Translucence and Texture from Mother Earth
May 27, 2015 Inspirational Art
Shortly after I sent Monday’s blog, I ran into this interesting set of earrings on Pinterest. Yes, we’re talking translucent polymer here, but can you guess what the colorants and inclusions are?
The pieces were made by Dawn Wilson-Enoch who is not a polymer artist but rather is what one might think of as a natural artist. She draws from nature very directly using all kinds of stones, plants, seeds and even earth to create her jewelry or inspire her metal work. These were the only polymer pieces I found of hers, so my guess is she wanted a way to present these fragile and granular elements of the natural world in a way that would show their beauty and natural state, yet allow them to be wearable. And translucent polymer, with its diaphanous nature and low curing temperature compared to other clear material options, was the answer she found.
I was drawn to them by the textures the natural elements create. The rough and sparingly random elements are contrasted wonderfully. The cracked metal leaf is layered much more completely across the hand torn ‘leaves’ of polymer. Dawn says each of these pieces encase “a different desert plant, sand, or metal leaf. When you are still, the contents of the layers are mostly hidden, but when you move the layers dance and swing and reveal their treasures.” I can only imagine how much more intriguing the revelation would be under a bright light like the desert sun.
I was thinking that the inclusions, tearing, and contrasting textures would be great fun to play with further by each of us in our own way with the elements we are most drawn to. What do you think? Is it time to go play with a bit of translucence and texture?
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Working in a Wisteria
April 4, 2015 Inspirational Art
Nature has such a wide variety of flower forms, and not just the nested petals we are so familiar with such as roses, peonies, daisies and the like. The forms, not to mention the colors of course, are incredible. Search “Unusual Flowers” on Pinterest or Google images and you will see some of the craziest shapes and textures in what are considered flowers. Some are stunning while others are kind of scary, and others still are just plain weird. But see if you find any that get your fingers itching to recreate them in polymer or have you scrambling through your clay to see if you can recreate the color combinations.
In the meantime, how about practicing some unusual flower shapes by creating wisteria flowers? These are a little oddly shaped for flowers, but their purple and pink colors are just so lovely, especially in the way they drip off the trees in delicate falls. Catherine Starkov shares her method for creating a fall of wisteria for a set of earrings in this easy tutorial (click here for the English translation). Have fun with this or whatever you find yourself creating or enjoying this weekend!
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Repeated Folds
February 23, 2015 Inspirational Art
I have been wanting to talk about the use of repetition for a while, but it is just such a huge subject. So, I’m going to get started on it this week with some really obvious versions, and then maybe next week we’ll get into more complex examples.
Repetition doesn’t sound like it is that big or complex of a subject and in essence, it’s not. But, how it’s used with other elements of design is pretty monumental. First of all, aside from color, repetition can be one of the strongest visual elements in a piece. I think we respond to repeated forms and elements on a fundamental level because it is so abundant in nature, thus familiar and essential in our vision of the world. It represents a visual rhythm. Rhythm being another kind of element we readily recognize and are drawn to since it rules so much of what we do and experience from the cadence of our walk to the beat of our heart, to the beat of city sounds to, of course, all kinds of music.
In art, repetition is a way to integrate a kind of music into your work. You can use that music as a basic background beat or as the one element that carries a very simple piece. A string of pearls, for instance, is about as basic a show of repetition as you can get. In these pendants we see a very basic repeating composition, however, Enkhtsetseg Tserenbadam takes things up a notch with gradient color in the clay. The colors give the simple repetition a bit of liveliness that will keep drawing the eye back to it.
Repetition and color are truly Enkhe’s thing. If you need a good dose of color in beautifully simple, and some not quite so simple patterns, you have to jump on over to her Flickr pages or her beautifully simple and elegant website and have a good long gander.
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Outside Inspiration: Fabulous Fairy Fashions
February 21, 2015 Inspirational Art
Okay … I am apparently beyond tired or something. I thought yesterday was Thursday, and so I didn’t do an Outside Inspiration piece as I usually do at the end of the week. But easily fixed! We’ll make today our look-at-something-outside-polymer day.
I don’t have any idea what category of art this would be under–it’s kind of in its own category. If you haven’t taken a really close look at this little dress, do so now. Do you see what it is made of? Petals, fern fronds and feathers–a bit of fashion made for faeries. I just thought this was genius. What else would a fairy truly dress in but what nature has available to them. The thing is, you don’t realize that it’s not a dress when you first look at it. It’s just a construction of natural elements arranged to illustrate a dress; delicate and pretty, but just an illustration. A fabulous little illustration.
