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.
A Whale of a Time
March 8, 2020
Inspirational Art
Is it me or are there a lot of ocean creatures just popping up in artwork all over the place? Maybe it’s an algorithm thing in my browser so it’s just me seeing them but whales in particular seem to be quite popular of late. What is it about whales that grabs the imagination? If you created a whale inspired piece, what would it look like?
I’ve always wanted to write an article about how people interpret the same things so differently but it’s really such a nebulous concept. Our interpretation of any one thing comes from all those experiences we’ve had over the years, or at least should. The subject of where our passion and our artistic voice comes from is the primary theme woven through this month’s Virtual Art Box, so I guess that’s on my mind. So, let’s just have an enjoyable, light-hearted excursion this week into the inspiring world of whales and see what you can glean about the artists and their experience by looking at the differences and choices they have made in their art.
Whale Sightings
My whale sightings started with this under side view of a whale and her baby by Christi Friesen. The underside of things in general don’t get a lot of attention but Christi picked the exact view and pose to really show off a connection between mother and child. Knowing Christi is recuperating from a year of near full-time travel in Hawaii, I get why she had whales on her mind but what made her think to view them as if under them in the water? It’s a fascinating view – both of the whales and of Christi’s mind.
Kseniia Dolhopolova, a jewelry artist from Ukraine says, “I create jewelry only in a good mood and try to make it with its own soul.” She created the whale opening this post. It not only has its own soul but a whole city on its back besides! Playfulness and joy seem to be of primary importance in the intention of her work here. But how do you think she came to think a city should be on the back of a whale?
Evgeny Hontor, a sculptural artist from Moscow, uses the broad surfaces of her creatures to create ornate designs and patterns. This whale, however, is the only one of hers I’ve seen that is also growing a lively garden on it’s back. So, what is with things sprouting from the back of whales? Is it born from the barnacles seen on some or just that they are so big that it’s not a leap to imagine a whole other world on their back?
Looking around for more interesting interpretations of whales, I came across Maori legends about whales. From the New Zealand Department of Conservation:
“In Maori cosmology, whales are the descendants of Tangaroa, the god of the oceans. They were thought of in awe, as supernatural beings, and often deemed tapu, or sacred. Whales appear in the migration legends of many tribes. In some, whales were a sign indicating to a tribe that it should settle in a particular place. In others, whales were a guide.”
So, the inspiration of something like this mother of pearl came from deep seated associations. The maker of this isn’t named but it comes from an online shopped simply called Janet’s that sells the work of Samoan and Pacific artists and designers. The swirl is a circle of life symbol integrated into the whale tail, creating an abstracted image of the whale and its ingrained cultural meaning. I just thought it was a lovely and simple design but, reading a bit about the culture and meaning around it and made it far more complex in my mind.
I love that art can be such an intimate glimpse into the world of an individual, but I think sometimes we forget to look that deep, inundated with all the work we see online and other places every day. Just stopping to think on it can really add to your enjoyment and give you more ideas and inspiration on how to reach in and bring out the originality that is you, into your work.
Having a Whale of a Virtual Time
Letting your unique self out and into your work as well as the wonderful and intense world of marks, an unassuming but immensely important design basic, are the subjects that guides all the content in the Virtual Art Box for March released yesterday. If you are signed up for it but haven’t seen your Art Box in your inbox, check your spam folder. If it’s not there, write me and I’ll get you fixed up.
If you haven’t joined us yet for VAB, get on board! We had one very intense and immensely productive month already and we have another one geared for this month. I must warn you, the VAB is not a passive mode of entertainment or something to just pass the time with. It’s all about getting in the studio and getting things done, learning about yourself as a crafter or artist, and discovering your source of creativity.
I have had more emails and messages in one month about people having the biggest “a-ha moments” they have had in months, if not years, than I have in the last several years put together, and it’s all from working with the Virtual Art Box content. I’m even a bit shocked at how much the simple idea of intention has changed the way so many of the VAB readers are looking at their work and how excited they are to discover the focus and direction they’ve been missing. I am thrilled beyond words!
So, if you want to check the VAB out, I’d suggest grabbing the February edition first. Intention is really a foundational concept and understanding it and working with it the way the Art Box will have you do, can be, well, as a couple Art Boxers said, life changing. How cool is that?!
Well, it’s been a long week, as satisfying and fun as it was creating the core of the second Virtual Art Box month, so I am going to take a day off and spend it outside and maybe cleaning the studio in preparation for my own creative time. My blood sugar has been normal for a straight week and my arm has given me next to no pain even after a full week of work so it looks like I can pull the intense focus on I had on my health and put some of it into my art. And some of it into taxes. And some into housework. But you know, I intend to make it happen and I’ll share my forays in the studio with you here!
I hope you have wonderful forays into your own studio with your own wonderful interpretations of your world this week!
Changing Forms
January 26, 2020
Inspirational Art, Polymer community news, The Polymer Arts magazine news
Table by Alice Stroppel – www.polymerclayetc.com
So, have my suggestions thus far this month triggered any new ideas for fresh and exploratory directions in the studio? Well, if it hasn’t yet maybe it will this week. Even if this month’s ideas did have you looking into some previously uncharted territories, my theme today can work in conjunction with new materials, big new projects, and collaborations as well.
But first, at quick note … have you signed up for the new Virtual Art Box coming out next weekend? I do hope you plan to join us if you haven’t already. Not only will you get great material to keep you inspired and keep that creative wheel in your head turning all month long, I have a couple specials just for my art boxers including a freebie and deep discounts. 
I’ll be drumming up such specials from polymer and mixed media craft resources every month, most will be worth much more than you are paying for the art box itself. Plus, for just another week, you can get in on a forever lifetime discount, just because you jumped in both feet first with me on this new adventure!
