PolyMarket Press

Night

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:05:56 +0000

A decade of images cataloging the Night in all its adult twists & turns, realities & hallucinations…. from Noir to Neon.

Set for release in May 2012, this book exposes and tells a whole ‘nother side to the American Dreamscape.

By Austin based photographer and author Ricardo Acevedo, look for this photo-novella to be coming to Amazon and other book retailers.

Old Year, New Year–so many projects!

admin — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:48:35 +0000

2011 has been an exciting, busy, growthful year! A lot of projects and work came to completion in 2011 and lots more are now starting up or being actively continuing from the last few years. (Some projects take a while–there’s so much to be done!)

This year saw the release of interloper | fineart nudes and photopaintings by Ricardo Acevedo. Other titles are already in the works and scheduled for release in 2012, 2013 and 2014 including Night from Ricardo Acevedo, Making Faces, Forms & Figures from Sarajane Helm and The Art Of The Blend from Judith Skinner.

Shown here are necklaces made with a ceramic face and hand formed metal (bronze, copper, anodized titanium). The faces were made using ceramic clay and silicone molds of polymer clay originals. How-to’s on sculpting faces, making molds, and using them in decorative, sculptural and wearable art are coming up in Making Faces, Forms & Figures.

There is also a new edition of A Collection of Polymer Clay Masks percolating along–featuring updated photos and hundreds of new masks collected since the first edition’s debut. Those projects should keep me busy all summer when I’m not in school, as well as when I can fit things in along with homework! Of course, my homework has a way of working into the books as well, like these necklaces made for Jewelry/Metal 3 at Front Range Community College. I’ll be making new faces and molds as well as taking thousands of pictures all year long, and you’ll see the results in 2013—which, in school and publishing terms, is right around the corner!

New Release ~ interloper

admin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:59:37 +0000

We are thrilled to announce that the new release from PolyMarket Press artist and author Ricardo Acevedo is now nearing its debut!

interloper | fineart nudes & photo-paintings by Ricardo Acevedo is a provocative feast for the eyes from cover to cover, with 116 pages that beautifully display more than 60 images in this luminous body of work.

Pre-orders of autographed copies are available for a limited time and will ship at the beginning of September 2011.

Interloper–on sale soon!

admin — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:14:43 +0000

We are getting ready to do the final edits on the new book “Interloper fine art nudes and photo-paintings” by Ricardo Acevedo. Like a fine cup of espresso, its an exciting project that we’ve been brewing up this summer and is just about ready to serve; hot, rich, with deep dark color and a jolt of vibrant energy that leaves you satisfied but also ready for more.

You can see the change from the original cover design to the current one–going darker, richer, more edgy, a bit more noir and mysterious–very fitting for Ricardo’s work!

We’ll be updating the page for “Interloper” with information here at the PolyMarket Press site next week, and will be taking pre-orders for copies signed by the artist starting in August, with a ship date by September 1. Unsigned copies will be available after that through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble–but you can only get the autographed versions from Ricardo himself, and through us.

Interloper

admin — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:39:00 +0000

I’m currently setting up the next release from PolyMarket Press, and absolutely thrilled with the work that photographer Ricardo Acevedo has prepared for it. Based in Austin Texas, Ricardo has worked with a variety of artists, musicians, filmmakers and performers. His sense of color, texture, light and form is honed to a fine degree of sharp perception that he shares with viewers. Titled “Interloper: fine art nudes and photopaintings” this full color book presents 57 beautiful images accompanied by excerpts from Ricardo’s written work.

Ricardo’s work begins with his camera and models, but does not end with the individual pictures that result. He takes multiple photographs and works with Adobe Photoshop to create fantastically rich, luminous images that evoke unseen depths exposed fresh to our gaze in the moment of view. His loving aesthetic is rendered anew in each shot and rises above the pale restraints of “prettiness” to show beauty in its many forms.

Shown above is a rough draft of the back, spine and front of this 118 page book. The projected debut of this book is July 31, and while signed copies will be available exclusively through the artist, the book will also be sold online through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Do check back at this site for updates on its release.

Springtime In The Rockies

admin — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 17:44:10 +0000

Its my favorite time of year in a beautiful place–Colorado in the springtime is an exciting world! Last week we had temperatures in the 70′s and 80′s range and set records, and the snow that fell earlier this week has now melted and provided enough to get all the new growth going on trees, yards and seedlings being prepped for the garden beds. It is a time of soft and vibrant colors all together, with the hundred shades of green and purple buds breaking into blossom on the trees, flowers pushing their way back up. More daylight and warmer weather brings out the growth spurts in nature and in projects too! Its the time of year I am inspired to work on new projects and start new ones–some projects take a while to come to fruition, and the little spring shoots are not for harvesting so much as they are for marveling upon.

In the upcoming months, some of the projects that are taking root and growing now are a series of classes that are offered through the Front Range Community College Continuing Education Department. These focus on the contents of current and upcoming PolyMarket Press books, and feature classes in Polymer Clay, The Business Of Professional Arts, and Spirit Dolls. Click the link for class listings and schedules of the summer season classes offered at FRCC’s Boulder County Campus.

Also in the works are cards, with images like the digital photo that has been edited with Adobe Photoshop, seen here, and cards by several other artists including the artwork of Amy Foltz. PolyMarket Press is also speaking with several artists who work in polymer clay and other media about producing or carrying their line of cards and calendars. Look for those to be ripening later in the Fall.

I am also very excited to announce that PolyMarket Press is now working to publish books by a growing coterie of artists. The first is titled “Interloper”; a collection of fine art nudes that evolve into layered social commentary by Ricardo Acevedo. This Austin TX based photographer has a fantastic eye for form and color, and I love his work. I’m eager to get it into print this year especially as work on my own next book, “Faces Molds & Forms” is still in the active production stage. This involves a summer full of lots of writing up the projects as they are prepared and photos being taken, then a month or two of editing and layout. That will round out the year and probably a bit more!

