Diving into Exploration
April 4, 2021
Design lessons, Technique tutorials
Flickr’s Dragonfly555 shows off impressions samples.
Do you feel like you have to make a finished piece or be working on a particular design when you sit down at your studio table? Sure, it feels good, and it’s very exciting to have a finished piece to show and share, but learning a craft is as much about exploration as is about creating finished work.
So, if you’re not giving yourself that exploratory time, let me give you some reasons to highly consider it. And if you do a bit of exploring already, maybe I can offer up some new ideas about ways to use and organize your exploratory bits that you might not have tried.
The Exploratory Reasoning
When you’re fairly new to a material, technique, form, or construction method, it is to your advantage to spend time just playing with it. This is especially true, I think, of texture, mark making, color mixing, new techniques, and new materials including new brands of a familiar material. Trying to make finished work before you are familiar with the technique or material can get frustrating, if not downright depressing. You can gain more success in the long run if you develop a better understanding of what it is that you’re working and hone your skills a bit before gambling your time, materials, and hopes on finished work.
It certainly can be tempting to just pick up something and see what you can make with it right out the gate. With a lot of home craft materials, polymer clay in particular, you can create a decent completed piece within a day of picking it up. However, the ease of these materials is a bit of a deception. They may be easy to get started with, but mastering them, even just a little, takes time and effort. Give yourself a gift of that time to get to know what you’re working with without the pressure of trying to finish something presentable.
Samples to Reference
Mica powders with sample chips
Probably the best way to explore new materials and techniques is to make small samples, ones you can keep and reference as you make decisions for future finished pieces. If the color of the sample is not relevant, you can just use scrap clay. If you use clay straight out of the package, you may also have an option to transform the samples into finished work. Let’s go over all these options.
(Although I’m going to talk specifically about polymer clay, if you work primarily in another material, consider an equivalent process. Consider how you can cut out or form small samples that can be saved as references. See if this clay focused process inspires you.)
For some orderly exploration, sheet your clay and then hand cut or punch cut the sheets into whatever shapes tickle your fancy. Then you can just go crazy with whatever you’re exploring. Use as many of these pieces as you like for each process you’re exploring. Keep the ones you are pleased with, etching with a needle tool or, after curing, writing on the back with permanent marker, what you made them with. Keep cured pieces in a baggie or punch holes in them before curing so you can string them on wire or chain, making them easy to flip through.
If you are playing with textures, mark making, or any kind of tooling on polymer clay, I would suggest sheeting three different thicknesses—the thickest setting, a medium setting, and the thinnest setting on your pasta machine. Then try out each of your experiments at least once on each of the three different thicknesses. Anything that impresses or otherwise moves around the clay will be affected differently by the clay thickness, sometimes subtly but sometimes quite dramatically.
Cure the samples you like, being sure to inscribe or write a note on the back indicating what thickness the clay sheet was along with what made the impression or marks.
If you’re color mixing, sheet the finished color, then punch out a decent sized shape, one that has enough room for you to write down your proportions for that color mix. For example, if you mix a deep rich purple by combining 6 parts cobalt, 3 parts magenta, and one part black, inscribe on the back:
6X blue
3X magenta
1X black
Also include a big initial for the brand of clay (P for Premo, F for Fimo, K for Kato, etc) since colors by the same name in one brand are usually nothing like those colors in another brand.
You can also note proportions visually by punching out a circle of clay, smaller than your mixed sample, from each of the colors you used in the mix. Cut out portions, like pie slices, from each color in proportion to how much was used in the mix to re-create a single circle showing how much of each color was used in the mix. Don’t forget to inscribe your initial for the brand of clay. See the image here for an approximate example of the purple mix above.
Adhere this combination pie to the mixed color shape, punch a hole in the sample, cure, and string on a chain or wire.
(If you are confused about how to figure out the parts aspect of the color mixing, just use a small cutter to punch your unmixed colors out of sheets of the same thickness. Each piece is a part. Use these punched bits of clay to make your mix, keeping track of how many pieces/parts you use to create the color you’re making.)
If you’re playing with a surface colorant, try it on both white clay and black clay or on clay colors you use quite often. It’s a rare colorant that doesn’t allow the clay base underneath to the show through, so trying it on black and white will give you an idea of how the colorant will appear on lighter versus darker colors, not just black and white.
I punch small-ish circles out of white and black sheets of clay, then I cut them in half and put a white half with a black half. I apply the colorant to these splits chips. After curing, I glue them to the colorant’s product container so my reference sample is right on the product. You can see here how well this works for those little mica powder containers, above. I keep them in a drawer with the samples facing up so I can quickly find the color I want.
The best part about all these samples is that while you’re designing a finished piece, you can pull them out and compare them side-by-side to see what works well together. You can also hold them up to a partially finished piece to see what you might want to add. Personally, I can’t imagine working without all my exploratory samples.
Turning Discovery into Works of Art
Just a few pendants and beads I made with extra texture samples by reforming and/or adding pin lace layers of clay. You can learn the pin lace technique in the February VAB here. The VAB PDFs are 40% right now too.
Now, for those of you who are anxious to produce something with your time at the studio table, you can take any samples you’re not going to save for reference and create with them. You can add additional layers, reshape, or attach embellishment to your extra samples to easily create pendants, earrings, or brooches. You can also use them for collages or mosaics.
Keep cured samples, even if you’re not going to use them for reference, for further experiments where you want to play with cured clay techniques or to test new glues or sealants. This way, not only is your time not wasted, neither are any of the materials you’re playing with.
Give Yourself Permission to Explore
Whatever your inclination, the big take-away here is that in-depth exploration can, and probably should, be a regular part of your creative process. Give yourself the permission and time to do this throughout your creative journey or career, not just when you’re starting out.
Keep in mind, not only does this kind of exploratory time hone your skills, your familiarity and confidence with the processes and techniques grow stronger and faster than they would if you tried to learn just through making finished work. This is because you are willing to take more chances with these scrap samples. They just don’t have the same stakes, right?
And, you know, taking chances with this exploratory sample work should eventually translate into taking bigger risks with your finished pieces. I think, when we take the big risks, that’s when we make the biggest leaps and create the most amazing work. Well, sometimes we make absolute disasters as well, but it’s all part of the process. You’re certainly less likely to have a disaster if you do a lot of exploration first.
Christi Friesen shares unusual and creative mark making in the March Virtual Art Box
So, if you have not let yourself just explore and play with the materials you work with, maybe, this week, you can either set some time aside or make all of your studio time exploration time. Making many of your mistakes in the exploratory phase and not always on completed pieces will make your creative time more efficient, less stressful, and more enjoyable.
Texture Hungry?
If you’re one of those who is looking for more ideas and direction on texture, don’t forget we have an entire issue of The Polymer Arts on texture, the Fall 2017 issue. Also check out the mark making focused edition of the Virtual Art Box from March of last year. All Virtual Art Box content that was previously members only is 40% off right now.
The Last of the March Giveaways
Our month of giveaways has ended, but all your wonderful comments have given me so many ideas for upcoming posts. I thank all of you who commented so very sincerely!
I have one last giveaway winner to announce. Valerie Hall is receiving the last batch of my giveaway Polyform clay. I was very excited about this. Valerie is a very active and giving soul who has been trying to teaching through the great clay shortage of 2020 in any way she can. So it’s fantastic to aid her with this clay package. Congrats Valerie!
This was so much fun. I will try to do this here and there as I receive samples or find opportunities to gather stuff for you. So stick around for more free stuff in the not-too-distant future!
You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like…
Metaphor and Simile
March 28, 2021
Design lessons
Christine Damm fits together leftovers from old veneers to create her “Distant Worlds” earring components. Just for fun, what kind of soup would make a suitable metaphor for these? I was thinking Italian Wedding soup!
