Toppers are sculpted from dollmaking clay which is layered over a stronger armature for durability. They measure about 5-6 inches in height. You can personalize your topper even further by adding touches like a likeness of your pet. How cool is this? I cannot imagine a cooler, more unique keepsake for the bride and groom. 

You can find the toppers at the PatysClay Shop at Etsy.com. 

Image Credit: PatysClay shop at Etsy.com

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Personalized Wedding Cake Toppers

Artist: Helena Gullström
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Website: Helena Gullström

Helena Gullstrom was born and raised in Sunne, Sweden, a small town in the western part of the country. She currently resides in Los Angeles. With painting and drawing being an important part of her life, she began serious study with Franklin Liegel at the Otis Parsons School of Art Design in Los Angeles.

My work is an extension of myself, hopefully ever expanding and evolving. I allow myself using a large array of materials, including concrete, oil, acrylic, wood, metal etc.

This enables me to always feel like as if I’m discovering something, which is a huge part of the joy in my art making. I love challenges and to see if I will be able to make something from, at least for me, a new material.

I draw my inspiration from everyday situations, conversations, nature and my affinity for textures. I get an idea for a piece and then I try to find a way of how to best execute it.

Few things are better in life than walking down the aisles of possibilities at a hardware store, full of inspiration, trying to find the right tools and materials..

Right now, I’m working on a series of sculptures and paintings made out of concrete and mixed media. I always loved concrete as a material and I’m finding that it’s a very versatile material with so many possibilities.

I find that even more than formal training, having the curiosity to explore, having passion for what you do will really make you an artist.

I see myself as the never ending student, learning new things every day and although frustrating, I learn the most from my “mistakes”.

I simply put my subconscious to work. I try to stay as real and open-minded as possible to new ideas by using surprising materials and color combinations, to allow my art and myself to evolve.

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Artist profile: Helena Gullström

Name: pablo solomon
Location: Lampasas, Texas

Website:
pablo solomon

pablo solomon’s work is a beautiful celebration of the human form. If you are at work or would prefer not to see nudes, please take this into account. But you will be missing some wonderfully sublime works!

Photo credit: David Allio

pablo, how do you describe your work?
I am committed to the idea a happy life results from what Aristotle described a balance of health, wealth, friendship, virtue and knowledge. I try to promote the beauty of balance. I believe that the human form is the best representation of the beauty of the unification of form and function.

What is your creative process like?
I do what I feel like at the time–unless I have a specific commission. I compare my creative process to surfing–I ride the wave of creativity as opposed to fighting it. I have an almost perfect visual memory, things just pop in my head and I try to find whatever it is that I feel I need at that time. I am always drawing. Again, anything that pops in my mind. Sometimes I develop drawings into plans or make refinements, othertimes I just draw the next thought.

I like jazz or symphonic music to keep me focused. However, when I am hammering rock, I like talk radio. Current events always have something to get my blood pumping. I work like a maniac. I get up everyday at 4 a.m. and try to work into the night (minus an afternoon nap). People often think that I have patience–far from it—I have tenacity–I have this drive to create and to turn my ideas into reality.

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
The best training I have had is travel. I have seen the world’s greatest art. Next is life experience. I have worked many interesting jobs which gave me knowledge of industrial materials and processes. The best way to improve is to work and evaluate the results–day in, day out.

My move to professional artist was the result of a lifetime of developing and pushing my art until I was making enough money at it to do it full time. I was an artist as a child and sold my first work as a young teen.

Photo credit: Deborah Crombie

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
My hands.

What inspires you to create?
My wife Beverly. She has one of the best figures God ever gave a woman. She keeps in shape with yoga and did ballet when younger. She was a model and then worked in sales and marketing for Diane von Furstenberg, Revlon and Ralph Lauren. Probably 80% of my figure work represents her.

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
The thought of the tough lives my parents had. My mother was a sharecropper who grew up on a Texas farm with no electricity or running water. They plowed with mules, picked cotton and sewed their own clothers. When she was 12, her mother died and she had to raise 6 siblings. My dad’s family was run out of several countries before finding freedom and opportunity in the US. He was much smarter and skilled than I will ever be. He spoke 5 languages. Yet because he had no opportunity for formal education, he worked hard his entire life. So, when the going gets “tough”, I just think how much more blessed and how relatively easy my life has been. I owe it to my parents to be a success.

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
Put the first line on the paper–the second will soon follow.
Good art is more the result of hard work than deep thought.
Spend more time working with your art than talking with other artists.

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
Maintaining our historic ranch. Always something.

What’s your favorite comfort food?
My aunt was the best Mediterranean cook in the US (according to me and cooking magazines). My wife and I sometimes try to recreate the recipes she left us. I also like hiking the beautiful Texas Hill Country looking for arrowheads. My wife and I love to travel–especially to beaches and to historic sites.

Photo credit: Timb Hamilton

Other photos by pablo solomon

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Artist Profile: pablo solomon

Ryan McElhinney has taken his talents primarily into the areas of lighting and furniture. For such serious subjects, it looks to me like he’s having way too much fun, you think? I am particularly taken by all the pieces that he makes with recycled toys, like the frame above, and this lamp:

How much do you want this action figure lamp?

