Modular Art Jewelry: How to Create and Connect Unique Component Jewelry

I'm obsessed! I now know where the term "dumb blonde" came from. These days I fit the profile to a "T"! Anyone sitting across from me on the Metro, or at a cafe table would come to the same conclusion - vacuous stare, mouth slightly open, oblivious to noise and visual input, no visible "plugged-in" paraphernalia - yep, she must be a dumb blonde...........duh, not! I'm deep in my head, connecting and reconnecting components, creating focal elements, stringing, attaching, dangling, embellishing, engineering, designing and composing. I should be sketching these things out then people would know what's happening, but I don't have time - these ideas have been percolating, gestating for a long time and I can no more stop the flow than the tide!!!

Over the next couple of weeks I'll present individual components and connections and then we'll play around with variable arrangements and compositions. I'll give you a look into my "dumb blondeness", ie. the process that leads me to these ideas since this, to me, is the essence of creativity - the "process". I much prefer NOT knowing what I will end up with when I start. It can be very disconcerting, at times downright painful, but the reward comes as the piece evolves and you see your own creative process unfolding before you. My process working with polymer and metal is remarkably consistent with that inherent in my abstract paintings (see http://www.vickieturnerart.blogspot.com/). Input and comments are always welcomed.

Meet Wendell. I never thought I could be a sculptor, but Leslie Blackford showed me differently. Thanks to her, the name emerges first, becoming the structure upon which the personality grows, followed by the physical features. Wendell is shy, a bit geeky, like me, blinged-out with pearls and a swarovski crystal (tastefully, of course) clutching a precious find, a sterling hoop, a secret treasure to bring back to the lair to explore and delight in, to ponder, to create with. Christi Friesen's quirky dragons lay eggs that hatch in my imagination with curious regularity, testimony to the fact that part of me will always dream of mythical sagas, of adventure and mystery, imagined creatures and universes, more creative material. Wendell becomes the first creative part of this process. His hoop directing the next line of creative thought.

WENDELL - PART 1



Sculpted Polymer Clay Relics

I love ancient relics, and I love materials that become beautiful with wear. I love the fact that polymer clay lets me create artifacts that appear to be centuries old, uncovered by careful archaeologists gently brushing away the dusts of history. So, here are the latest. From faux jade to faux fossilized ivory, faux porcelain to faux bone, these faces are derived from one face carved by hand (mine - hand, that is, not face!), cured, a mold made, and the molded images further altered to reflect their roles in these "ancient" adornments.

HIROKI

HIROKI

Hiroki is sculpted from Cernit, hand tinted with oils, sitting on a "fan" back made from Kato clay, highlighted with red glitter, a veil of old paint brush "hair", a beautiful freshwater pearl, hammered steel wire, gunmetal chain, red glass lampwork beads, a brass coiled bail, hanging on an 18", 3 mm thick buna necklace, finished with a handmade brass hook and eye clasp.

QUETZELCULPA

QUETZELCULPA

Quetzelculpa evokes ancient Mayan excavations yielding finds of fossilized bone, ossified, dirt-encrusted, patinated to reflect centuries of burial. The face is layered on a beautiful sheet of mottled gold clay, overlaid with a gold encrusted "tiled" piece of clay. Again the piece is enhanced with simulated hair, wirework, crystals, lampwork bead, brass bead, gunmetal chain, hammered steel wire and brass clasp on 18" buna.

MIKADO

MIKADO

Mikado simulates sensuous, translucent, warm jade with accents of copper leaf in the topknot and kimono neckwrap. A creamy pearl, oriental coin and green Swarovski crystal provide movement. The head sits on a layer of antiqued fossilized bone impressed with oriental script next to a piece of coppery-gold-green "tiled" piece of clay. The necklace is gunmetal chain with two gunmetal hooks holding the hammered steel wire. These can be detached and a totally different neckwire put on if the wearer so chooses.



Polymer Clay Tutorials, Tips, Tricks and Techniques

Here is the finished bracelet. Looks great with brass clasp and heishi beads. Also beautiful 4mm bicone crystals accent the piece. 

 The back has a nice finish. My signature cane is in place.

Here is a close-up and a picture of the bracelet on my arm. 

