Polymeri Online 8.1.14 | Polymer clay stamped, carved, painted, textured beads, Ron's heart canes hearts, Ahlam's Saudi Arabia clay cakes and my granny project update

Apologising for my long absence. My dear 84 yrs grandmother suffered falling and broke her hip bone. Now that surgery is behind her and thank god all is well, my mind is more relaxed.
Please take extra care of yourself, especially now when it's so cold and slippery outside....These unexpected accidents are never welcome in anyone's home...

Lorraine's beads

Lorraine Vogel is an artist creating beautifully made polymer clay beads - pendants, earrings, stamped, carved and painted in an elegant, organic and peaceful colours & patterns. With background as a graphic designer, her inspiration is the tropical nature of south florida.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/WiredOrchidJewelry
https://www.etsy.com/shop/lovobeads
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiredorchid/10300613764/

Elena's beads

Another beads artist, Elena Fadeeva from Belarus is the designer behind Swirlbeads selling "rustic", ethnic, almost metal-like beads and jewellery. In her collection you can find unique beads and jewellery - hollow, antiqued, patinated, ethnic, textured and really beautiful. These beads are sold in her Etsy store and featured in her Flickr gallery.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/SwirlBead
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76425695@N02/10448856613/in/pool-justbeads/

Ron's hearts

Ron Lehocky, the "Heart Pins" Doctor posted lovely photos of his recent hearts using the new CZ extruder heart disc.
He was sharing with us his frustrating (past) attempts where he wanted to create heart canes for Valentine's Day themed pins and the canes were not reducing accurate enough. Now he says that the canes are beautifully made and no more frustrations or disappointments, BUT! when he takes the long extrusions out from the extruder, trying to straighten them out, some of it break due to dry clay.
One of the commenters on his Facebook post was Jan Mortansi suggesting a solution - She suggested to load the extruder, place it on top of a hot lidded bowl of water, allowing the steams heat the extruder content, cover with a towel and then the clay will be soft and pliable after extruding it. Sounds interesting!
You can link to Ron's FB here
https://www.facebook.com/ron.lee.louisville
Or visit Jan's FB - https://www.facebook.com/jan.montarsi
If you're interested in one of Ron's hearts, aiding children from the Kids Center for Paediatric Therapies click here and your purchase amount will be donated -
http://www.kidscenterky.org/HowToHelp/

Ahlam's beautiful clay cakes

The love to polymer clay crosses borders and continents.
One of the biggest Instagram accounts in the arab world belongs to Ahlam Alnajdi, a woman from Saudi Arabia - a clay artist with more than 1 million followers.
She is entirley self taught and creates small life like sculptures made of clay (I think it's polymer!), particularly food (mostly cakes). With 2 written books in her resume, she is enjoying the popularity of her designs in Saudi Arabia and moving forward with her passion!
http://instagram.com/ahlamalnajdi
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-25261427


Want to see how I progressed with my granny square project? (rhetorical question, you'll have to see it ;)
97 squares ready, now being surrounded with black border and then connected together!
(most of it finished at the hospital while nursing my grandmother, granny project with my granny, if it wasn't sad it was funny...

Wishing you all a warm, safe and creative week!

Polymeri Online 29.12.12 | Polymer clay mailbox, Academic millefiori project, Fun fridge magnets, Marcame in Sweden and Kemper cutter stamping

Polymer clay mailbox!

Carol Lessans created a beautiful outdoor mailbox covered in full by polymer clay tiles. What a project! I couldn't find any website of hers, but you can enjoy some of her creations on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/cslessans

Karen's framed boxes

Karen's Christmas card background

Karen Woodhall is a student from Australia, completing an advanced diploma of visual arts, she became hooked on polymer clay about 6 months ago and decided to use it in her final body of work. She contacted me by email asking for an advice on a specific display she was thinking about and from there I learned about her project. Finally, she made a set of five clay sheets which were displayed in box frames and also used her recent project as a Christmas cards background. I am so happy for her to found polymer to enjoy and use as her final project. I am sure polymer artists will only benefit from such an academic exposure.
Karen does not have a website yet, I wish her the best of luck!

