Polyfacets.com is the Blog of multimedia craft fiddler and painter, Jill Bonner.

I enjoy using  different styles and techniques; my influences range from Peter Blake’s Pop Art album covers to anicient Celtic knots and medieval stained glass.
I briefly went to college to study glass and I still love painting mirrors and making light reflective objects.

Previous work has included watercolour, oils, illustration, sculpting, moldmaking and casting.

The ivy leaves are holographic film, with the edges and stalks in Tulip paint.

I love animals, particularly dogs. I used to take commissions for pet portraits and architectural studies.

I enjoy working in multimedia. You can add depth and silliness at the same time.

 

I do love a bit of tomfoolery with salt pastry.

I’ve painted loads of robins but I don’t celebrate Christmas.

Some thoughts should remain as thoughts, and never become paintings. This is not my Utopian dream, honestly.

This is a technique blending a watercolour painting with scans of ripped and crumpled tissue paper. The tissue is tinted with washes of colours from the painting.

I got really into Fimo, while I was recovering from my first back surgery in 1998. The frog came first, then the mad cow chess set.

I made the board a couple of years later – it’s been my only attempt at veneering and it’s ok but far from perfect. I’m rubbish at chess.

 

I like to draw skinny line cartoons and paint them with watercolour.

This was the first piece I made in Adobe illustrator, for a screen print. The original is a watercolour.

This frame is cast in reinforced plaster, from a mold. There’s a dolphin version, too. Each one takes about 80 hours to make and finish – all  of the paints and lacquers are hand made.

I enjoy a bit of still life photography. Sweeties and flowers give wonderful shapes and colours to work with.

 

 

 This is a painting of my partner John. The workshop is imagined.

In 2011 we started a business together making “Names In Lights”. Who could have guessed that making bespoke electrical items would be too ambitious?

 I redeveloped the letters as individuals to stand in water, for some further adventures in still life photography. The smaller letters and other props are ultraviolet reactive.

A couple of years ago, I was playing around with the idea of making fairy light shades by folding them up out of mirror card; the idea being that you could take a cheap string of led fairy lights and make them into something a bit more special.

This is how I came to make the mask plans (and various designs for DIY lights made from printer card). I found writing the instructions a tough task and I genuinely don’t think many people have the patience. Let me know if you would like a copy of one of the mask plans.

I’m currently working on what I’m calling lightscapes, where I’m taking my Names In Lights style images, developing them into something much more intriguing and using the techniques to create video, too.