With international training and flair, Ryan has worked on movies, received numerous design prizes, and has done commission work for many people whose names you would recognize!

WAY too much fun. And a lot of hard work, I’m sure!

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Ryan McElhinney is having too much fun!

I want everything this man makes! Furniture and folk art sculptures, which Richard Dunbrack creates “from significant period artifacts and found objects”. Just marvelous! Visit The Thieving Magpie…it’ll put a smile on your face, gauranteed!

Recklessly Driving Down Dirty Back Roads

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The Thieving Magpie

Here’s one that looks a lot like my bird:

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Joe Pogan’s new assemblage videos

Submission information here.

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Call for entries: 500 Ceramic Sculptures

You know that we love recycled junk around here…and I’ve got a new-to-me artist to share with you: Boris Bally. I don’t know why I haven’t come across his stuff before. It’s really good! He’s been in all the art journals, many fine art books, and has exhibited more places than I can even begin to list. Boris makes everything from furniture to flatware to wearables. Enjoy a spin around his website!

Nickel Grabber Brooches

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Recyced metal treasures

Artist: Laura Tabakman
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Websites:
Laura Tabakman
Flickr photo album

Laura, I’m impressed that you do both wearables and non-wearables, both so incredibly well! How do you describe your work?
I work in mixed media, fiber arts and polymer clay. I feel more comfortable working in three dimensions, using basic forms evocative of nature and primitive cultures. I am particularly interested in process and materials, and in choosing them for each piece I look for contrast; hard, rough, dull and strong materials (steel, roofing material) combined with delicate, smooth and shiny ones (polymer clay, fabric, gut, thread).

Time touches, alters and decays things. Seeing the marks of the passing of time moves me. I try to include these marks into my work by using shibori techniques (often called memory of the cloth) or rusted objects to dye my fabrics, incorporating timeless symbols or stressing and scratching the surfaces. Texture is an important aspect of my work.

Creating art enables me to express what I can’t articulate in words. My intent is to communicate with the viewer at an emotional level.

Spiral brooch Apr ’07
Polymer clay
3” x 3 ½” x ½”

What is your creative process like?
Much of my work is done intuitively, starting with a general concept or idea of what I want to make and say with it, but letting the process guide me, allowing myself plenty of flexibility to change directions if the project is telling me to go a different way. The few times I tried detailed planning I was disappointed with the result.

I usually work with the radio on; I spend so much time alone in my studio that I need some kind of contact with the outside world. When things are going right I can work eight straight hours without even realizing I need food.

It left a hole in her Dec ‘03
Polymer clay, steel wire and silk
17” x 7” x 6 1/2”

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I studied Architecture in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I was born, but never worked as an architect. I’ve been taking art and craft classes since I was ten years old. I am really curious and have a passion for learning new techniques. I would take any workshop I find slightly interesting: photography, weaving, batik, shibori, encaustic, silk screen, felting, paper-making, metalwork, jewelry, woodworking, polymer clay. I used to think that I should stop exploring new techniques and media because I was dispersing myself too much, but everything started falling into place when I began combining all my interests working in mixed media. Knowing about one medium can inform the way you work with a completely different one.

I enjoy the challenge of trying things by myself first, that way I can experiment without having to worry about the rules. At some point, when I’m comfortable with materials or techniques I would take a class, but by then I have a sense of where I can go with it.

I approach every new problem as an opportunity to learn something new. I needed a website, I learned how to do it myself, the same with polymer clay, digital photography, Photoshop, Excel, etc.

In 1994 my daughter received three packs of polymer clay for her birthday and we started playing. She left and I kept playing. At some point I thought I needed to do something with all this jewelry I was making, especially because I barely wear any. That’s how I started selling at my local farmer’s market and from there to better art and craft shows and galleries.

Green pods necklace Sep ‘07
Polymer clay, textured, stained on steel cable
3” x 3” x 3/8”
Center pod 3” x 5/8” x 3/8”

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
I love tools. When I was young I used to help my dad in his projects, I was the son he never had. That is where I developed my love; but the one tool I can’t do without are my hands. I do as much work as I can without tools. Materials are also important to me, but I don’t care which one. The challenge for me is to use a traditional or non-traditional material in a new way; make it do things it wasn’t meant to do.

What inspires you to create?
I feel my hands need to be making something at all times. I am inspired by nature, by weathered objects, magazines, books, blogs…I’m always looking. Then I take notes and draw in my sketch book, it is a way of absorbing what I’m seeing and a crucial tool when I need inspiration, it will take me back to a creative frame of mind and get the ball rolling again.

Big vessel series Aug ‘06
Silk Vessel (Rusted Silk and Steel wire, 16” x 79” x 14”); Steel Vessel (Steel wire, 14” x 69” x 13 ½”); Gut Vessel (Gut and Steel wire, 12” x 54” x 12”)

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
If there is a problem to solve, I’m motivated to work. My problem comes when I’m done with an idea and need to start anew. That’s when I clean up, put things in order. Maybe I’ll see something that was left in mid process and gets me thinking; or I would just start mixing colors of polymer clay, having the material in my hands would sometimes inspire me. If that doesn’t work I look at books and my sketchbook. The one thing that always gets me going is an upcoming deadline.

