Archive for the ‘Phyll Beach’ Category

Friendly Plastic Hummingbird by Phyll Beach

Thursday, September 9th, 2010
Sharing a recent email I received from Phyll Beach.  Beautiful work!

Linda, I'm doing a multi media piece in a collaborative effort with another artist that requires that I illustrate a Haiku poem she has written. (She will illustrate one of mine.) As soon as I realized it had to include a hummingbird, I knew the only possible way to capture their iridescence was to use Friendly Plastic. I was very happy with the resulting colors, it is a much more exciting illusion than a photo can capture. I did the flower while I was at it, but I am not sure it will be part of this art piece it did, however, make me absolutely positive that soon I am going to attempt an entire 5x7 size work, which when finished will be one solid FP piece. A complete mosaic scene, I am eager to attempt it. In the meantime my hummer will be perfect in my current project....Phyll Beach


 So...what will be YOUR Friendly Plastic challenge??


Email your photos and I'll highlight you on the blog!  Thank you Phyll for sharing!

Linda Peterson is compensated and endorsed by AMACO. The guests features may or may not have any affiliation with AMACO.

Two Teenage girls and some Friendly Plastic

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

LOVE LOVE LOVE opening my email and getting letters and pictures like this – just makes my day!

Linda,

I had a couple of teenage girls visit for about three hours and I just let them loose with a huge pile of FP.

I thought they would make the little wire ladies I had shown them, but no. They took that simple idea but made them larger, about four inches, and fancier with at least two layers each, plus the jewels.

Their next project was big barrettes for their long hair. These also were about four inches, and piled way high with FP. No detailed directions for theses girls, they just turned my large “clay only” toaster oven on, paying no attention to the temperature. They donned the heat resistant gloves I have, put their creations on non stick sheets on one of the tiles I use for clay, and watched thru the window until it looked melted and took it out.

The barrettes were just one baking. The dolls got two bakings, as after the first layer the wires were laid on and the second FP layer added. Then the girls mushed the plastic around with knitting needles dipped in cold water, and added the “jewels” and even some small glass tiles.

Apparently FP will take a lot of abuse when it comes to temperature, but I don’t suppose you want people trying that method :-) I bet as these visitors come again, and find more and more things in my studio, their FP creations will become more and more out of the ordinary. They had never heard of FP, say nothing of the fact they had no clue what could, or could not, be done with it. It reminded me that we all need to remember to occasionally try to think about our art with such a clean slate, absent of knowledge and/or influence! …

Phyll


Cara’s 4″ pin lady has glass tiles and a bouquet. Love the dress pattern.
Marja’s 4″ jeweled toned jewel encrusted pin

Cara’s lovely 4″ barrette combo of leaves and flower


Marja’s three toned 4″ barrette

Well Girls – YOU DID AMAZING!!! And a big THANK YOU and shout out to Phyll for sharing their work!

Sometimes I believe we do “nothing” because we are afraid of failure. I find that true of myself sometimes…but then again, we have to remember that doing “nothing” produces “nothing” and we learn “nothing” and get “nothing” .
TIP: Just a friendly word though…..FP does create some brilliant barrettes…however please remember to cover them entirely with a durable two-part casting resin such as Envirotex Light. This will prevent them from melting in the warm summer months and entangling in hair.
Thanks to these girls for teaching us to just dive in and let go and explore. And here’s a bonus….in these cold wintery months, heat guns, toaster ovens are just an added plus to keeping you warm….so if you’re going to use electricity anyways….why not get extra warm with Friendly Plastic?

Linda Peterson is compensated and endorsed by AMACO. The guests features may or may not have any affiliation with AMACO.

Not your Usual Friendly Plastic by Artist Phyll Beach

Friday, December 25th, 2009
I sent out a call for Friendly Plastic submissions and WOW!!! Look what I got in my email box today from Phyll Beach!

Linda,

This multi media shallow shadow box is 8 x 10
inches before it went into it's antique frame. I created it last
month, the sea turtle (other than the center agate) is FP, in fact it
was my very first effort with FP. I am absolutely sure I will be using it a lot
in the future in many wildly varied pieces. Much of the rest of this piece
is melted Tyvek. Thanks for your blog, I read it every day but took
several months before I ordered a slew of the stuff and decided to try it.


















This piece was for a secret winter swap. The challenge was to
incorporate the likes of the person for whom you were to make a gift. My person
liked the colors violet and blue, she liked fantasy, preferred a combination of
old and new in one piece, loved anything from nature, and her most
favorite thing is sea turtles. So though not my usual style at all, it was
fun to make. Probably because it was NOT my style!




I spent today with my teenage grandchildren making FP ladies
with curled wire limbs inspired by the work of an artist you featured a few days
ago. I'm sure their mother will love their creations which she will get for
Christmas. Thanks for inspiring me to try this.

Im sure their mother will love and cherish this gift for years to come! Handmade gifts are PRICELESS!






Linda Peterson is compensated and endorsed by AMACO. The guests features may or may not have any affiliation with AMACO.