Resinate

I'm all for the newest and coolest in mixed media and craft supplies. But I'm a great advocate of thinking outside the box and expanding the realm of what's possible in the techniques and processes that already exist.

So I resisted the lure of resin for quite some time. Why coat a perfectly good surface in polymer clay-- one that you have sanded and buffed so carefully to achieve a subtle, glowing sheen-- in plastic? I have never loved the use of the shiny coatings that some polymer people adore to the point of making the Holy Grail of Polymer the ability to achieve a lampwork glass-like mimicry. Yes, I'm going to get flak about this but really, why not embrace the characteristic of the medium itself in its 'natural' state? OK, polymer is plastic but it has a unique ability to cure to the texture of kraft paper or really, to any other texture you want to apply. Its truly unique  ability is to take texture -- why cover it over? For instance, I give my clay pieces that will receive colored pencilling a subtle texture, some 'tooth' so the pigment will adhere better. “Exploit those Nooks and Crannies” should be a needlepoint wall motto in my studio!

So why turn to the Dark Side at all? Well, first I had to discover what resin could do for my designs that I couldn't do with polymer. After all, polymer clay has its own liquid form that cures to near-translucency. But it's very sticky and messy, so pouring it into a small space would be difficult. You can paint it on as a coating-- I've done this as a patina on metal with the addition of alcohol inks for color -- but it's a real bear to sand. And it drips.

Since I had an ICE Resin kit sitting here in my studio for ages, when my sister came to visit this past fall I figured, let's see what this baby can do! I dug out ALL my bezels, lots of tiny metal beads, my vintage books, many clay pieces with attractive holes that could be filled and then made several pairs of earrings that had holes straight through their forms. Of course, I have dozens of handmade silicone molds that I've made of anything that would hold still and I knew that resin could be used to fill molds and make objects.

I had very little specific information to work with-- I have just recently bought Sherri Haab's book "The Art of Resin Jewelry" but I didn't have it at the time. But I really like to work this way-- just puttering and playing and seeing what I can do with something I've never used before. I had no preconceptions and no expectations-- anything was fair game. I didn't edit myself at all. Playing off the things my sis was doing was very helpful as well. She is a very creative person and also had no prior experience with resin either so we both had no “can't be done” admonitions to overcome.

"Eye of the Dragon"

Polymer using the mokume gane technique, oil paint, pencil, gilders paste, coiled and patinated bronze wire, resin

"Ginko"

Previously-made polymer clay pendant, applied resin, Objects & Elements bezel

"Imaginarium" earrings

Polymer clay, gilders wax, resin

"Rockport Sunday" bracelet

Picture jasper, African bronze beads, clasp by Objects & Elements, copper chain, resin bezel filled with collected sumac leaves, Fall 2009 and African brass spacers

"Song of Amergin" ring

Bezel ring from Objects & Elements, filled with bronze polymer

clay, bronze headpins and resin

"Emerging"

Polymer clay with resin

"Theodora" pendant

Polymer clay with resin, metallic powders, gilders wax

"Tidepool"

Polymer clay with resin

"Geode"

Polymer clay with resin and acrylic paint

"Entropy"

Polymer clay, resin

Resin experiments

In the few months since my initial experiments, I have made finished jewelry with some of the pieces I made and have done a few more pours. I've learned a few tricks and made many sketches of what I want to do in the future. All in all-- a successful encounter with a new material. What more can you ask?

New Year, New Challenges

I don't like the idea of making resolutions for the New Year. As much buzz as there has been about major cosmological and spiritual changes in 2012, I feel that the term 'resolutions' is too much like an old school-blackboard writing punishment “I will not....” --fill in the blanks. I like instead the idea of taking on a task, a challenge, a quest. Of perhaps learning a new skill, exploring a new avenue of creativity. Make it positive and reject the negative.

I've got some projects that I've finally decided to take on this year and you'll be hearing about them in subsequent blog posts here. But I'm telling you today about one that's going to be fun and possibly very productive-- the 52 Earrings Challenge.

52 Earrings is the brainchild of Anke Humpert (Anart Studio), a mixed media and polymer clay artist living in Karlsruhe, Germany. She loves collaborative work and hopes that this challenge will bring her inspiration from working with others and with the wide range of artists who've signed up for this-- from all over Europe and the US-- she will get her wish.

Just around the holidays this year, I challenged myself to do 12 pairs of earrings for the traditional 12 Days of Christmas. I really had fun doing those earrings so when I learned about the 52 Pairs project, I decided to join. Yes, it's adding a bit of pressure to my schedule that I vowed (to myself) to keep clear. But it's also a great way to use up orphan or one-offs that consistently get produced through experimentation in the studio and then just sit around taking up real estate.

