Polymer Pictures

A short while ago, I gave an onlline tutorial class to my polymer "group". It's a small group of women who have been with me for a long time. Originally, we met when they attended beadweaving workshops I was offering at a place called Nature's Art Village. After several years, my classes moved to a small beading shop. At that time, I also began to offer classes in polymer. That shop closed, and we moved to a church rental location. Then came Covid. We couldn't meet in person, so we migrated to Zoom. We're still meeting periodically on Zoom which allows everyone to "be there", even through illness, surgery and all the various events that occur in life. As I write this, I realize that I have been with some of these women for close to 30 years. They are special people, and I'm happy we've continued to stay connected. Our most recent "class" was on making polymer pictures to fit in small frames. The image shown here is in a 3" x 4" frame. The frame is purchased, and the backing and glass are removed. The glass serves as the "pattern" for cutting out a flat polymer background. In this case, I made a Skinner blend for the background, and added a slight texture. The flowers were cut outs, and the stems and leaves I formed by hand. It only required simple assembly on the unbaked clay background - and, of course, the addition of a butterfly from a cane I had made previously. Cured in the oven, inserted into the frame with the backing, and it's set to go. The picture can be anything from something like flowers to a wild abstract! Simple and fun! Give it a try!

Polymer Pens

You probably noticed the pen covered in polymer in the last post. I discovered that the Bic Click pens work perfectly for this purpose. The ends and the ink portion all remove easily from the white core. Polymer can then wbe wrapped around the core and baked. After baking, I sanded so everything was smooth, polished it on my buffer, and re-assembled everything. I like this particular pen because the core is round rather than multi-sided, so it's easier to smooth the clay. Also, the mechanism is retractable, so the pen won't tend to leak or dry out. Here is photo of some more pens I made. I have some more curing. Guess you could say I'm on a roll!

Westerly Annual Regional Art Show

The Artist Cooperative of Westerly is holding their 29th annual Regional Art Show. The show is open to anyone, and is judged by a juror who does not know our members. Frequently, members submit items and are not selected for the show. People are allowed to enter up to three pieces, and the judge makes a determination on which ones meet their standards for that particular medium. Art is very subjective, and that makes the resulting show very eclectic and interesting. I always enjoy seeing what does and does not get selected.

This year, I'm entering 3 pieces and we'll see what happens. The first piece to the left is made completely of polymer pinched-petal canes, with some rolled polymer beads to lie flat behind the neck. The pieces below show: A hand-formed, hand painted porcelain focal, with a PMC fine silver bail, on a beadwoven necklace (all made by me). The last photos are of a polymer pendant with a beadwoven center, and a buna cord with adjustable closure.

They are all rather different, and I'm interested to see what the judge thinks.

February Polymer Collages

Several members of the Westerly Artists' Cooperative met today to "hang" the February show. I had some new pieces I put in my display area. I enjoy the concept of "collage" and it's fun to do in polymer. Here are some pendants I made to include in the show. In the pendant on the left, the largest section was made with pan pastels as background, and black mica powder through a silk screen for the overlay design. There is also some gold clay and a shiny section with copper leaf. I left this piece with a spayed matte finish. The two pendants below contain sections with textured clay as well as some silk screened sections. Both of these pendants are covered in resin, and are very shiny in person.

Snowflake Hangings

Well, for those who have no snow on the ground, I decided to make some snowflake hangings. These can be placed on a wall, door, or in a window to catch the light. They all have very sparkly snowflake shapes, as well as crystals in open spaces or imbedded in the polymer snowflake itself. They were fun to make - though I did have to be careful about cleaning up the glitter afterwards. I made a couple more in other color combos, but these give you a good idea of the concept. They are hung on strong fishline that is knotted and glued.

A Few More Pieces for Early Fall

Here are a few new pieces I've made for Spectrum as a sort of bridge between summer and fall. To the left is a mandala pendant and below are the matching earrings.

