Polymer Clay Artist Guild of Etsy (PCAGOE) Challenge

PCAGOE Challenge has moved

2011-08-31T07:28:00.000-07:00

We have moved the PCAGOE monthly challenge over to our main website. Please visit www.pcagoe.com to join the fun. A new challenge will open for public voting on the 1st of every month. If you vote you could be eligible to win a prize created by one of our talented polymer clay artists.

"Under the Sea" winners

2011-08-08T18:30:00.000-07:00

The votes have been counted and here are the winners of our August "Under the Sea" Challenge!

THE WINNERS VOTED ON BY PCAGOE Members:

1st Place - Mermaid's Necklace by Randee of RMK Design

2nd Place - Go Swimming with Me by Arlene of Ashpaints

3rd Place - Sealife by Els of Beadelz

WINNERS VOTED ON BY THE PUBLIC:

1st Place - Mermaid's Necklace by Randee of RMK Design

2nd Place - Sealife by Els of Beadelz

3rd Place - TIE Under the Sea Pendant by Maggie of Maggie Day Studio and Sealife by Els of Beadelz

The voters who won prizes this month:

Donelle Kemmer
Viktoria Slutsky
Jan McAtee
Winning voters have one week after being contacted to furnish us with your mailing address. If you do not respond within 1 week, your prize will be forfeited and returned to the prize pool.

Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to everyone who voted and supports our challenges each month.

198 votes were cast this month.

Comments left by the voters:

beautiful work once again. So many talented people!

I had to many favorites this time. I just love to see all talent here. Good luck to all.

I am very impressed at the craftsmanship shown here. Good work one and all. You are winners, every one of you.

All entries are worthy!!! Can't help but adore the seal. Amazing attention to detail!

This is a very interesting challenge. Everyone's work is great that it makes it very very hard to pick. Love all the work.

love the shades of the shade very soothing and de-light-ful

All the entries had a different slant to the challenge, and all were very nice. It was hard to just pick those three! Good work, Ya'll!!

I thought the Under the Sea Necklace was absolutely beautiful but I can see lots of ohter good things also.

Love all the beautiful creations!

They are all beautiful pieces.

I love mermaids & the Under the Sea journal appeared very well designed. The fish were very cute on the Go Swimming with Me Cannister & I loved the quirky little octopus on the Under the Deep Blue Lampshade.

I love your challenges! It makes me happy just looking at all the different interpretations of the subject. It's always so difficult to choose!

Love all the shades of blue and green. Great selection of undersea creatures and creations.

Loved the limestone rocks with inclusions, very realistic!

LOVE all the entries - made choosing difficult!!

I voted for Shades of the Sea Cuff Bracelet, because of its originality in the design. It reminds me of throwing on a loosely woven "cover-up" and lazy days at the beach, looking for shells.

I enjoyed the beautiful entries. I especially like under the water or sea themes.

It's wonderful to see how a theme is translated. So much diversity. I love it all and it's difficult to make a choice.

I was hard put to choose among these offerings and whether to emphasize originality, or the amount of work put into something, or go for sheer beauty--which is subjective, of course. In the end, I decided on "things I would love to own/wear."

At first I thought the background on 17 was paper so I wasn't going to vote for it. knowing it is made of all polymer & inks - it is stunning!

All pieces are medal worthy, I also had favs on the journal and jewelry.

it was a tough decision to make, all the entries are beautiful!!! but i loved the coral brooch the most, love the delicate form and colours!1

Full of my favorite colors: turquoise, emerald, light blue... Which creation can I choose? I love all of them!

Mermaid's necklace looks like it could have been washed up on shore!

I was really impressed by the variety of entries and the fine level of craftsmanship shown by the guild members. The clay paintings were just amazing.

I think they are all quite good, I have never been able to do the blues and greens so I would really love to have one of these beauties. Good Job

The bracelet is so unique. It's only the second one I've seen. The 1st one was a red one in Polymer Cafe. Now that makes me wonder if the same artist made it.

The trinket box looks like it took quite a lot of thought.

The Mermaids Necklace is not all blues and aquas, but the colors of the beaches.

How did she get those little Nemo's on that pen? Remarkable!