How often do you use metaphors and similes when you are trying to explain something? I read somewhere that we use metaphor about five or six times a minute. I’m not sure about the accuracy of that number but we do use metaphor in small ways all day long and similes are often our go to option for things that we are having a hard time explaining. Why do we use these so much? Because metaphors and similes help us simplify complicated or hard to grasp ideas. They also help us see old things in a fresh way or make daunting things less intimidating.
Can you think of some things in your life that you would like to simplify, see in a new way, or find less intimidating? I think we all do and our creative time often has many complications and blind spots as the rest of her life. So let’s talk about metaphor and simile in terms of how can help you resolve questions in design.
To ensure the terminology doesn’t get confusing, let’s quickly define these devices.
Metaphor: assigning a word or phrase to something for which it is not literally applicable. For instance, “my studio table is a disaster area,” or “think outside the box.” Certainly, the studio table is not being cordoned off and applying for federal emergency relief, and I do hope you aren’t in a box to start with.
Simile: comparing two unlike things to make an interesting or exaggerated point, usually using the word like or as to make the connection. For example, “my studio looks like a war zone” or “I was as sick as a dog.”
Find Your Answers in Metaphors
The idea of metaphors and similes as a device for helping in design came up when I was reading the comments made last week for the giveaway in which I asked what design element people were struggling with. A lot of people are struggling with color which was expected since that is one of the harder elements to master but there was also a lot of concern about size and, most surprisingly, confusion surrounding the use of texture. Of course, this got me thinking about how I can help you better utilize or master these elements. The first things I came up with were metaphors.
So, let me give you a little design lesson on texture, since that’s the one that surprised me the most, with a metaphor.
In terms of techniques, textures are not hard to create, especially if you’re working with something as forgiving as polymer clay. The question seems to be where to use it, how much to use, and how to choose textures for your work. Thinking about this, I came up with a broad metaphor—cooking.
So, think about what you would have to do to throw together a pot of homemade soup. (Even if cooking is not your thing, it’s not so much about whether you can relate as whether you can imagine the equivalences the metaphors draw between art and cooking.) When you start a soup, you make a lot of your big choices up front, such as what kind of base—broth, tomato, or creamy—and then what’s going to go into it, particularly the protein and vegetables.
Your artwork isn’t that different. Your base choice starts with your intention—what you want to make or what you want to express—then you choose the materials you use and some key design elements such as colors marks, lines, surface design, and embellishments.
At the end of the soup recipe is where you usually find the spice. Texture, to me, is the spice. Although I tend to have an idea about what textures I might want in a piece just as I tend to know what kind of spices I think I’ll want in the soup, my process tends to bring in the texture towards the end of the decision-making. Note that I say it comes at the end of decision-making not at the end of the making of a piece since often times materials need to be textured before they are cut or attached.
Now, why would I save my decisions about texture until the end? Well, with soup, spice is what creates a lot of the discernible flavor and can really bring all the ingredients together. So, if we think of texture as spice, use it where this visual or tactile spice will heighten the “flavor” of the piece or, if you have kind of disparate sections, if they all have a similar texture then it becomes more cohesive.
The metaphor even works for the amount of spice or texture you use. Use a lot if you want the spice to be the primary experience the viewer has or keep it subtle or light so that it complements the other elements or helps them shine. Choose textures that work with the other elements just as you would choose spices that go with the proteins, vegetables, and soup base.
Kathleen Krucoff spices up her dangle earrings with a very light rough surface on the silver and a touch of gritty gold texture to bring our eye up from the focal point gems.
For instance, you’re probably not going to throw a bunch of pungent nutmeg and turmeric into a delicate chicken and wonton soup. That kind of simple soup needs some flavor from spice and herbs, but you would be better off with some bright lemon or ginger, maybe a sprinkling of cilantro or shallots. Likewise, if your artwork is pale and delicate, you might not want a deep and dense texture, but something shallow and subtle.
There is one point at which the soup metaphor kind of fails. You don’t actually have to have spice In soup but in artwork, every surface has texture even if the texture is smooth. Still, you can think of smooth textures as equivalent to a soup that doesn’t depend on spice for its flavor. That does mean that all the other ingredients/elements need to carry the design. If you go heavy on the texture, keep in mind that is it will probably overpower, visually, many of the other elements. You know, like cayenne pepper does in a pot of Texas chili!
Okay, so, This metaphor soup for texture will work for some and not for others. For some of you, the idea of texture being spice may have lit a big light bulb over your head and you just left me to run off to your studio table to try some things out. Fabulous! Of course, then there’s a bunch of you who have gotten this far but are scratching your head thinking, “I don’t get it.” That’s okay. Maybe you can find a different metaphor, or you might find similes easier to visualize. There’s Bound to be something that can give the concepts you’re struggling with the structure and simplicity you need.
I’m going to work up some ways to talk more about texture, size, and color over the next few weeks since those seem to be the primary concerns for so many of you. But in the meantime, look to other things you do for potential metaphors that might help you with your approach to various aspects of design, especially things you find easy to do or have a lot of experience with such as gardening, party planning, interior decorating, writing, or putting together the perfect ensemble for a special night out (if any of us can remember what that was like.) Ask yourself, what do I start with, what do I add next, what are the little decisions I have to make to get it to be perfect?
There is a good chance you can find a somewhat equivalent process to plan your designs if you think on it. At the very least, searching for metaphors and similes might bring up some options for a new approach to your work that you would not have seen had you not looked for a metaphor.
An Easy Search
If you need more detailed information on various aspects of design right now, go to the blog and use the search box there to find the posts in which we discuss those elements.
Also, did you know that you can search for articles and artists published in any of the Tenth Muse magazines by going to this table of contents page? There is a link at the top of all the magazine sales pages too.
The page allows you to search through the titles of every magazine article published through Tenth Muse, most of which include the subject matter in the title. The listings also include artist’s names and the author of each article. To search the page, use your “find” keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+F in Windows or Command-F for Mac) to bring up a search box that will help you find specific subjects, artists, or authors. Use the simplest version of keywords, (like mokume instead of mokume gane, or transfer instead of transfers) to have the most success in your search.
If you have a collection of The Polymer Arts or Polymer Studio magazines, bookmark the table of contents page so you can find out which issues have the technique, artists, or subject matter you’re looking for.
Last Week’s Giveaway
Last week the giveaway box went to Kathleen von Balson. She actually posted about trying to be more subtle in her use of contrast. I just love when the blogs get someone going in the studio and I get to hear about it!
Congrats Kathleen!
(You know, you are always welcome to post comments below or send me an email about what you got out of a blog post, especially if you have suggestions or questions. It helps me determine what to share with you here.)
This Week’s Giveaway
Thank you to everyone who took part in last week’s giveaway through comments on the post. I do hope it gave you a moment to think and refocus on design elements you’re struggling with. I think it was really revealing for other readers as well– there were quite a lot of replies to the various comments. So, let’s do this one more time.
The Goodies:
- This week I have a selection of Sculpey clays in 2 new Soufflé colors, 3 new Premo colors, and 2 big 8 oz. blocks of clay stash basics—Sculpey III in Pearl and Silver. That’s 26 ounces of fresh clay along with a three-piece set of Sculpey silkscreens.
- Or if outside the US, I have a $30 Tenth Muse certificate, since it would be such a gamble to ship clay outside the US.
How to Win:
- Put a note in the blog comments* (below), this time letting me know what else besides design elements you’re struggling with in your artwork or creative time. (Yes, I’m using you to give me ideas about what to write about my coming months. I think that will work well for all of us!) It can be one word or a whole explanation.
- Note: It may take some time for the comment to appear if you’ve not commented before since, due to annoying spamming, I have to approve it .
- Giveaway winners will be chosen by random—it will NOT be based on your answers. I do hope you’ll give it some thought anyway. The answers could be helpful to you as well as interesting for the rest of us.