The clever little fashion tailor is UK artist Emily Bazeley. She became obsessed with created these fantastical bits of haute couture after getting a gift of pressed flowers from her artist grandmother, and while looking for something that would honor both the gift and her grandmother, created her first bit of fairy fashion. It was a natural fit for her. As Emily explains, “I have always been captivated by the beauty, subtlety and sheer magic contained within each petal of a flower; each vein of a leaf; not to mention the miracle of seeds, nuts, acorns and fir cones.” It sounds like a perfect artist endeavor for this nature lover.
She constructs and frames her creations and then sells them as wall art. I was thinking about all the beautiful elaborate canes made in our community and wondered if this would inspire our caners to illustrate some simply magical fashions or illustrations of their own. For more inspiration, take a magical stroll through Emily’s website to see more fashions, dwellings, furniture and, my favorite surprise, fairy washing lines with all the little bits a fairy might have to put out to dry. Adorable.
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Random Lines
December 2, 2014 Inspirational Art
Our piece today is not dissimilar from yesterday’s piece, but it’s differences delineate another approach to the simple application of elements.
A large swath of continuous color is halted by a mix of color here as well, only in this vase by China’s Frank Khow (known as Beefball Papa on Flickr),the feel is crowded and energetic instead of being quiet and still. Yesterday’s work was simple and sparse, but today’s is more about abundance. As you can see, abundance doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, abundance is an easily visible proliferation of one thing, which in this case is a series of revealed extrusions. The draw to this comes from the impact of textural contrast–busy visual texture against a smooth and solid visual texture.
The effect is so strong here that the same busy versus quiet application can be presented with different color combinations or forms, and you’ll still have a similar feel and impact. You can see what I mean simply by visiting Frank’s Flickr photostream where he has several examples of this technique to compare.
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Make These Holes Your Own
November 20, 2014 Inspirational Art
Let’s do something a little different with our participation week today. This image does not contain finished pieces, but rather they are a technique developed by Violette Laporte. You can go here to read about what she was doing and her thoughts, but what I’d love to see is your thoughts, not on the design, but on what you would do with these to finish them. Or, how would you apply this technique to things you already do? Even if it’s not your kind of thing, try to think of a way you could incorporate it into your work.
Also, if you go ahead and actually make something from this, please send me photos! I would love to see what this post might inspire!
And, don’t forget to go back to the previous day’s posts to see how your observations compare to other peoples. There is an amazing amount of similarity in comments. I got to speed read through them all, but we still had technical problems to fix yesterday, and today, I am getting on the road for some time with family and my other half. But you know, I’ll be here every day too!
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Holey Under the Sea
November 19, 2014 Inspirational Art
First of all, thank you everyone for participating in Monday’s fun and games. You all are amazing! I was going to go through and pick some favorite comments to post today, but I’m afraid we’ve been having some serious technical issues over that have kept me from being able to read them all thoroughly yet. And apparently kept this from posting–that was user error, tired user that is. I’m sorry about that. I will get to all the comments later today, but you can read all the great observations by returning to Monday’s post and reading the comments below it.
Let’s keep this going! All participants will be tossed into the hat for the product giveaway at the end of the week.
Today we’ll ponder this set of holey bracelets by Dina Kovalkina. I found this on her Flickr page where you can look at more of her work if that helps you to learn more about what she’s doing and why. What do you think about the placement of the holes; their density? How do the elements from the holes to the ruffled edges work together or do they? How about the colors?
Let me know your thoughts! I’ll get back to fixing technical stuff and we’ll get back on track tomorrow!
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Outside Inspiration: Hidden Aesthetic
November 14, 2014 Inspirational Art
Most of what we see in nature has a very particular purpose or is an expected result of some process or circumstance. Something a person makes, well … it can be such a mystery! When something in nature opens up to reveal its treasure, usually it is something that has to do with its survival–seeds in a pod, a pearl in a oyster shell, the brightly colored interior and/or stamens in a flower. But, when man makes something that is opened to reveal something, it can be simply a show of that artist’s aesthetic, or it can be a statement.