I'm behind two weeks but I quickly completed two pairs that came from ideas sketched during a free-association doodling session. One of my little tricks is to doodle a whole page of ideas at once, not judging or editing my ideas but simply working to fill a page with images. My trusty copier enlarges or reduces the designs and I combine different shapes in a multitude of ways. I print out the refined elements on copier paper, then cut them out with tiny scissors. The paper adheres nicely to the polymer sheet then it's cut out with a sharp scalpel blade, the shape is refined and then textured. I find that texturing after I cut out the shape helps to round the edges so there's less smoothing to do.

I'm starting a new series in my work titled “Heaven and Earth” and the earrings below are my first stab at that theme. Week 1 – 52 Earrings.

Raincloud Earrings, Heaven & Earth Series - 52 Earrings, Week 1

Polymer clay, Whim-Z Wire, vintage Japanese handblown glass beads, vintage celluloid spacers

 I liked the design and shape of this next pair-- Week 2-- but they needed something. I thought about resin, the newest tool in my design box, but I didn't want to mix up an entire batch without other pieces waiting to be 'resinated'. I just recycled some silver to Rio Grande (check out their quick turnaround on scrap metal) and removed some teensy diamonds from an old ring so I thought about using them. But then I remembered some vintage rhinestones I had and voila! that was just the perfect touch. Just funky enough to work with the polymer and keep the price range reasonable. I like the contrast between the textured and patinated clay and the old rhinestone. Just enough bling for me.

Tidepool Earrings - 52 Earrings, Week 2

Polymer clay, gilders paste, Whim-Z Wire, vintage rhinestones

 So I'm on to Week 3 and the ones I'm working on already have a name--Little Crazy Earrings. I'm using some very strange elements for these but hey, I'm having fun and that's really the name of the game. Check out 52 Earrings on Flickr, there's still time to play along.

The Twelve Pairs of Earrings

I love to play in my studio. So much so that I have boxes and trays of 'one-offs' that were either little experiments or tryout pieces for something that either never got finished or ended up not needed. Orphans. They're valuable little orphans for they opened my eyes to a new technique or proved I could do something with the clay that I had only envisioned in my sketchbook. But they seem a bit sad this time of year-- they want to evolve, to become a part of something larger.

So to end up 2011 I decided to give them all homes in earring sets. Or at least 12 sets-- it resonates somehow with 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'-- “12 pairs of earrings, 11 lords a'leaping, 10 ladies dancing”, etc. These are going immediately into my Etsy shop or they'll end up being worn by me!

For all of you who are doing some late shopping or just because we all need to gift ourselves sometimes-- for whatever reason-- here are my offerings and please enjoy the eye candy. They're the only sweets this holiday season that won't go right to your hips!

I'm rushing to get these listed in my Etsy shop but if you fancy a particular pair, please convo me at Etsy and I can put a Reserve listing up for you.

And from our house to yours--have yourselves a Merry Little Christmas!

Imaginarium earrings - Available in my Etsy shop

Textured and stacked polymer clay dangles, patinated with acrylic

paint and gilders wax, embellished with frosted resin windows

Poinciana earrings - Available in my Etsy shop

Polymer clay patterned with handmade molds, colored with oil paints and gilders wax - brass earwires

Winter Moon earrings - Available in my Etsy shop

Polymer clay patterned with a mold made from an antique picture frame, colored with alcohol inks, embellished with handforged copper washers patinated with gilders wax - copper earwires

Ulan Bator earrings - Available in my Etsy shop

African glass, coral disks, Ethiopian clay spacers, copper spacers and findings, handmade and patinated links, crystals, tagua nut tubes

Ostia earrings - Available in my Etsy shop

Handmade polymer clay stacked elements with resin centers, patinated with gilders wax, antique Roman glass disks, Greek ceramic spacers, brass spacers and findings

Horn of Africa earrings - Available in my Etsy shop

Handmade and textured polymer clay dangles, antiqued brass beads,

 handmade enamel bead caps by Mairedodd, brass earwires

Telluride earrings - Available in my Etsy shop

Polymer clay formed with a mold made from an antique picture frame and colored with alcohol inks and colored pencil - copper earwires

Edgy Sugarplum earrings - Available in my Etsy shop

Polymer clay textured with a mold from an antique picture frame,

colored with alcohol inks and patinated with gilders wax - silver earwires

Silken Tent earrings - Available in my Etsy shop

Polymer clay disks, rayon fibers, African bronze spacers, bone beads, Ghana daisy spacers, handforged bronze earwires

Heart of Winter earrings - Available in my Etsy shop

Polymer clay hearts from a repousse original, handforged and patinated antique bronze disks, antique star findings, bone spacers, bronze earwires

Carpathia earrings - Available in my Etsy shop

Polymer clay mokume gane technique dangles, repourposed patinated brass embellishments, bronze earwires

Valley of the Kings earrings - Available in my Etsy shop

Polymer clay elements done in the mokume gane technique, handforged and patinated brass washers and dangles, bronze spacers and earwires

By the Numbers

Numbers have great significance in many cultures. In Western culture, the number “3” philosophically describes the Deity in both Christian and Celtic societies. In Navajo culture, “4” represents Nature's essential elements-- wind, water, air and fire. The discovery of the zero allowed civilization to advance in science and mathematics. Numbers represent our birthdays, wedding days, holidays and significant dates in our world's history.

