Kuvianartok

Kuvianartok Nanuk

 

Meet Kuvianartok, the polar bear. His appearance made a lovely lady happy yesterday and he agreed to go home with her to meet her daughter. He's one of the steampunk elements that I enjoy so much developing. Steampunk evokes a wonderful nostalgia, a hankering back to a time when technology was understandable (one gear causes another gear to turn, like clockwork, right?) and the era romantic. Think Jules Verne's the Nautilus and the time it was set in with elegant, flowing costumes and beautiful art nouveau/art deco architecrture and accoutrements, a far cry from nanobots and microchips and writing computer code on the surface of molecules. I love the contrast between the smooth, flowing lines that you want to stroke and the spikey metal gears and cogs that say, "Ouch!" It was a time of lace and leather, metal and grime, glass and velvet. What an evocative era.

He says he feels like he's flying!

One of the things I love about polymer clay is its ability to mimic virtually anything found in nature. Let's talk a bit about leather. I have had many comments on my simulated leather. Some clay artists will use real leather as a texture tool to imprint the clay surface. For me, what "suggests" leather is wear-and-tear and stitching. So, using just the needle tool, I make the stitch holes, depress a line between the holes to emulate stitches, then use the tip of the needle tool to push and nudge the edges of the leather to simulate dings and wear, and scratch gently and quickly across the surface to emulate creased, crinkled, worn leather. When you then antique with oil paint, all these little edge and surface imperfections add to the impression of aged leather.