Wednesday, April 30, 2014

May Challenge Bowls

About the challenge: 
For May our members tackled bowls. They could create one from scratch or cover an existing shape. Yet, as always, the visible part of the entries had to be 50% polymer clay. 



Vote for your favorites. Three lucky voters will be chosen in a drawing to win a gift certificate from one of our sponsor shops.

To see larger images visit:

1. Green Brown Sea Glass Valet No. 144 by Susan of 11BOLDstreet
This polymer clay valet/bowl for the PCAGOE Challenge was inspired by my sea glass collection. It incorporates lots of texture, tinted translucent layers and an underside featuring my "chopped translucent" polymer technique. Approx. 6" x 6" x 2 1/2" high.

2. Jade leaves and dragonfly bowl by Lisa of HiGirls

Created for PCAGOE 's May challenge-Bowls. This piece is created with tinted translucent clay, lots of leaves, some metallic powders and lots of texture. It is a companion piece to my asian inspired teapot: https://www.flickr.com/photos/39493796@N08/13854988464/in/photostream/



3. Purple Mokume Gane Yarn Bowl by Angela of by Angela of polymerclaycreations
This handmade bowl is great for holding your ball of yarn while you knit or crochet. There are 3 different holes plus a spiral to run your yarn through. To see more views please click here: www.flickr.com/photos/polymer_clay_creations/
 

4. Footed Pinch Pot by Berit of ClayImages
My entry into the May PCAGOE challenge, "bowls". This little bowl fits into the palm of my hand. It is completely hand made, no molds were used. I also made the cane work myself. After curing it twice, I sanded it and added a coat of a finishing varnish. Lovely for rings, earrings or other small jewelry! You can see other views of it here: www.flickr.com/photos/21863654@N07/

5. Duality Bowl by Betsy of PolyClayCafe
The design is based on my fasicnation of pattern against solid and unusual shapes. I love the Premo color "jungle" so much I didn't blend it with any other colors, a rarity for me. The colors are jungle, black, ecru ... that's it!

The base was formed around the largest Fat Daddios teardrop cookie cutter, and is 5" long from middle back to the point. It stands a little over 1 1/2" tall. The pattern is mokume gane made with the use of a thick texture sheet - by layering clay, impressing the texture and slicing off the "mountains". The wings of the feet are the three colors extruded using the large multiple hole disc.
For other views see www.flickr.com/photos/98189899@N07/sets/72157644106094346/

6. Leopard Bowl by Line of PlaySculptLive
This bowl was an old silk blouse that I washed and put in the dryer and now would not fit anyone. I used that for the outside of the bowl. The inside of the bowl is my daughter's old corduroy skirt. Both patterns lent themselves well to my purpose.  Read more at:
http://playsculptlive.blogspot.ca/2014/04/a-bowl-for-pcagoe-challenge.html

7. Watercolor Mokume Gane Ring Bowl by Arlene of Ashpaints 
Watercolor Mokume Gane is a technique which uses alcohol inks to give it the soft blend of colors. The addition of gold leaf adds sparkle and makes this a perfect small bowl for rings or paperclips.

8. Black & Silver Bowl by Freda of FredaK
Hand formed trinket bowl with silver leaf on black polymer clay

9. Red Hot Chili Pepper Bowl by Mary of MaryClaires
Sort of swirly pattern but little abstracts around it.

10. Asymmetrical Yarn Bowl by Beth of CreateMyWorldDesigns
Asymmetrical bowl made from polymer clay and hammered metal spirals. The dimensions of this piece are approximately 5 1/2" tall by 5 1/2" wide (at widest point). To see more photos of this piece and to read about how it was created, please visit my blog: createmyworlddesigns.blogspot.com/2014/04/labor-of-love.html

11. Hexabowl by Jill of JKollmann
For the bowl challenge I wanted to try not-round, not-smooth.



Read the expanded rules here.