But as designers, we just love numerals because of their unique graphic appeal. They are like ancient runes, significant because of what they represent but pictorial in their aspect. They are modern hieroglyphics, language and design all together.

I love browsing typeface sites like Dafont.com-- so many cool fonts that drive my imagination wild. I used to work in a graphics department and I've never lost my love for letters. But recently I was invited by the folks at Create Mixed Media, publisher Northlight Books' blog, to create a set of numerals for this week, December 11-17, for the blog which they call "The Week as Art". Seven days' worth of numerals are depicted by a different mixed media artist every week. I decided to make mine in polymer clay and embellish them with lots of texture and color. Here they are in full size.

December 11

Black polymer clay, hand-applied impressed designs, heat-set oil paint

December 12

Bronze polymer clay, hand-applied textures from silicone molds, German Silver gilders wax

December 13

Ivory polymer clay, heat-set oil paint to antique and color

December 14

Polymer clay, hand-applied texture, heat-set oil paints, African Bronze gilders wax

December 15

Polymer clay, faux bark handmade texture sheet, heat-set oil paint

December 16

White polymer clay, commercial texture sheet, heat-set oil paint, Silver gilders wax

December 17

Mokume gane veneer polymer clay - metallic and opaque clays

 If you haven't discovered the Create Mixed Media blog, head over there to check it out. There are lots of informative and interesting posts by both editors and guest editors on wide-ranging topics of interest to anyone interested in jewelry-making and every kind of mixed media, covering everything from art retreats to setting up a home studio or marketing your work. This week on Thursday, December 15, there is a webinar by my friend, Barbara Lewis, author of Torch-Fired Enamel Jewelry. Registration is free but be sure to reserve yourself a place.

Gilded

I love the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite school. They were actually considered 'avante-gard' for 1848 in that they rejected the prevailing style and aesthetic and embraced color, romanticism, the morality of the Middle Ages, spirituality and the natural world with enthusiasm and originality. I find their depictions of women are incredibly sensitive and sensual for (mostly) male painters in the mid-19th century.

Their color palette is rich, highly saturated and vivid, even when depicting dark woodland scenes and costumes, as represented in this month's Art Bead Scene's inspiration, the Renaissance-influenced work of Marie Spartali Stillman, called “Madonna Pietra degli Scrovigni”.

Madonna Pietra degli Scrovigni

I was immediately drawn to this painting, but not because of the theme-- as I usually am-- but to the colors-- bronze, sage, russet-- especially the bronze. In mixing this color in polymer clay, gold and black are mixed in equal amounts to create a metallic with great depth and opulence. So I started to create some textured elements that I planned to use to frame molded cabochons in polymer tinted with my other favorite colors from the 'Madonna'. I started with texture sheets and molds that had more naturalistic themes but added  some of my favorite abstract ones to change it up.

I found myself getting rather carried away with these textured frames and once they were cured and antiqued with burnt umber heat-set paint, I was conflicted-- had I strayed too far from the painting in my interpretation? Well, isn't that the point-- to use the work of art as a springboard to some completely new ideas?

My method is to re-do and keep working until I have exactly what I want, even if I have to do it over and over. I did just that in this piece-- the third time was the charm. My first attempt was to cut cabochons to fill the textured frames from very abstract pieces of scrap clay in a colorway from the painting but the result was wrong for the ornate quality of the frame. After I carefully chipped out the cured, glued clay with an X-Acto knife, I tried a mokume gane veneer but it was too busy and distracting. I finally went back to one of my favorite molds, made from a piece of Victorian picture frame that was the basis for my Jane Eyre cuff and recently was reinvented for the current issue of Handcrafted Jewelry magazine as the Shangri-la Cuff tutorial. I centered the cutouts for the cabochons on the leaf motifs, placed the clay slices to cure on an upturned metal palette so they curved and used my heat-set oils and gilders paste to color and gild the cabochons. I liked that they had a porcelain-like look to them. To delineate them from the frames I used some notched scarlet clay as an edging and lightly gilded it.  I used some reproduction Victorian bookchain to hang the elements, completed a set of earrings and I was finally satisfied with the results.

