Polymer Clay Color Inspirations: Techniques and Jewelry Projects for Creating Successful Palettes

Cynthia Tinapple’s Forward is pure motivation to read the book:  “What I’ve found is that excellent color can rescue a mediocre design.  And color that’s off the mark or muddied can ruin the finest concept.  Your palette becomes your signature.  That signature is very personal.  It’s tied to culture and geography and weather.  It shifts with latitude, with attitude, and with age.  Learning about color means learning about yourself.”

The start of a collage…more to come

There is a quiz to determine your confidence level in working with color.  Here’s the first line of the description beside my score: “You often feel overwhelmed when making color choices.” Yes, that about sums it up. Until now, I’ve made most of my color choices intuitively and while people usually respond well to the colors in my work I admit that I have never been confident about them – I often feel like they happened by accident.

This book – part textbook, part workbook and part self-help book, will be within arms length while I work in the studio. I’m learning how to understand color, find my personal color palette, choose colors for my next project, mix colors that work, play games with color and then put it all together. At my own pace.  In my own time. And you can too.

As an added bonus, Maggio is posting “Weekend Extras” to her blog – more guidance to help you through the exercises.  Don’t be shy, this is your chance to ask questions and a wonderful opportunity to connect directly with the author.

Thank you Maggie and Lindly – I am finally beginning to understand the language of color and I know I will come back to the book for years to come as I slowly develop my personal palette and use it in ways that will make my work sing.

From Elise Winters’ review and interview with Lindly on PAA:

“Color Inspirations has been designed to meet the needs of a wide audience. It should be of interest to newcomers who want to try polymer, as well as people who find color challenging. We wrote this book as well for people who might be interested in working with dyes, paints, even colored pencils. If somebody is interested in the dynamics of color, the science of color mixing, the aesthetic awareness of color choice, this book should provide lots of nourishment and inspiration.” Lindly Haunani

Read Elise Winters’ review and interview with Lindly Haunani on Polymer Art Archive

Maggie Maggio’s website and Weekend Extras

Lindly Haunani’s website

Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio will each present at Synergy2

Ancient Modern: Polymer Clay + Wire Jewelry is a good place to start.  Ronna Sarvas Weltman has written a book that is a safe haven for artists to put perfection aside for a moment, experiment with the two mediums and maybe even draw out your inner jewelry designer in the process.

Ancient Modern: Polymer Clay + Wire Jewelry

Of particular interest to anyone interested in making jewelry are her tips about the mechanics of design – how to make a piece wearable and comfortable.  In addition to the 15 projects in the book, there is a clear, concise Coiling Wire Chart to help you determine how much wire is needed when making uniform coils.

But wait, there is more…

Nightfall in Mozambique, polymer clay, wire

I’ve had the pleasure of watching Ronna grow as an artist over the last three years and getting to know this lovely, generous, upbeat soul has been a special treat for me.  Ronna introduced herself (via email) in the early days of Daily Art Muse, when this blog was known as Polymer Clay Notes.  She was often inspired by the art I posted here and we made a precious connection as we forged ahead on our individual paths.  Some time later, when she told me she was writing a book that would marry polymer clay and wire with her primitive, organic style I knew it would be a hit, and it is – Ancient Modern, released by Interweave Press in June 2009, is already in its second printing.

Why is it so popular?  In Ancient Modern, Ronna makes polymer clay accessible for people who might be intimidated to try it and for those just beginning their exploration of this versatile medium.  She has impeccable taste, a strong eye for design and a bold, organic, joyful sensibility to her style.

I would categorize this as a book for beginners, but I will qualify that by saying it is one of the most sophisticated beginner books I’ve seen. The layout is crisp.  The instructions clear.  The photographs stunning. While the polymer clay techniques are not new to me, Weltman’s application is fresh and beautifully articulated. I have been working with polymer clay for several years and I still found enough in the pages of this book that sparked my imagination to easily recommend it as a valuable resource for intermediate level clayers.

So Much And More, extruded polymer clay, wire

I caught up with Ronna last month and had the opportunity to see many of the pieces from the book. All comfortable, wearable and lightweight. I’m intrigued by the simplicity of the extruded clay bracelet pictured above.  The bracelet was surprisingly flexible when I put it on and I immediately began pondering how I could use this technique in other ways. Once I have a place to work again (soon) I will experiment with a few ideas that are taking form based on what I learned from the book (I’ll post them here – promise!).