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
When you are creating, don’t take yourself too seriously. Allow yourself to make mistakes; solving them will lead to new discoveries. Keep an open mind, try every crazy idea you have, you can’t tell if it works until you try it. Work as often as you can. At the same time, after you’ve tried it, be rigorous when deciding if it worked or not; learn from the failures and keep growing. Challenge yourself, don’t keep doing something just because you master it and it feels safe.

Tar Vessel Apr ‘05
Roofing material, Embroidery Floss, Steel Wire
11” x 15 ½” x 5 ½”

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
I volunteer in several art organizations.

What’s your favorite comfort food?
Chocolate, of course.

Post from: Blisstree

Artist Profile: Laura Tabakman

Artist: Ptolemy Elrington
Business name: Hubcap Creatures

Website:
Hubcap Creatures

How do you describe your work, Ptolemy?
I generally make representations of natural forms from recycled or reclaimed materials. I’ve diverged occasionally, because I’m always up for a challenge, but that’s my preferred work direction. A lot of work is with reclaimed hubcaps, hence my website and business name.

What is your creative process like?
I like the process of discovery that is an inherent part of the work I do. If I make something from a basic material, like clay or wire for instance, I’m completely in control of the form, and thus for me some of the pleasure of discovery is taken out. Seeing or finding a shape or constituent part of a shape in a found object keeps the process of creation fresh for me. I have a general idea of what I’m going to make, it’s dimensions; shape; character etc, but the details of it’s final form are denoted by what fits, or what comes to hand during the process. Sometimes I can step back from a particular piece or part of a piece of sculpture, and feel excited and energised by it without any sneaking feelings of immodesty. This is because I feel that the shapes of the individual ingredients are as much to do with the final form as my energies of creation.

If I have a particularly challenging commission or idea I want to tackle, I’ll study images, sketch and try to get to see the subject in the flesh, but generally I work from images either in books or from the web. I plunge in when it comes to the building process, but for me no amount of planning alters the ‘drawing’ with the actual materials.

I work as often as I can and in as many different ways as my diary and my inclination permits. Sometimes a large commission can be a drudge, especially when making a large and repeating part, and although this is a hill to climb, the view is always better for it. A deadline focuses the mind and stops an inclination to procrastinate. Alternatively, I can have a desire to create a particular form for days, and when in the studio with no particular place to go at any time soon, I can look up from work to find six hours have passed unnoticed.

I almost always play music when I work, louder when the studio’s other occupants are absent, and I like a complete variety of stuff, form Mozart to gangster rap to ambience.

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I spent a while experimenting with life choices in my late teens, and began to focus in my early twenties on a possible artistic path. I attended a part time foundation where I attended more or less full time, and from there studied art and design on a multi media course at Bradford and Illkley Community College. Although that course kind of put me off main stream art, it did enable me to learn a whole raft of skills, and meet a selection of like minded people who I continued to work with for seven years on community projects and festivals. During this time I continued to create personal work at a low level. Then I travelled, moved away and ended up ‘messing about’ with found materials in a way that attracted enough attention to enable me to attempt to earn a full time living at it. The web is a very useful tool to communicate and advertise my work to potential clients, galleries etc.

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
I’ve got an old pair of thin nosed pliers with bits of rubber and sticky tape all over the handles that I couldn’t do without. I’ve used a variety of similar tools but these ones are perfect. If they disappear occasionally in the maelstrom of my studio I come close to a panic attack.

What inspires you to create?
Form and character inspire me, but the main drive is something inherent in my character. If I’m away from my place of work for any length of time, (for instance I was in India for a year) the urge to produce something is intense. I end up writing poetry, short stories and drawing manically when I can’t sculpt. In the studio marine forms are obviously of interest to me, and insect shapes are very intriguing. I’ve made an effort not to look too closely at the enormously exciting variety of shapes in the insect world, as I’d find it depressing not to have enough time to them justice. There’s more than enough to keep me occupied for the rest of my life in the marine world. Saying that however, I have made a few insects when I couldn’t help myself.

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
I think, ‘What else would I be doing?’ and consider the jobs I’ve done in the past. Roofer, scaffolder, multi-drop driver, and then consider what I’d like to do…and I can’t think of anything else.

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
Definitely to keep at it, to keep doing what you like no matter what, and to bear in mind the thought of how satisfied you’d feel at the end of your life (assuming you have the chance to contemplate the question) ‘did I do the things I wanted to do or did I just pay the mortgage?’

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
I tinker with and ride my motorbikes, read, socialise and watch rather a lot of anime.

What are your favorite just-for-fun activities?
Aforementioned anime. Japanese comic books turned into films or series: I can get completely lost in them. They’re a bit like music in that there’s a whole variety of style to choose from. Sometimes the artistry is astonishing and I can watch the same film time and time again saying “wow look at that” every time.

I also like travel books, Lauren Van De Post, Theroux, Eric Newby etc. and playing with my bikes too…

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Artist Profile: Ptolemy Elrington