Studio Time: Polymer experiments

I have been monkeying around with polymer and getting my groove back. I'm in the wildly experimental stage. I usually keep my mistakes and ugly pieces, but I'm beginning to edit and toss stuff I don't like. I should probably try harder to keep ugly pieces. But, some of these are still in the ugly enough stage. I would consider them prototypes. Still working through kinks in composition. The big thing I'm missing is professional finish. Cute enough for giving away to friends, but not good enough for selling yet.


Chalk Experiments

Ever since I saw Margit Boehmer's tinted chalk polymer on Polymer Clay Daily, I've been intrigued. I love the beautiful depth and interest you get by including chalks.

This first picture is using chalks on white. It provides a really pretty watercolor-ish type of feel. I want to experiment with this more.

These are custom mixed colors with additional tinting to provide some natural depth. I think I plan to explore this a bit more. I'm really digging the results here.

Free-Form Seed Beading

I'm also a really big fan of Beverly Ash Gilbert's free-form seed beading. I've bought some of her  deep and complex seed bead soups. I'm experimenting with combining them with polymer. I got one toggle done, but I kept breaking the needle on the other one. I'll have to drill some holes to complete this set. I really love the richness of her soups. She includes up to 50 beads of various colors, shapes, and sizes in some of her soups!

Tropical Huts

This year I've seen a a bunch of beach huts as beads. In 2012, I created a small polymer house very similar to the ones below. I can't find it right now, but I've been continuing to experiment in the bright beachy designs. They actually remind me of the simple Dominican Republic wooden houses that were a popular subject of paintings there. I have two gorgeous paintings that have graced my walls (all over the world!) since 2000.

That's it for me for now. 

Artfully Meandering: Florida Cloud Formations

I'm smitten. 

I'm smitten with the vapor oceans that spiral to lofty heights in the atmospheric heavens.

Crafted by current

Sculpted by rip tides

Textured by wind

Colored by light

Folding

Crashing

Sweeping waves

I've lived all over the place and I love clouds. But there is something about the clouds in Florida. I guess it's the summer rainy season and the storms we get every afternoon. Storm clouds have a reputation for being spectacular. And we have spectacular storms. 

And the light! Oh, the evening and morning light...

Of course, I'm always running somewhere while enjoying these daily art displays. So, I snap photos on my iPhone in my car. 

I thought it was just me. But one of my friends told me the first thing some of their friends noticed when moving into Jacksonville were the clouds. So, it's not just me. They are a dose of daily art!

Studio Time: Back to Basics

So I've been struggling with finding my voice on my blog as I restart my artistic journey and I just decided to go back to basics. Start over like I started my blog. Write about my surroundings, my art, and the journey of the experiments.

Lamp work is still on hiatus so I'm playing with polymer again. I've also started looking into classes on ceramics and fusing glass. It turns out I don't mind these opportunities to experiment in different mediums!

When I first started with polymer, I have to admit I felt like it was "too easy." I wanted art that I had to work at. But, as I've learned, polymer isn't that easy. In fact, in some ways it's harder than lamp working. Conditioning clay takes a long time! Plus, I've been following Polymer Clay Daily for a couple of years and this website confirms that polymer artists can manipulate the medium in magical ways. There are some beautiful works of art on there. I aspire to getting published there someday. 

But for now, I'm starting at the basics. While clay manufacturers create a lot of pre-mixed colors, when I was in Hong Kong, I had limited access to the pre-mixed colors. So, I learned to mix colors from the primaries through Maggie Maggio's color scale experiments. I have found that I much prefer mixing my own colors from primaries rather than buying pre-mixed. You get the more gradients that are more natural. I worked with FIMO classic (very crumbly) and just found I loved the colors I could mix from it. I have access to FIMO soft, which I much prefer and I'm thrilled with the color scales I can get. 

So below is last night's work at mixing. I have some rough ideas that I want to experiment with. I'll share as I go.

Below is my new studio. It's the other half of my messy office. I just moved in 3 weeks ago, so I'm still going through and filing papers. I may show that side of the room (and all the wonderful windows) when I get it cleaned. Don't expect that any time soon.

Gratuitous cutie pie pictures. I still miss my dog, Molly, but I'm thoroughly enjoying this new generation of puppies. Sophie (on the left) is 5 years old and Trixie (on the right) is 7 years old. I have a work-from-home job and they sit in my desk drawers while I work. I love that they are so comfortable that they sleep on their back. Sophie has been doing this for a year and I have a ridiculous amount of cute pictures of her sleeping on her back. Trixie just got comfortable enough to start sleeping on her back in the last two weeks. She's been with me for over a year, so it makes me happy that's she's feeling secure enough to sleep on her back.