Inspiration

Where do you look for inspiration when making polymer clay beads? I look everywhere around me in the art and the colors I find in daily life, and I look inside to my own perceptions and memories, things I can recall seeing, things I look at again and again just because they please me. Colors of sunset or tropical waters, the black lines of trees in winter against blue skies, these things inspire what I do in my artwork. I also look to what other artists are doing, in the medium of polymer clay but also in glass, ceramic, fiber and metal.

Everything can become part of your mental stewpot, where imagination tumbles things around and lets you juxtapose images and tecniques and make links of inspiration, so that you can do things in ways you might not have done them previously.
Thats very different from merely copying someone else's style or application of a technique. Some artists are so good at what they do that all you have to do is look at the piece and you know its a "Klew" bead, or an entire necklace of them.

Her attention to color, positioning, and the minute details of careful construction are what set her beads apart from others who also put cane slices on clay. Karen Lewis (AKA Klew) has an online gallery of her work at http://klewexpressions.com/ and she graciously gave her permission to display the photos of her work here. She sells her beads around the world and is rightfully well known for her wonderful work.

All the polymer clay beads and baubles seen in this article were done by members of my guild who allowed me to take and use photographs of their work, and I thank them for sharing!

At right are earring made by Debbie Jackson, author of Polymer Clay Jewelry. Her carved lines are elegantly clean and though similar, these earrings are all slightly different, mysterious, and perfect for the techno-tribal look that remains popular and will always be reinvented in wonderful new ways, because these shapes and forms are simply appealing!
Visit Debbie's webpage at: http://www.colspolyclay.org/Debbiejackson.htm

I may use some of the same tools, the same clays, even the same techniques, but my work is never quite the same in its final appearance as the work my polymer friends are doing, even when we are working in the same room at our gatherings.

We share information about new tools, ways of using supplies, sources, and styles and yet we all follow our own internal vision of how to poke and prod the clay and what to add, or take away.

We try new things and some become part of the repetoire and some are merely for fun.

The support and the stimulation that we give to each other and the beauty of polymer clay itself are embodied for me in the magnificent necklace of "Rosemary's Babies" made by Rosemary Probst.

And, though they all share the inspiration of the female form, the polymer clay quilt cane Goddess Sculpture by Carolyn Potter and my own beaded Spirit Doll with a polymer clay face couldn't be more different--but they all are of the same polymer clay sisterhood! Take the inspirations you find around you and inside you and have a great time trying new ways and old ways with your clay. Winter time is a good opportunity to do creative things indoors and bring color into days that may otherwise be a little chilly!