Three Ring Circus, polymer clay, wire

Ancient Modern: Polymer Clay + Wire Jewelry offers ideas, tips and inspiration to both beginners and seasoned polymer clay artists – I recommend it as a permanent addition to your library.

Links:

Want one?  Click on the link in the sidebar to purchase the book from Amazon.

Ronna Sarvas Weltman’s website

More images of the book on the Interweave Press website

Want to know how to get published?  Weltman will present Get Published! at the February 2010 Synergy2 Conference

Stankard lets no obstacle stand in the way of his pursuit of excellence and it shows. He has developed a truly eloquent artistic vocabulary that has resulted in a body of work which can only be described as breathtaking. Considered one of the world’s master glass artists, his work can be found in the collections of more than 35 museums including the Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), Museum of Decorative Arts, the Louvre (Paris, France), Victoria and Albert Museum (London, England) and National Museum of American Art – The Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC).

Not bad for a kid whose teachers often told him he was stupid and lazy when he was growing up.

A collection of essays that chronicle Stankard’s journey from struggling student to master glass artist, the book follows his childhood and early career as a scientific glass blower, then takes the reader through his transition and slow, steady climb to master glass artist. He tells the stories that shape the man and grow the artist, including his struggle with dyslexia – how he outwits, navigates and soars beyond the learning disability.

Stankard’s reflections on his long battle with low self-esteem are deeply personal and humble insights that offer a window into our collective psyche – there is a strange comfort here, reading how one of the most recognized, accomplished and important living glass artists of our time reckons with a dark ‘constant companion’ that most of us know intimately.  Unwavering support and love, first from his parents and later from his wife and family, are a steady and reassuring presence, at times carrying the artist and the man through painful periods of self doubt.

Equally as compelling are his views on the long-term value of a focused education and how one achieves excellence in art making -  themes that appear repeatedly include commitment, exposure to great art, practice and perseverance. Published in 2007,  it is not a surprise that No Green Berries or Leaves: The Creative Journey of an Artist in Glass has enjoyed great success in the glass world and is now in its second printing.  However, with this printing, artists and educators across all media are embracing the book because they understand the powerful lessons surrounding the important ideas that Stankard is passionate about – ideas that transcend the boundaries of any one medium.  This book is not just for glass artists, but for every person interested in making art, every person interested in making good art, and every person who has, at some time in their life, felt ‘less than.’ Paul Stankard’s words are surely an inspiration, but as you will see when you read No Green Berries or Leaves, it is his actions that are the true gift.

I’ve included a few quotes that resonated with me.  Read the whole book for wisdom, wit and strategies that will provide a lifetime’s worth of guidance for artist’s and students. You can find the book in the sidebar, it is first on my Reading List.

“As a mature artist I now recognize one of life’s greatest ironies – the fact that a disability can give one the strength to compensate for the disability in ways that can, in turn, nourish unique creativity and success.”

” For those who have been told they are different, think of that difference as a blessing and never give up because in the end, perseverance can only enhance one’s creative potential and future.”

“It was profoundly insightful to realize that the creative process is nourished by experimental efforts and that failure…could be so much a part of the creative process.”

“Excellence transcends categories and whether a piece is glass sculpture in the fine arts tradition, a murrini, a marble, a goblet, a paperweight or a bead, if one’s work is personal and is made well, it will be respected by informed art enthusiasts and other artists.”

“By seeing and experiencing great works, I have grown in artistic maturity which has broadened the foundation I stand on. The value and joy of viewing significant objects, especially when they evidence skilled virtuosity, has been to demand more from myself in the studio”

“I believed that by experiencing important work and relating to the quality evidenced by the work, I would grow stronger from the exposure.  I hoped to internalize the values that I recognized in the great works and to recapitulate the same depth of emotion into my own work.”

“Society needs artists every bit as much as it needs scientists, teachers, laborers, fathers, mothers and ministers.”

“…art-making is a spiritual quest and is as close to prayer as one can get to glorifying the Almighty.  Being an artist requires dedication and sacrifice as a calling equal to that of the clergy.”

Read the post, Six Quotes From Art & Fear.

My favorite quote at the moment:

“Look at your work and it tells you how it is when you hold back or when you embrace. When you are lazy, your art is lazy; when you hold back, it holds back; when you hesitate, it stands there staring, hands in its pockets. But when you commit, it comes on like blazes.”

