Zentangle

I have been ill for days, got a flu or virus or whatever that keeps me from breathing properly, getting up and doing stuff. Yes, I admit that I am a pretty lousy patient. Blessed with my health and immensely grateful for it, I rarely get ill but when I do I am cranky.
It's fine to catch up with TV shows and movies for two days but then it gets boring. I couldn't get out of a bed because I was really sick but as soon as my nose stopped running so badly I got myself paper and several fine liners. I was aiming to have some fun. And I did.

I always doodled something, since I was a kid. These doodles changed from flowers to hearts to lines to something mixed and matched. I don't have a clue about drawing but I love holding a pencil or fine line marker and using dots and lines to make patterns and "little drawings". I didn't think much of it.

Then I started working with polymer clay and everything else was forgotten including doodling, cross-stitching, crochet, decoupage etc. But then in 2009 it suddenly flashed back into my life. I made it in polymer clay. So funny how I forgot about this ceramic tile covered in polymer clay (I suddenly remembered while writing this story). Looking at it right now I can remember how much work I put into it, being an inexperienced self taught clayer and how happy and proud I was with my little tile.


I really started doodling again in 2011. I was traveling to nearby town to teach workshops and had spare time in train and bus, so I started drawing again. Most of these are small doodles or drawings in my notebooks used in that time but I have two or three larger drawings on A4 size paper. It was then that I learned that these drawings had a name and it was pretty cool one: zentangles!

Google says: "Zentangle is a self-help art therapy practice to enhance relaxation and focus. Zentangle is known to many artists and craftivistas as a way to create structured designs through drawing various patterns." How cool is that? There is a Zentangle Method, a step by step on How to make a Zentangle and also a great Guide to drawing pens so feel free to explore and try it yourself (if you haven't already).

I read about it but did not follow any particular rule. I follow my thoughts and intuition, draw and explore excited to see how will it end. It was actually zentangling that got me inspired to develop my Nambi technique in 2012. It is a lot of lines and some dots in polymer clay with some color on top of it. It was so much fun to add color and a lot of new possibilities occurred. In case you are not sure what am I talking about here's one photo:

There is a step by step PDF tutorial in my Etsy shop if you are interesting in learning this technique and it can be found here.

Back to present and my sick days: I made several drawings/ zentangles that I have been posting on my Instagram and FB account. Google is absolutely right, they are therapeutically! I had fun, my mind was calmer and I was feeling less guilty for staying in bed for days. I was creative. It made my soul sing. It made me happy.

Now I am better and I'll be leaving my fine line markers in a drawer because of a piled up chores and orders. So before saying goodbye to zentangles, for a while at least, I wanted to share my latest one: dancing flower girl or freedom or happy or retro. I couldn't decide about a title so it remains No name. The photo is not the best but that is it for now.

Let me know in the comments your thoughts on doodling, zentangling, drawing, nambi..... are you doing any of this?
Now, excuse me I have to go a lot of things are awaiting to be done.

Casual Skinner blend

As promised, I will post some of my older free tutorials here in next few days. Let's start with a casual Skinner blend.
This was really a fun experiment and as it usually goes, I made it completely accidentally.

I consider myself to be a fairly patient person. I have a ton of 'nerves of steel' specially when it comes to polymer clay: I am ready to do things over and over if not got right at first attempt, I calmly do precise cuts, assemble small parts and I am even able to sand my beads by hand for hours without much of a drama.
One of the things I don't have patience for is Skinner blend. I simply can't make myself to measure precisely and make a meaningful Skinner blend. All of the sudden I become annoyed and restless and want to speed the process. How crazy is that?

Tutorials seen online often include Skinner blends that are planned, thought through and measured. Obviously, a lot of time and energy are invested in making such beautiful blends. I sincerely admire all the artists that make Skinner blends in that manner.
I quit trying after my third. So when making them I just go with the flow trying to use all the clay I dedicated for the blend I am making and not bother myself with cutting and measuring. To be completely honest I actually enjoy being surprised with the result each time.

