The best polymer clay designs come from being inspired and influenced beyond a technique.  Techniques are the language, the words and sentence structure that we speak as polymer clay artists.  True poetry comes from expressing something beyond a jumble of words. 

I encourage you to find something you love, whether it’s a painter, a movement in art history, a design period, something in nature or science and translate that passion in your life into polymer clay.  Don’t merely copy a technique this weekend, but use a technique to create an object, a bead, a piece of jewelry, that tells the world a little something about yourself. 

Art is not magical, anyone can create something that is unqiuely theirs.  I believe in your artistic vision and I hope you spend some time exploring it this weekend.  You are an artist, everyone is an artist.

My current inspiration is Art Nouveau.  I love the linear, asymmetrical designs of flowers and plants.  I appreciate that the artists of the day were tired of industry and the mass production of the turn of the century.  They found beauty in nature rather than machine.  In today’s world I think designers and artists long for the same connection to the natural world.  This is why I’m currently influenced by this time period. 

(Click on the photo to see the images up close and for the photo credits.)

[tags]polymer clay, art, inspiration, expression, design, art nouveau, art history, artists[/tags]