Facinated with technique used on Ripples - absolutely beautiful; Love the creativity of the lobster claws and pearly shell created for Memories of Maine; and the Under the Sea Trinket Box is just too cute.

As always..gorgeous pieces of art!! Always hard, hard, hard to select just one (or even three!)..

This "challenge" you do every month never fails to bring a smile and a "wow"!!

these are all gorgeous.. showed my children and my daughter now wants to have a go too! Just wish the clay didnt cost so much in nz.

wow, i simply love the sea.it was hard to decide since there are lots of works i loved. i really loved the mearmaid, I can imagen her sitting on a rock looking at bouts or just playing with some dolphins...

It is fun to see what others are creating! I have created and sold polymer clay pieces for 25 years and may need to enter one day LOL. Keep up the good work.

Very beautiful work, gorgeous colors

So many great choices made this a very hard decision! Beautiful work, everyone -- all the colors are gorgeous.

Viewing these challenge contributions is inspiring. Special thanks to all the artists!

I love the category for this challenge. Finding Nemo is a favorite movie of mine, and I like the references to this.

Beautiful trinket box, Jill!

What a fun collection, thinking maybe I need to play too .......

Wonderful mixtures of interpretations for the challenge.

The three I chose were to exemplify being UNDER the sea- most fluid. Great entries!

love the vibrant color of the fishy fishy cane

As always I have such a hard time voting
because I love them all. Changed my
mind several times but ultimately went
with my first instincts. This was a great theme for summer and I think everyone did such a nice job!

Entry #18 reminds me most of something that may be living under the sea. Entry #4 reminds me of the beach, an entry #5 is just a gorgeous peace. It would be nice to be able to click on the thumbnails to see the entire picture.

Really impressed with the guild and the work of the members. Look forward to your newsletters.

I love the seal. It was more realistic than any other...look into it's sweet face! The body form was right on and the colors were excelletnt.

the photos this month were kind of small to make a decision. I know I could click on each link but it would be nice if they were a bit larger.

Great stuff. Hard to choose a fave. keep it coming, PCAGOE!

Spectacular selection of varied art! Harder than ever to decide. These challenges certainly bring a great variety of skill and talent to the attention of the voters!

It was a beautiful selection to choose from. I always forget to vote and for once on a day off here I am! All of you are so talented. Thank you for letting me vote.

I chose these because they interpret the theme without being obvious or cliched.

Please join us next month for our challenge. The theme for September is "Pink". We hope to have many wonderful creations for you next month!

August 2011 Challenge: Under the Sea

2011-08-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

Scroll to the bottom of the page to vote for your favorites!

Under the Sea

Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think. ~Robert Henri

This month's theme "Under the Sea" gave the PCAGOE artists a chance to explore their love of all things blue and watery. Members could create whatever they wanted within the theme's context as long as the piece consisted of at least 50% polymer clay.

And the entries are:
(Voting form at the bottom of the site. It may take a minute for it to load.)

1 - Love at Sea by Marie of YoungCreative
"Waves crash over the lovers in this art piece based on an antique illustration of "Manon Lescaut." I started by hand-coloring the illustration that I embedded in liquid polymer to create a "canvas." I sculpted a Mokume Gane sea, adding more coats of liquid polymer as well as regular polymer accents to build dimension. Alcohol inks and paints enhanced the colors."

2 - Fish out of Water by Line of playsculptlive
"Inspired by Cristi Friesen, my hero!"

3 - Under the Sea Trinket Box by Jill of JKay Jewelry
"Viva Decor gave my guild some of their new artists' clay to work with during our recent demonstrations days at the local fair, so that's what this little box is made of. It features some miniscule real shells, while the rest of the little embellishments are molded from the same clay. I made the molds for the ship's wheel, the star fish, and the sea horse."

4 - Mermaid's Necklace by Randee of RMK Design
"faux limestone pebbles"

5 - Shades of the Sea Cuff Bracelet by Susan of 11BoldStreet
"My entry for the PCAGOE Monthly Challenge is another of my signature liquid polymer gauze bracelets. The base was tinted in sea shades of aquas, blues and greens, with silver accents reminiscent of sparkly waves. The polymer focal has patterns of "scales" and impressions from sea shells."

