As another year comes to an end, it’s time for my annual blog retrospective.  Where did my creative journey take me in 2019? There were slightly fewer blog posts this year than last, but still at least one per month.  Many of the monthly posts were dedicated to themed art challenges. By focusing on one (or sometimes two) design themes a month, I was able to explore each theme in more directions.  As a result, I feel as if my work was more focused this year, and maybe my artistic voice is getting stronger.

While many of my projects involved polymer clay sculpting – a thing I used to think I couldn’t do, and which I am still learning – there were also a surprising number of polymer clay canes. Surprising because I really dislike making canes. When the weather turned too hot to work with polymer clay, I turned to other media, including several new to me, and a few from my childhood. Here’s a photo-filled summary of my year’s worth of art and crafts.

The year began, as it has in several past years, with a challenge to design earrings featuring the Pantone Color of the Year.  The color for 2019 was named “Living Coral” which called out for a few polymer clay canes to use for beads.  I went a little overboard with the bead making and let’s just say it’s a good thing this particular shade of orange goes well with 2020’s Color of the Year – Classic Blue, among many others.

January also brought a moon-themed challenge from the Art Elements blog team.  This challenge was an opportunity for me to incorporate a few art beads from my curated collection into jewelry.  It was also an excuse to make a bunch of polymer clay beads, none of which made their way into jewelry designs for the challenge.  I wrapped up the challenge with a small polymer clay covered trinket box (not shown, but you can visit the original blog post to see it).

February included a frozen-themed earring design challenge.  No, not Frozen, the animated movie with the talking snowman.  Rather, frozen, as in that thing that happens to water when the temperature gets low enough. The theme inspired snowflake and icicle earrings with polymer clay components.

Also in February was a birds of prey-themed art challenge.  For this theme I took a deep breath and tried my clumsy hands at sculpting hawks and owls in polymer clay. There were some sculpted feathers as well. One of the sculptures, a trinket box with an owl face on the lid, incorporated glass eyes, which was a first for me. I found the glass eyes staring at and judging me as I worked.

The month of March was a little slow in that I only participated in one design challenge, which became my pattern for the rest of the year.  The theme for that challenge was luna moths, which I interpreted in a variety of polymer clay creations from a faux stained glass window cling to jewelry and a sculpted trinket box. I also carved a few rubber stamps, proving that I need much more practice in that technique. There was also an attempt at a painting using Inktense blocks.  

In April, there was the reveal for the annual Bead Peeps Swap ‘n’ Hop, in which you swap art beads with a partner and use them to make jewelry. I don’t participate every year but found myself with a bit of extra time on my hands earlier in the year when the sign-ups came around, courtesy of the longest US government shutdown in history. My partner in the bead swap lives in New Zealand and sent me the loveliest assortment of souvenirs, beads, and jewelry findings.  I was pushed a tad outside my design comfort zone by some of the components and completely enjoyed the challenge. Since I had several months to work on what I would ultimately send my partner, I was able to make a bunch of ocean-themed polymer clay beads and focals and a mixed-media treasure box to hold them.

Also in April was the repurpose-themed art design challenge.  For this theme I experimented with a couple of air dry clays with mixed results.  (You can read about the tragic fails in the original post.) There was some paper mache, which was messier than I remembered from childhood. I also repurposed some glass bottles, bottle caps, a wire clothes hanger, and some of my cats’ expired rabies vaccination tags. All of my projects for this theme felt very retro, which I think is trending again.

The month of May was all about elaborate polymer clay sculpture for the forest-themed art design challenge.  I created the largest polymer clay covered box I’ve ever attempted, and struggled with almost every detail of the sculpture, especially the faces.  There was a colorfully decorated tree stump sculpted around a glass jar, which tragically burned during the polymer clay curing process. I salvaged it with Swellegant metal coatings, and then did a complete do-over using another jar and slightly different details.

June brought a selkie-themed art design challenge.  There was a lot of polymer clay sculpting involved for this theme, which proved I need a great deal more practice making faces. A lot. The theme was also an opportunity to inflict some marine mammal trivia on everyone as I shared random facts about seals and sea lions -learned during my graduate education – to accompany my sculptures.  You did know I studied sea lions in grad school, right?

By July it was sufficiently hot to preclude me working with polymer clay for the flowers-themed art challenge.  Which prompted me to invest in a modest amount of beginner embroidery supplies, including a few kits, patterns, and stitch books.

Also in July, I shared my thoughts on a rather unpopular policy change made by etsy to pressure sellers into offering “free” shipping that isn’t actually free.  You can read the blog post for yourself (I promise it’s not a rant), but here’s my bottom-line on the subject:  when I mark an item in my etsy shop as “free shipping” it means I cover the cost of postage and do not, as etsy recommends, pass it on to my customers in the form of price increases.

It was sweltering for most of August, which pushed me toward more embroidery for the octopus-themed art design challenge.  There was a brief break from the heat one weekend, which allowed me to sculpt a trinket box in polymer clay and make a few beads.

As is typical of this area, September brought little relief from summer’s heat, and even the plants were wilted, which made it a challenge to get in the mood for the foliage-themed art design challenge. Most of the month was devoted to an embroidery project but there was one less-hot weekend which allowed me to work on a polymer clay wall hanging.

October was dominated by an eye-themed art design challenge. I was inspired not only by the theme but the fact that the weather was beginning to turn less hot.  I sculpted a pair of dragon eye trinket boxes in polymer clay (with glass eyes watching me as I worked) and embroidered a hamsa using metallic (!) floss and beads. There were also a few necklace designs, including one using an evil eye bead I created with a rubber stamp I carved.

November was devoted to polymer clay creations for the fossil-themed art design challenge. I created a great many more beads than I was able to use, including some faux fossils, agate, petoskey stone, and petrified wood.  There were hits and misses with my construction of polymer clay canes for the petrified wood and petoskey stone, which is to be expected given how infrequently I make them and how little I enjoy doing so. But it was all in good fun.

The year wrapped with a “handmade Christmas” art design challenge theme, which gave me a chance to catch up on gift-making.  The theme was open to any type of handmade gifts, including baked goods. That meant the White Russian cupcakes (with white chocolate vodka ganache filling and Kahlua buttercream frosting) I made for my co-workers counted toward the theme.  There were also a few polymer clay brooches and embroidered ornaments.

Because I never begin a year with resolutions, I never have to end one feeling guilty about goals I failed to achieve.  Instead, I can look back on this year in my blog and be pleased that I tried a few new techniques and experimented with new materials in addition to continuing to develop my polymer clay skills.  While not something I blogged about, I also reached a milestone of 200 sales in my shop on etsy this year. (Shameless self-promotion: many of the things I created for the design challenges are available for sale via etsy.) Best of all, this year I got to interact with a wonderful group of fellow artists through the blog hops for each challenge and share my creative journey with all of you, my fabulous readers.

Many thanks to the team at the Art Elements blog for a year’s worth of inspiring design themes.  I really hope they continue the challenges into 2020. And thank you all for visiting my blog and for taking time to leave comments.  I wish you the very best for the new year and hope to see you here as I continue sharing my creative journey.