Which do you think we have here? Andy Rogers is heavily influenced by nature, but he will mix up the components, so you have to stop and think about what it is he’s showing us. This form with its alien-looking exterior and mysterious red seeds feels like both his aesthetic and a statement about our curiosity. This is just one in a series, and one of the few whose seeds can be seen in the photographs. But, many of the other ones have truly hidden treasures stashed away where you have to be in its presence and take a peek inside to see what Andy has to show you.
Since we can’t see what he has inside from his photos, go ahead and jump over to his page and take guesses at what forms and colors might be the most eye-catching or surprising to find inside these forms. Would that get you thinking about what could be hiding in your own work? It’s kind of fun to consider! While you’re there, take a look at the rest of Andy’s gallery. I think his forms, colors and textures are particularly inspiring for the polymer artist, especially if your aesthetic leans towards the organic.
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As I’ve said many times, you can have all types of contrast as long as there is some commonality in some aspect that will create a relationship between the disparate parts. Olga Ledneva is quite adept at this as you’re certain to see in this piece here.
What Olga had done to bring all these disparate pieces together was create a variety of faux stone and other natural and inherently solid-looking faux materials, all finished with a smooth surface and in relatively geometric shapes. That tied most of the bead elements together. But then there’s this flower, a delicate object with an uneven shape and a rippling surface. It’s completely different from everything else but it works, doesn’t it? Why would that be?
For one, she’s made this flower element the focal point by making it so completely different. Just its hugely different look actually ties it to the rest with its high contrast. But she sneaks in one subtle characteristic that makes it work with the other beads— she makes it approximately the same size as all the center stone beads. Similarly sized objects will seem to belong together when they are surrounded by a variety of other sized objects. This can be a tricky thing to pull off well but I think Olga did it wonderfully here.
Olga’s work has grown in leaps and bounds since I last posted her work in early 2015, a post that caused little bit of a stir because she was combining elements, forms, and techniques learned in classes from master polymer artists, which I pointed out while noting the original, completely valid and successful way she applied them. Not everyone was comfortable with comments that might be perceived as anything less than glowingly positive but, as I replied in the comments then, I feel that I am a funnel for the community and our thoughts and concerns. So, I wanted to present the piece as a great example of taking what you learn and making it your own.
Some people were actually mad about what I wrote but Olga, to her credit, saw this as supportive and positive. That kind of openness to constructive commentary on one’s work is an important element in an artist’s growth. It shows a sincere desire to better one’s skills and designs and I think we really see that in Olga’s work.
You can watch her growth over time and see more of her beautiful work by looking through her photos on her Facebook page and Flickr photostream.
Read MoreI know I usually only do one week of a theme but we’re going to kind of continue with flowers and transition into other organic beauty this week. I’m just letting serendipity choose for us. And serendipity chose that we look at a few more unique floral items.
This wall sconce was created by Judith Ligon. This is one of her signature forms and, in my opinion, what she does best. She calls this heart-shaped wall vase a Posey pocket. The decoration on these works like a continuation of the vase’s content. The floral elements come down the front from the vase’s upper edge with lines and vine impressions creating an echoing backdrop to the stems and leaves that might be here. The placement of these decorative elements causes them to blend with the flowers and other natural contributions set in it. This way the vase and the flowers become one cohesive decorative object.
Judith sells her work through her website and shows off her latest pieces on Instagram.
Read MoreThe thing about many items being packed into a limited space is that you stop seeing those individual items and see them as one thing with a texture, and energy that does not exist in the separate parts. You see it in the crowded stands at a game, a bowl of snacks or even in your drawers full of clay. It is a kind of gestalt effect. You can use this crowding of objects to create wonderfully energetic and highly textured pieces.
This is a piece I found last week that got me thinking about this as an artistic approach. The necklace is by Hee-ang Kim, a Korean graduate student Kookmin University in Korea at the time of its creation in 2014. It is part of an aptly named series called Proliferation, this being Proliferation XI. The super thin polymer petals are stitched together to create these feather-like beads, which collectively flutter and wave in a very touchable looking texture.
Hee-ang works in a variety of materials including other types of plastics, metal and, it seems, just about anything at hand. Regardless of material, collecting multiples of objects into energetic, intriguing and often strange never-before-seen organic forms dominate Hee-ang’s collections. You can take a look at the many ways this effect can be used with thin bits of polymer on Hee-ang’s Instagram and website.
