Featured Artist - BDbear
From Willow Grove, Pennsylvania comes Barbara Poland-Waters of XO Candles and Clay.
Barbara first experimented with polymer clay back in the
mid-90s, but didn’t really enjoy working with it until
early 2004 when she learned how versatile the medium could
be. She started out trying one or two tutorials, covering
boxes and tins, and gradually went on to making beads and
other jewelry.
She says, “I find it to be a wonderful medium that allows for so much creativity because of the many different uses for it. It can mimic items like glass, wood, gemstones and more. You can finish it with a glaze or sand and buff it until shiny. “Barbara makes beautiful polymer clay handles for silverware as in the picture on the right.
She took a hiatus from claying in 2007, due to her pregnancy and caring for a newborn, but now tries to get in some claying time each day in spite of her duties as
SAHM to her 18 month-old. She currently focuses on making mosaic and letter tiles, which she creates with all different textures and various coloring materials and tops
off with Kato liquid for a glass-like shine.
She hopes to branch out into other projects as soon as her son lets her play with clay for more than 15 minutes at a time. Barbara has a great collection of letter tiles for scrapbooking (just one way they can be used) in her Etsy store.
From her feedback: “Thank you so much! They are perfect! Exquisitely crafted, fine attention to detail, lovely colour transitions. I love the silvery sheen too. My daughter will love them–I want my own set now too!”
March 14th, 2009 at 1:15 am
Lovely interview and very interesting, I love the silverwear and the scrapbooking letter are fantastic!