Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy

www.designsbyginnybaker.etsy.com

Who inspires you?

Other artists mostly. When I see work that I greatly admire it challenges me to improve my own work. I mostly create hand sculpted dog art in an ever increasing variety of breeds, as well as bas relief that I refer to as clay illustrations. I occasionally also do whimsical figurines and seasonal items. I am mostly self taught as I could never find books that specifically helped me create the dog breeds I wanted to do, and have never found any sculpting classes/workshops nearby I could take. I learned through trial and error - lots of trials and lots of errors! I collect books by a few children’s book illustrators who illustrate with clay, and it is a dream of mine to one day illustrate a book with clay scenes myself.

What inspires you?

Like so many others, I am mainly inspired by nature and color. I was involved with breeding and showing dogs for many years, so creating dogs in clay was a natural choice for me. I am very inspired by watching dog shows and seeing beautifully groomed specimens of the various breeds. I can find something to love about each and every one of them. I can be inspired by a visit to the zoo, a walk through a garden, or looking through a children’s book with wonderfully vibrant illustrations. Of course the internet is a rich source of inspiration as well. Google’s image browser is a godsend when I need to see how to properly create a certain creature!

Where do you create?

I have a spare room dedicated to my artwork, with a big work table and storage for my tons of supplies, but more often than not, I still create on the dining room table. I sometimes feel too isolated being locked away in my upstairs room, and want to be downstairs in the middle of things. But when I’m in the mood, I do enjoy having my own dedicated space to create in where I can leave things spread out, and can listen to the music I love while I create.

How long have you been working with clay?

Well here I go dating myself, but I first worked with polymer clay way back in 1977 as a 17 year old kid. At that time, I received a 20 lb. box of the bulk white Sculpey as a Christmas gift from my Mom.  Not surprisingly, the first things I created were dog figurines. Some years later, I discovered Super Sculpey and I absolutely love sculpting with it, though painting it is another matter! But it blends so nicely when I want to do more realistic dog figurines. In the late ’80’s I discovered colored polymer clay and then there was no stopping me! I started doing craft shows while living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I worked for a time in the ’90’s as a craft designer and did a book for Design Originals on creating Christmas ornaments with polymer clay. I also had many projects published in craft magazines and other books. I worked with both AMACO and Polfyorm as a freelance designer, starting out with Polyform, then switching for a short time to AMACO, and then back to Polyform. I attended all the big trade shows for several years, and then that got too hard to do because of my kids, and school schedules, etc. so I stopped. The last project I had published was a Halloween bat candy jar for Polyform in 2005.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 8:37 am and is filed under Featured Member interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.