- And let’s say you can only win once this month so we can spread the love around.
- Get your comments posted by Wednesday March 31st at midnight Pacific time to get in for the raffle.
- I’ll announce the winner here on the blog next weekend!
You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like…
Contrast of Self
March 14, 2021
Design lessons, Supplies & other fun stuff
Would you call yourself a selfish person? I doubt very many of us would think that way about ourselves. Yet, as artists, we often find ourselves “stealing” time away from others or other things to do what we love, reveling in it when we have it. Is that selfish? I mean, it is more about us than anyone else, isn’t it?
Yes, it is about us, and that is as it should be. In the requested comments for last week’s giveaway (scroll down to see the winner and this week’s giveaway), participants mentioned some version of the “me time” aspect of getting to sit down and create more than anything else. I mean, I know we create because it is something we enjoy, regardless of what anyone else thinks, but I just love that so many people acknowledged and celebrated it. We should!
I strongly believe that everyone should have something of their own, something they can turn to in order to express themselves or at least put something out into the world that would not have existed without their desire to create it. The art we create gives us purpose, exercises a uniquely human part of our brains, and helps us to love ourselves. Not to mention that we deserve the joy we get from it!
But, by definition, that is selfish—doing something because it’s what we want. I wish our society would get over the idea that doing something for ourselves is bad. I think not doing things for yourself is self-negligence. Why is that not a commonly understood thing?
This also highlights the bigger, contradictory world that we inhabit. We live in such strange societies where selflessness and humility are expected or requested, and yet we are also pushed to strive for excellence in what we do. How do we reach excellence without focusing on ourselves? And then there is this silliness where we are not supposed to acknowledge when the work we do is good or that we’re proud of it. If we do, others may think we’re being arrogant or grandiose.
So, do we strive to be great and then pretend that we’re mediocre? We talk about contrast being good in art, but this is so not the right kind of contrast!
I’ve long found the dichotomy of these contradictory but societally prescribed behaviors beyond aggravating as well as having the potential to be debilitating. I think that is why it made me so happy to see so many people acknowledging their creative hours as me-time, self-care, and a time of wonderfully selfish joy. Keep it up, I say!
Now, let’s talk about the good kind of contrast in art.
Design Refresh
Let’s look at the beautiful brooch by Lyne Tilt that opened this post. What do you notice first about this? There’s a lot going on in this little space, isn’t there? What are the three things that jump out at you as far as design elements?
I’m going to say color, shape, and texture. Did you come up with the same three? There is also a lot going on with marks and size. So, any combination of those would be spot on.
How about design principles? What do you think is the number one principal used in this design? Sure, we could refer to scale and proportion considering all the different sizes of the layers, or we could talk about focal point or even just key in on the centered composition. But the one thing this has in spades is contrast.
Obviously, there is color contrast in all the major color characteristics—she has a vibrant trio of warm colors contrasting the cool of the blue and cyan; color values range from the dark blue and deep red to the moderate orange to the light yellow and pale polished silver; and, if you check your CMY color wheels, you’ll see that the color of the bottom layer is a blue-cyan whose complementary AND split complementaries are the yellow, orange, and red that you see in the upper layers.
But doesn’t a color palette have to have at least one common characteristic between all the colors? Well, ideally, yes, and this does. Here it’s saturation. These are not muted colors. The orange may be slightly tinted (has some white in it) but not enough to feel it’s gone off base from the saturated characteristic that ties them all together.
Now, look at the contrast in the textures. The top and bottom layers might have the same texture, but the rest are vastly different. There are even different materials—metal and clay. But they work together pretty well, don’t they? Why?
The textures work together in part because they are all drastically different—the wide variety is part of the charm of this piece. But, like color, they need something to tie them together.
Did you notice that the textures are applied to the entire layer from one edge to another? Thier differences are connected because the application on each layer is the same. That does seem to be enough to allow them to exist in the same piece and not have it feel completely chaotic.
The shapes, on the other hand, are not completely different but they are not the same either, right? They are all some version of a hand cut circle, but some of them are definitely more oval. I think pulling back on the amount of contrast between the shapes also helps to rein in the potential chaos all this dramatic contrast and color and texture could fall into. The centered composition also adds a bit of calm to the piece.
Let’s take this week to consider the design principle of contrast. Would your pieces benefit from more contrast, or do you need to rein some of that in? Remember, it all depends on your intention. There are no wrong levels of contrast, at least not in art.
Last Week’s Giveaway
Drum roll please…
This last week’s randomly chosen winner is Eloise B! I’ve spoken to her and her clay is already on the way. Congrats Eloise!
This Week’s Giveaway
Thank you to everyone who participated in last week’s giveaway through comments on the post. As mentioned above, it really made me happy to see all the fantastic, positive and self-caring observations. I also hope it gave you a moment to focus on and appreciate what you love so much about creating.
So, let’s do this again.
The Goodies:
- This week I have a selection of Sculpey clays in 2 new Soufflé colors, 3 new Premo colors, and 2 big 8 oz. blocks of clay stash basics—Sculpey III in Pearl and Silver. That’s 26 ounces of fresh clay along with a three-piece set of Sculpey silkscreens.
- Or if outside the US, I have a $25 Tenth Muse certificate, since it would be such a gamble to ship clay outside the US.
How to Win:
- Put a comment in the blog comments* (below), telling me what type of contrast you enjoy creating most in your own work, or the type of contrast you wish you used more of. And, yes, if you want to share pictures, you can do so by including a link. Just don’t put more than one link in or it may spam filter the comment.
- Note: It can take some time for the comment to appear if you’ve not commented before since, due to annoying spamming, I have to approve it .
- Giveaway winners will be chosen by random—it will NOT be based on your answers. I do hope you’ll give it some thought anyway. The answers could be helpful to you as well as interesting for the rest of us.
- And let’s say you can only win once this month so we can spread the love around.
- Get your comments posted by Wednesday March 17th at midnight Pacific time to get in for the raffle.
- I’ll announce the winner here on the blog next weekend!
I’ll put together yet another pack of goodies for a giveaway in next weekend’s post, so stay tuned here!
You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like…
A Variety Show
January 24, 2021
Design lessons
Last weekend I talked about contrast, a concept closely related to variety, which is the subject for this week. Understanding the difference between the two can avoid a lot of confusion so I’ll be referring to contrast a bit today as well. If you didn’t see the last post, give it a quick read here.
Now, what is variation?
Variation is the range or assortment of differences throughout a design. Now, didn’t contrast also speak to differences? Yes, but those differences were between similar types of elements while variation is the degree of difference between all of the elements, principles, and placement choices in your work. It is like contrast in that variation is also used to create interest or energy or to otherwise support your intention, however, while contrast is often the key to adjusting the level of variation, you can have a fair bit of variation with little or no contrast.
To put it succinctly, contrast is the difference between two or more related elements while variety is about the relationship between all the elements in a piece. So, let’s talk about those relationships and how they are used in design.
Picturing Variation
First of all, keep in mind that you can create variation with elements or principles or pretty much any visual or conceptual part of your work.
Take the gorgeous pendant that opened this post. Liz Sabol has variation in color, line, balance, repetition, rhythm and even types of composition. In fact, even though we can identify a use of the Rule of Thirds, a Golden Spiral, and use of the Focus to the Right principle, it’s the barely-there nod to centered composition, created by an implied line from the midpoint focused, and yet asymmetrical, balance of the bail to the centered tip at the bottom of the pendant, that is holding all the chaos at bay. This piece is an absolute celebration of variation.
Alternately, if you use a lot of the same elements or employ principles in the same way throughout a piece, then there would be little variation. You can see that in this simple but still striking little pendant by an undisclosed creative on VK.com. (If you know who made this, do let me know and I’ll update the post.) Here there is regular rhythm, an absolutely centered composition, and every shape is circular. The only variation is created by contrast in the value difference between the black and white and the textural difference between the smooth outer elements and the rough interior disc.
