The first time I was playing with polymer clay was more than 20 years ago. I was making things that today I wouldn’t even think of making but at that time I was very happy that I was able to make anything out of material that was completely new to me.
Mostly I was making simple shapes and then attaching little flowers, leaves and other forms to them. I did not give much thought to the design as I was not being to serious about it – those things were selling and that was about all that counted to me. I mean, in a way those pieces were pretty but they had nothing to do with my style. The funny thing is I did not even think I actually could make something I would really like. It was a new medium, you did not see many things made out of it and the ones you actually did were mostly made in similar style.
Now, it is important to mention that I lived in Poland and there was no Internet at that time – in some other places people were making really cool things but I found them out only much later. When, quite accidentally, I laid my hands on polymer clay again things were looking different.
I knew much more of the medium, I got to know some beautiful works made by some great polymer clay artists and I could start looking for my own path (which I am still doing). This time there is no sculpted flowers, no ornaments – I still prefer simple shapes but now I make them interesting with color and texture rather than with fancy ornaments.
I am making pieces that are unique and one of a kind. I am 100% independent, which means everything that has to do with my artwork, even very remotely, I am doing myself. But if I could afford it, I would be happy to hire somebody to help me out with the things that need to be done and in fact have nothing to do with creating my pieces. That would leave me much more time and energy for the creative work – that would also make me look more like a business. Would it be bad? I don’t think so.
Would it make my pieces less valuable? I don’t think so either.
I love experiments so I am working on my own versions of techniques that I think most interesting, like mokume gane, imprinting or mica shift for example. I find inspiration pretty much everywhere: in the books I read, movies I see, places I visit, works of artist I admire… For the rest I follow my intuition – I make things that I feel like making and making which is keeping me happy.
First – after some serious sketching I got the general idea. I wanted the necklace to be rich and have a very strong winter feel. The title I have for it – ‘Queen of Ice’ – is saying everything about what I want the necklace to be.
So, this is when my architectural background (together with the CAD applications that I still have installed on my PC) is coming in very handy. Since the beads are not going to be round, I want to figure out their shapes so that the overall layout is flowing. Here is the computer work at a few stages:
I was quite satisfied with what I got, so I printed out the layout in the actual size, cut out the paper beads and put them together on the table.
The next step was cutting out the forms for the beads – I like to have paper forms with windows in which I can see the pattern I will have on the bead. To me it is quite essential to have a great control over the pattern, especially when it comes to some special pieces, like this one.
Sandra Kemppainen, Jagna Birecka, photos by Jagna Birecka
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