Process: Shrinkets
A few years ago I met the delightful Julie Haymaker at a show. Well, actually what happened was that my friend came running into our booth saying, ‘You’ve got to go meet this woman, she is doing the most amazing things with shrink plastic, Go There Now!!!’. She said it like that, only more excitedly. I completely flipped when I met her and bought her entire shebang, including a set of pencils so I could go up to my hotel room and start coloring immediately.
Since then I have gotten to know Julie and am even teaching a class at her wonderful place in Tucson.
So what’s the big deal about Shrinkets?
Julie’s huge innovation was to design molds into which warm shrink plastic can be pressed in order to give the flat shape some dimension. She also has developed a proprietary line of plastic that has a very fine sanded surface, allowing for velvety rich color and fine detail when used with colored pencils.
It wasn’t until last year that I really got into the Shrinkets, and it has been a wild ride. Stuck at home, Julie, Gail Crosman Moore, and I decided to do lots of tutorials and kit projects for the Shrinkets community. With the three of us working together, and a very enthusiastic group on Facebook, the ideas starting flowing fast and furious.
The Shrinkets above are painted with alcohol inks and edged with Sharpie marker in contrasting colors. Beautiful with a pair of handmade paperclay hearts. That’s another material I look forward to talking about.
They’re lightweight, colorful, and catch the light like stained glass. What more could we want in an art material? Now I can make a bead to meet my needs in just a few minutes. Well, I could but I tend to spend some time on them.
Above, Full Bloom earrings with colored pencil Shrinkets. The colors intensify when shrunk, but once you get the hang of it, wow. These earrings make use of three different shapes. The transitions are eased by creating beadwoven caps and spacers.
Clearly, this is an inspiring material, and not just for jewelry.
The phrase ‘big Shrinket’ is not an oxymoron! I made lots of these fun decorative baubles and ended up designing several kits leading up to Christmas 2020. The blog contains several posts related to Shrinkets and baubles too.
Finally, I invite you to visit my profile on Jumprope.com, home to several tutorials, including how to paint Shrinkets with alcohol inks. Kim Van Antwerp on Jumprope.