Now, looking at the two pendants, I’m sure you can see that there is a huge difference between the energy and feel of them, largely because of the level of variation.
It’s a Matter of Degrees
So, as you see, a piece can be interesting with little to no variation or contrast. These concepts add points and degrees of interest. It’s your intention that should determine what role they will play in your work.
Just think, if you want a piece to feel solemn and quiet, avoiding high contrast and keeping your variation quite subtle may be what you need. That calm could be very awe-inspiring in its subtlety. Alternately, you can have a piece with the points of contrast and variation ranging from subtle to obvious.
You see an example of moderation in contrast and variation in Amy Genser’s Eventide pictured here. Yes, the piece feels quite busy and has a lot of energy but the contrast and variation are not that dramatic. There’s a lot of texture but it’s all rough and predominantly created from the rolled-up paper elements. The rolled paper elements are all ovoid in shape but with variation in regard to the roundness and width. They also range in size and are very in color although, like the rest of the canvas, they are predominantly blue and cyan, keeping to the cool side of the color wheel. The canvas does open up into a brief mix of reds and yellows in the middle and the color values do range from a dark blue to white. But the variation is applied in a gradual and moderated way. Most of the energy comes from the texture, the repetition, and the sense of movement.
So, we see here that the degree of variation doesn’t have to be high to create energy or interest as other elements and principles can do that quite well. However, I do think in this case that the level of variation included boosts the energy of the texture and repetition. It’s a team effort.
So, unlike some other concepts, there is no way to really list the different types or degrees of contrast and variation and what they might mean for your particular piece. As you’ve seen, this is in large part due to how much these concepts depend on, and play off of, the other choices made in the design.
This is only a quick introduction to the subjects of contrast and variation but I’ll continue talking about them in many of my future posts. If you think about it, I’ve actually been talking about these ideas throughout the year as the differences in your choices for the various elements and principles is quite wrapped up in your decisions on how you’ll employ contrast and variation.
Some of your choices for contrast and variation will be made automatically if you make characteristic choices for your elements before specifically thinking about contrast or variation, like choosing just daisies for a flower necklace or choosing green and red as your color palette because it’s for Christmas. Repeated daisies will dictate rather low levels of variation because of the sameness of the primary motif so you’d have to work with contrast in things like value and size to take it up a notch. And Christmas colors are high contrast so it would be difficult to make the work also feel calm or serene starting from that color palette.
However, you might find it more advantageous to make choices about the degree of contrast and variation that would best suit the work and then make that happen through the characteristics you choose for your elements. In fact, knowing the degree of contrast and variation you want can help you make more confident and intentional choices for your elements, various principles, and composition. That’s how influential the concept of contrast and variation is in art.
Perhaps this talk of contrast and variety will get you jazzed to try out some variations on variety your own self. So, while the sun is shining and the muse is calling, do try to have a wonderful, safe, and creative week!
You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like, just …
A Lack of Absolutes
October 25, 2020
Design lessons, Polymer community news
Helen Breil’s variations lean on the principles of emphasis and movement using line, in particular, to create a feeling of unity and a sense of complexity even though these are not particularly intricate. The design just feels so complete and satisfying.
Do you feel, or have you felt, that design is a very confusing subject? I wanted to ask because as of next month, we dive into the PRINCIPLES of Design. We’ve been working on Elements thus far. Yes, there are two categories to define the ways we use design. So, before I go further, let’s define those.
Elements of Design – the components used to create designs. They are like the ingredient in a recipe, only they are not the materials or tools you use but rather the individual elements you create with them.
Elements of Design (my list for mixed media arts) include:
-
- Line
- Marks
- Color
- Shape
- Form
- Texture
Principles of Design – the concepts used to arrange and organize the elements of design. These are like the methods and choices used to combine the ingredients in a recipe in order to create the desired outcome.
Principles of Design (as I am going to teach it here) include:
-
- Balance
- Movement
- Contrast<->Variety
- Emphasis<->Hierarchy
- Repetition<->Rhythm
- Scale<->Proportion
- Unity<->Similarity
Don’t they look so manageable in those simple lists? Well, Elements does, I’m sure. Principles … they are concepts, so they’re more complicated. But don’t worry. I’ve been fiendishly sneaking them in all along so you are actually familiar with many of them if you’ve been reading my blog even for just this year. Just in the last couple months, I’ve been drilling in the ideas of contrast, similarity, movement and even a bit about scale.
There may be two separate lists above but they are completely dependent on each other. You can’t use principles with out the elements to create with and you can’t create with elements without the principles pushing you, consciously or unconsciously, towards the beauty and satisfaction that comes from a good design.
The Ultimate List of Design
Now, you may be asking yourself, why are the notations above about these lists my version? Aren’t these things standardized? Well, unfortunately, they are not and that’s the crux of the problem I want to peel open today.
When I talk about elements and principles of art and design, I’m giving you what I believe would be the best set of these for what we do in polymer and mixed media art. If you go online and search for just a list of the Principles of Design, you will find everything from a list of 5 up to a list of 20 principles. That’s pretty crazy!
It is understandable when some people think one or two things don’t belong on a list but when you regularly get this whole range, with some items paired up (like I did above) and others listing those same paired items as separate and distinct concepts, it can really make you wonder how you will ever learn the “right” set of concepts?
To make it simple (but possibly no less frustrating), I’m here to tell you there is no single ultimate list of elements or principles of design. And, no, it’s not because people have different opinions, although they do, but it has to do with the type of creative work each source assumes the reader will be considering.
These lists of elements and principles change to best serve the medium the writer or instructor assumes you, the reader, are dealing with. For instance, in painting and illustration, value is its own element discussed outside of color because value is what allows painters to define dimensionality, space, and perspective in the work. Our work in craft is primarily dimensional to begin with which is why I simplified my list to included value as part of the color element discussion.
Likewise, mark making in crafts is extremely important while mark making in graphic design is nearly nonexistent or is replaced with the concept of motif or pattern. And motif is an extremely important element in interior design but it is usually a side note, if even that, in fine arts.
So, all those lists out there are customized and created for the particular creatives the creator of the list believes will be using it. Right? Right!
I just wanted to clarify that before we jump in the principles of design so if any of you have learned or been taught something different than the list I’m going to give you, you understand why. I do believe my lists will best serve you as a mixed-media artist but you are welcome to build your own as needed.
The bottom line here… Don’t worry about whether you’ve got design terminology down precisely. Worry about understanding the concepts, identifying them, and working with them.
Ack! What’s a Creative to Focus On?
If all these lists and their imprecise ways make you feel like you’re going to hyperventilate, take heart. When it comes down to it, there are really just a few things you need to focus on as I can distill what I am trying to teach you into just three things. If you concentrate on these, you can just read my posts and the club’s mini-mag content and all this design knowledge will work its way into your brain by osmosis:
Your Artistic Keys:
- Create with intention, whatever that means to you.
- Draw your intention from that authentic and unique core that is you.
- Aim to make conscious, intentional design choices on every aspect of your work.
If you can do these three things, you can and will be an incredible and fulfilled artist. The rest – the terminology, concepts, elements and such – you can gather like you do art supplies. You pick them up as you can and then use them at every opportunity that makes sense. It would be great if you actually thought of them as new shiny tools and materials on your studio table. They can be, and usually are, the most valuable tools you have at hand.
The End of Free Lessons is Nigh!
In the coming months, the Principles of Design lessons, although they will continue to appear here in some fashion, will be largely moving to the weekly Devotee Club mini-mags. I need to start transitioning the bulk of my content to the Club content as the full free lessons were intended just to help get us all through this tumultuous year, but I do have to get back to bringing in the funds so I can keep at it!