Ok, back to pushing ourselves, or at least thinking about it, this month.
I was thinking that a really stimulating challenge would be to work in a form that you have not worked in before. You know, like if you normally do jewelry, try decorative arts or sculpture. If you do wall art try your hand at jewelry. But knowing most of you, you’ve probably dabbled in a quite a few different forms. So, I think we need to look at some unusual territories within various art forms you’ve already tried.
For instance, if you work in jewelry or other adornment, consider what types you haven’t tried creating. Hair adornments, perhaps? Ankle bracelets? Gauge earrings instead of pierced? Tiaras perhaps? How about lapel pins, cufflinks, tie bars, or bolo ties? Or just men adornment in general?
If you create or cover a lot of home decor, move beyond the vases and switch plates and look around for other hapless home victims like ceiling fixture pulls, trashcan lids, lampstands, or the finials on the ends of drapery rods. Really, nothing should be safe from your decorative touches.
I could probably make an insanely long list of oddball things that could either be made with their covered with polymer, but let’s just look at what a few people have done with some less than common forms and see if these pieces can’t push your ideas about what you can do with polymer clay.
Strange Polymer in a Strange Land
when sitting down to write this, I wandered around the house looking for things I thought could be made with polymer, but I hadn’t seen much of. It is actually kind of hard. I see a lot. But how about this– incense burners? Maybe people don’t burn incense quite as much as they used to and perhaps that’s why we don’t see people making them in polymer clay but, on the other hand, they’re so easy to make and you have a really wide range of possible shapes they could take. You would think a few people would be regularly popping some out. But they are hard to find.
For an incense burner, all you need is a stable form with a snug hole big enough for the incense sick to stand in and, preferably, a platform to catch the ashes. You can have incense stick standing straight up or have a long tray the stick would hang over or you can ignore the tray component completely. That should be easy, right? I do wonder if people hesitate to make incense burners with polymer because they believe the hot embers will singe the clay. I very much doubt that would happen, especially if you create a straight up stand type, where the ashes have a long way to fall. Here is one example of an incense burner created with cane petals by Israel’s Marcia of Mars Design. It’s a straightforward construction and a pretty, as well as functional, little piece
You should check out her dreidels as well. I’m not sure Marcia is working in polymer anymore, or at least she’s not posting, but she did have a lot of fun ideas you can find on her Flickr photo stream.
This next suggestion seems to be such a minimally explored area of adornment for a category with such a wide range of options. I’m talking about hair adornments. There are so many of them – barrettes, hair sticks, hairclips, hair combs, hair beads, bun caps and cages, hair slides, tiaras, head wreathes, hairbands, headbands, hair charms, hair rings, and hair twisters (a.k.a hair spirals or ponytail wraps). I am partial to hair slides myself because they can double as scarf and shawl pins so you can pull them out for all kinds of occasions. You can see how I make mine with the in-depth tutorial in the Polymer Art Projects – Organics book. Here’s another example of a hair slide from Emily May. Like the incense burners, as long as you planned for the basic form, one that allows a stick to pass through from one side to the other, you can create pretty much whatever you want.
And I did mention the nothing should be safe from polymer in the house? I can’t tell you how often I look up at window molding or the insets in a door panel or the trim on a cabinet and think “A bit of polymer could go right there!” Okay, maybe I’m pushing it for someone with limited studio time who wants to add sculptural elements, not canes or other veneers, to large immovable parts of my house. So, does may be a cane covered table sound more reasonable? That can be pretty ambitious as well but at least it can go with you if you move or can be sold. Just look at the table by Alice Stroppel that opens this post, or this amazing work by Bridget Derc.
Bridget’s canes are intense, as is her process, really. You have to skim through her Flickr photostream a bit (check out the bottom half of pages 3 and 4) but she posts a lot of photos of her process. It’s pretty amazing. And check out Alice’s website for more of her polymer table adventures.
Now, what if you’re into sculpture? How do you push the form there? I suppose if you normally sculpt “in the round” you can do bas-relief sculptures or vice versa. You could, of course, also venture into any of the other myriad areas of polymer and craft and apply your sculptural skills there, but this next piece might give you a whole other set of ideas. Why not, literally, take your sculpture somewhere you haven’t taken it before. Like outside maybe?
Tatjana Raum photographs her tree spirit sculptures as if they are in trees, although I think these are all in detached parts of trees like large swaths of bark and pieces of drift or dead wood. Even if they are not attached to a living tree, the tree material gives these other-worldly faces an unusual context that enriches the sculpture and how a viewer will perceive it. And what if you did put a bit of polymer art into a living tree? What a great surprise for a passerby!
Okay, that is all for today. I’ve got to start making these posts a bit shorter as I will have a lot to do for the Virtual Art Box each month. I am so super excited about what I have for our adventurous art boxers though. I don’t think it’s going to be what anyone is really expecting but I think it’s going to be a fantastic surprise, especially for readers who really loved The Polymer Arts magazine. I think we’re going to get to know each other a lot better and are in for a really creative year!
For now, have a wonderful and really creative week and I’ll see you next weekend!
Go Big or Go Personal
January 5, 2020
Inspirational Art
So, here we are. The new year has begun, and we have 12 months and nearly 52 weeks of possibilities before us. Will you be changing the way you work or challenging yourself this coming year?
If you read last week’s post, you know I have mixed feelings about New Year’s resolutions, but I do believe in always having goals. Goals give you something to bounce out of bed for in the morning. Even small goals can get you up and going and keep you focused. However, this weekend I want to talk about making big goals, or particularly big projects.