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Read MoreWhen I saw this delicately shaped aspen forest on such a pale and yet luminescent bowl, I just kind of sighed. Such a balance of light colors and strong forms takes a very intentional and intuitively passionate hand.
I saw this on the Colossal newsletter, which is a little collection of interesting art and artists dropped into my mailbox weekly. At first, I thought this was a shallow shell shape but a closer look shows it to be a bowl and not all that shallow, with the aspen trees growing up from the inside of it. Ceramic artist Heesoo Lee actually creates this complex and delicate look by creating separate leaves and placing them carefully by hand, building a very dimensional and shimmering look for these trees which, in real life, shimmer with the constant flutter of their leaves in even the slightest breeze. It made me a little homesick for Colorado actually. The aspens will be a brilliant gold turning to russet red about now.
Well, i can’t get out to the Rockies right now but we can all enjoy these Rocky Mountain forest-inspired creations by visiting the Montana-based artist’s work online both on Instagram and Etsy. Here is the link to the Colossal article on her as well.
And don’t forget to work out time to come see the Into the Forest installation in Pittsburgh in November. Here is the link again so you can work on those plans to join fellow polymer artists that weekend.
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Read MoreI love the integration of the real world with artistic imagination. Finding this garden dragon hit all my buttons as I have also always been a bit of a dragon-loving nerd. The creator, Emily Coleman, creates all kinds of fantastic creatures made to blend in with natural settings.
Her inspiration for this comes from nature itself, of course, but it is driven by, in her words, “… a very strong passion for the environment and the protection of the world’s forests. As I began showing my tree dragons, I realized they could help me spread this passion.”
I have to agree. Anything that draws people to nature, takes them outdoors, and encourages them to plant in a garden or a pot, helps keep us close to nature and the earth which engenders an appreciation for them and, usually, some level of drive to do right by these things we find ourselves communing with. Putting a little something fantastical in among the plants is a fun and relatively novel way of displaying and celebrating creativity and the substance of human imagination.
Read a bit more about Emily and her inspirations on this Bored Panda article and see her other creations on her Instagram account and her website.
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Read MoreI am heading Into the Forest in November! The huge installation project put together by Laura Tabakman, Julie Eakes and Emily Squires Levine will be a monumental event for the polymer art community and I, for one, can’t imagine missing this. It is being installed into a gallery in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania with a gallery opening and party on November 10th followed by a Saturday forum on related topics. Coming down off the high I got being around so many amazing folks at Synergy in August, I am looking forward to a little creative recharge in November along with getting to see the work of 300+ polymer artists, all in one huge piece of global art.
So first … if you are interested in attending as well, you can jump over to the website and get all the details right here. I would love to see you and meet you there!
The anticipation of this event has put me in the mood for forest-inspired work. Of course. So I rooted around the internet and found some amazing stuff to share with you this week. Here you see a very curious and delicately beautiful pendant inspired by both the flora and the fauna of the forest. The artist, Alina Sanina, started working in clay eight years ago as a curious teen but now, with a degree in art education behind her, she continues to sculpt and create a wide range of fantastical but rather realistic pieces.
I found this piece to be an eye-catcher at first glance because of its contrast between a skull, representing death, and the green and floral details of Spring foliage that top it off. But if you examine it for a minute, you’ll notice that the skull is not all a skull. The deer has live-looking eyes and fully fleshed-out ears. The contrast of life and death is within the deer head, not just the skull and vegetation here. It looks to me like a little representation of the cycle of life in a forest setting.
I have long been interested in societal views of life and death and how different cultures and even individuals work out how to handle the fact that these complete opposite states co-exist and are an understood, if not readily accepted, part of the cycle of life. I don’t know if that is what Alina had in mind when creating this but there are definitely metaphors on those subjects that one can discuss in regards to this little piece.
Whether you turn away or are intrigued by such difficult subject matter, I think you will want to see more of the beautiful work Alina creates. You can do so in her Etsy shop and on Instagram.
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Read MoreAlong with hitting up a number of museums, I got to chat with a lot of artist friends, including my crazy circle in Colorado who seek out, as well as create, really wild and fantastical work. And whenever they find polymer related work, they bring it to me.