Yes, this.

Carol was wearing a wild necklace with enormous felted cane beads that was a real conversation starter but I was so busy rolling bundles with my hands and feet (I’m not kidding) that I forgot to take pictures. Unfortunately I can’t show you her necklace, but here’s my first attempt at making the felted cane beads – not too bad. They were felted correctly so I was happy about that. Now I just need to work on that color scheme!

Primarily a seed bead artist, Cypher fell in love with felting almost twenty years ago. A free-spirited soul with a generous heart and an obvious love for fiber, she teaches all over the country and is the author of two felting books (you can find links to the books in the side bar). Cypher is a warm, giving teacher who easily engages students and the class is designed so that you can’t help but have fun! I am eager to return to Beadzo in Tivoli for her next workshop in September. Hopefully I’ll have something to show by then. For now you can take a peek at the beginning of my felting adventure…

Roving bundles on the left – felted on the right. Can you guess what I am going to do with them?

More felted bundles all lined up.

She’s got a new blog too – Starving Crafters – where you can find “the latest contests for artists, crafters, designers, and makers.”

Art & Fear. Have you read it? You really must. David Bayle and Ted Orland wrote the artist’s survival guide in 1993 and their words are as relevant today as they were fifteen years ago. I expect they will be just as meaningful fifty years from now.

The authors immediately captured my attention with the opening lines: “This is a book about making art. Ordinary art. Ordinary art means something like: all art not made by Mozart”. I thought, “Hey, they’re talking about me!”

Art & Fear, Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, is a must-read for every artist, craftsman, craftswoman, creative-thinker, creative-type, thinking person. Did I cover everyone? Let me whet your appetite (or jar your memory) with six quotes from the book. Orland and Bayle really write their own review.

1. “To require perfection is to invite paralysis. The pattern is predictable: as you see error in what you have done, you steer your work toward what you imagine you can do perfectly. You cling ever more tightly to what you already know you can do – away from risk and exploration, and possibly further from the work of your heart. You find reasons to procrastinate, since to not work is to not make mistakes.”

2. “What you need to know about the next piece is contained in the last piece. The place to learn about your materials is in the last use of your materials. The place to learn about your execution is in your execution Put simply, your work is your guide: a complete, comprehensive, limitless reference book on your work.”

3. “For most artists, making good art depends upon making lots of art and any device that carries the first brushstroke to the next blank canvas has tangible, practical value.”

4. “To the critic, art is a noun. To the artist, art is a verb.”

5. “The difference between art and craft lies not in the tools you hold in your hands, but in the mental set that guides them. For the artisan, craft is an end in itself. For you, the artist, craft is the vehicle for expressing your vision. Craft is the visible edge of art.”

6. “Look at your work and it tells you how it is when you hold back or when you embrace. When you are lazy, your art is lazy; when you hold back, it holds back; when you hesitate, it stands there staring, hands in its pockets. But when you commit, it comes on like blazes.”

The pages of my copy of Art & Fear are filled with dozens of underlined passages, exclamation points and notes-to-self. This is a book you will read again and again, each time finding new inspiration in the simple words and practical logic. Reading Art & Fear has been as important as any class or workshop that I’ve taken to help me move my art forward.

Buy This Book – don’t borrow it, don’t take it out of the library – Buy It. A wise way to spend money on your art, it’s on sale right now for $10 through Amazon – and it is worth ten times that amount!

Hellmuth, best known for her custom collage portraits, is quick to explain that this technique is not encaustic, rather something that she developed through a great deal of experimentation, trial and error. As I watched the DVD I realized that the wax might be a useful addition to my polymer clay toolbox. I started playing with the technique yesterday and I love it.

Part one of the 90 minute workshop is a primer of techniques. The artist demonstrates how to color the wax, how to use papers as backgrounds, how to make an image transfer on the wax and how to incorporate metal foils and texture tools into a wax collage.

I thought that Hellmuth’s demonstration of how to incorporate line drawings in the collage was the most interesting part of the workshop. She builds layers using the simple drawings, papers and fabrics, illustrating how easy it is to construct the collaged drawings piece by piece. You just have to watch her do it. She instills confidence immediately. I really can’t draw, but after watching her demonstrate the line drawing, I knew I could do this.

In part two, Hellmuth takes us from start to finish with three projects: a stretched canvas collage, a watercolor paper collage card and a metal Poppet folded to sit on a mantle or table top. Polymer clay embellishments could have been used on all of the projects (think cane slices, buttons, flat sheets of clay…) .

