New Polymer

by Barbara Bechtel

Today I thought I would show you some of my most recent polymer clay beads. Admittedly, for most of the last year, I haven't been making much new polymer clay work and have mostly been working in copper. A recent injury has kept me sidelined for several months, and once I started feeling a bit better but still couldn't get into my metal studio, I felt that polymer itch.

This is actually the front and back sides of a double sided focal donut.

Not wanting to burn myself out again, I started in on creating some new color palettes. My polymer clay has always been an extension of my background as a painter and I prepare each piece almost as a mini canvas, spending the majority of the time preparing, building the base, and layering and creating depth through the surface treatments in layers of color and translucency through the careful selection of a color palette.

Transparency and opacity are very important in the colors I select and how much I remove or add to each surface.

At the current moment, I'm not getting to wild with the shapes and forms, but instead using the same or similar forms, really searching for and working beyond the obstacles of each palette. I almost like to think of them as tiny sketches or color studies.

If you'd like to see more of my recent explorations in color, I encourage to pop over to my Facebook page and check out more of the photos there!