This will mean different things to different people but whether or not the idea of doing something challenging in size or scope appeals to you, I think it’s just one of those things you should periodically ask yourself. Do I want to do something big, monumental, dramatic, or just drastically different? There is nothing wrong with saying no and just focusing on small, easily manageable projects. But I think you ought to ask the question just to be sure.
Nearly a decade ago, I interviewed Gwen Piña who, at the time, was the most prolific polymer artist I knew of in our community, with over 600 accounts she regularly fulfilled orders for. (She has since retired from polymer.) With all that work, I was really surprised when she took me to a side room to show me her personal projects. These were rather tall dolls and other pieces made from found objects and polymer. These were her personal projects which she didn’t always try to sell. Although they took time away from her primary wholesale work, she acknowledged that she needed that creative outlet to make her happy.
I think that is an important consideration. Not everything you make has to sell. Actually, unless your livelihood depends upon it, nothing you make needs to be sold. Go ahead – create for the sake of creating! How freeing is that idea? I bring this up because, many times, our big personal projects are not something that is either easy to sell or easy for us to part with.
So, setting aside the idea that everything you make has to support a business, let’s talk about big personal projects you might consider taking on to feed your soul.
A Big Way
Large, showy art pieces are often referred to as “statement” pieces. Big necklaces, towering vases, and wildly colorful wall sculptures can all be considered statement pieces when they outshine the wearer or dominate the room they occupy.
There is more latitude given for the functionality of craft art that is created as a statement piece. Awkward and uncomfortable collar necklaces, dangerously spiky brooches, and vases that are too monumental to hold any kind of flower arrangement are forgiven their lack of functionality in exchange for being a conversation piece or attention grabber. These can be great fun to create because you have fewer restrictions with that concern for functional construction set aside. If you’re looking for a bit more freedom in your designs this year, this might be something to explore.
But what if we change that definition of a statement piece and attach it to work that is primarily personal—making that kind of work a personal statement piece, as in you have something to say. You may just want to share your aesthetic views, or you may have opinions about the state of the world, or you might aim to share the emotion of a personal experience. These are all expressions of the artist being taken from inside themselves and put out into the world. That’s really at the core of what, arguably, defines something as a piece of art.
So how about YOU get noticed for some “big” piece of yours this year that is focused on expressing what you want to put out into the world? Being that this kind of project is more for you, you also get to define what a big project means to you. It could be literally large. It could also be small but so minutely thought out or detailed that it is big in terms of its process and scope. A big project could be based on a really delicate or difficult personal subject that you have previously found hard to share. It could also be a large collection of work instead of a single piece. Or a piece made up of a lot of smaller pieces. Do any of these ideas spark a fire in you?
Let’s look at just a few “big projects” other artists have taken in polymer.
Thinking Big
Heather Campbell goes big quite often. The piece of hers that opens this blog, Trippin’ in Spain, is 6 feet long! A handful of years ago, you might have seen the challenge she took on of making this insanely detailed polymer quilt called Keep Circling. Much of the texture and pattern is created with the attachment of many small, but easily replicated accents and objects as can be seen in the detail shot.
This piece is both a great approach to creating big, beautiful artwork in polymer and a metaphor for how to take on a big project or any daunting goal. Just do one small thing at a time and, if you just keep at it, next thing you know, you have something huge and amazing and that goal is reached.
A similar approach can be used in jewelry. A gloriously monumental bit of adornment does not have to be complicated. You can simply make a lot of something that you love to create and bring it together into a single magnificent piece. Gloria Danvers does a lot of this type of thing with polymer butterflies, leaves, and other caned shapes.
You know how I mentioned you could set your big goal to not just be one thing but that you might consider just creating a big collection? Well, what if you did both? That’s essentially what Jeffrey Lloyd Dever did with his Edensong Revisited installation piece from 2011. Taking dozens of individual pieces, he created a fascinating wall piece that you have to just keep looking at to take it all in.
Edensong Revisited | 2011 | Approx. 50”H x 42” W x 3.5” D | Polymer clay, steel wire, plastic coated wire, repurposed mixed media, latex paint | Photo credit: Jon Bolton/Racine Art Museum
The idea of something big for you though, might just be a project that’s really different and daring. If so, I would strongly suggest looking at artwork in other mediums for inspiration, not just polymer. I don’t know if anyone’s doing any really wild with ear cuffs like the ones below in polymer, but this is just one possible inspiration for what could be done with polymer and unique forms of jewelry. Check out this site for some wild pieces. No artists are listed although they do say these are handmade.
Sometimes your big idea can simply be sticking with a particular theme and really pushing yourself to see what you can do with it. I got a wonderful email from blog reader Suzanne Andrews, noting how the last post on having a goal really resonated with her. She’d already started on her goal to get focused this year by cleaning up her studio (and that’s a pretty big project for many of us, I know!) And then, she said she, “placed one photograph for reference on the wall in the studio. It is of a painting that speaks to me and my goal is to create pieces that belong with this painting.” I don’t know if she’ll make anything literally big or complex, but I love that idea of committing to that painting. It will give her a focus on something that she feels personally connected to, which can take some bravery. And that is a statement!
The Big Idea
So, whether or not you’re ready to take on something big, in whatever way you define it, or just want to play around this year, I’m hoping to make setting goals, or at least working on a focus, to be a bigger part of what we talk about throughout this year. It’s something I’m going to focus on with the Virtual Art Box, hoping for those of you who are up for it, to make what I share with you a more active kind of information exchange. Most of us aren’t reading this to simply pass the time, are we? This material and our creativity drive us to make art, right? So, let’s do that and make art that we are personally passionate about! I can’t tell you how fulfilling it is to take risks and push yourself. You won’t always succeed but, man, when you do, there’s nothing like it!