Photo shows my new casual Skinner blend experiment. I mixed some scrap clay lying around and made a colorful sheet. Just before putting it in the pasta machine a thought popped into my head: this will be booooooring! I hesitated for a minute and then started cutting pieces of clay out of the sheet and then mixed and matched them.
After running it through pasta machine for about 20 times this is what I got. It's so cool, isn't it?

How do you make your Skinner blends?

This tutorial is free but if its valuable to you and you want to support independent artist with some coffee or chocolate use paypal.me/NenaBArts to donate.
Thank you.

Smatram da sam prilično strpljiva osoba, pogotovo kada je reč o mom poslu. U stanju sam da satima strpljivo sedim i radim, da budem precizna bez drame kada je to potrebno, pa čak i da šmirglam bez protesta.

Jedna od stvari za koju nemam strpljenja je Skinner blend. Naprosto nemam nijedan preostali strpljivi živac koji bi mi pomogao da ga precizno merim i složim pre provlačenja kroz pasta mašinu. To svakako nije bila namera Judith Skinner, matematičarke koja je izumela ovaj način mešanja boja u radu s polimerskom glinom. Često na internetu viđam uputstva s unapred osmišljenim i precizno sastavljenim Skinner blendovima. Umetnicima koji ih prave divim se do ludila!

Odustala sam od toga nakon svog trećeg Skinner blenda. Pravim ih kako mi dodje i više ih prilagođavam količini materijala koju sam odredila za izradu Skinner blenda. Nekad ih sečem ovako, drugi put onako i da budem potpuno iskrena, uživam u tome da se svaki put iznenadim rezultatom.

Na slici vidite moj novi eksperiment s "opuštenim" Skinner blendom. Poslagala sam boje, umešane od raznorazne otpadne gline, preostale od prethodnih projekata, a onda mi se učinilo da će ispasti dosadan. Tada sam počela da isecam komade gline i menjam im mesta. Nakon provlačenja kroz pasta mašinu dobila sam rezultat koji vidite na slici.

Kako vi radite pravite Skinner blend?

Mini Stud Earrings

I have to share my newest obsession with you: mini stud earrings.

It all started few days ago when I realized that I have a considerable amount of polymer clay flower canes with transparent background. I randomly picked thicker and thinner ones trying to find if they are still usable. You know how they tent to dry when laying in a box for a while. And then I just got an idea!

Within minutes I made some cane slices and put them into oven to cure. Half and hour later I attached them to earring metal parts and covered the front side with Lisa Pavelka’s Magic-glos. Few more minutes later, when UV lamp performed it’s magic, I had in front of me several pairs of finished cute mini stud earrings.

Then I realized that it is too simple and started a new bunch adding glitter and Perlex powders in Magic-glos on front side. Pure fun!
I have several ideas that I will try soon.

Few more photos just to show how mini they are:










These mini stud earrings are not something that I usually make of polymer clay. I prefer larger and unique pieces of jewelry. But I am really happy that I followed that sudden idea.

At the end I am satisfied how they turned out. I think I will experiment with them a bit more.

So what do you think?

Few flower canes

I've finished these canes last night or early morning if you prefer. It was past 1 AM and I couldn't stop until they were finished and reduced.

I love them!

It’s been a while since I made flower canes with transparent background. It was a “Great flower cane virus” last year and I remember making about dozen of such canes. It seems like they last forever and I easily get bored with combining all the same canes.

Quick fix is to switch to some other polymer clay technique.

This year flowers seem to follow me from everyday life through dreams to my creations. I try not to think about it too much, just relax and go with the flow.

I’ve been enjoying and having so much fun with layering cane work technique lately. To extend the fun I’ve decided to update my flower cane collection.

The result of time spent at claying table (afternoon and evening) can be seen in the photo.

I am really happy how they turned out.