Polymer Clay Notes

Daisy Duck and Jeremy Giraffe might be the most adorable polymer clay beads I’ve ever seen. Nancy Richardson is crazy about dogs and her polymer clay dogs are awfully cute too, but something about Daisy Duck just caught my eye and made me smile.

Smiles are welcome around here this week…I’ll take them where I can get them. Gotta love anything that makes you smile.

You can see this dog-lover’s work on Etsy. More dogs and other critters on her blog.

I’ll be back in a little while with one more animal related, make-me-smile post and then back to business!

I want to peel back the layers of paint on one of Russell West’s paintings. West meticulously builds layers of color over wire and board, allowing each layer of paint to drip dry, ultimately showing us how paint moves. Something tells me that the layers hold stories of the artist’s process, his life, his world. Each piece offers a shock of color and shadowy three dimensional openings that tease the eye and draw you in. Once you are hooked, the excitement mounts as you realize that the work is dripping with unknown surprises waiting to be revealed. Much like life.

Oil Paint on Wire on Board. 63″ x 44″

The thing I love about the process is that I work on the paintings all day but, even after I’ve locked up the studio at night and gone home, the paint continues to move very slowly for hours. The next morning, when I look at the paintings, it’s a strange and interesting experience because the paintings will have continued to transform themselves in the dark, on their own.

38″ x 43″

How cool is this? Chishen Chiu used sheets of recycled paper with a sturdy honeycomb structure to create this loveseat. Chiu, a young designer based in Taiwan, is developing a line of products to complement the love seat, which stretches out to accommodate up to sixteen people.  What’s not to love?

Read more about the recycled paper product on the flexible love website.

Well, they are baked, but they are not edible. Berlin’s Beatrice Oettinger calls her work ‘textile baking’. This dress is formed with flour, flowers and water…then baked.

Flour, water, flower petals, seeds 15″

These wild clothes are baked with water and flour, mixed up with the wasteful abundance of the nature’s materials:
with flowers, seeds, grasses, bark… Every clothing is unique, expression of a moment, a season, a walk - made for inspirations.

She even makes lamps with the ‘wild dresses’. Delicious way to start your day…see more of her work on Dawanda.

Thousands of balls of plasticine. Hand rolled balls of plasticine. That’s what makes up the background of this image by illustrator Charlotte Oh. Click on the picture to see a time lapse video of the commissioned piece’s process, which took the artist about a month to complete.

Love, 36″ x 9″ Plasticine on Foam Board

Oh’s portfolio is chock full of three dimensional illustrations for magazines like ascent, a yoga magazine that also ran an article and slide show that gives a step-by-step rundown of how Oh created the cover pictured below.

Many thanks for all of your comments and emails regarding my recent trip to the E.R. I’m feeling much better after a weekend of pampering by my daughter - my most important work and most precious gift. She came up for the weekend to help me get back on my feet and we even managed to sneak in a long walk and a bit of flea market fun before I got tuckered out. She went home this morning with sweet finds for her apartment and lots of love from me.

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Shannon Carney is a competitive golfer turned jewelry artist. The 26 year old American splits her time between studios in Wisconsin and Europe, making a name for herself on the art jewelry scene with her cutting edge contemporary resin collection. Each piece is hand poured, hand assembled resin and monofilament. I like the color gradations, the pebble-ish look and the adventurous way she uses her talents. Sultry. Simple Elegance.

Did you miss me? I hope so, because I sure missed tickling your muse with my daily posts of inspiration and eye candy.

I just returned home from a few days in the hospital…unexpected and not so much fun. Gee, nobody told me that ambulances, emergency rooms and hospitals are so much more, um…icky in real life than they are on television.

I’m feeling a little like this well-worn teddy bear today but by Monday I should be my usual perky, blog-posting-diva self. Thanks for your patience!

Polymer clay bugs and buds are popping up all over the place. What a delicate clay bouquet by Murrzia’ (via Toby)

I know there are folks who use transparencies to make inkjet image transfers for polymer clay - I just can’t remember who has had success with this method. Photojojo has a quick tutorial for an inkjet image transfer that might be good for polymer clay. I like the tip about editing the image to make it look like a rubber stamp. Check it out on the Photojojo blog.

Maybe I’ll dig out my transparencies and give it a try.

Need a hit of shapely inspiration? Looking for new curves to interpret? Then check out Anthony Roussel’s laser cut wood bracelets and rings. I find the stacked look interesting and full of possibilities.

By using laser cutting I am applying a new and exciting way of working with one of the oldest materials known to man. The meeting of innovation and tradition challenges contemporary jewellery. With the use of wood, I am questioning the traditional notions of preciousness, In using new technologies as a tool, I am questioning existing perceptions of craft.