Polymer clay fish photo magnet

Vicky Wolf 's etsy store is full of polymer clay and crochet goodies, I loved her fish picture frame magnet! She enjoys polymer clay, crocheting, knitting, oil painting, ceramics, macrame, plaster crafts, dried flower arranging and probably needs more than 24 hours a day for all of these!
don't miss her reindeer magnet too!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/113187233/hand-made-polymer-clay-colorful-fish

Macrame how-to project

Being one of Kathy weaver's pinterest followers, I noticed a macrame knotting project she posted. Although in Sweedish, you can understand the steps by looking at the photos. Thank you Kathy!
http://www.cchobby.se/ide/11417-flattekniker.aspx

Polymer clay heart sheet

This is oldie I don't remember seeing before! Use your kempers heart cutters along with acrylic paint to print a heart sheet! Simple and easy project by Debbie Martin -
http://www.pcpolyzine.com/0211november/0211illusion.html

Hope you are having a great time in your holidays vacation!

Polymeri Online 27.5.12 | Mirror mirror, Miniature polymer art, Matching jewelry sets and Funky foam stamping

Iryna's Roses Mirror

Iryna (Eten-Iren) sinchuk creates romantic hair accessories using tiny polymer clay designs. Each rose, petal and flower is designed into a perfect final piece - in this case, a mirror.
Her work is so delicate and pleasant to the eye.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eteniren/7204067918/

Miniature Polymer Clay Art by CartoLinda

Miniature art has always amazed me, how does someone uses his/her hands and fingers to work on these tiny tiny items?
CartoLinda's photostream is full of little flowers, charms, cakes and miniature food placed next to a cent to show how small they are. In this photo you can see one of her doll houses.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cartolinda/

Isa's Matching Polymer Clay Jewelry and Outfit

Isa's french blog is something every fashion designer is heart and soul will relate to. She is all about matching her outfit and jewelry!
Every skirt/shirt/pants/dress she has (almost) gets the approproate attention with a perfect match of necklace, rings and earrings. Take a look at her posts, each one holds a new surprise :)

http://isa07.canalblog.com/

Funky Foam Polymer Clay Stamp by Grgalina

Grgalina is sharing with us an interesting lesson how to create a reverse stamp (raised) using funky foam and a rubber stamp.

The idea is to take the funky foam, heat it with a heat gun for 30 seconds and then stamp it with your stamp.
This may seem a shallow stamping, but according to her it is quite deep.
When finished you have a reversed stamp you can use on polymer clay.

She also tried the heating process with boiling water (careful!) and it turned out as well. She explained her process in detail on her blog, use a translator to read her entire post.

http://grgalina.livejournal.com/78252.html

Another look at it can be seen here

http://grgalina.livejournal.com/78450.html

Have a great weekend!

Polymeri Online 7.3.12 | Curled polymer clay spoons, Funky food, Portrait stamps and Coil beads

First I have to apologize for neglecting my weekly posts, a nasty virus has caught my son and then had to pay me a visit... Mid-seasons are the worst for catching viruses! Now I am recovering and back to my duties! :)

The first polymeri link is by PolymerSpoon. Marie Laure is a french artist who works mostly in Millefiori. You can find curly spoons and various colorful creations in her flickr along with several photos of her canning process.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/polyspoon/

http://fimo-creations-polyspoon.com/

Bistro Bling is a menu of funky food jewelry made from polymer clay. The "chef" is Jane Lubin, a mixed media artist. She created her fun and funky jewelry for personal use but was soon being stopped everywhere by curious people who wanted some quirky jewelry of their own. Her website, designed as a menu is cool!

http://www.bistrobling.com/

Not polymer but a wonderful way to stamp your art! Portrait stamps! isn't this the most original "signature stamp"? I loved it! You can use Lise Grossmann services to create your own hand writing stamp. brilliant.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lilimandrill?ref=seller_info

leeleebeads' photostream is full of snakes, coils, strips, curls all made of polymer clay. Leah Hagan is a clay artist and a beadmaker. She even created special themed sets for the holidays. They look like small colorful candy to me.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeleebeads/

Polymeri Online 7.2.12 | Curly lady, Carving leaves, Lizard hearts, Polymer angels and Purple millefiori cane tutorial

Marie Guiderdoni is a talented mix media artist, she is combining many materials in her work - acrylic paint, encaustic paint, oil pastels, stencils, etc...

This doll is made of scrap clay and she's wonderful! I love her hair ;)

http://mariesel.canalblog.com/

http://www.mariesel.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mariesel/

Take a look at Maya's oak leaves stamps, she is tracing her favorite leaves and using Staedtler's Mastercarve block (never tried it!)