Full Name (required for voter prize notification):
Email Address (Required for voter prize notification, you will not be sent other e-mails unless you sign up for our e-mail list):
For current Dues-Paying PCAGOE Members: What is Your Etsy Shop Name?
Please select your 1st choice: (2nd & 3rd choice must be different from your 1st.)
Please select your 2nd choice: (2nd choice must be different from your 1st and 3rd.)
Please select your 3rd choice: (3rd choice must be different from your 1st and 2nd.)
How did you hear about the PCAGOE challenge?
Would you like to join our email list? (former Newsletter subscribers already included!) monthly reminder to VOTE in our Challenges, along with important Guild announcements. Please add pcagoe@gmail.com and pcagoe.news@gmail.com to your approved senders. I already signed up
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Our members love comments! Please comment here on the entries and/or the challenge in general.

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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Featured Artist Angela Hickey


Introducing Angela Hickey of Polymer Clay Creations
PCAGOE featured artist for April 14 through April 27
 (Her work is be featured on our Facebook page throughout this time period.) 
 
Angela became addicted to working with #polymerclay about 9 years ago. And now she can't get enough of it! Angela is well known for decorating items with her beautiful flower canes in all the colors of the #rainbow. About her entry into the polymer world, Angela says this, "One day about 10 years ago I went into work to find I was no longer a "fit" for their company. So after a week of being devastated and feeling worthless, I had to find things to do to take up the 60 hours a week I used to work. At first I enjoyed my free time, but there are only so many jigsaw puzzles to do and weeds to pull. Being artistic runs in my family. I had painted and done cross stitch before. So I was looking for something creative to do with my time. I'm not really sure what drew me to polymer clay, but as the saying goes it was love at first sight. I became instantly addicted. Then after a few months I was starting to build up quite a few finished projects. Thinking maybe I could try selling some of them to "feed my addiction" I started Polymer Clay Creations. Now I'm doing what I love and love what I'm doing. Making money is just a perk Looking back I guess I'm grateful to those corporate morons for handing me the keys to finding my happiness."
Angela has been featured in the fall 2009 edition of Interweave magazine, the June 2009 edition of Polymer Cafe magazine, and on the Polyform website.
Find more of Angela's work in these web locations:
www.polymerclaycreations.etsy.com and www.flickr.com/photos/polymer_clay_creations/ and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Polymer-Clay-Creations/162634387125?ref=mf and http://www.polymerclaycreations.blogspot.com/
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Thursday, April 10, 2014

April Challenge Winners

The winners in the PCAGOE April Challenge "Containers" are:

Top entries selected by the public:
1. Put a bird on it! by Lisa of HiGirls
2. Baubles and Swirls Trinket Jar by Arlene of Ashpaints
3. Diamond Box by Beth of CreateMyWorldDesigns 


Top entries selected by PCAGOE members:
1. Diamond Box by Beth of CreateMyWorldDesigns
2. Put a bird on it! by Lisa of HiGirls
3. Sliding Turtle Box by Jackie of ThePleasantPheasant 




Congratulations to the drawing winners. They get to pick a prize from one of our lovely participating sponsor shop owners. 
Laura Spivey
Corrine Tripamer
Sharon Wittmann 

