tricks
Have you tried the Swellegants yet? Or if you have, did you push what you can do with them?
I found this neat little grid of suggested combinations for using Swellegants recently … some are so juicy and realistic. These are done on metal elements but the exact same effect can be created on polymer pieces too. Check out these tips and color formulas for Swellegants Patinas by Heather Powers.
If you are up for trying these products or expanding your collection, you can get Swellegants along with metal embellishments, awesome tools, accents, and other goodies from Christi Friesen’s online store.
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.
Making Friends with Failure
December 22, 2013
Ponderings
This is a bit longer installment than I usually have on Sunday but I think this strip by Stephen McCranie explains so well how silly it is for us to be so hard on ourselves, to expect perfection in every piece we create, and to miss out on the lessons we can learn from our imperfect creations. It is well worth the read. Click on the image here to see the entire strip. Enjoy.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
A Stylized Organic Scene
December 19, 2013
Inspirational Art
Some pieces can deftly combine both geometric imagery and organic texture but sometimes, it is one representing the other as it is in this touching piece by Tammy Durham. Both the plant growth and the connection to new life are conveyed by many small circles and a stylized but active and flowing composition.
I love Tammy’s bold use of color and texture found in most of her work which she admits is heavily inspired by Gustav Klimt. Tammy, a polymer clay illustrator from Colorado, has no fear of color as can be seen on her Flickr and Pinterest pages. Take a break from shopping and work and enjoy her joyful imagery for a bit.
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.
Shininess is Catching
December 15, 2013
Ponderings
I don’t know that I need to add anything here. This is as simple as being enthusiastic about your creative endeavors or any other other myriad of wonderful things in your life. Smile and others will smile with you. Laugh and others will laugh along. Strive to do better in everything you do and you will inspire others to do the same.
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 partne
Sparkle on the Tree
December 14, 2013
Inspirational Art
One area glitter and sparkle can comfortably reside is on the holiday tree and in holiday home decor. Jainnie Jenkins was making these ornaments a couple years back but they certainly have a timeless quality about them.
These ornaments are polymer clay overlaid over glass bulb ornaments. Jainnie creates this almost antique effect by layering Pearl-ex powders on the clay. After curing, she scrubs off a lot of the Pearl-ex leaving enough powder to accent the textures and shapes. She has also created similar effects by layering on metallic paints. She found that metallic paints make her work feel a little more loose or organic. Now how often do you hear the words metallic and organic together?
Have a look at more of Jainnie’s work on her Flickr photostream and 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.
Variations in Faux Metal
December 12, 2013
Inspirational Art
Wendy Orlowski, the new proprietor of the online polymer clay supply shop Shades of Clay, has been an innovative artist in the polymer community for some time. Her CaBezel molds have been very popular with many clayers. I have quite a few myself. They’re easy quick solutions to creating a well-fitting cabachon and bezel, but that is not what we are here to talk about today. (Although if you’ve needed to add to your wish list for potential gift givers, CaBezels and the many other unique items sold at Shades of Clay might fill out your list well! They’re great stocking stuffers!)
In the necklace pictured here, Wendy created medallions with her “straight and narrow” texture stamps. She then cuts apart the different lines of texture, applies Guilder’s paste to the surface of the textured clay, and staggers the lines of texture around a centerpiece or CaBezel form. For a little more excitement, she adds a few colored highlights. The result is faux metal with the richness of texture and depth of color one sees in real antiqued metal jewelry.
There is a video tutorial illustrating how to make this faux metal technique with polymer clay on the Shades of Clay website as well if you’d like more details on this. And, of course, you have to browse the Shades of Clay offerings for new toys and supplies while you there!
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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