Member Interview - Ovenfriedbeads
Who inspires you?
My mom is my biggest inspiration. She has been through some tough times in the past few years, and she has overcome a lot with her positive attitude intact. When I need advice, she knows exactly the right thing to say. She is also my biggest fan. My friend Heather Zimmerman inspires me, as we have wonderful, fun discussions about art and craft, and her own work is very, very beautiful. My beau John is also an artist, and his viewpoints on construction and technique are very valuable to me. I know and work with many creative women and men who all support me and my work. The above three were the first to pop into my head.
What inspires you?
Nature in miniature….snails, flowers, pebbles, bark, tiny mushrooms, veins in leaves, insects, even diatoms, unicellular organisms and slide images of cells and soft tissue…..all of these types of items stir up my creative juices, even if they’re not directly represented in an obvious way. Textile patterns also have a heavy influence, especially when it comes to color combinations. I am also inspired by ‘chance’…..not knowing what will appear when I slice a loaf of scraps, and seeing lots of different pictures emerge.
Where do you create?
My art studio is part of my apartment, which is in downtown Cincinnati. It’s a large room, roughly 15′x17′. It is dedicated only to making art and storing supplies. (Most ‘normal’ people would make it a living room…not me.) The building I live in was built in 1875, and apparently has housed a list of artists and creative people, so the ‘vibe’ is very arty. I am about 50% organized, so it’s always in a state of ‘getting cleaned up’. I have a table that is used for clay and taking photographs, a table for drilling, and a table for assembling jewelry and gluing button shanks to my polymer clay buttons. Most surfaces also collect junk. I’m a packrat for found objects. I also collect a lot of quilt cottons, as I’m an occasional quilter too. Plus I draw, paint, collage, Shrinky-dink, etc, so there are lots more options for creativity than just polymer clay.
How long have you been working with polymer clay?
I created my first polymer clay working surface out of a tv-tray, packing tape and a marble rolling pin in June of 1995, so that would make it almost 13 years. I’ve worked with it consistently the whole time. I live alone and have no children, so I am very very productive and create a lot of work with it.