So … if you have been enjoying the lessons you’ve had here in recent months, come join the club! Not only will you be getting the full lessons, but I also have a lot of other content from tips on living a creative life to community news to subscriber only specials and first dibs on new products.
And for the rest of this month, get a 14 day free trial! Offer ends October 31st.
(By the way, the Success Club, which combines coaching with the weekly content, is full, in case you are wondering when you get to the page and don’t see it to add to the cart. I am taking names for the waiting list only at this time.)
Come support your design knowledge, creative growth, and these Tenth Muse Arts projects with a subscription to the Devotee Club. Just click here.
Beating Burnout
October 18, 2020
Inspirational Art, Polymer issues
Corvid sculpture from the rich imagination of Ellen Jewett. I don’t know where she draws her creative energy from, but I’d take a sip or two if she bottled it!
Do you ever get artists block? I’m not talking about times of procrastination or being afraid to start something but literally not been able think of anything to do. Does your brain ever just feel empty?
Well, this weekend, mine was, which was weird. I’m not usually at a loss for words, especially when it comes to blogging or writing articles. I usually feel like I can write about art and design nonstop and never run out of ideas. But, this weekend, I hit a bit of a wall.
What is that all about? Honestly, I think it’s about burnout and not just from my usual mad pace. I think many of us are running into burnout this year.
Burnout and blocks are often related in their causes. We all have an infinite number of ideas inside our heads all growing from our countless experiences, ever-growing knowledge, and ever present desires. So, I believe that it’s not that we don’t have ideas sometimes but rather that we are missing the keys to access them.
Without Resources
Although so many of us supposedly have all this extra time and flexibility this wacky year, we don’t always have the energy needed to navigate the constant changes, the stress, the worry, and, probably more than anything, the uncertainty while still juggling our family, jobs, and creative aspirations. Some days it’s just too much. Our well of energy goes dry.
I’m hearing this from a lot of artists. Some are wondering if they are burned out on their medium or their studio space or their creative time in general. Others are lacking motivation because there aren’t shows and fairs to give them those all-important deadlines. Still others, having lost major avenues of income with both in-person teaching and live shows on hiatus, are questioning the fragility of their chosen path.
What it comes down to is that the usual motivations that push us to create are missing. We don’t even have social engagements for which to create new pieces of jewelry for ourselves to wear or guild meetings to encourage us to complete work so we have something new to share. Many of our usual energizing motivators just simply aren’t there.
Signs of the Times
It has been noted throughout history that when there are traumatic and life-threatening circumstances within a society, such as war, famine, or major natural disasters, the people first focus on survival, initially neglecting most other pursuits. However, one of the very the first things that come back into society, once people begin to feel safe and secure, are creative pursuits. Perhaps we don’t all feel quite safe and secure yet, not feeling settled enough to bury ourselves and creative work but as the world starts to right itself, the creative urge will return. Take heart from that.
The other things very particular to this pandemic that may be making it hard to create are that we aren’t having as many novel experiences and are certainly deprived of a normal level of social stimulation. Both these things provide us with inspiration and energy to be creatively productive but they are rare commodities right now.
In other words, while the world and all the bad news is slowly but surely draining us of our day-to-day energy, our sources for renewed energy are spare to nonexistent. It’s really no wonder that so many people are feeling uninspired or burned out right now.
Filling Your Well
So, the first thing I want to say, to myself as well as you, is that it’s okay. Burnout is normal. Our creative path, and life in general, is not a smooth and even highway but more of a roller coaster. This will happen sometimes, especially in times like now.
The other thing I’d say is, rather than worry about any lack of productivity or trying to force it, do what you can to recharge your creative battery. Get out and go places and do things that you don’t normally do. Obviously, stay safe and follow all recommendations in your area, but go take a hike in a nearby forest or walk through an unfamiliar part of town or go photo hunting (a kind of self-structured scavenger hunt but you are gathering photos rather than things). Just come up with things that you can do safely but that are brand-new and interesting to you.
Getting out and doing new things will create new pathways in your brain which will, in turn, energize it and keep your mind fit and flexible. As you get older, new and novel experiences become more and more important so never lose your adventurous spirit. Those same mechanisms that help keep your brain young also keep your creativity flowing, as shown by a number of recent studies. In fact, at least one study suggests that creative thinking is boosted most after weird or even traumatic experiences. If that’s true, we should all be insanely creative when this period in world history is over! There’s another reason to take heart I suppose.
Besides novel experiences, also be sure you are getting some kind of social time in. Sure, it might have to be a zoom call but, if it can be done safely, a socially distanced backyard or front yard gathering (while we still have some weather we can sit outside in) with a handful of creative friends or family can do so much to boost your spirits and energy level.
I myself am going to heed my own advice. Next weekend we are going to take out the camper van conversion I’ve been working on and do a little van camping. That’s the other thing. Sometimes burnout or creative blocks just simply need space and time. We can try to barrel through it – and I often do just that – but sometimes we really just need to kick back and relax and let the mind “marinate” on life and our present experiences. Combine some downtime with some new experiences and, if you can swing it, some socially distanced social time, and you are sure to come back with renewed energy and inspiration.
Why Size Matters
October 11, 2020
Design lessons, Inspirational Art, Supplies & other fun stuff
Fanni Sandor creates exquisitely small and biologically accurate creatures in polymer clay and mixed mediums. Her choice to go small is born of a fascination with minature art and we, likewise, are fascinated by the tiny masterpieces. See more on her Instagram page.
What size art do you work in? Have you even ever thought about that? Do you work small, big, or a nice moderate middle size?
I think many of us have a limited size range that we feel comfortable working in and rarely, if ever, venture outside that range. There’s nothing wrong with that but it does beg the question, do you think about what the appropriate size is when you create something?
As you might be guessing, if you’ve been reading my blog or design articles for any length of time, I’m about to point out that making the decision about the size of your work can help to fulfill your intention.
(Do you ever think, “If she says something about intention one more time…!” Well, I do hope it’s not annoying. It’s just that important!)
Size in art simply refers to how big or small something is. It is used in a variety of ways to emphasize, organize, assist in functionality, and symbolize the intention of the artist. A lot of the size choices made have to do with relativity – something can only be called small if something else is big and vice versa.
In design, this is actually a principal known as proportion and scale. Proportion is about the relative size between two or more objects or elements when they are grouped together or juxtaposed. Scale refers to how big or small something is compared to the general understanding of how a thing usually is or should be. For instance, we expect a chair to be sized for human beings to sit in and a teapot big enough to hold several cups of tea. Anything significantly larger or smaller than these expectations would be a change in scale.
Scale represents an interesting concept in that it makes note that we do have expectations about how big or small thing should be. That may sound like we have some kind of undue constraints placed upon those of us who create, but actually, scale gives us an opportunity to step outside those expectations and make a point.
As mentioned above, size can be used emphasize things. Making something bigger than expected usually draws attention, so if you created a beaded necklace with beads as big as golf balls, those are definitely beads that are bigger than normally expected.
The same concept of emphasis works with proportions. Let’s say that you only made one of those beads as big as a golf ball in the previously mentioned beaded necklace and the rest of the beads were of a more reasonable size. In that case, you would be drawing attention to the big bead as a focal point. Size allows you to direct the viewer’s eye and their impression of the work.
It may seem that bigger items will be more impressive or have a bigger impact but, honestly, very small artistic creations can be just as fascinating, sometimes more so due to the skill needed to create beauty in such a small space. I think you can see that in the opening image of this post. Small art requires the viewer to come close to it to really see the details, creating an intimacy between the viewer and the piece.
So, have you ever thought about these considerations for size when creating your work? Don’t worry if you haven’t. It’s not that uncommon for size to be determined in some arbitrary or organic manner. And I’m not saying that doing it that way is wrong, but you could be missing out on an opportunity to better express your intention if size was a conscious decision.