We’ll go over a few other ideas for possible goals and focuses you might want to take on over the coming year if you’re not sure what you want to do yet, if anything. There really is no rush so just let ideas wash over you until something grabs you.
Myself, I need to put a rush on some things. I think we finally have the technical end ironed out for the new Virtual Art Box so I’m getting ready to get sign ups set up on the website. Just need a few more tests. Then back to whipping the content into shape. That’s my focus this week so keep an eye out for newsletters for more info and I’ll update you on the blog this next week and as well. Get on this list here to be notified first for special discounts.
Nudge Sale is Still On!
Don’t forget we have that nudge sale going for another week or so. Almost everything is on sale so if you need more inspiration at your fingertips as you set yourself up for a great creative year, hop over to the website and snatch up a great deal on beautiful print and digital publications!
Happy first full work week of 2020! Hope its a beautiful and creative one!
The Allure of the Box & Important News
December 1, 2019
Uncategorized
Do you, like many people, find boxes really intriguing? Why do we like boxes? I mean, sure, they are convenient for storing things, hiding things, shipping stuff, and wrapping up gifts. But some of us (myself very much included) can become rather infatuated with them. I know I have a hard time passing a box and not opening it up. Boxes have this mysterious unknown interior that could be holding just about anything that will fit. The possibilities poke at our curiosity.
The things with in a box become automatically precious or necessary. Why put something in a box if it is not valuable or you do not think it will become useful in the future? So, boxes hold valuables of a sort, normally. So why wouldn’t you want to peek in and see what kind of fabulous things are inside?
I bring up boxes because I have a bit of news that has to do with boxes. Say uncle scrolling down to the end of the post to see what my news is, here it is. Then we’ll look at a few polymer boxes to further contemplate
The Good, the Bad, and the Exciting
Note: If you are an existing subscriber to The Polymer Studio, you should already have received an email with this information. (If you believe you are an existing subscriber and did not get a subscription status email, check your junk mail folder. You can also check your subscription status on your account page here.)
So, after 4 months of working on my health and arm injury, I have gotten to the point where I have been able to determine, more or less, what I can and can’t do going forward, and since it is apparent that I will continue to be restricted for the foreseeable future, I have made plans accordingly:
The Good:
As of January, I will be resuming work on publications for 2020 and am working on new projects now.
The Bad:
I am shutting down The Polymer Studio magazine for good. I have, however, set-up exciting options for fulfilling subscriptions for existing subscribers, primarily the new Box project you’ll read about below. (More details for subscribers are in the email sent out earlier today.)
The Exciting:
I have 3 exciting projects that Tenth Muse Arts will be offering this coming year–
- I will be scheduling 2 book publications for 2020, including the second Polymer Arts Projects book (the theme will be Shimmer and Shine) and a book on expanding your creativity yet to be titled.
- I will be expanding our shop to include hard to get and self-published polymer and mixed media related books to connect the community with more great artists and authors.
- And… instead of a regularly published magazine we will be offering a monthly Virtual Art Box for polymer and mixed media creatives.
I know, I know … there are a lot of questions those announcements bring up like what is a Virtual Art Box and why am I not publishing the magazine any longer? And I have answers so, read on!
What is the Virtual Tenth Muse Art Box?
The Virtual Art Box is a digital package of invaluable articles, lessons, specials, and printable tools all geared to advance your creative self and give you more “a-ha” moments. Like a magazine, we will be providing serendipitous educational and inspirational content but with additional tools and perks that just couldn’t be produced in the pages of a publication.
Each Virtual Art Box will include:
- Design immersion lessons (weekly)
- Creativity Cultivation seminars & worksheets (every month)
- Customizable challenges (every month)
- Art Nudges (weekly)
… as well a variety of these possible items:
- Project and technique tutorials
- Demonstrations
- Interviews
- Printable gadgets and aids
- Retail partner discounts and specials
- Sneak peaks and Box subscriber only discounts for Tenth Muse Arts publications
- And whatever other great goodies we think up or you suggest along the way.
The Virtual Art Box will be multimedia to include video and downloadable PDFs and will be sent out monthly. They will be available as a automatically billed monthly and quarterly subscriptions that can be canceled at any time. The first box will be sent off February of 2020. Subscriptions aren’t available quite yet, but we’ll let you know when we have all that technical stuff done so you can! (Existing subscribers will be automatically signed up for the Virtual Art Box or they will have the option to request store credit – details for subscribers will be sent out this coming week.)
Why No Magazine?
As many of you know, I halted magazine production in August because of health issues. Although I am not through the full six months recommended for recovery time, it has already become apparent that there is some permanent damage in my arm and there is still a long road ahead for the other health issues I am dealing with. So, something had to be changed.
Being the primary editor and layout designer for the magazine, and facing the reality that I can no longer carry my usual workload, my only option for keeping the magazine going would be to hire more third-party contractors which would result in one or, most likely, all of three things – significantly raising the price of the magazine, jeopardizing the quality of the production and content, and/or not paying the contributing writers and artists. I am not happy with the idea of any of these outcomes and instead I have chosen to discontinue the magazine and work in formats that put less repetitive strain on my arm and should be better able to financially support additional contracted staff as needed.
I am more than a little sad about closing down the magazine. I’ve been publishing periodicals for the polymer community for over eight years and have worked in magazines since high school. However, I’m hoping, with these new ventures, I can continue to inspire, educate, and increase your joy and fulfillment in your creative endeavors through these other exciting avenues.
How Does This Affect This Blog?