Coming Right Up!

admin — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 17:43:44 +0000

As always, there’s so much going on here with projects that are in the works already and in the planning stages as well. Part of being a long term thinker is knowing that some things take a long time to come about, and that can be a good thing if you remember to be patient and persistent.

Time is involved in making art of any kind–time getting the bits and pieces collected, the tools and skills readied, time spent thinking and planning, time when the work itself done.

We’re celebrating the completion of the book A Collection Of Polymer Clay Masks, and stepping up the time allotted to working on the next books. That includes a novel and the how-to book Making Faces, Molds, and Forms.

I’ll also be an instructor at the 4th Annual Cabin Fever Clay Fest in Laurel, MD this February 18-23, with a class in sculpting original faces & making silicon molds. Then we’ll not only go over a wide array of decorative ways to use the mold, I will demonstrate how to use hydro-shrink to create versions of the originals reduced in scale without loss of detail!

Cabin Fever Clay Fest

PRE-Conference Instructors include Lorrene Davis, Jeff Dever, Julie Eakes, Doreen Gay-Kassell, Lindly Haunani, Kathryn Ottman, Nan Roche, Judith Skinner

CFCF 2011 Instructors (4 hour workshops)
Grant Diffendaffer, Patti Euler, Louise Fischer Cozzi, Christi Friesen, Sarajane Helm, Ellen Marshall, Ronna Sarvas Weltman, Sarah Shriver, Cindy Silas, Laura Tabakman

Click here for the Cabin Fever Clay Fest 2011 Registration Form

I’m also teaching a series of four polymer clay classes at the Front Range Community College at the Boulder County Campus. It is part of their Continuing Education classes, and you can read all about it and register here.

A New Book For The New Year

admin — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 22:14:27 +0000

Our new book “A Collection Of Polymer Clay Masks” is now available! I’ve received the proof copy and made the necessary edits to fix what I sincerely hope are the last of the errors. The pictures look great! I’m continually impressed by how varied and cool all the masks in the collection are. I’m pleased to be making signed copies available for sale through me directly, and the books will also be available (unsigned) through Amazon and Barnes & Nobel in 2-3 weeks.

There are new classes and projects coming up in 2011. I’ll post again tomorrow and tell you all about them!

ORDER YOUR AUTOGRAPHED COPY NOW!

Getting Ready For The Show!

admin — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 22:34:23 +0000

I’m packing the last of the new items in my inventory to leave next week for the Houston International Quilt Festival. I got a tremendous amount of inventory made and packaged up, but due to the press of homework, family life and getting ready for this show, the debut of our new book has been slightly delayed. I’ll be doing the final bits of editing when I get back, then I’ll provide the printers with the files by the end of November and the book will be out before Christmas!

I’m taking my camera with me and will be posting pics , and I’m excited to be doing this amazingly colorful show once again. I’ll be there with Spirit Dolls and Kits with hand dyed textiles and doll bodies, polymer clay and ceramic clay faces and beads, hand beads, tiles to be made into charms or buttons, gifts for quilters, and PolyMarket Press books! Do come and see me if you are at the show. I’m there under the “Creative Connections” name in booth 2052 in the Embellishments section, Nov.3-7.

Do That Homework!

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:22:54 +0000

and also turn it in–that’s what I tell my students, the people I tutor, my kids–other people’s kids–and I take my own advice. Don’t just be a wild child–do your homework first! I do it, and I turn it in on time. My husband is very amused by the fact that I often manage to sell my homework too; not by peddling blackmarket term papers (read a book and write your own!) but by selling things I make in my ceramics class. Or by taking an Adobe InDesign class and self-publishing the Spirit Doll Body Instructions and Pattern or the miniature polymer clay vanity set how-to I did as homework up using graphics created (you guessed it!) as homework in myAdobe Illustrator class. (The pattern and instructions will also be in the upcoming book Making Faces , Molds and Forms.) The fashion doll sized set of perfume bottles on a polymer clay tray you see here is made using the instructions now available from PolyMarket Press. Wouldn’t every Barbie lover want to make a set for their tiny boudoir? I’m going to make another set myself, since I’ve sold this one!But today’s homework involves work from my Open Source Coding class, in which we are currently studying building blogs (like…this one!) using WordPress.org. This PolyMarket Press blog is my effort, and my fellow students created blogs too. Its great to see what everyone chooses to talk about and how each has presented it using wordpress themes and modifications using css, html and php codes.

Emily’s blog not only has a beautiful banner at her These Blue Eyes blog, she also has some funny stories, like the one about the couple who brought their two parrots with them while doing some complex banking transactions. I’ve seen the kitchen of friends with parrots, and their cupboards were largely pecked away…good thing the birds at the bank only stayed a few messy hours!

Glo wrote an articulate post about some of the drawbacks of seeking web design as a full time position. She also gave a very concise review of basic html and css in class that was most helpful. Her blog, titled Tangerine Glo, utilizes colors that do just that!

Classmate Richard introduced us to the user-friendly and potential very useful Headway templates, and has some very valid concerns about the monetary issues our world is facing. If he’s right about a 1% transaction tax coming up, there will be a lot of unhappy people seeing their paychecks nibbled away–a percent to deposit, a percent each time you spend…those little nibbles add up! AS an entrepreneur, this is an issue important to me. I certainly don’t want to lose a percentage on my homework OR my sales! Time for more barters and trades, where creative people don’t need to involve banks.

Montana blogged about the impact of the fires–she lives in Boulder and the fires came way too close! It puts the importance of homework in perspective when you are dealing with fires that burn down neighborhoods and displace people.