You can also see a video here on how to work with it. The video is taken from ElvieStudio YouTube channel.

http://mayamade.blogspot.com/2011/11/oak-stamps.html

Mr. Jan Montarsi is into lizard-mania these days, he found polymer clay on 2008 when he was looking for a hobby that he could do in the cold ohio winter inside the house vs. doing stained glass in his garage! He do not tend to produce quantity but strive for a professional quality. His heart is just in time for Valentine.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jembox/

Kamino is a multi talent artist from Poland, working with fimo, porcelain, salt mass and other materials to create jewelry and cute looking fairies and angels. A lot of nice creations can be found in her blog as well as in Picasa.

https://picasaweb.google.com/Kamino70/AnioKiMasaSolna#

http://kamino70.blogspot.com/

Kael Mijoy who was featured in July's post has another millefiori cane tutorial at her website - this time it's a purple flower

http://kaelmijoy.blogspot.com/2011/11/polymer-clay-tutorial-purple-flower.html

Polymeri Online 19.11.09

I had a great week, worked continuesly in my studio on a big keychain order, a family from the states contacted me about a Bat-Mitzva they are doing on Hannukah, in Israel, they want to give each guest a personalized gift, it's such a pleasure and joy making these keychain! i am always thankful for people appreciating a unique handmade gift.

Mari kasurinen is an art student from Lahti, Finland. i found her in the new "1000 ideas for creative re-use" book i posted about few days ago and learned that she is working with super sculpey in her sculptings. Her known little ponies are changed, modified, re-sculpted into a theme (or a celebrity), they are truly amazing and some of them are even funny (check out her lady gaga pony & elvis presly pony in the photo).
http://www.marikasurinen.com/sculptures_main.html
http://spippo.deviantart.com/gallery/

Karen Hernandez made a HUGE Christmas cane! i just love seeing the process and final result!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/khernandezart/page2/

Wanna know how to make a Polymer Clay Bezels? check the tutorial by Tina holden
http://beadcomber.blogspot.com/2009/10/making-polymer-clay-bezels-and-maybe.html don't forget to check her handmade makin's exptruder handle how-to
http://beadcomber.blogspot.com/2009/10/need-handle.html

Gabriel studios / Michele is working in polymer clay and handpainted textiles, her speciality is Polymer clay which is sculpted, stamped and hand-painted.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michelegabrielstudios/4085512103/

Polymeri Online 23.7.09 - Carrie Tasman

For the next few days i would like to feature some ladies, each with her own amazing polymer clay work. i didn't want to put them all in a list in my polymerionline weekly post because each of them deserve her own "stage" :)

I came across Carrie Tasman when we discussed business, i didn't know how talented this lady was! she is a painter who stumbled onto polymer clay quite by accident ten or so years ago. she started stamping and painting sculpey to make small frames for tiny prints of her larger acrylic paintings. This year she experimented with colored clay and then after reading every book in the library (she is sending her thanks to all) she became obsessed with how to make millefiori canes. she is a painter, so she want to make beautiful, colorful pieces to hang on the wall. she started with small 5x7 still life collages with stamped clay and millefiori canes and have been making progressively larger pieces. those floral pieces (see photo attached) are 8x10 mounted on board, she used techniques from my tutorial and she wrote and told me that the tut stepped her canes up a notch : )
Carrie loves pattern, texture, and the piecing quality of working in clay, and the endless variations of millefiori canes. Please stop by her website to see more at http://www.tasmanstudio.com/Clay.html

How wonderful!!

Polymeri Online 2.7.09 and some vacation adventures

Hello everyone, at the moment i am writting my post from the hotel lobby (i am in Eilat, which is the southest city in Israel, the perfect place for vacations and holidays), family is with me and we took a short vacation as a great summer start, school is over and we are enjoying the summer with pool, sun and... swimming with Dolphins! yesterday i had the most amazing adventure when both me and the kids took a short dive with dolphins, what an experience! recommended (if you have some dolphins around :)

i cannot forget you all, so i am here for some PC links...

Amazing polymer clay sculptures by Owen Klaas, As a child he was constantly drawing and practicing the art of caricature. About ten years ago he discovered polymer clay and his art would never be the same. he realized that he could turn his one dimensional drawings of weirdness into fully realized three dimensional objects of weirdness, and of course
(like all of us), he was hooked :) - see photo of beatles
http://www.fiendishthingies.com/

MandarinMoon / Chris Kapono Born and raised in Missouri, she has been painting and drawing for most of her life, loves animals and anything to do with nature and the outdoors. she is making oragnic, stamped creations, uses glass gems painted with acrylic and metallic paint. some of her glass vases has Holes cut in the clay to allow light to shine through.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mandarinmoon/
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5669610
http://www.mandarinmoonart.blogspot.com/

taiping wawa from China makes small cute & unique sculptrings, i wish i could see more of her photos :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wawa1380/

My fellow friend and clayer Angela, opened (finally) her Hamsa store, take a look, it's beautiful.
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7239618

what can we do with a clay gun?

