Polymeri Online 26.2.2012 | Play-Doh take 2, Figures late at night, Mokume wonder & The great jewelry display

Once again, Yondat Dascalu and Idit fischer-Katz (Zoota) made a collaboration to think of new ideas to use play-doh and natural clay. Two years ago they figured out a way to create canes using Play-Doh and now came up with a new idea to use natural clay as a mold for polymer clay. Since natural clay curing temperature is much higher then polymer clay curing temperature you can use it as a "shape holder" to create many shapes of polymer. Give it a try!

When I was reading blog posts in the Israeli Etsy group I found an artist called Charles Chetrit. Since he was a child he was sculpturing figures from olive tree branches. 4 years ago he was injured at work and found himself at home for a long period of time. That was the perfect time to go back to his artistic roots when he found out about polymer clay. To create his large sculptures he is using a metal bases and bringing his figures to life. Today he is the manager of the filming department on an Israeli tv channel and find the late night hours the best time to create. Thank you Charles for sharing your story with me :)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtOfFaces

Samantha Braund is a multi talent artist working with polymer clay as well. Her polymer gallery in flickr is full of wonderful mokume sheets, beautiful beads and lovely colors. She is a UK based jewelry designer and her other interests include digital art, water colour painting & sculpting in various medias.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amadoradesigns/sets/72157622663496753/

Although not polymer, this jewelry display is to die for! How I wish I had one like this!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/83464177/jewelry-display-by-blackforestcottage

I recently joined Cynthia Tinnaple StudioMojo's newsletter and it's wonderful! Seeing Cynthia's daily links are a great inspiration and getting her weekend emails are even greater! Check it out, she is offering a free sneak-peek in her website.

Clay away!

Donations to the 2nd Annual OK Poly-Clay Twisters Retreat

Several weeks ago I got an email from Angela Mabray, the VP & Webmaster of the Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay Guild telling me about their 2nd Annual OK Poly-Clay Twisters Retreat, to be held April 19-21, 2012.

The event will feature Christi Friesen, who''ll be teaching classes, and claying along with the participants, in addition, they will have demos, vendor tables, free breakfast/lunch and in short - 100% polymer clay fun!

Like I did in similar retreats I sent Angela 2 of my new "Disc-Chic" necklaces as donation for their raffle auction.

The new necklaces were using my recycled discs along with stamps, ink and millefiori canes left from my pen designs.
These necklaces are always fun to create as they are so easy and every combination is a sure hit.

While I was playing with the designs, I made additional necklaces and a belt with the new FIMO colors (pastels and sparkled blue), that were given to Staedtler's private collection when I was their guest in Germany 3 weeks ago.

Several of these sets are also offered for sale in my Etsy store.

I am sending my wishes to all the retreat participants and know they will have a great time! (Certainly when Christi is around!).

Happy claying!

Polymeri Online Valentine 2012 | Hearts ALL Hearts

Valentine is a day away, just in time for 4 additional polymer hearts!

Susan Crocenzi (Sucra) created this elaborated heart wall hanging with ceramic, glass, smalti & millefiore. Susan is a Mixed-media artist teaching techniques for Mosaicists - Tempered Glass and Polymer Clay.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sucra88/6761170411/in/photostream

http://scmosaics.com/home.html

Polymer Penguin is Julee. She discovered polymer clay 6 years ago, At first she worked on the projects in the garage, but quickly outgrew it. Now, she is converted her old quilting room over to polymer clay.

Check out her wonderful heart earring set - antiqued with liquid polymer clay colored with black ink.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/polymerpenguin/6859737885/

http://thepolymerpenguin.blogspot.com/

Adriana Allen has a touching personal story in her etsy profile. Every item she creates is a victory over her unforgiving disease: arthritis. She has it for 30 years but never gave up. Every piece she creates proves her that the disease cannot stop her from doing what she loves.

As I was checking out her cuff in Etsy, it was sold! I hope all hearts will!
This link is to an additional cuff of hers - green colored.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/91712423/10-discount-the-key-to-my-heart-polymer

http://www.adrianaallen.com

Check out this heart charm, looks like metal - right?
RubyShoesSam (Sandra DeYoung) did a great job with this one, sculpted into a heart, textured and highlighted to give it an aged silver metal look.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/87136690/silver-and-turquoise-heart-polymer-clay

Sandra was mentioned before in PolymeriOnline on 2008 so it's time to take a new look at her art.

Have a great LOVEly holiday! I'm off to eat a chocolate heart :)

Polymer clay crocheted heart/flower decor - Free video tutorial for Valentine!

