Focusing on the surface
When I discovered polymer clay in 1992, I was driven to learn everything I could. But my attention/intention changed when I attended Making History, the 2008 National Guild’s conference that was the brainchild of Steven Ford and that focused on applying techniques and approaches from other media to work with polymer clay.
At that conference that I found Tim Andrew’s book on raku and became fascinated with surface design. A few years later, at Donna Kato’s urging, I followed an article I’d written on my testing of inks and paints on polymer clay with my book on surface design techniques.
I still do surface design work, but now it’s in the service of many other fascinations.
Posted by Ellen Marshall, former president of the National Polymer Clay Guild