I really like this next piece. The silk screening over the textured background and pattern really adds depth.

I'm not sure if the piece above represents a river or something in space. You get to decide.

Teapots & Polymer

A little while ago, the New England Polymer Artists' Guild (NEPAG) held a polymer "challenge". The idea was to decorate a teapot with polymer. The teapot could be made of any material, and we were given a month to produce our teapot. Some people used metal teapots, while others used ceramic. The condition of the surface affected how the design needed to be applied and secured. It was a fun project, and the results were amazing! I chose to use a small white glass teapot, and decorate it with flowers. The teapot to the left is the one I made for the challenge. I especially love the butterfly.

Once I made one, I couldn't seem to stop. The teapots below are the ones I have made since the challenge. Most have sold, though I am keeping the first one. It was such fun, and taught me a lot. Recently, I had to make the chocolate brown one - it seems perfect for fall.

Larger Polymer Lidded Containers

While I've been caught up decorting all these lovely little ceramic vases, I haven't forgotten how much fun it is to create lidded vessels completely from polymer. Here are some containers I made that are much larger than any I've tried before. They are strong and will hold more items than my first pieces. I used Skinner blends, and decorated them with acrylic paints and silk screens. I played around with different "knobs" on the tops of the lids. I particularly like the dandelion vessel. Perfect container for storing wishes.

More Small Vases

As you can tell, I'm having lots of fun decorating small ceramic vases. I've a few more to share with you. I have been making flowers to go on these vessels, making sure the designs went all the way around the vases to help ensure the polymer remains as a whole piece and in place. Then I decided to try something that did not go all the way around. The all cream floral design on the vase to the left goes about 3/4th of the way around. I baked the polymer in place, then carefully pried the design off, and reattached it with 2-part epoxy. After drying, I tried to take the design off again, and there was no way it was budging. Below are the other vases I've been working on:

Variations Using Dimensional Bargello

I've been playing around with some of the dimensional bargello that Jana Roberts-Benzon calls "puffy flamestitch." It's really pretty, fun to do, and presents all sorts of interesting possibilities. Jana presented it as a solid, connected sheet. I found it even more fun to make strips and then shape them in different ways. The photos below show some of the various ways I manipulated the strips I made. I particularly like the pieces that are really open and have a light, airy appearance.

Late March Frosting

Yesterday the temperature reached 60 degrees. This morning, we woke to a sprinkling of snow. Ah, March! Nothing was on the driveway or lawn, but the leaves in our woods were all dusted with bits of white. The scene made me think of a set I made late last year when the first frosts were hitting all the fallen leaves. This seems like the perfect time to share a couple of photos.

Sparkle & Shine Long Pendants

Every once in a while, I find a special charm or other item that "begs" to be added to a piece of jewelry. I found these lovely little partial star-burst charm drops with a CZ in the center on Etsy, and couldn't resist. So here are 2 thin and longish pendants using this golden embellishment. The aqua blue pendant has a thick coating of iridescent glitter under a resin coating. The red, white and gold pendant is from a mokume gane sheet with composite gold leaf, again sealed with resin. :) The blue one, especially, makes me think of a beautiful early spring sunrise on a crystal clear day.

Painting on Polymer with Liquid Watercolor

I tried something new recently. I won't go into too much detail because this particular technique comes from a tutorial by Debbie Crothers. Her tutorials are well-done, and she has some unique approaches to both using and embellishing polymer. Every once in a while, I find a tutorial that piques my interest. This particular tutorial, which she calls "Silkwater" introduced me to both a new product and a new idea. I had never thought about watercolor paints on polymer. It just seemed they would be too runny and difficult to control. Debbie has found a way to manage that issue. The tutorial also introduced me to a product I had not heard of before: liquid watercolors. There are different brands with different features. I totally enjoyed "playing" and getting comfortable with their use.

