Sunday, June 27, 2010

Polymeri Online 27.6.10

Milica Bubanja from Slovenia uses various materials – polymer clay, silver clay, felt, cotton, synthetic sap and semi precious stones. She often makes her own tools (e.g., carved stamps and textures) as well as metal parts, which adds to the uniqueness.

Designing and making jewellery is a passion for Debbie Carlton, she works with silver, gold and likes to incorporate colour into her work when ever she can. Her inspirations come from the shapes ,textures and colours she sees all around her from nature's quirkiness to industrial symmetry.

claycorner / Teia Fetescu from Switzerland along with Mario Hubak started working with polymer clay in 2002, they make beads, jewelry, figurines and other objects.

Warren and RobbinMoeller-Smith7 are sailing artisans that have lived with people around the world, especially central and south America. Their art reflects this influence of making beautiful things from environment. Their Filigree Bracelet bangles are so colorful!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Polymeri Online 20.6.10

Sorry for the delay posting, i was a bit sick with a flu, feeling much better today!

I found Mellisa Hanmer beaded necklace with a polymer clay pendant and underlying thread inlay. she consider creating her form of meditation (i couldn't agree more) and after working in seed beads she started with polymer clay too.
You can see more of her work in her Etsy store

Italian artist Miriam is inspired by all form of creating - knitting, crocheting, sewing, decoupage and many more. She mostly make cake toppers according to her flickr but you can find other cuties as well - especially this heart!

Looking for creative ideas for your next jewelry display?
This one by wegart from Czech Republic, is made from a box wrapped in cross stitch fabric, red rope, wooden pegs and grill scewers. Additional sign "hand made" is cross-stitched and framed. great to hang your earings and necklaces!
and you can find some polymer clay art in her Etsy too -

and last - Here is a simple tutorial for making a quick cookie cutter from a can, just bend the sides and you can have a flower, i don't know how easy it is to remove the clay from the "cutter" but it may be useful to you
or another tutorial from a Soda can

Friday, June 11, 2010

Hey Iris, Can you give me 3 tips for succesful caning?

Hello Everyone :)
It's time for Q & A!

I have been getting questions from some of you and wanted to help with some answers!

1st Question is about millefiori work -
"Hello Iris, can you give me 3 tips for succesful caning?"
Only 3? wow, i have so many tips for you but i'll keep it short :)
1st of all, work with clay that is not too soft and not too crumbly, when i use FIMO classic i tend to let it sit on my shelf for about 6 months before i use it, like old wine, it gets better with time goes by ;) same with FIMO soft, Leaving it on my shelf harden it a bit but not too much, this helps me make my canes sturdier, more accurate and firmer. When Premo and Kato are the clays you use i recommend do the same, either wait few months till you use it or absorb some of it's moisture by putting sheets of clay between paper for few hours.

2nd tip, plan ahead - take the time to plan your cane if you can, sketch it, see which parts you'll need, how much material, which sizes, when you're building your cane use a ruler to measure things, this is very important if you want to achieve accuracy. This plan helps you avoiding making un-necessary mistakes or mis-calculations of material needed, the last thing you want to happen is to ran out of translucent clay for your background and now you can't finish your project...

3rd tip which is also very important to me - don't rush! work slowly and find the right time for your art, caning is similar to meditation to my opinion, it's all about making these small movements, repeating actions, and relaxing your mind of anything else :)

4th tip (even though i was asked for just 3), when you get to a new material and you want to get good results in a short time, take a class or a tutorial, there many great artists all around us, I am learning all the time, even from you! some of the great ideas came from my students! and of course i am taking classes from pros, improving my techniques, using shortcuts, there is nothing like that "a-ha!" moments when you realize how things are made, and most of the tutorials available a quite affordable too!