So, as you might have noticed, one of the items in the Virtual Art Box is a weekly design lesson. Well, that’s basically what I’ve been doing on the blog this year but, without a magazine to promote on a regular basis, it’s been hard to justify the time that goes into these article length posts beyond the fact that I love doing them. But the mantra for this next year is to work smart.
So, what will happen is that the full-length posts plus other notes and nudges based on the content of the virtual box will be sent to the Virtual Art Box subscribers each weekend. Here, on this publicly accessible blog, I will do an abbreviated version of the subscriber’s weekly design immersion content so I can keep nudging folks to look closer at the design of their creations.
Starting this month, I will be creating those abbreviated posts so I can focus on wrapping up the details of this new project, hire a new assistant, and get a production schedule up for next year for the books. All that with the holidays in the midst of it. Sounds like I’m getting crazy again but I promise to do as the doctor orders. I am really looking forward to being productive again!
Now What about Those Boxes?
With polymer, you can make boxes in two ways – you can cover an existing box form or you can create your own box. Let’s put it at a few examples of both.
Covering a RD existing box is, obviously, the easiest way to create a polymer box. It may seem like a shortcut but if you spend a lot of time creating beautiful veneers or sculptural elements for the outside the box, there’s no need to spend a lot of time creating the box from polymer. Remember, it’s better to use the material that makes the most sense for what you are creating rather than limit yourself to one material.
Aniko Kolesnikova, famous for her journal covers, also covers boxes. Using her bas-relief style sculptural approach, she created this commissioned box based on the card game, Magic: The Gathering. The box top worked as a canvas but the dimensional aspect allowed her to flow each of the elements over its edge, taking up the dynamic energy and knowledge. Click on the image to get her blog post about how she made this including sketches and close-ups.
Fiona Abel-Smith looks to have created her actual box forms out of polymer and then covers it with a technique she learned, and eventually perfected, from Sue Heaser. The process is based on the classic mosaic-like technique of pietra dura. Laying a clay colored base for the shapes in the images, Fiona then adds bits, cut from extruded snakes of clay, to the image for texture. The intense technique creates beautiful, lively illustrations. Fiona’s also created a post about her boxes, showing her variations and their many sides along with photos of her process. Click the image to see the post.
If you are making your own polymer boxes, you have the option of leaving the square behind in making her boxes in any shape whatsoever. The opening image and the image below are boxes by Helen Wyland-Malchow. The opening image, Box 22, was her winning entry into Polymer Journeys 2019. This one, Landscape Box, below has always been one of my personal favorites though. That is really pushing the idea of a box in such a wonderful and dynamic way. Squares are bit static, which allows the imagery on the box to stand out but curves are fabulously high-energy and fun.
So, how about you? Have you created covered boxes or constructed your own from polymer? That could be a fun challenge this month if you haven’t worked with boxes yet. They make fantastic gifts for pretty much anyone. Who couldn’t use a box? If you’d like to create your own polymer boxes, there is a great tutorial (if I do say so myself) by me on constructing a 100% polymer box in the Winter 2015 issue of The Polymer Arts (also available in digital for immediate download here.)
Putting the Lid on It
Well, that’s enough blathering at you for this weekend. I haven’t had time to take pictures of the kitchen backsplash I was working on, which is basically done except for the grout, but I’ll share that with you next weekend, hopefully in its final form.
And last but not least, I want to thank each and every one of you who have been cheering me on the last 8 years, for sending your appreciative and supportive messages, particularly in these the last 4 months. I look forward to you coming along with me on these new and continued artistic ventures as we explore this fantastic medium, growing our creative selves and our community.
Your Morning Book
June 30, 2019
Inspirational Art
Monika Duchowicz’s Slavic Village polymer journal cover
Have you ever gone to a foreign country and found yourself talking like them after being there awhile? It might just be the phrasing but perhaps you take on accents or hand gestures as well. It’s natural to adopt accents and ways of speaking when you are around it a lot. That’s how you learned to talk as a baby and your brain doesn’t completely turn off that learning from what you hear around you.
This phenomenon can happen with things other than language too. As fashion and décor changes around us, we may find our tastes get tweaked along with them. When we peruse social media sites and see artwork online, we may adopt a tendency towards certain types of design, colors, and forms. This can happen over time or even over the course of a day. That means that what you see online and around you can effect what you create.
So how do you keep your own voice and your style unaltered? Well, you can’t, really. Our aesthetic is formed from our interaction with our world but we can do something about the dominance of other influences over our own unique and personal voice. But it’s like muscle memory and that takes regular practice.
Ages ago, I read a book written in 1920 (whose title and author I have shamefully forgotten) on how to be a writer. The author had one line that really struck me. After stating he explained that a writer must get up every morning and, before doing anything else including getting out of bed, he or she must write at least a page of what we would now call free-writing, because this was the only way to insure the writer would wrote with their own voice later in the day. The section ended with him saying, “If you cannot get up and write a page every morning, then you are not a writer.”
At that point, a writer was all I wanted to be, so, fearful that I would not prove up to the task and therefore, I’d never be a real writer (I was rather young and impressionable then), I took that line to heart and I wrote every morning, no matter what, for what was probably about 10 years. Getting married and having a family kind of threw me off the habit but I do try to go back to it each time I stray.
When I don’t do this exercise, I do find that my day to day interactions find their way into my creative work. I found out early on that if I didn’t write in the morning, or tried writing fiction or poetry after a long day of reading academic books or writing training manuals, my writing would feel awkward or stilted. It just didn’t sound like me.
I think this influence of other art we see during the day can similarly affect the art we create as well. So, as part of my morning ritual now, I write for 10-15 minutes and then sketch for about the same amount of time. It is a very pleasant way to wake up and, in the process, I flex my unique voice and get my brain geared up for creative work. I don’t always have time to work in the studio but at least every day I am flexing that visual creative muscle and, I find, it makes my creative time easier to get into when I do get to go play.
