Yes, I’ve been distracted

And probably will be again. But things are changing….

Important observation from Melanie West

The idea of comparing the evolution of polymer clay work to the evolution of origami is a key leap: comparing our work to earthen clay craft —> art highlights similarities in form or initial handbuilding techniques, but the food/fire managing uses for earthen clay are not options for polymer, so it’s not as apt a comparison. See here: Evolving origami

An introduction to Hopeful Monsters

Here are some ‘hopeful monsters’.

They are several years old [the first is from a PAPCG event the same year Polyform introduced the "Green Apple" color of Sculpey; the other two items are slightly older than that, but probably not by too much].

I haven’t got a particular polymer “style”, although my items tend to be small, and I tend not to like following project directions — although I love learning about new techniques.

So here we have some mokume, some inlay, some beads, some surface treatments.  The gingko leaf might be the most promising of the bunch, although I don’t know if it’s enough to make it ‘different’ in an interesting way from other uses of gingko leaves out there in the world.  The silvery mokume, in larger form, also covers a bottle of Pelikan ink, which I keep meaning to refill with ink…the sticking point might be that I don’t trust the seal on the bottle.

For the use of the term “hopeful monsters” in evolutionary biology, look here.  For my own purposes, I’m thinking of these items as ‘potential solutions in search of a problem’, but the “hopeful monsters” label sounds slightly more endearing, sort of like the later incarnations of Sweetums from the Muppet Show, or Gossamer, from the Warner Brothers’ cartoons.

In case you’re wondering

What this is about — last year, I heard a speech at Synergy, where the speaker, Jo Lauria, kept mispronouncing a key word. Instead of saying “polymer”, which in my region of the United States is pronounced

“pollih-murr”,

she kept saying

“polly-meerh”.

[The final "h" is because the sound system gave the "r" a little bit of a roll. I don't know if the "r" enjoyed it.]

From “polly-meerh” to “PolyMirror” seemed a small step, but I hoped it would be in a more productive direction.

Starting to get started

There are scrap clay bits all over my worktable, and some I’m sure have landed in between the floorboards. Premo, meet Pergo…. [not exactly]

How did we get here?

Thirty years of [semi-]organized polymer clay art in the United States….