Polymer Art Archive

Lindly Haunani, Crayon Lei in Oranges and Greens, 1998
Translucent polymer, Super Flex polymer, chopped crayons, nylon thread
2″h  x 2″w  x 23″long

This necklace was made for the faculty exhibit at the First National Polymer Clay Guild Conference at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  It was the second piece in a series of related color studies using the chopped crayons as a clay body additive with translucent clay- related designs included: bracelets, earrings and stacked pendants.

Lindly writes about this piece: Continue Reading »

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JM Syron and Bonnie Bishoff, Meander Cabinet, 2008
ash, Japanese tamo wood, polymer veneer
32″h x 65″w x 24″d

This husband and wife team have been collaborating on furniture since the early 1990’s.  Bonnie creates the polymer veneer and JM is the woodworker.

Syron/Bishoff write about this piece: Continue Reading »

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City Zen Cane (aka Ford/Forlano), Flat Necklace, detail, 1991

Ursula Newman, jewelry curator at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, selected five pieces of jewelry from The Collection for the museum’s permanent collection. Two steps were necessary to formalize her decision, and the first occurred yesterday when the curatorial staff put their stamp of approval on Ursula’s selection. The museum’s full acquisition committee will meet in September to validate the decision.

Above you see a detail of one of pieces chosen. The other works include Continue Reading »

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Rachel Carren, William Morris Sebo Brooch, 2009

This is one from a series of screen printed segmented brooches. Working with stamped and printed images, Rachel has taken surface ornamentation on polymer to new heights. Writing about this piece, Rachel says, Continue Reading »

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City Zen Cane (aka Ford/Forlano), Earrings, circa 1996

Early in their collaborations, the team of Steven Ford and David Forlano worked under the name City Zen Cane.  Here are a few early examples of their work which illustrate why this name was so apropos and which provide a window into the nature of their collaboration. Continue Reading »

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Gwen Gibson, Fractured Traditions (Vessel Pendant), 1999
Polymer, silk screen, gold and silver acrylic paint

Between 1999 and 2001, Gwen fully explored screen printing on a wide variety of formats including cuff bracelets, inro, lentil beads and other jewelry forms.  Gwen chose black polymer as a foil to her Japanese inspired patterns because it polishes to a luster reminiscent of lacquer.  Gwen explains, Continue Reading »

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Gwen Gibson, Polymer Wall Piece, 1997

Between 1996 and 1997 Gwen created about 20 wall pieces before returning to jewelry.  Gwen writes,” Having abandoned much of what defined my work as jewelry, I felt free to experiment with scale and function.  This wall piece combines several techniques as well as two and three-dimensional treatments.” Continue Reading »

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Gwen Gibson, Bead-framed Pin, 1995

Aficionados know Gwen Gibson for her expansive exploration of image transfer techniques on polymer.  This brooch from the collection represents some of Gwen’s earliest work in the medium as she made a transition into polymer through beading from her previous work in painting. Continue Reading »

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After spending an intense week in New Jersey working on the museum collection project, several things came into focus.  While examining, cataloging and organizing about a thousand pieces of work, it was very exciting to view the progress of the medium.  Continue Reading »

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Tory Hughes, Orrery Neckpiece, 1992
Polymer and mixed media

Why are we artists, anyway? For me, this career is the most flexible and marvelous -as in ‘full of marvels’- I could imagine.

What other way of life encourages me to make such a marvelous thing as this?

There’s a spinning comet in the upper left, mounted on miniature ball bearings; there are overlapping circles and arcs, toothed and smooth, a little plumb bob dangling at the upper right. This piece was a total joy to create. There were challenging moments, yup, but I love this one. Throw in tiny planetary references and an improvisational approach to edges and Orrery is one of my all-time favorite pieces.

To begin: An orrery is a model of the planetary system. Antique Greek mechanisms for plotting and predicting the planets’ movements existed back to the first century BC. Modern versions arose in the early 1700’s during the Enlightenment, that grand investigative era when we were still figuring out the line between science, magic, technology, identity. Continue Reading »

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