2nd Q - "How do you keep sharp corners on square canes?
The 1st thing that cross my mind when i think of square canes is again, work slow. when i am reducing square canes, i take the time to look at each side, checking corners, checking lines and make sure i am not moving things from side to side.
you can see more in my 2 parts video on how to reduce all 3 types of canes: round, triangle and a square/rectangle. In this video i will be demonstrating how to reduce a rose cane, butterfly wing and signature name cane.


Last Question -
"I would love to know how to use the right colours when creating a cane, mine are always dark!"
I am not a colour expert but i tend to "feel" which colors goes right, the most important thing is to use lot's of light colors - white, yellow and pastels, when we make a cane the pattern sometimes is so small we loose all it's clarity after reducing, the light colors helps us to brighten up the cane. When you use darker colors and reduce to small diameter, all the colors are almost mixing and you can't see any clarity of contrasts or pattern.

*****************************************************************************************
I hope this helped you guys, canning in polymer clay is one of the popular niches and it's also my favorite :) keep on the good work and enjoy the process.

Do you have more tips? let me know! i will love to hear from you, email me or send me a message via PolyPediaOnline site, i will post them in my blog with your name!

Want to ask me a question? fill in this page and an answer may come along!

p.s - i am making a special sale this week with a cool bonus of a new flower cane! Join PolyPediaOnline mailing list for more info

Have the best day :)

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Polymeri Online 10.6.10

quaz'arte / Sofia Salvador Quaz'Arte from Portugal is an artist, soon be opening a new shop In Barreiro, Portugal, i loved her colorful designs especially the rooster! :)

mystapring / Misty Oakley is a self taught sculptor and painter. She was a musician for many years and retired from music. That gave her time to pursue her true passion - art. She has a barber shop with one of her daughters and her studio is in the back of my shop - how cool is that? :)

Look at Silvia Karkut hearts! these teeth were used for dentitions!

ladymaryann makes polymer clay work combined with laces, filigree and other mix media materials, pins, cabouchons, jewelry and more.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Polymeri Online 4.6.10

Polina & Sergey from Ukraine makes jewelry made of polymer clay, transfer and resin, how beautiful!

Penni Jo found a cool way to make cabs with embeded flower and leaf canes, she is slicing canes and placing them on the bottom of her mold, then place clay on the slices and when everything is pressed well she demold it and the pattern is smooth and nice!

Rev byrd is making clay painting over a marbeled "canvas", All paintings are made with polymer clay, no actual paint involved, they are fairly abstract, with a strong bias towards Zentangles and fairly small, they range from 4 in by 4 in.

Look at this cute face fish magnet by Liat Ripp from Israel, he really has a face expression!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Invited to a TV show and a little bit politics (not really)

A few weeks ago I got a call from the Israeli production of Channel 2 show - Timor Liat - "designers", I was asked if I wanted to show a DIY project in the show, immediately I said yes, still did not know who, what and why but I knew I'd have to plan the rest. The girls from production didn't even ask to see what I'm going to demo, after seeing my online portfolio they knew they can count on me :-)

The dilemma was whether to present something complex that can represent my experience or to charm the audience by a simple project that will make them want to run & buy polymer clay immediately. The decision fell on a simple project because .... i had only three minutes in the show.

So... Arrangements were made, all the steps were planned, the suitcase packed and ... I'm heading to Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv like any big city everything is moving fast - make-up, microphone and .... going live! wow, wait a minute, i'm all excited here! Liat (the host of the show) was charming and gentle, gave me the most wonderful feeling there is nothing to get excited about and i should try to ignore the camera :-)

In short, My item will broadcast sometime in the summer, I promises to update, in the meantime here are some pictures - the rest in Facebook

and one more thing, you know i am not talking about politics in my blog, but when everything is like a turbulent here in Israel, and we are in the news, suddenly comes a purchase of a customer from ... Turkey. At first I thought someone trying to test me, but it turns out that even when things are as are, there is someone who feels comfortable enough to buy from an Israeli. I do not know about you but i am so glad that in our world, the world of art, creation, color and fun, some people do not mind politics.