A Sizable Story
One of my high corset collars with stitched copper and polymer embellishments.
When I was a working artist, I often made decisions about size based on what I thought people would want. It wasn’t a particularly conscious choice, more of an aim not to make pieces too big. I was not trying to make statement jewelry, but rather something that could be comfortably worn all day, or so that was my train of thought.
I can’t say what got me to start thinking about size, but at some point, I started to ask myself why I was afraid to go big. So, I started to push myself, making big collar pieces that would sit as high as the jawline and come down to the collarbone. Some were a little crazy, some were so uncomfortable, but I still found so much joy in making all of them.
I found something freeing in pushing myself beyond what I thought my market would like. And, as it turned out, my market liked them big too. I sold every one that I put up for sale. They never came home with me after a show. So, what I discovered was that the sizes I had been working in were completely self-imposed without any supportable basis for my choices other than my own fear of not being able to make a sale.
Once I realized why I had been working in those smaller sizes, I was able to start making decisions based on what the work needed to be instead of what I thought the market might want. For example, if I was going to make an ornate piece with the intention that the wearer feel like a queen, I would probably decide that it should be big and bold, not small and delicate or demurely moderate, to better emphasize the feeling of nobility I wanted it to embody.
Georg Dinkel works large when he is trying to make a point about our reverence for technology, like with this iPhone docking station titled IReliquary.
What’s Your Size?
So why do you work in the sizes that you do?
Is it purely functionality or rooted in the idea of what people would expect the size to be?
Is it limited by the tools or forms you have on hand, or by the capability of the materials being used?
Do you let the size come about organically or unconsciously or do you make a conscious decision about size based on the impact or response you would like the viewer to have?
I truly don’t believe that there’s really a wrong way to determine the size of your work but, like any design element, you are only truly a master of it if you are aware of its possibilities and make conscious choices.
So maybe this week, think about the size of your artwork in terms of your intention. Look at pieces that you’ve made in the past and ask yourself how the look and message, if there was one, would have changed if the piece had been smaller or larger. And in the next few things that you design, ask yourself what size piece would best serve the artwork before letting your tools or expectations of scale determine it for you.
Goodies are About Gone
Support this blog and your creative endeavors … join the club!
If you didn’t see the newsletter yesterday, I shared the stock I have left for a few special items that were first offered to Art Boxer Club Members, but a couple things are sold out or nearly so already. These are limited items that I will periodically offer publicly, without the discounts or freebies club members get, when there is extra stock, so if you can’t join us in the club, keep your eye out for my newsletters and sign up here if you aren’t on that list for my next offering.
Getting first dibs as well as discounts and freebies is one of the advantages of being part of the Art Boxer clubs, along with the weekly mini-magazine pick me up you get in your email. (The Art Boxer Success club that includes coaching is also unavailable at this time as spots are full up but I do have a waiting list going – just write to me if interested.)
These limited supplies are available on this page if you are still interested.
All Quiet on this Western Front
I have little to report on the home front. I did go in in for a small surgery Thursday only to find out I’m going have to go back in six weeks or so from now to have it completed. Nothing is straightforward and simple this year, is it? So, just trying to make myself take it easy this weekend although I am just a horrible patient in that regard.
Next weekend, assuming nothing else weird happens, my better half and I are going to slip away for the weekend to test the camper van conversion we’ve been slowly working on. I do plan to put something for you together before I go so you should still be able to visit with me next Sunday.
In the meantime, all your hopes and plans, big or small, all go off as intended this week!
Preciousness
October 4, 2020
Design lessons, Inspirational Art, Ponderings
Kathleen Nowak Tucci going big with not-so-precious intertubes and other disposables.
What would you say if I suggested that you create a piece and then, after you are done, remove your favorite bit? Yes, I realize the request might be physically impossible without causing complete destruction but, alternately, what if I asked you to destroy something you just spent your valuable time and effort creating?
I know you might be wondering if this is some kind of dreadful crafty torture. Why in the world would anyone ask that of you and what would be the point?
Well, this was done to me and a couple dozen other classmates back in college… twice.
The first time was in a creative writing class. We brought in a piece we had been working on all week then were asked to highlight all of our favorite lines. We passed the highlighted sheets to the person next to us and then the professor asked that we scratch out all the highlighted lines in the story we had in hand.
Of course, all us sensitive little budding Hemingways and Dickinsons sat there stunned and appalled as our pieces were read aloud without the sparkling gems that we thought would certainly reveal our genius. Strangely enough, all but one of the pieces still made sense and sometimes, the author even admitted it sounded a bit better. The point was, the professor said, that we tend to fall in love with phrases or sentences and will leave them in even when they don’t serve the piece.
The point was that without our wittiest word choices we could, in theory, make better editing decisions. In art, is it possible that we could make better design decisions if we were willing to set aside the glitzy accents we love so much or not fall back on our favorite tried-and-true textures all the time?
The second time I had a professor crush my little angsty ego was in a ceramics class after we each had done a small series of slab vessels. The professor asked us to pick up our favorite piece, bring it to the center of the room, and hold it up. We were then asked if we would be willing to drop it from a height into the trash bin that sat there. Of course, no one did it at first and he just stood there waiting until a couple brave souls let their pieces go. Then the pressure was on for the rest of us to follow. Even though I wasn’t particularly attached to the piece I had in hand, it was still so hard to drop it but I did. I seem to recall that a handful of students did refuse.
Sounds like a real jerk of a professor to ask such a thing, right? Well, I have to say that, at first, that’s what I thought but then he started to talk about preciousness. His conversation had something to do with becoming too attached to particular pieces. He wanted us to put value on our process, our growth, and learning, not on impressing him or our classmates. I think he was also looking for a way to wake us up as he had been getting frustrated with our attention span during the lecture portion of the class. Well, he sure did that.
I remember thinking about that lesson some years later, when I was better able to take it in. It made me realize that each successful piece I made was really just a step in a journey more so than an end goal unto itself. That changed the way I looked at my work. And it somehow made me braver.
I still did, and do, have favorite pieces that I cherish and will never sell, but seeing the work as steps and creation as a process rather than an investment of time in an end goal has allowed me to work a bit more freely. I have a ton of pieces that remain unfinished, and although it’s disappointing every time to come to a point where you realize it’s not going to succeed how you wanted it to, I don’t have any qualms about setting it aside. I don’t see the work as wasted because I know I’ve gained a little bit more experience and a little better understanding of the process. I’ve let go of the preciousness I used to have about everything I made.
Preciousness arises not only in our valuing our time to such an extent that we will not give up on a piece even when it’s no longer salvageable, or ignoring possible design solutions because they would eliminate our favorite part, but it also happens with the material itself.
Liz Hall creates in polymer and (a lot of) precious metal clay.
Quite a few years ago, I was itching try precious metal clay but it really wasn’t in my budget. Then I found some at a really great price and bought it. But you know what? I never even opened the packages. I just couldn’t get myself to work with this very expensive material for fear I would ruin it. But, of course, it’s rather wasted now that I’ve had it so long that is not workable. Pretty stupid, right? But we can be like that, putting value on the material and not on the process and the joy that we get from learning and creating.
Preciousness is tied into fear and failure in a lot of ways. Our idea of what we think we can do or what we think we should be able to do may be so lofty or so dear and treasured that we are afraid to try, fearing that we will make a mistake and ruin our efforts or that it will not come out as we imagine it. So, we do nothing, which is the same as ruining it, just really early on.
We may also get to a point in a piece where we love it so much that we are afraid to take the next step, a step that might spoil it, and so we set it aside, with all the best intentions to take that next step at a future time but all we’ve done is deny, or even end, the work’s potential.
I thought we’d start out this month on the concept of preciousness because it felt like a good segue into discussing October’s design theme – size.