Even if you aren’t able to spend productive time creating every day, I think you would find that a morning sketch, a quick “clay doodle” (just sitting at the studio table, playing with your clay for 15 minutes), or just journaling about design ideas will go a long way to concrete you personal voice. It will also show you what you are drawn to or might give you some really unique ideas for new designs. It’s something I would highly encourage.
So, would you be up for that? If you choose to write or sketch in the mornings, you can increase your motivation by creating a beautifully covered sketchbook or journal. And since polymer clay lends itself so well to decorating just about anything, why not make a beautiful cover for a blank book, and then keep it by your bedside? With a gorgeous tome to work in, you’re sure not to miss out on a very useful and fulfilling bit of creative exercise.
A Book and It’s Cover
The first person who comes to mind when talking of polymer covered journals is Aniko Kolesnikova aka Mandarin Duck. She does some of the most interesting and detailed journal covers you can find in polymer these days. And she doesn’t do just the front. She covers the back quite often, like on this one here.
If you are the sculptural type and want a ton of ideas to get you going on a cover design of your own, check out Aniko’s Flickr photostream. If you want more than just ideas, go to her Etsy page for tutorials, including one for that gorgeous peacock cover that was featured in Polymer Journeys 2019.
The other person that comes readily to mind for polymer covered books, and is one of my early influencers, is Chris Kapono, who, like Aniko, also has an affinity for the word Mandarin for some reason, her shop being Mandarin Moon. Chris’ covers are a riotous mixed-media decoration of polymer with glass cabochons, metal charms, beads, and, sometimes, hand-drawn decoration, as you see in the border of this book below.
Books are a perfect canvas for Chris’ style of decorative polymer. She shares her process as well, through tutorials on her Etsy site and in publications such as her tremendous contribution to the Polymer Art Projects – Organics book.
If you would like to create a cover with a more painterly approach, you might aspire to the work of Monika Duchowicz. Her polymer paintings are masterful but she kindly shares process shots on her Instagram account and was so kind to create a tutorial for her style of polymer painting for The Polymer Arts in the Summer 2017 issue.
Here’s another painterly polymer artist, Zhanna Bessonova, who likes to go really large. I just didn’t want you to think it had to be a small journal or sketchbook. Pick the size of the book you want to write or draw in first, then decide the cover.
I know, I know … the work of these very talented ladies might be intimidating to some people but remember, the whole idea is to make something that can help you find and/or hold onto your unique voice so you certainly don’t need to make covers like these—make them your way! Whatever you can create on a flat sheet of polymer can become a journal cover. Create a cover with a mosaic of textured squares, tons of polymer dots, rhinestones, polymer ‘embrodiery or, heck, canes will do, of course! Strangely enough, I couldn’t really find anyone doing cane covered books. I thought clayers had hit everything with cane slices! They must be out there somewhere! (If you know of some, share the links to them in the comments at the end of this post. Click the header if you are getting this by email.)
Also keep in mind, your cover doesn’t have to be complicated. And it doesn’t have to be polymer. Use whatever you like and do as much or as little as you like on it. Look at this lovely but simple book by a French crafter who goes by shop name alone – Avenuedes Fantaisies. It’s just a polymer honeycomb background and some fun rhinestone bees that were probably pins at one time, but it feels joyful.
You really can attach anything you want to your book cover. It’s for you, so if you are up for the challenge, make it yours!
New Issue of The Polymer Studio, coming late July
If you haven’t seen the new cover roaming about social media, here it is! Debbie Crothers’s acrylic on polymer beads grace the front for issue #3. We also have tutorials by Christi Friesen, Anita Long, Beatriz Cominatto, Kathy Koontz and Nika Nakit. There is also a fascinating interview with Beatriz, Brazil’s premiere polymer artist with a branded line of polymer clay, and a peek into the studio of master miniature artist, Angie Scarr. Plus much more.
Start or renew subscriptions or pre-order a copy on the website here.
Painter for a Day
I am off to paint a bathroom today then back to polishing the next issue. We might have a fully functional bathroom by the end of the day Monday but only if I can get this part done today. It’s not that the contractors couldn’t paint it but, well, I’m cheaper—I just require some yummy baked goods and a good audiobook or podcast and I’ll work away! And, honestly, I will do a better job. When it’s your place, you just take extra care with things. So, I am off. Enjoy your Sunday and have a beautiful week! I hope you get up every morning before your mind is otherwise influenced, and you write or create something just for yourself. You deserve it!
Let it Snow
December 26, 2018
Inspirational Art
I’m getting on the road today, trying to beat a snowstorm so I can spend New Year’s with my family in Colorado, so this is going to be quick.
To stay in the theme of my day today, how about a beautiful Snow Dragon? I don’t recall snow dragons being a thing from my days of collecting and reading about everything having to do with dragons—I had quite the obsession with them in my teenage years. But this is a beautiful idea of one. I just love the serenity of Evgeny Hontor‘s sculptures. Evgeny’s creatures are actually created out of something called velvet clay, not that it matters if this is polymer not. If you want to make a sculpture of this type, you can make it with polymer.
The real takeaway here is seeing how just putting in the eyes keeps the expression of the sculpture quiet and calm. That matches the calm inherent in the color of blue which, in this piece with highlights of white, still harkens to the idea of snow.
So off to see my own snow now. I hope you all enjoyed your holidays and are resting up. I’ll pop in on Friday with something Colorado-inspired, I’m sure. In the meantime, you can check out more of Evgeny’s work on Deviant Art and Etsy.