6 - Under the Sea Pendant by Maggie of Maggie Day Studio
"Polymer clay, paint, and resin pendant"

7 - Under the Sea Journal by Becky of BeckySueCreations
"It is made from polymer clay and put onto a spiral journal."

8 - Memories of Maine necklace by Lisa of HiGirls
"Polymer clay lobster claws are accented with black paint and pearlized clay beads.
Seashell is polymer clay molded from an actual Maine seashell in pale pink and translucent clay with mica powders."

9 - Clown Fish Desk Set by Angela of Polymer Clay Creations
"Cute orange clown fish swimming in a beautiful aqua and blue sea to brighten up your desk."

10 - Octopus's Garden by Kathy of ElPasoClayNation
"This little tile is made for the July Under the sea challenge. I got to try out my new jar of Polypaste, too."

11 - Blue Coral Brooch by Amanda of Polyclarific
"This entry for the August PCAGOE Challenge is a pretty little brooch. Its rough edges remind me of coral and its colour of the ocean. The brooch is 2.5cm in diameter and 2cm deep."

12 - Ocean Wave Lentils necklace by Janice of BlessedBeadJewelry
"Ocean Waves mokume gane focal beads paired with pearls and mother of pearl."

13 - Ripples by Berit of ClayCenter
"A business card holder decorated with polymer clay. My entry in the August challenge "Under the Sea". The technique is mokume gane/mica shift with several layers of pearl clay. It is completely flat even though it looks three dimensional."

14 - Go Swimming with Me by Arlene of Ashpaints
"This small tin canister has been re-purposed to simulate an underwater abode. Colorful fish swim in and out between blades of seaweed and coral branches up from the sea floor. Swirls in multiple colors of blue trim the edges and the lid to finish the look."

15 - Fishy Fish by Jackie of The Pleasant Pheasant
"This is my PCAGOE "Under the Sea" Monthly Challenge Entry, a new fish cane that I made and really like! Being back to caning is awesome. :) This fish is from a tutorial by Desiree McCrorey."

16 - Polymer Clay Seal by Deb of Renaissance Gal of San Antonio
"He's a fun little critter from a class I taught."

17 - Lampshade Under the Deep Blue by Cindy of Arrowdale Art Studio
"It is a lampshade for a custom lamp (which my husband has yet to finish - the parts have been more difficult to find than anticipated, but we will persevere!) The lamp shade measures 6" wide by 5.5" tall and 3" deep. The "sea" is made entirely of translucent polymer clay tinted with various shades of alcohol inks and then blended and pieces to achieve the mottled colors. Each of the pieces are made from canes (the fish and sea plants) ore other shades of clay colored or blended as I went along. I used embossing powders for the crusty look on the stuff on the bottom, and used pigment inks to even out colors where needed. There are a couple of candles burning inside the shade, which accounts for the white-ish streaks and the subtle glow. A 40W light bulb will be used in the lamp, which is for our grandsons' bedroom nightlight."

18 - Sealife by Els of Beadelz
"Inspired by Helen Breil, with a shell (abalone/ zee-oor in Dutch) from the (southern) French coast."

19 - Pink Mermaid Figurine by Phoebe of Happy Creations
"Mermaid figurine is hand sculpted out of polymer clay. She has long flowing brown hair. Her body is a pearly fuscia pink color with green scales. She is holding a real sea shell. She is wearing a necklace of a gold sea star and in the center is a pink Swarovski crystal gem. Her body is coated with a light dusting of glitter dust. I hand painted her face and scales with acrylic paints. She is coated with a glossy finish."

Several of the entries are available for sale in our members' store. Please visit the individual shops to see these and other wonderful listings.

Vote for your favorites:
(at the bottom of the page, may take a moment for voting box to appear)

Voting is open to the public from Aug. 1-7. Everyone who votes is in the drawing to win a fabulous polymer clay prize created by one of or members. Read the voting guidelines.

What you could win:

1st row, L-R: The Pleasant Pheasant, Pennyslane,
2nd row, L-R: Wired Orchid, NKDesigns,
Rengalsa