Scrapping Around

This month's PCAGOE showcase theme was Minimalism. I had a couple different ideas floating around in my mind, but in the end I decided to use up some polymer scraps that have been sitting around my studio waiting to be put into action.

Because I'm an environmental advocate, I have a hard time throwing out things that I might someday use to create something. This can be tough to live with, especially as I generally must do a huge reorganize yearly just to keep track of what's what in my studio. And yes, I also save scraps of polymer that just didn't make the cut, or were actual cuts off of pieces that have since been finished. One half of the pieces I'll be showing in this blog post are an example of those kind of scraps, the other half of the pieces in this blog post use a completely different type of scrap. So, let's start with the first, the cured scraps...

These scrap strips of polymer that you see in the images above were cut off my polymer printing textured wall art that I made back in June of 2015. Here's a shot of those pieces:

Texture plate and Polymer Art Prints

I created those art prints with slabs of polymer that were then pressed with a handmade texture sheet and then colored. The pressing of the texture plate created edges that weren't quite even. So, once all three of the art prints were cured, I used an Xacto knife and a straight edge to make them perfect rectangles of the same size. The thin waste strips that were cut off the art prints still had the color and interesting textures, and I decided then to keep the strips and put them to use in some jewelry. These jewelry pieces were at the back of my mind for a long time, this guild showcase proved just the right moment to dust off that idea. I decided to bend some of the strips back onto themselves to create loops, and I grouped them together in mismatched groupings of loops and straight pieces, and one piece created with just the straight pieces. Each necklace is given a slightly different treatment for hanging, one is beaded, another wire wrapped silk sari, one has a single strand of aqua art yarn and the last one has 4 strands of the same aqua art yarn. Here are a couple close-ups of each piece in this collection:

Pick-up sticks necklace

Pick-up stick necklace pendant

Loopy necklace pendant

Loopy necklace

Simple loops necklace

Simple loops necklace pendant

Little loops necklace pendant

Little loops necklace

The next grouping of pieces I made with another kind of polymer scrap, these were raw scraps that came from the blades of my pasta machine. I took my pasta machine apart to clean my blades (I hadn't done that ever, so it was many years of thin polymer bits that had accumulated under the scraper blades of my machine). When I cleaned the blades there were these lovely pieces of multicolored polymer that I just had to save to use for something. Here's a photo of the pieces that came off the pasta machine blades, you can see one side is smooth and looks almost agate-like or resembles Fordite, and the other side has this interesting minuscule layered texture.

Smooth side of scraps

Textured side of scraps

I found the layered texture side so interesting that I used that side for all of the pieces that I created using these scraps. As of now, these pieces are unfinished... some of them will be brooches, some of them pendants and some of the will be convertible brooch/pendants.

I really had a lot of fun creating these pieces and using some of my polymer scrap stash. I think my favorite piece is the Loopy necklace, though... I'm looking forward to putting some time in the studio to finish up the pasta machine scrap pieces. I'm not sure if I've done Minimalism any justice, it's much harder to do Minimalist well than one would ever think! I always love to hear your thoughts on my work, so be a dear and tell me in the comments which piece is your favorite and why! Most of these pieces will eventually turn up in my CreateMyWorld etsy shop. I'm hoping to get the finished ones listed over this weekend. Be sure to check out all of the other Minimalist pieces that my guildmates have created at the PCAGOE Facebook page!