My old roommate and the instigator of my own polymer journey, Kyle Kelley, introduced me to this unusual artist, Anastasiya Khramina of NooboSlowpokoPanda. The polymer flowers you see here may have beautifully painted petals and lots of natural detail but take just a little closer look and you’ll see they also have teeth! And some crazy but realistically textured tongues. There is even one embellished with a cat’s snout, complete with bared teeth.
These beautifully creepy, ready-for-Halloween creations are made into brooches, pendants and hair clips, per the customer’s request. She actually makes other things besides flowers but they all have teeth and tongues. If you’re getting into the Halloween mood or are looking for some creepy inspiration, jump over to Anastasiya’s NooboSlowpokoPanda Facebook page for short videos on her pieces and process and her Etsy shop for a look at her present offerings.
And don’t forget … tomorrow is the last day to get half off all available print editions of The Polymer Arts and Polymer Journeys. Head to our Etsy shop to pick up any publications you don’t have yet!
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Read MoreEasily the all-time favorite cover and one of the best-selling issues since 2012 was the Fall 2013 – Organics issue. I think this was, in large part, due to this fabulous cover art by Kathrin Neumaier. Kathrin was the most prolific and arguably most interesting artist working in translucent polymer clay. She created hollow forms in both the solid and the liquid forms of polymer with stunning results.
I remember getting this image from her and I knew it had to be the cover art for the issue. I didn’t even make any other covers or put it to a vote with the staff as I usually did. I laid this out while on “vacation” with my family on the Oregon coast and while they were off playing on the beach, I got to play with making this piece shine. I remember finishing it and just stepping across the room to look at it from a distance and it was just gorgeous, no matter how you looked at it.
I dug around to see what Kathrin has been up to but there haven’t been any postings since the end of 2016 so it’s not the most up-to-date news on her. I do hope she resurfaces, but in the meantime, enjoy the inspiring collection of work she has created and shared with us on Flickr.
If you don’t have a copy of this beautiful issue, I have only about a dozen copies left in print although they will always be available in digital. Grab your copy of this memorable issue on our website here.
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Read More
Your Thoughts on Lacy & A Giveaway
November 17, 2014 Inspirational Art
So, last week I was having an email conversation with the fabulous Debbie Crothers of Australia. We’re both ideas people with minds going a million miles an hour. At one point she said, “I absolutely love reading your blog. I try and do my own little analysis of the work before I read yours, and it’s always so interesting and educational reading your view on each piece.” Which was kind of funny because I’ve been trying to think of a way to encourage people to do just that–make their own decision about what is working or not in the piece before reading my thoughts. They are only my thoughts. I don’t always hit the mark, and I sometimes miss things I should have seen. But with thousands of eyes on this every day, I thought we could get a more well-rounded view of the work sometimes.
So, Debbie and I bantered back and forth about how to do that and came upon this very simple idea–I’ll present work, give you background and ask that you comment. Then we’ll publish some of the comments the next day, and I’ll add thoughts if any are needed. This way we’ll have readers chiming in like a true discussion. Sound like fun?
It also occurred to me that this is chance to work in more giveaways! I’ve started collecting items and getting some teachers and retailers on board, so we can have these interactive moments on the blog more often, spurred on by the chance to win some cool polymer related products or publications. So … are you ready to try this out? I’ll put the participation details below.
Here is a piece by Ivana Brozova I picked out last week as I looked for ‘hidden’ type designs. As it so happened, I was gathering a lot of pieces that were more about being lacy or holey, so I saved them for this week. I couldn’t wait to share Ivana’s work, though. Fantastic organic textures are everywhere in explorations that she conducted at the end of last year. You can see these both on her Flickr page and her website.
What you think about the color choices here? Do you think the lace quality of the structure helps or distracts from the design? Or do other aspects strike you first?
Put your thoughts in the comments below the blog post. That means, if you are getting this by email or RSS, or reading it on the opening page of the blog, you’ll want to click on this post’s heading to get to its dedicated page. Comments can be inserted at the bottom of that page. Be sure your correct email is in your ID information, and we’ll pull an email address at the end of the week and announce the winner on Monday. I will offer the winner a few options from my stash, so there should be something exciting for everyone. This week I’ll be offering Sculpey texture rollers, bead rollers or a set of floral texture sheets from a couple different manufacturers … or a $10 certificate toward any subscription or back issue of The Polymer Arts will always be an option. It’ll be your choice.
Comment before midnight Eastern Standard Time to have a chance to see your words on the blog site.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.