Out of the Fire
November 16, 2018
Inspirational Art
Following this week’s fire theme, we’re sharing this post from the January 2015 Polymer Arts blog archives.
We’re going to head to the orange and yellow side of the warm spectrum today, with a beautiful sculpture by Canadian artist Ellen Jewett. The warmth in this piece feels more like the warmth of sunlight with the white and yellows and coppery oranges. We see that sense of glow here as well, from the gradation of the colors, although most of the color change seems to be between the laid out elements and not in the clay. Mica clays also help to radiate a sense of bright light. This is to show that the visual illusion doesn’t come just from the soft change in color, as in a Skinner blend, but in the way we visualize the play of light. Light changes quality as it hits different surfaces, which, in this case, are the feathers of this dragon-like phoenix. The variety of the surface gives it a liveliness not unlike a dancing fire.
Ellen creates all kinds of very fantastical creatures with very dynamic forms and proportions. I suspect either her educational pursuits in biological anthropology and anthrozoology contribute to these amazing pieces or the same artistic drive to create pushed her to pursue her unusual combination of studies. It is quite worth taking a break to spend some time in her Etsy shop.
Going With the Flow
November 9, 2018
Inspirational Art
Here is a slightly different twist on organic jewelry (pun intended).
I love the flow in rhythm of natural organic formations especially plant and geological ones because of the sense of movement they often have. The work of Germany’s Lydia Hirte is an example of those formations brought to adornment. Mind you though, this is not polymer but paper, although the concept of stacked and shuffled layers is not at all unknown in polymer and a connection and source of inspiration between the two materials is readily found.
Lydia works in ways similar to what I have heard from many polymer artists. She likes to let the materials steer the design. In her words:
My ideas arise from working with the material and my observations of what happens when forcing the bundles of card[stock] by my hand in different directions. I always use the same basic shape. For me, as an artist, it’s also very important to generate tension in the material when working.
I am mainly looking for spatiality, direction and movement and I am always aiming at linking wearability with sculptural form.
To see more of these wonderful types of forms, go on over to Lydia’s website.
I have avoided doing a week with the theme particular to a type of jewelry but we have a list of really amazing bracelets that I just can’t wait to share with you any longer. The reason I wanted to avoid a single form was because it could end up being a week of pieces that only inspire those that work in that form, but these bracelets I’m bringing you this week have surface treatments and textures that can apply to all kinds of polymer–from other forms of jewelry to decor and even sculpture. Even if you don’t create bracelets, much or not at all, look at what the pieces present in terms of techniques and combinations of characteristics. I think many of you will find exciting inspiration everyday this week.
This first bracelet is actually some of DDee Wilder’s older work but I think her combination of techniques, colors and forms still have lessons for us now. The combination of colors vibrate along with the sliced polymer spots stretching out on the inside of the bracelet emphasizing the spin of the curling, rippling form that makes this such a lively bracelet.
DDee has a whole series of these bracelets you can enjoy on her Flickr pages, but don’t stop there. She has many other lovely forms, textures and palettes to inspire you, no matter what forms you prefer to work in.
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.
This fantastical creature is part of the series “Creatures from El” by Canadian artist Ellen Jewett. All of the swirls and scales movement are portrayed using textures and the wave of the dragon’s body. The dragon appears like stop animation … he is caught for a moment in time … so that we might enjoy his magnificence. This piece is a moving biological narrative, expressing emotions, movement, balance, and observations about life’s overtures and subtleties. This artist works with the principle that materials should conform to her vision, rather than confine her vision to the limits of materials.
As might be evident in her work, Ellen has extensive education in post-secondary Biological Anthropology and has been pursuing graduate work in anthrozoology. To enjoy the magnitude of her vision, take a look at her Etsy site, and read her journal entries on deviantart.com. When she is not too busy creating new work or filling custom orders, she hopes to resume private lessons in sculpture and stop motion animation, as well as her online tutorials.
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.
So, yesterday I very briefly started talking about how balance is at the center of well produced asymmetry. Here is a piece that works more toward a feeling of tension rather than being well-balanced.
In this piece, Margaret Polcawich has mixed wood and polymer clay. The strength of both materials is highlighted in the design as well as the asymmetry. The metal arm leans out to one side while the stacked shapes struggle to lean inward and in the opposite direction. There is a kind of balance in the juxtaposition of the components’ visual movement, even though that movement seems more of a struggle than an harmonious existence. But the piece is named “Temporary” and so the feeling that the balance achieved is only momentary fulfills that idea.
This Maryland artist is not only a sculptor but also a furniture designer. She calls furniture our most accessible sculpture. She explains, “While studying sculpture in college, I began utilizing the chair as a metaphor for the human figure, and have been drawn to functional art ever since.” You can see her furniture, mixed media jewelry and polymer clay accessories, along with some great Mokume
Gane tutorials, on her website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Using a lot of color doesn’t mean creating a piece that is bright and bold. Colorful can also be subdued, antiqued, pale, dark or work with any number of alterations to the elements of color. They can also be nicely blended to tone down the graphic impact like Anarina Anar does here in this blended polymer Scarf necklace.
Anarina’s work is all about color with a rough, organic yet light-hearted style. She does a lot of blending of color which allows her to be so colorful yet retain that organic feel. Just open her Flickr photostream to get a serious dose of color and texture today.
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.
Frames are great for directing focus and presenting your beads and surface treatments but it let’s look at one more way to make them an integral element. In this case, let’s essentially make them the beads themsevles.
In this beaded necklace by Gera Scott Chandler, she provides a rich three dimensional bead by combining multiple elements, which includes beads and frames.
