This year will see lots of making faces
and masks, and I'm putting together two new books about them.
One book is "The Art Of Polymer Clay Masks". Hundreds of
miniature masks and many full sized masks are featured in photographs of
pieces collected over the last decade.
The
other is about making the masks and faces
and using them to create larger figures. I'm combining hand
dyed textiles, beads, and polymer clay faces to make dolls, puppets, icons and figures that range in size from three inches
to six feet tall.
I will be teaching an intensive workshop at the Tougaloo College Summer Art
Colony in Jackson Mississippi from July 12-18.
It is a week long polymer
clay and mixed media session where we will make masks, icons or totems,
spirit dolls and more.
Spirit Doll Kits with selections of hand dyed ribbons,
textiles and polymer clay faces are now available, and the book will showcase what
can be done with them. The picture at right shows the face cabochon
styles that you can now purchase and use in your doll and wearable art
projects. Click here to see more about the polymer
clay faces.
Spring
has been a very busy time already for us here at the Polyclay Gallery.
We're cleaning up, rearranging, and working hard on lots of projects. Look
for new pages and updates here on the website, and on the blogs.
There's even an online puppet show in the
works with Aunt Acid, my polymer clay "Mouthpiece", so stay tuned for updates!
|
 SpringCleaning
SALE!!
$15.00 list price $23.95
signed by the author
|
 |
The Business Of Professional
Art (book)
This item is available through lulu.com
Print: $12.00 Download: $7.00
Artists who yearn to earn and to be successful
entrepreneurs will benefit from reading The Business Of Professional Art
by Sarajane Helm. These 24 collected articles first appeared in her
column in Belle Armoire magazine (Stampington & Co.) between
2003-2007. Each is packed with information and tips on how to present
your art to the buying public.
|
Want to know more about polymer clay?
Here's a page with Frequently
Asked Questions--and answers!
Click here to see the Glossary page with definitions
of terms commonly used in polymer clay work.
"It's as easy as falling
off a blog"
Well, perhaps thats not QUITE the way you've heard the phrase before;
but it does fit the current upswing in "blogs" or web-logs. Take
a look at some of ours!
Creative Connections
1 --- Creative
Connections 2
At-The-Helm
Sarajane Helm began as a doll maker,
trained professionally as a theatrical costume designer, and also creates
graphics, textiles, rubber stamps, children's book illustrations, and a
full line of paper dolls. Many of the skills she
has developed in the areas of textile and fashion design are utilized in
her polymer clay work, giving a very "fabric-y" feel to her designs.
Her work has been featured in many books, magazines, and galleries. She
takes time throughout the year to instruct people
of all ages in the uses of polymer clay and the making of dolls, miniatures,
and beads, and sometimes works with young students through the Artist In The School programs.
Her writing appears in columns for the web-based magazine The Bead Bugle and in articles for print
magazines including Belle Armoire, The PolyINFORMer, Polymer CAFE and
others.
In addition she is the author of books including Create
A Polymer Clay Impression and Celebrations
With Polymer Clay now available in stores and through Amazon.com.
Her publishing company is PolyMarket Press, and its first release was in
2006 with Judith Skinner, titled Adapting Quilt
Patterns To Polymer Clay. The new release for November 2007 is
a compilation of columns from Belle Armoire magazine, and is called The Business Of Professional Art.
There are several more books in the works right now, and PolyMarket
Press plans the release of two additional artisan-created books every year.
2008 will see the release of two new titles
on masks.
The first mask book is titled The Art of Polymer Clay Masks and
it focuses on the beauty of the masks with more than 300 polymer clay pieces
in miniature and full sized scale. Many of the masks from years of Internet
Miniature Mask Swaps will be featured.
The other book will be a how-to book on making faces, masks, and molds
and using them to create icons, dolls and figures and other decorative
objects
Bryan does all the heavy preparation work,
kneading and conditioning pounds of polymer clay at a time, and also takes
care of all the packaging and shipping details.
In addition, he takes millefiore
cane slices and impressed tiles made by Sarajane along with dichroic glass
and other items and meticulously places and affixes them to create fabulous
mosaic sculptures.
When he covered the first full size guitar, he said
it was his best instrumental work--but
that isn't true. He also is the source of a wide variety of music
ranging from Ambient to Xtreme, with different groups and by himself.
His
music with Brothersync and Big
Thirsty Towel includes the new release
"Sync Or Swim". They range from jazz to jungle and even farther
afield!
From CosmicWestern slide steel guitar to the energetic soundtracks
for video clients such as Junior
Achievement, the musical reference points are many and diverse.
