Exploring the "Under the Sea" theme

This month's theme for the Polymer Clay Artist Guild of Etsy challenge really seemed to resonate with the members. No matter what artistic style we lean toward, the sea speaks to all of us. Public voting is open through Aug. 7 at http://pcagoechallenge.blogspot.com/. If you vote you could win one of the prizes created by the member artists.

Personally, I am drawn to the legend of mermaids. Who can resist the perfect marriage of land and sea: a woman who is part human, part fish? This piece, which I call "Love at Sea," is one of my first attempts at polymer clay "painting." It is a combination of regular polymer clay and layers of liquid polymer. I have a tutorial in my Young Creative shop.

The illustration that forms the base for this piece is a black and white vintage drawing that has been in my inspiration file since college. I was working in an art library during grad school when I came upon it in an archive book of copyright free vintage images. I photocopied it, hoping to base my wedding invitations on it. Alas, the image was a little too creative for my family. Mom didn't want to send "a picture of a man pulling a naked woman into his boat" out to my aunts. It went into a folder for use "some day"

When challenge time came around, I knew I wanted to experiment with the liquid polymer painting technique so I started looking through my inspiration file, well, for some inspiration and this old gem seemed perfect.