Art is a Blessing: Polymer Play and Mixed Media Musings

by Staci Louise Smith

Art is such a blessing.  I think someday's I take creativity and that I get to do this for a living for granted.  Art is such a huge part of who I am.  I see art in almost anything.  I take in colors, and textures and composition no matter what I look at.  It leaks into all parts of my life, and for that, I am grateful!

It's that time of year, where I have spent the entire year making beads and jewelry.  I try to allow myself some playtime around the holidays.  It allows time to make gifts for people and get out some of my other art supplies.

One of the blessings, is that my children get to be creative too.  they learn the fun of play, and the business of selling their work too.

To start off the season of creative playtime, Julia and I worked on some polymer pendants for the Hereford Bazaar.  It's a craft show her school puts on.  All three of my kids made stuff for it and I got them a "real" crafter table there!  

It was a lot of fun to prep for a show that was NOT my own.

Now, Julia (age 11) is not known for her organizational skills, and she brought me these bags of polymer clay.  They contained every color of the rainbow and then some.  So I said, how about we mix them up and swirl them, and then she could use that as a base to stamp her designs onto!  

We had a blast putting odd colors together and running them through the pasta machine and finding the  surprise patterns that arose.  She is a color junkie, so she was in rainbow heaven!

After that was done, she stamped them and cut out the circles to add to her bezels.

I had so much fun with the kids in the studio.

Collin (9) made little owls and got to use alcohol inks for the first time.  I showed him how to make these easy little "squish" owls and he picked it right up!

My oldest, Aiden (14) makes jewelry.  

Here they were at the show- they all did really good and had a blast, and I must say, IT WAS THE MOST FUN SHOW I DID ALL YEAR!

Here they all are, and yes, I am a proud mama!

Here are Collin's key chains and bracelets he made

Here is Julia's set up, with magnets and necklaces in polymer

 And here is Aiden's work.  He loves working in gemstones and beads, but has started doing more wire work and polymer too

So, that was a great week to get the creative juices flowing.

As you may know, I have dabbled in mixed media before.  But I have wanted to add more of my polymer into the mix.  I have had ideas, but no time to try them.  

So finally I gave myself a week to play.  It's almost up, and I am almost done these piece.  They are finished, all but the three in the lower right corner.  I hope to make a few more today and finish these, and then its back to business for a week.

I love being able to pull from all the different media I have worked in to create art.  It is such a blessing to my soul to be able to freely make what is in my head and heart.  It is also nice to know that I get to use all those things I have learned through the years, a million different ways.  I REALLY encourage you to always keep learning new techniques and mediums.  You never know when the skills you learn will pop back up!  

So be blessed and create art!  Never stop learning and playing.  It's all part of the process.