Here's a photo of some pieces I made after experimenting a bit. It's been a lot of fun to try something totally new. I think you can really see the "watercolor" effect. I backed the pieces with black and used black liquid clay as an edging to set the surfaces off just a bit. I used a doming resin, Magic Gloss, to seal the surface. I'm looking forward to doing more!

Finally!!

Hello! If you've been checking periodically, you know it's been a long time since I posted to this blog. The changes they made in the Blogspot software meant it would no longer work on my old computer. However, that trusty machine has finally decided to call it quits, and I now I have a new machine that seems totally fine with the updated software. Yay! Although I haven't been posting, I have been working with polymer - and I have tons of things to share. So, over the next days/weeks/months I'll be posting different projects and ideas I've been exploring. They may not be in any particular order, but I will try to stick to one topic (or maybe 2....) per post. I'm in the midst of making lots of different jewelry right now because I'm a featured artist for the April Show at the Westerly Art Gallery. So today I'll post a couple of photos of things I'm in the process of making for the show. The theme is "Feast for the Senses: Spring is Here!" which really meshes with my enjoyment of color and florals in polymer.

These bright flowers to the left are all pendants which will hang from simple gold or silver chains.

Here are a few earrings that are something new for me. This is the first time I've added the top portion to create motion in a drop earring. Also, I've experimented with some new floral designs. It's nice to be blogging again. :)

A New Cuff!

A few months ago, I purchased a bracelet cuff tutorial from Bettina Welker, an outstanding German polymer artist.  Among other things, Bettina is known for her clever hidden closures, clasps, and hinges.  I really like cuff bracelets, but usually they have to be slipped over a person's hand and then they may, or may not feel right on the wrist.  This new design allows you to create a more custom fit that does not have to slide over the hand.
Today, I'm sharing with you my first cuff using her tutorial.  Now that I know how she created the closure, I have plans to create more using my own designs and ideas.  Her tutorials are available on her website under the heading "Instructions"  :  https://bettinawelker.de/anleitungen/   Below are 3 photos.  One shows the cuff from the front, one from the back, and one shows part of the closure.

Going Concave

As I believe I mentioned in an earliery post, the Westerly Gallery January show had the theme: Exploration:  New Perspectives.  One of the things I decided to try was to make pendants with a concave rather than convex form.  This meant that, instead of the center of the piece rising to the eye, it would recede.

I had fun working with different shapes, mixing and matching patterns, colors, and textures. You will notice for several of them I used the mokume gane technique, and several of the pieces incorporated metal leaf.

Below are more of the pendants I made.

Snowflakes ~ After all, it is Winter

A few weeks ago, I held a class focused on making polymer snowflakes. We decorated them in a variety of ways.  I was really impressed at the imagination participants used to make the snowflakes glitter and shine.  Our biggest job was picking up the glitter when we were through. :)
I'm posting here a few of the snowflakes I made.  I think these would be fun to hang in a window, on a door, or from a lamp, depending on the size. There is even a pair of earrings. Besides all being different, these snowflakes have the advantage of never melting!

Wearable Kaleidoscopes

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a workshop about making polymer Ikat stacks.  We used the stacks to cover these fun little wearable kaleidoscopes.  These are real kaleidoscopes, complete with a glass mirror prism inside.  A simple, adjustable golden chain makes it possible to wear around the neck.  I decided these might make fun gifts, so made a few for the Holiday Show in Westerly.  Here are some of the ones I made.

Dichroic Holiday Sets

I love the special shine and sparkle that comes from using metal leaf and alcohol inks on polymer. When the holidays start rolling around, these are the pieces that people seem drawn to, and they make great presents.  I worked up a sheet with reds, pinks, blues and purples, and have made several pieces from the base. I need to switch it up and bring in greens, yellows and oranges, so don't be surprised if you see some of those in the near future.  In the meantime, here are some of the sets from the first color combination.

The set on the left is in just two colors, and I like the calm feel.  The set on the right was made from strips of the colored sheet that were sliced and randomly placed against each other.