Below is a sneak peek. If you haven’t seen Beeswax Collage with Claudine Hellmuth I recommend that you to rent it today. I got mine from SmartFlix – they were helpful and friendly, it came in a clever envelope/return envelope and there wasn’t a scratch or a flaw on the DVD as I viewed the workshop.

Lynn and Jim at Creative Catalyst did a beautiful job shooting the high-quality DVD and the editing is smooth…seamless…it absolutely flows.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDnDAVmpNCc&eurl=http://www.collageartist.com/dvd_inside.htm[/youtube]

When you watch it make sure to watch past the final credits. This delightful artist has included some giggle-worthy outtakes. There are also previews of several workshop videos by other artists.

Beeswax Collage with Claudine Hellmuth is appropriate for the serious artist or those who just want to play! Artists and crafters using a variety of media will find it interesting – the collage project is only the beginning – a point of departure with many possibilities.

Below is a picture of my first experiment – no actual design yet – I just wanted to get the hang of the process (she makes it look so easy…and it kind of is!) and I wanted to see if the polymer elements could actually be encased in the beeswax (they can). I have a few ideas that I will explore more fully in the coming weeks.

Everything you see in the picture above (except the canvas) is polymer clay. Some of the pieces are a continuation of the zentangle texture plate experiment and some are liquid polymer clay experiments. I used bits and scraps in case it didn’t work. My studio is quite the mess with experiments all around me. Anybody want to come over and help me clean it?

P.S. Since people are asking…you can find Beeswax Collage at Smartflix – that’s where I rented my copy!

The book’s 16 projects demonstrate weaving with paper, plastic, rubber backed carpet strips, balsa wood, flower stems, bamboo, copper foil, embroidery floss, canvas and wool. 16 new ways to think about weaving. 16 reasons to combine weaving with polymer clay. 16 sparks to feed my muse.

After coaxing us toward the weaving process with several non-loom projects, Patrick demonstrates how to use a simple frame loom – and then goes on to explain how to felt the woven wonders to make a pocket purse, hat and pillow.

The Wrapped Tile project is serene simplicity at its best. Patrick wrapped three 6 x 6 square Quartzite tiles with a simple weaving and arranged the tiles on a wall, making an elegant statement. As soon as I saw it I thought “use polymer clay tiles made of faux jade, ivory or amber”. The variations page for that project is pictured below.

If you are looking to do something different with thin strips of polymer clay, or if you want to try a unique wrap for your polymer clay tiles, focal beads or vessels, Time to Weave is a good place to start.

You can find a link to the book in the sidebar.

In Paper Transformed, Julia Andrus shares more than 100 recipes for making handmade paper designs including creating the look of embossed metal, lifting color with bleach or rubber stamps and designing with compressed sponges. It is advertised as the ‘ultimate paper designer’s handbook’ and while that may be true, I found several techniques that are polymer clay friendly.

The recipes appeal to me more than the projects, but the ‘Painted Tin Frame’ sure does look like the real thing. I had to look twice before I was convinced that it was paper. The most striking projects are the tin frame and the ‘Mottled Dressed Mannequin’, with a skirt made from paper petals and rivets (polymer clay petals could easily be substituted for the paper skirt petals on the mannequin).

Equally intriguing is the ‘Soot Prints’ recipe although it can’t be done with polymer clay. The technique mimics old photo negatives and involves matches, so you’ll have to buy the book to see what I mean, but trust me – it is an interesting way to create images!

The book is set up in a clear, easy to read format, with recipe samples shown on small tags like the ones pictured below.

Here’s an excerpt (click on picture to enlarge):

I like recipes. They are jumping off points and help me to focus right before I take off on my creative tangent. Two of the books that I keep close at hand in my studio are Polymer Clay Surface Design Recipes and The Art of Polymer Clay Creative Surface Effects. I also like cross-pollination. We borrowed Mokume Gane from metalsmiths and Millefiore from the ancient glass artisans and adapted them to the clay. Why not paper?

My copy of Paper Transformed sits on the shelf in between the Kato and Marshall books mentioned above. You can’t have too many recipes…maybe too many cooks in the kitchen, but never too many recipes.

Julia Andrus also has a website complete with products, how-to’s and online video tutorials.

Links to Paper Transformed are in the sidebar.