The Beginning of "Polymer Clay My Way"

It's time to launch into the new value-added part of Claymagination - "Polymer Clay My Way". I thought of calling it "Your PC Guru" but that sounded a bit pretentious. In this segment I present solutions to problems I've encountered, techniques I've discovered along the way, techniques pioneered by other polymer clay artists that I've tweaked to make my own, or even ways in which I've found to highlight some wonderful techniques pioneered by other artists. I'll do my best to explain the reasons behind design decisions I've made and also present you with some design challenges that I find stimulating and fun.

This first episode pushes the technique taught by Lisa in last year's Claymagination 2011 retreat. One of the issues that I struggle with is settings that are not "worthy" of unique, hand-crafted art. We would all set our art into settings made from gold or platinum, if price were no issue, but in today's economy, art suffers badly, and the artist suffers along with it. We need to find a way to present our art so the work is not viewed as "cheap" yet the price we need to charge does not make our art inaccessible to most.

Silver plated settings look good, but only for a certain amount of time. Eventually the plating wears off, and our art gets set aside. Precious metal is wonderful, but pricey, and to help bring down the cost, artists (such as Lisa) are now making their own sterling silver settings. I really think that is the way to go since it dignifies and elevates the work to an art, but it does increase the price of the piece.

To keep the price down, if you have time available, consider using polymer settings. With attention to detail and finishing, your work becomes an even more hand-crafted work of art and it's permanence is guaranteed. It won't have to be sidelined because the plating wore off the setting!

Here is Lisa's technique set into polymer clay bezels.

As you can see, the lip of the bezel is raised slightly to accommodate the subsequent resin pour. One benefit of doing this is that there is no danger of the decorated surface "floating" when the resin is poured because it sticks to the polymer clay backing.

Now it's time to sand, with 400 only since I want the shine to be only on the resin surface.

You must make sure the polymer clay bezel is firmly attached to the square as the resin will find any little crack to seep out of it if can! You can see the upper corner on the back in the image above, the resin started to ooze out.

To see any of these pictures enlarged, just click on them.

I'll post a picture of the assembled bracelet when done. 

If you have any questions, post them to this blog post and I'll do my best to answer them. 

Christi Friesen's First Art Swap

Thought you might like to see the twisted, warped, mentally deranged work of art that Sandra sent in to the Art Swap! Yes, we all sleep with one eye open!

Appreciation

We should start each day by watching this 6 minute video. It readjusts our thinking in a wonderful way!

http://youtu.be/nj2ofrX7jAk

A Bit of a New Direction

Whew!  Is it the end of the year already???  And what's that?  Is that sunlight?  I'm afraid I haven't seen much of it lately as I've been locked away in Vickie's studio, forced to "create"!  I've been working on a new piece for the past (what seems like a VERY long) while and thought I would share some pics on the blog.  So, without any further ado, may I present to you, my viewing public, CL Necklace 1.0:



CL Necklace 1.0

 I wanted to create a bit of a statement necklace for some Gala events I have to attend this winter.  I was tired of the usual Little Black Dress with the standard drop jewel pendant or big, glitzy earrings.  I wanted something that was more "me"...something that made a statement about who I am and give a bit of an idea into what's been driving me these days.  And apparantly, the statement I'm making these days is that of "I'm a Crazy Lady" according to my husband, who said he was a little worried that I was going to look like a "Crazy Lady" when he saw all the pieces I had been planning to put onto one necklace.  I in fact ended up only using about 2/3's of the charms I had made...so I guess that makes me only 2/3's crazy?  This is where I got the title for the piece ;)

I had been very much inspired by the charms Vickie made for her Jules Verne Meets Urban Grunge necklace from last spring's Claymagination.  While I have used several found objects and metal in this piece, I also loved the idea of using the clay to imitate some of the found objects to give it much more of an individual feel and also get rid of some of the weight that tends to accumulate when you use a lot of metal and glass.

A bit of a different perspective

As you can see, I've also incorporated some of my hand-sculpted bird parts.  I feel this piece came to tell a bit of a story about secrets and protection. Two things I feel the raven has come to represent to me.  The "leaves" all have little messages written on them - some of them funny, and some of them wistful; and the tiny glass bottle even has a note that I wrote, carefully rolled up inside and all but obscured by elements around it.

Anyway, I find I'm quite addicted to creating more runes for more works of what we're calling Neogrunge pieces.  We like to think of them as arrested city mechanics in fine art form.

Pretty cool, eh?

*Please ignore what's below this sentence as this post was created by Sandy, not Vickie.