Now I've got a very opulent necklace to wear for the holidays and a new technique to play with. Not a bad investment of my creative time!

"Gilded" - detail

"Gilded" - detail

"Gilded"

"Gilded" - earrings

Wicked

For the past two years I have done a special piece for Hallowe'en, which is also Samhain (saw-wun) in the Celtic/Wiccan calendar. It is believed that on this night the boundary between living and dead souls is very permeable and that we are able to communicate with those who have departed to realms beyond. My research says that since not all spirits were benevolent the Gaelic custom of wearing costumes and masks was an attempt to copy the evil spirits and ward them off, also achieved by hollowing out and carving large turnips with faces and placing them in windows with candles within. I imagined a piece to evoke these “haints” based on Ray Bradbury's classic short story “Something Wicked This Way Comes”.

I had already envisioned a pendant, a sort of tribal design with mini-wings and wire-wrapping but decided to add a face. I've never done faces but I have altered commercial face molds so I started with that. The result was interesting but my little man wasn't at all scary! I had added some pieces of other texture molds to his face and he looked kind of Mayan--not the look I was going for.

My sister was here visiting from Berkeley last week. She had taken a class with the legendary performance artist, Sha Sha Higby, where they made several jewelry-sized masks in some sort of plastic/resin. So we copied them using the RTV mold stuff I love, Alley Goop. Then we made some faces in polymer clay and some in resin. I liked the results but since they weren't my own original designs, I kept going.

Sha Sha Higby molds, done by me in polymer and antiqued

Even before I worked in polymer clay, I had notebooks for my fiber ideas and drawings of outfits and textile techniques. The most potent design trick I know is to revisit my old sketchbooks and mine them for idea gold. And so I found myself searching in them for some pictures I drew of the avenging Morrigu--a triad of goddesses of war and death,  from the Celtic epic poem, the Táin Bó Cúailnge. (It's a fascinating story and there's a very good fictionalization of it by Greg Frost if you're not into heroic poetry).

The Morrigu, from the Táin - from my notebooks, circa 1996

My original idea was to hook a large tapestry rug illuminating scenes from the epic and I had made some sketches in preparation. They were scary and primal and came right out of some dark place in my imagination where humankind holds a terror of avenging spirits. I decided that a face based on these spirits would be perfect for my Something Wicked. After free-sculpting the face in polymer, I painted it with Genesis heat-set oil paints.

Something Wicked This Way Comes - detail

I pulled the face and the base together with some coiled Whim-Z Wire, patinated it and chemically bonded the whole assembly to a long piece of mammoth fossil bone. Now I can stand it up in a corner of the window facing my bench.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Hope your Hallowe'en wasn't haunted by something this scary-- in terms of evil spirits or calories from too much trick-and-treating!

The Flaming Forest

Every autumn in Vermont, Nature bestows one last spectacular riot of color on those of us priviledged enough to live here-- warm blazes of reds, yellows and oranges to keep in memory and warm us through the long, frigid winter to come--the color of flames, the color of passion, the color of carnelian and amber gemstones. Some of us call it "The Flaming Forest".

Taking my cue from what's around me is one of my tried-and-true methods for putting my senses ahead of my technique. I find if I lose myself in color and texture first, the design will blossom from this pure inspiration and the piece will express my unconscious intentions more fully.

I actually started this necklace back in the summer, after finding some polymer beads in my stash that I had forgotten about, my "Little Bumblebeads". These were based on the “watercolor” technique invented by Maggie Maggio, an artist that has pioneered an amazing color system and method for use with polymer but that can be applied to any medium. Her blog is very enlightening and expands on the color theory outlined in the recent book co-authored with Lindly Haunani, Color Inspirations.

Little Bumblebeads

The watercolor technique beads were a perfect complement to my husband Douglas' repousse leaf pendant, which he made a few years ago. It was languishing forgotten in one of my many boxes of work-to-be-completed until I decided to punch up the copper color with some heat patination. That brought out some beautiful metallic lustres and then I added a twisty wire bail.

I've been experimenting for a while with layering my necklaces, wearing two similar ones together for a more sumptuous look but I make them as separate strands in case I'm wearing something more casual. I recently purchased one of my dear friend Erin Prais-Hintz's beautifully-crafted owl charms, from her recent Simple Truths collection. It's nicely abstract and not too cute--looking more totemic-- more like the true essence of this noble creature. I really didn't have a use for it in mind when I bought it but soon realized that it was a perfect focal for the inner strand of my composition.

Owl from Erin's "Simple Truths" collection

"Wisdom" necklace - inner strand

The outer strand necklace was completed by the addition of Czech glass beads and leaves, larger Bumblebeads, and a magnetic clasp. Color of autumn, color of maples, the Flaming Forest.

The Flaming Forest

Heartwood earrings