In our family, a fridge is not just a place to put your groceries. It's a photo album+.

Photos, magnets, memos, test schedule, special announcements, calendars, bills - thank god that fridges are so big you can place items on all 3 sides of it ;)

Anyway, it's a while now that my mother asked me for REAL photos of my kids. Not digital photos - real ones.

In the digital age we hardly make photo copies any more, almost all of us have gazillion photos in our hard drive and almost none in our albums and guess what - although this happen we keep buying the newest camera on the market.

So I decided, it's a good time to make 3 special photo decorations for my mom's fridge with all 6 grandchildren photos - mine and my 2 sisters.

For a while now I wanted to combine my basic crochet skills in a polymer clay piece so this was a fun project that can be a last minute gift for your loved ones, Valentine or any occasion, this decoration can be used as a big magnet on a fridge, a wall hanging ornament, a key-chain, bag charm, beads for a necklace or even part of a gift wrap!

The great thing about doing this project with polymer clay is that you can apply any technique you like on it and you'll get an original design. Of course it can be done with paper, air dry clay and many other materials as well, just keep in mind the holes and the hook size.

Basic crochet knowledge is recommended but if you do not know how to crochet you will get the idea by watching me work plus a recommended YouTube channel for many crochet tutorials. This channel taught me so much! I really recommend it.

So mom, even though Valentine is a holiday you mostly celebrate with your other half (mine is going to be abroad) - this one is for you :)

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

A peek into "Creative World 2012"

I may be biased but truth has to be said :) we are working with the most amazing material in the world.

For 4 days I was a part of a creative experience to introduce fimo polymer clay to thousands of people. People who never heard of it before, never touched it or saw work made of it, people who were smiling and wowing roses and flowers, admiring the possibilities and interested in knowing more about it, and it was wonderful.

As I wrote in my previous post, I had the honor to be Staedtler fimo guest artist in "Creative World" 2012. This event is the world’s biggest trade fair for the creative sector held in Frankfurt, Germany. It is the highlight for the hobby, crafts and artists’ segments.

It was so interesting to see how different audiences react to the display - fellow artists were quickly discussing techniques and ideas with me, while other people, not familiar with the polymer clay world, were checking closely and watching me work. Language was never a barrier.

My appearance included demonstrations of various techniques and products - basic and advanced millefiori caning featuring the new colors and pen collection by fimo, display of the endless flexibility of the material, methods of work, infinite possibilities for designs and unusual products made with our material.

Staedtler announced it's special luxury line of pens - fountain pen and ball point pen. These pens can be decorated with any ooak design and given as a wonderful personalized gift. They were very popular and drew a lot of attention. I made so many I can make them in my sleep now! :)

A special artist collection of pens was displayed and included pens by Carol Blackburn, Sabine Backer, Sandra Bohlmann, Bettina Welker, Sarah Shriver and my own pens.

The booth was so pampering and well accessorized! I got every thing a polymer clayer can dream of - hundreds of fimo packages to play with! ahhhh! :)

Guests! Wonderful friends came to see the show and say hello! Klavdija Kurent & Tatjana Mikolic, Kirsten Illgner, Kerstin Rupprecht, Anke Humpert, Conny and the sweet Sabine Backer who was Staedtler guest artist on 2011.

2 additional polymer clay manufacturers displayed their new products - Polyform with Martina Weller, and Kato with Donna and Bettina - they also came and said hello :)

I had little time to walk around but when I did find some time I saw lot's of interesting booths - paper art, paints, tools, adult and children diy projects, cookie cutters suppliers, beads, art and hobby materials, decorations, art books and all this was just "Creative World". 2 addition fairs were held at the same time devoted to paper ("Paper World") and "Christmas World" showing festive decorations and innovations for the coming seasons - huge, huge shows.

Unfortunately photographing was not allowed so I can only share with you my own photos.

Besides the fact that it's my first visit in Frankfurt (but not in Germany) I had a wonderful, creative adventure, one of a kind experience.

I truly felt like a proud ambassador, bringing the charm of fimo and polymer clay to new countries and new people. I'm glad I could take a piece of me, my personal joy and happiness and deliver it to new enthusiasts whether hobbyist artists or clay sellers.

I would like to take this opportunity and thank Staedtler company and team for making me feel so welcome, being the perfect hosts and letting me work with "these square blocks" which makes me and many people so happy.

I hope it's not too cold in Germany now, did I take sun with me? :) I heard that it's minus 10 now! toooo cold!

and now? Back to work!

Thank you for reading!

:)

p.s. - More photos are available in my Flickr and Facebook!