This Canadian artist likes to combine polymer clay with found objects for her mixed media wearable art, canvases and sculptures. Gera’s work can be found in collections in Canada, USA, Europe, Australia, and Japan, as well as on her Flickr site. She talks also about her process, and even provides some brief tutorials, in her blog “a Mused Studio” on her website.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Some pieces can deftly combine both geometric imagery and organic texture but sometimes, it is one representing the other as it is in this touching piece by Tammy Durham. Both the plant growth and the connection to new life are conveyed by many small circles and a stylized but active and flowing composition.
I love Tammy’s bold use of color and texture found in most of her work which she admits is heavily inspired by Gustav Klimt. Tammy, a polymer clay illustrator from Colorado, has no fear of color as can be seen on her Flickr and Pinterest pages. Take a break from shopping and work and enjoy her joyful imagery for a bit.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Now for something completely different. Both for our theme and for polymer in general. Jasmyne Graybill has been a huge influence and inspirations for me since I first discovered her work some 4 years ago. Her pieces are pretty but not comfortable. Her subject matter is organic but not of a type you see often if ever. She takes old, ordinary objects and turns them into works of art but if you didn’t know it was polymer, you might try to clean it, or more likely run in the other direction. That’s because she takes inspiration from that part of nature that we try to erase, destroy, hide and kill off. But its these forms that in the end, will take over what we try to create.
In this piece, polymer has been shaped and textured into the likeness of some unknown mold which has taken over a pretty floral plate, turning a stacked composition of flowers into a scattered composition of nature taking over a manmade object.
Mold, mildew and fungus do not usually grow in any kind of pattern or regular application. They grow where their spores land, chance being their primary organizer. This chance approach is a valid composition as long as there is a relationship or visual connection among the elements. In this case, they are all the same basic form created in a color palette to match their host object.
I know many of you are probably grimacing at this piece. Yeck. But these less admired inhabitants of the organic world create some wonderful textures and forms. You don’t have to create faux mold, but you might find the textures and the way groups of fungi form, interesting enough to consider recreating what you see only in a context and with an approach that reflects your idea of beauty. Here are four dishes of other fungi possibilities that Jasmyne created. Quite pretty, I think.
If you, too, find Jasmyne’s work rather fascinating, you can see more of her pieces and installations on her website. She does not work solely in polymer, which is another reason I admire her work. She uses the material best suited for what she wants to represent. It just so happens that polymer can emulate so much. Even the icky things.
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.
With my connection (and faith) in the internet restored, we will resume chatting about boxes and ways to expand on the popular form.
For our weekend peek at lidded containers, I saved a piece by Kim Detmers. The concept here simply stretches the way that you can use your ‘canvas’. Even though a canvas is a flat space to begin with, that doesn’t mean you need to create your work based on that kind of two-dimensional space. Consider possible ways to build up, build out, and work into the space around the vessel, not just the ‘real estate’ that is the surface of the vessel. Kim builds up on the lid, and out into the space above the container. She has also made the lid the unmistakable focal point, which is a bit unusual since it would seem that the tendency is to make the lid an accent or compliment to the body of the box. In fact, with the lid on, it may not look like a container at first, but rather more of a sculpture. And in essence, what should an artistically formed box meant for a bit more than function be but a sculpture?
I know the concept of building into space, considering design and composition in terms of the form, and then using the space around it can sometimes be daunting to ponder. But it is great fun and quite visually impressive when something as simple as a box has been grown into a sculpture that lives in the space around the container, not just on its surface.
If you want a little more information on how to use the space surrounding your pieces, check out the article “Create With Space” in the very popular Spring 2012 issue of The Polymer Arts about this very subject. (Said issue which is just about sold out in the print format, so if you want this or the Summer 2012 issue, you might want to order them soon before we run out.)
And if you like Kim’s work, take a look at her engaging blog and her Etsy shop.
Read MoreI had a great conversation this past week with the wonderful Mitchell sisters. We are, all three of us, very big on function. Just because something can’t funtion as the object it was created as doesn’t mean it’s not art. But if it can’t function as the type of object it is labeled as, should it actually be categorized as such?
For example, look at this ‘necklace’ … it’s huge! I don’t see it being worn comfortably or well for any length of time. So is it a necklace? Some people will say yes–it fits over the head and rests on the neck and shoulders. But what is a necklace for? It is to adorn the wearer, right? But what if no one will wear it long enough to say the person was even adorned with it? If something doesn’t really fit its function, I am for simply calling it art, usually sculptural art since sculpture doesn’t have a particular function. But if not, do we call if a failure for not fulfilling its function? I don’t know if we should go so far as to say it’s failed. let’s reserve that bit of labeling for things like bad toupees and monstrous high heels.
I am certainly not saying this piece is a failure or not worthy of our consideration. I saved it for a reason. I like the careful consideration of every plane on this piece–the sides, top, bottom, and insides are all colored and coordinated through their saturation. And the artist, Marjorie Schick, recognizes that her work pushes the boundaries of what can be called functional. A book collection of her work was titled “Sculpture to Wear” rather than something about art jewelry or sculptural jewelry. The work is acknowledged as sculpture first, and so we can say it fulfills its primary intended ‘function’–as art to be viewed without undue expectation about how it will operate and survive as anything beyond that.
But this brings us to a notable point about our work. If you are making something that is expected to perform a particular function, it should be able to fulfill the role–it should be able to hang, stand, or move as needed, it will not come apart when used with reasonable care, it won’t harm people when it is worn or displayed, etc. Looking good is, of course, important; but if you neglect to consider how it will hold up, how it will be worn or displayed, or whether it will be comfortable enough for the wearer to keep it on for the day or even a few hours, you haven’t made a successful piece, not to mention you’ll probably disappoint someone. Creating functional art means creating the functional aspects as well as the art.