Preciousness is one of those factors that comes into play when we decide on the size or scope of the work we will take on. Our sense of preciousness can make us hesitate to do something large or particularly complex, as we may fear that we will invest a lot of effort, time, and materials into something we are not assured will be successful.
Julie Eake’s cane mosaic portrait of actress Sophie Turner was, like most of her cane mosaic portraits, a huge undertaking. But aren’t we glad she takes those risks?
But, again, have we not already failed by not attempting it in the first place?
If we looked at everything we create as precious, all the time and effort that we put into it as well as the finished work, we would have to play it rather safe in the studio. However, art is not about playing it safe.
Art is largely about the risks you take.
If you’re not taking risks, then are you actually creating art? There’s nothing wrong in creating just for that sense of accomplishment or the high of that Zen like flow we fall into when the work is familiar and comfortable. It is more than valid to have the process of making things with your hands be the primary purpose in what you do. However, it’s the hours of exploration, the failures, the false starts, our vulnerability, the deep digging, like miners looking for gold, that makes the work that we inevitably uncover truly art.
The risks we are willing to take is the thing that is truly precious.
So, keep the concept of preciousness in your mind as we talk about size this month. Of course, we’ll talk about variation and contrast in size since that is what is primarily being referred to when speaking of it as a design element, but there are other things about size that we can take into consideration as we create, move forward, and grow as creatives.
Speaking of considerations…this week, I am going to have to take my health into consideration, so although I do plan on preparing a blog for next weekend, if it ends up being short or skipped it’s because I’m having a little surgery towards the end of the week. It’s just my esophagus and I should recover in all of two days. I have to fit in all my usual physical therapy before then though, along with all the regular weekly business tasks so it will be a full week.
Don’t worry though – all you club members will get your Midweek Mini-Mag as usual including a goodies giveaway so you can look forward to that if you signed up for one of the clubs.
If you haven’t signed up for one of the clubs yet but really appreciate the information inspiration you find in this blog, help support this project by subscribing! Get your weekly mini-mag, exclusive discounts, giveaways, and special offers along with your support. With everything you’ll get, you can also think of the club as a unique and special way to acknowledge the preciousness that is your creative self!
So let’s finish up this week on dots and spots with one piece which happens to have many, many ways of using the decorative and often dynamic element.
Shelley Atwood isn’t shy with her details as demonstrated here. Pin-pricks give way to tiny circles which play in the background behind spots of color and details of varying shapes, not just the roundness of the dots we know and love so well. But even the leaf shapes, repeated over and over, create the same kind of effect.
Having four sections doing basically the same thing helps with the suggestion that the leaf shapes should operate as spots rather than a distinctive visual. Even with all the variation, the dots, and spots and marks, all contained within a similarly sized space, balance each other out so you are left to just enjoy the riot of color and the joy of the spot.
Shelley’s work can be found, with all its many marks and delicious details, on her website and on Flickr.
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Oh, the dot. A dot is not really a shape and it doesn’t define anything for us in the way its closest relation, the singularly dimensional line, does. It is just a point in space or on a surface but it will always grab our attention. It marks a point that we feel drawn to investigate. However, when it’s gathered to create a texture or pattern, that draw it has doesn’t expand but acts more like beats in a song. So when you have lots of dots, make a song of it.
I think that is what Julia Zharova is doing here. It’s a song she likes too, so she’s created variations on it. In the top one she lets the dots be simple and smooth but backs them with a lot of organic texture. In the one below, the dots are concave and colored but the background texture is more subdued so that the dots can dance without distraction. It’s a couple of examples of variation on a similar design.
Julia seems rather fond of the dot, which is scattered throughout her beautifully composed and well finished work. Enjoy a break with Julia today with a perusal through her Livemaster shop.
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I’m going to use this to both wrap up my jabbering about the Spring issue of The Polymer Arts and as a segue into talking about a design element that seems rarely discussed … the dot. Or spot. Or point on a surface. Whatever you want to refer to it, dots or spots are an unassuming but strong design element. In polymer, we can give them dimension and form until they take on another life entirely. In Donna Greenberg‘s work, those organic gatherings of points definitely look to be alive.
We were so lucky to have another wonderful article by Donna in the latest issue, The Polymer Arts Spring 2017 – Shape and Form issue. She discusses ways to use your past work to inspire new work. I think most of us have tried going back to something we did before but her suggestions are a bit different and her examples are beautiful. She does a lot of these dot/spot barnacle-like cups in her re-formed work and in her latest vessels too.
Although the form of the ‘spots’ seen here are similar, the way they are used and gathered are not. Look at the one on top. It had an organic feel but the little cups and the spots are placed in a very orderly fashion. The rougher but lacy edge builds a balanced but dynamic tension, pulling away from the inner order. But the platter below is a purely random application with the gathered dots of different sizes flowing in a natural path through and around the piece. It’s less restricted nature also warranted the use of a brighter color, making the piece quite lively and cheerful.
I found these pieces on Donna’s Facebook page but also take a look at her barnacled beauties in the latest issue of The Polymer Arts or hop over to Donna’s website to see more of her dots and spots.
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I was so excited to have Carol Beal put together an article on lathe turned polymer. She demonstrates what you can do with a fairly inexpensive table top lathe to make intricate but easy polymer beads. But here is the thing that we didn’t have room for … you can make a lot more than beads on a small hobby lathe.
I searched around and found all these things being turned in polymer or a similar material like acrylic. Most would require the you cure and then turn the ‘blank’ as it is call without the functional parts attached so other than ensuring you can take the item apart to add the polymer, you have a pretty wide open field of functional and decorative art objects to explore with this technique:
- Pens (the top turned small item in pretty much any medium
- Bottle stoppers
- Ice cream and coffee scoops
- Every kind of eating utensil you can think of.
- Key chains
- Razor blade handles
- Crochet hooks
- Seam rippers
- Perfume applicators
- Makeup brushes
- Ornaments
- Hair sticks
- T-handle corkscrews
- Spinning tops
- Drawer handles and pulls
- Gauged Ear plugs
- Wands …
… basically any smallish thing with a long handle, long body, or is stout but round can potentially be created from or decorated with lathe turned polymer. I never thought about it but I sure am now.
What you see here are lathe turned acrylic pieces I found linked with Craft Supplies USA’s YouTube pages where they have a bunch of lathe videos for wood and acrylic blanks. However, you can see how easily this could be polymer. All you would need to do is follow Carol’s easy tutorial and once you are comfortable making beads, you could branch out into whatever you like. You would need the lathe of course which can be had for something in the range of $150-$600 dollars, depending on how precise and how serious you get. You can also find these kinds of tools on Craigslist and Ebay, sold by the well-intentioned hobbyist, on the cheap. I would go for new or like-new ones though so you know it is in good shape. These are not toys! That plus a set of woodturning tools which can be had for $30 brand new and you are set to go. I could see this being very addictive!
We could only post a small sample of what Carol has turned out (couldn’t resist the pun!) in lathe turned beads but take a peek at what she has on her Flickr site and in her Etsy shop as well as searching for lathe turned crafts or lathe polymer clay on Pinterest, Flickr, Etsy, and Google images to find even more ideas!
And if you still need to get your copy of the Spring issue, jump over to our website for Carol’s article and much more.
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One of my personal favorite articles in this issue is the interview of Wiwat Kamolpornjiwit. He has been one of my top jewelry designers since I saw his work some 9 years ago. I don’t think anyone does anything quite like what he does, not in polymer.
He really seems to approach his work from a purely construction and sculptural aspect, instead of getting into all the many ways polymer can be manipulated, putting the design first and the material second, if that. I love that. It should never matter what the material is if the design has not been well-considered. This is not to say that he doesn’t play with canes and surface design but they tend to be accents or focal points rather than the bulk of the work. This piece is actually a bit unusual for him, that I know of, as it incorporates a druzy stone moving the work into a bit more mixed media than in the past.