How about some extruded collection of projects?
or, what can we do with a clay gun?

Here are some great projects for a start, feel free to add more in your comments!

Extrudinary tutorials
Polymer clay extruder projects

My PolyPediaOnline "Extrudinary" tutorials! 15 projects to sparkle your imagination, 14 videos in 3 super informative tutorials -
http://www.polypediaonline.com/extrudinary_polymer_clay_tutorial_extruder.html 

A football cane by Miriam Cohen from Israel - in hebrew but you can follow the pictures -

http://img2.tapuz.co.il/forums/1_117937392.doc

More ideas on Extruded Clay by polymerclayexpress.com
http://www.polymerclayexpress.com/mar2001.html

Make your rubber stamp with polymer clay using extruded snakes #1 by
http://artfortheheart.blogspot.com/2007/10/rubberstamps-polymer-clay.html

Make your rubber stamp with polymer clay using extruded snakes #2 by craftygoat - Stamp Your Own Message in Polymer Clay

http://blog.craftygoat.com/2008/03/stamp_your_own_message_in_poly.html

A special way to use clay and making a ooak cracked effect -
http://paroledepate.canalblog.com/archives/2006/11/14/3163137.html

Modeling and Sculpting Tools for Miniaturists By Lesley Shepherd, About.com

http://miniatures.about.com/od/toolsforminiatures/tp/Modeling-Tools-for-Miniatures.htm

Cynthia Tinnaple is demonstrating a great bullseye cane pattern -
http://www.polymerclaydaily.com/dreammachine.html

More from craftygoat - Video: Extruder Basics PLUS Making Coiled Extruder Beads
http://blog.craftygoat.com/2008/06/video_extruder_basics_plus_mak.html

Getting to Know Your Extruder's Discs
http://blog.craftygoat.com/2008/06/extruder_discs_get_to_know.html

Lazy Woman’s Mokume Gane (LWMG) by Barbara Forbes-Lyons

http://penguintrax.com/chatter/?p=113

Braided Clay Bracelet by Nan Roche

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_clay_jewelry/article/0,,HGTV_3238_1378538,00.html

Clay-Gun Quilt Cane Pt. 1 by hedgeapplecraft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW3xU4Ouppg

Fold Over Beads Polymer Clay Filigree Bead Project by Skygrazer

http://www.skygrazer.com/polymerclay/reference/foldoverbeads.htm

Polymeri Online 1.5.08

Israeli Independence day is a week from today, here is a nice tutorial of our star of david flag, for the patriotic ones among us ;)
http://www.tapuz.co.il/tapuzforum/main/Viewmsg.asp?forum=1484&msgid=115919767

On the same subject - Julie Picarello wrote an interesting article about the Israeli Polymer Clay Guild, thank you Julie!
http://www.npcg.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=425&Itemid=1

Eva Soehjar is an artist from Cambridge, United Kingdom, she is experimenting in contemporary jewelery design created with a new and original technique. Every piece of her products is crafted and painted by hand to make every piece unique. So delightful!
http://margrietje.etsy.com/

Mary Tempesta, was born and grew up in Sydney, Australia and living in Italy for the past 13 years. they lived in Denmark and Holland too.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marymadeit/

telula68 or CaveLightBazaar is making interesting mosaic art with polymer clay. Her pieces are made of individual polymer clay tiles. Many of the tiles have been impressed with rubber stamp images while others are painted. In place of some tiles she uses beads, glitter or found objects.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/telula68/
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5595383

Renee Buchanan is a sculptor by passion and a chemist by profession. Her mother (Darlene) and herself started the Ragtree Company together and are expanding this year into soap and candles.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ragtree/
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5323735

Polymeri Online 5.9.06

Heather Wynn is a second generation jewlery designer, and the inspiration came from her family. she combine several techniques - stamping, tranfers and more.

http://www.heatherwynn.com/

Chris Bivins to forgotten objects, mixed media and polymer clay
http://www.forgottenobjects.com/index.html

Polymeri Online 4.9.06

Dolly Traicoff Design Mixed Media, her gallery contains collage of her doing, and mica shift pendants, tranfers and much more.

http://www.dollytraicoff.com/

Petra - Stamping and Papercraftwith Polymer Clay from New Zealand is a great inspiration for Greeting cards with PC.

http://www.zigzag.co.nz/stamping.html