Comments from the voters:
- As always, so many creative pieces!
- It was difficult to choose - they are all very accomplished
- Beautiful! I'm sorry I didn't enter!
- Ladies you all out did yourselves this month. Wonderful entries!
- I'll be honest, I don't know much about polymer clay. Thanks to Facebook posts by Lisa Rapp, I've become interested. What a versatile medium!
- Great collection of creative items... hard to choose!
- Really hard decision.
- It is apparent that everybody really put their "all" into this theme, and the results are fabulous. Wish - I could vote for all of them.
- So hard to choose!!! Stunning work all around!
- Tough choices between all of them.
- Wow, this was truly a difficult choice. Such impressive, high level artistry!
- Love that turtle Jackie, you are so talented. Keep up the good work.
- This one was very hard to choose! All winners in my book.
- Very difficult choice - you should all win!!
- Wow, was it hart to choose just three! If I could have voted for #2 and #11 as well, I would have!
As usual, stunning entries.
- You have all exercised your imagination to the nth degree - Congratulations all.
- I really enjoyed the originality of the base containers, the variety of blended colors and the delivery of quality and interesting creations! Well done all!
- This time it was so hard to choose just 3!
- Wonderful !
- Difficult choice they are all so beautiful!!
- All three of my choices should be ranked #1. I really shouldn't put a 2 and 3 to any of them. Wow!!!
- This month really blows me away. There is no way possible to pick the top three. Really awesome work everyone! I'm so proud to be part of this talented group.
- #8 My first pick is because it really is beautiful and a truly polymer clay piece. #4 Just love this and the Alice Stroppel take, and the colors are my favs too.  #1 Beautifully done. All are amazing and inspirational.
beautiful!
- 3 is fabulous, especially for a beginner! 10 has awesome coloring, almost looks real!
- This was awesome! You've outdone yourselves, ladies!
- Every single entry is just gorgeous. Very difficult to choose.
- The quality of all the entries has really gone up.
- I am always amazed at the incredible amount of beautiful and thoughtful work that goes into these challenges. It is so hard to choose as each one of these is a winner! You girls have no idea how much pressure you put on us each month to pick the first three out each time! Arghhhh! :0)
- My first choice is a very sophisticated bowl. A real piece of art in my opinion. My number two and three are so detailed and pieces of hard work with great results.
- I wanted the artists to know that it was very difficult to choose because they were all such great works of art. Thank you for your work and inspiration.
- All containers are beautifully executed!
- Such talent and attention to detail. A great challenge this month.
- All the submissions were great and such a hard choice!
- Beautiful choices as always. Very hard to choose.
- I am astonished and inspired by all of these vessels - what a good choice for a challenge.
- Had the hardest time narrowing the list down to 3. Very interesting and beautiful pieces. Great job everyone.
- I look forward to the challenge and love seeing the new entries.
- Unbelievable talent. Amazing entries. Thanks for sharing all these beauties with us.
- Awesome stuff, really. Talent is abounding....As always it was so hard to choose just three.
- WOW such a beautiful bunch of boxes.
- I think this is one of the strongest selection of challenge entries that we have had since I joined. Amazing work!
- All fabulous submissions. And such a diversity of styles showcasing the versatility of polymer clay.
- Wow! Great entries everyone!
 
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Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Featured Artist Arlene Harrison


Introducing Arlene Harrison of Ashpaints and Harrison Hollow Designs
PCAGOE featured artist for March 31 through April 13 
 (Her work is be featured on our Facebook page throughout this time period.) 
 
Arlene is a retired legal secretary who now concentrates her energy, full time, on her artistic pursuits. Her new focus is to grow her business online and locally, learn new techniques to grow as an #artist, and to generally enjoy her retirement; even though in retirement she is working now more than she ever did, but loving what she does and doing it on her own time schedule!

Arlene's polymer passion began with canework and creating intricate cane designs. Due to some problems with her eyesight that make canework too difficult to manage on a regular basis; she has been moving more toward the direction of #custom #mosaics, which she creates with wood bases and #polymerclay tiles that are embellished with a wide range of media. As you will see throughout this feature, Arlene doesn't let her vision problems stop her, and you'll find that even with her focus on mosaics, she pushes her talents to provide a wide variety of items to her customers.

Here's a bit, in Arlene's own words, about her artistic journey:
"From the time that I learned to embroider at my grandmother's knee, I've felt the need to create -- to put a part of myself into everything I do. I've been involved in various artistic pursuits for over 30 years with my primary focus on decorative painting until I was introduced to polymer clay! I've found a new passion for design. Now my collection of paints has taken a back seat to polymer clay and beads!

In addition to my artistic pursuits, I love books -- although after a less than successful lasik surgery experience, most of my "reading" these days is done by audio books. I am a mother, a grandmother, and a lover of most animals. I have two dogs who are both rescues and have helped to fill my life since my husband passed away. I live in the country and, other than having to go without power for 5 weeks after Katrina hit the Gulf coast, love it!"

Find more of Arlene's work at these locations:
http://ashpaints.etsy.com/ andhttp://harrisonhollowdesigns.blogspot.com/ andhttp://www.artfire.com/users/HarrisonHollowDesigns
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