I believe this piece is from the collection shown at his recent American Craft Council show in Baltimore, Maryland. Cynthia also showed off his work on the Polymer Clay Daily blog a couple of weeks ago so he’s getting his share of attention right now, and for good reason. He has an interesting story so be sure to read that in the latest issue of The Polymer Arts magazine and see more of his work on his website and his Facebook page.
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The Spring issue is out and as usual, there is a bit of chatter on it out there in the social network world but there is an unusually high level of enthusiasm out there this issue. Is it that fabulously colorful cover? The wide variety of articles by or about amazing artists like Donna Greenberg, Christi Friesen, Wiwat Kalmpornjiwit, and Sylvie Peraud? So far the most talked about articles are the Lariat making, Donna’s inspiration from the past and Christi’s treatise on armatures which was pretty eye-opening since she picked the brains of some of the most amazing artists for which armatures are essential, namely Ellen Jewett (with that incredible opening piece!) and Adam Thomas Rees who I knew built his own animal shapes but had no idea how he did these huge things. But Christi revealed that for us.
The one thing we couldn’t do in Christi’s article was blow up some of the images so you could really see the detail of the work these artist’s do. Adam layers canes onto animal shapes in a manner reminiscent of Jon Anderson though they were developing their work around the same time so I don’t think Adam came to this idea from seeing Jon’s work although either of them may have influenced the other since. But other than canes on animal shapes, they have different approaches. Adam’s pieces are huge and his canes are large, broad patterns and often very bright. He sometimes mixes up other sculptural textures and additions to his creatures that create a feast of interesting details for the eye to roam over. The hanging matted hair like texture built up on this one creates a swath of white to give the eye a resting place below all that intense color and pattern above.
Just open Adam’s website and try not to be startled by the creature staring out at you. It’s beautiful but intense! Take some time out today and enjoy Adams colorful patterns in his galleries. And grab your copy of the Spring issue of The Polymer Arts on our website here.
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Ta da! The first issue of 2017 is coming out today (scheduled for 11am PST) and, I know I am usually extremely enthusiastic about every issue but this one has so many wildly passionate artists sharing their process and their secrets. It is really heart-warming how much these people share. There are also a lot of cool techniques and new forms to learn, not to mention a few different ways to get and stay inspired in your own creative polymer endeavors. We really hope you like it!
If you are a digital subscriber, look for it in your inbox (or check your junkmail/spam folder if it’s not there) or, if you have a print copy coming to you, they were shipped out yesterday.
If you don’t have your copy on order yet, head over to the website and get yours now. www.thepolymerarts.com
Now I am going to go play with clay. That’s how I relax after a new issue goes out! How about you?
Weekly Inspirational Challenge: Let’s make this weekend simple. Create something in a familiar, easy and uncomplicated design and set of techniques. See what design choices come to you instinctively and just enjoy the process!
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So many artists spend an inordinately large amount of time looking for the next really cool and totally different thing that will get them all kinds of attention and make their work stand out. But here is the thing … nothing is really new anymore. It’s just a variation of something that was done before. Thinking and creating with this in mind can be so freeing. It allows you to just create what you love or what you want to express.
And some days you just want to be simple, clean and use some no-fuss forms and applications. Nothing wrong with that. Go for it. You can see how a basic striped composition on a bangle shape and a couple of lentil earrings did for Julia Peker‘s approach. Choosing an array of both visual and tactile textures gives this variation within the limitations of a palette of subdued and tinted cool colors. Nothing crazy or new design wise, but it pulls off a tasteful and understated elegance that most anyone can appreciate.
Julia takes notes from a lot of other polymer artists as can be seen in her work so I suspect she is still working on her voice but I think I see it emerging. Her postings look to be relegated to Instagram for the moment but I would be interested to see how her work develops. We’ll keep an eye out!ow
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Some days, you just want things simple. You know … you head off to the studio or to work and you hope for something that is not going to bend your brain or make you feel all beat up and worn out when you’re done, even if it is successful. Some days, you just want to take it easy.
You can do this in the studio any time and, regardless of your simple approach, you can still get stunning results. The funny thing is, you can set aside all the complex techniques and the tricky materials and you may still end up making something that takes you all day. I think that once we engage the creative mind, it will just keep going on its own momentum even when you were thinking that you wanted to do something quick and easy.
I think that is what Veruschka Stevens was thinking when she first sat down to create this necklace she calls Prorsum. As she says:
I generally use different techniques that vary in complexity for making our jewelry. This necklace in particular was made using the simplest technique I know. However it is equally one of the most time-consuming and very much detail-oriented as well.
You can see some great close up views of this piece as well as its inspiration and a “how I made it” video on her blog. Also stop to take a look at her interesting approach to marketing herself and her jewelry on her website here .
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Focus on the Journey (And March Giveaways!)
Joseph Barbaccia created his “foXstitch” piece as a proof of concept, which, if you’re not familiar with the term, means that he’s experimenting and there is no particular expectation of a completed piece. Now, who would think his process a waste of time, even though it’ may not become a finished piece? He says he’s not happy with the execution, but that just means that he can see ways to improve it. And he could only see that through what he learned in this process. And, yes, all those “stitches” are bits of polymer clay.
Do you know who said this:
“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”
Well, first of all, a lot of creative people! But specifically, this is a line in the book Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was particularly good at appreciating the little things, especially the value of our true and unique experiences.
If you spend all day in the studio and don’t complete a single decent piece, or a successful part of a piece, do you feel like you wasted the day? I think we can all be disappointed when we don’t accomplish as much as we hoped to, but it’s never wasted time.
Every minute you spend at your studio table, no matter how long you’ve been working with the material, is a valuable experience, right? We are learning something new all the time, even if we don’t see it. We are honing our skills, solidifying our understanding, trying out new ideas, and finding out what doesn’t work, which can be more important than finding out what does work.
But the most valuable thing, I think, is the fact that we are sitting down for some quality time with ourselves and our thoughts, taking up the enormous challenge to make something from nothing, and forging ahead on a creative journey that will teach us things and give us memories that no one else and nothing else can provide. How common can such an experience be? Not that common, truly. We are some lucky ducks to have the creative time that we do.
Sure, having a successfully finished piece is such a high, but what comes after that? The journey’s over. Okay, that’s not quite true. The process of creating any piece is a short trip on a much bigger journey. But what is more valuable—the finished piece or the skills and knowledge acquired that will allow you to make that again, and probably even better?
Now, where is all this philosophical nattering coming from?
Well, this week, I had lots of starts and stops with my time at the polymer table and with my writing. Not only am I trying to get taxes done—that can really kill one’s creative vigor—but I’m on a new nutritional regimen which is making me a little foggy in the head. So, I’ve been a little frustrated. However, I realized that every night I go to bed, I think about what I did do that day, and, honestly, it’s just all too exciting to know there’s newly created bits on the studio table and new pages in my writing project. All in all, if I got to create something, it was a really good day.
So, if you can go to sleep at night with a little more knowledge and a bit more experience than you had when you woke up, that’s been a successful day. I know we can be anxious to finish things or can be disappointed by how little we produce, but unless our efforts need to put food on the table, let’s see if we can’t step back and not just appreciate but really learn to value our creative time for simply being our own precious, unique experience.
I mean, really, would you trade that time for anything?
Yay Giveaways!
So, I’m keeping this short since I’ve had a bit of a rough week but, as promised, I’m going to do some giveaways!
I have enough goodies here to give something away every weekend this month, so here’s what we’ll do this week:
Giveaway:
How to Win:
Then … next weekend, I’ll put together another pack of goodies to giveaway so keep an eye on these posts!
You can support this blog by buying yourself a little something at Tenth Muse Arts or, if you like…