Archive for the 'Dustin' Category

All About: MIPCES

Elise asked me to lead a small team of volunteers to research and write about gatherings that influenced the development of polymer as an art medium. This is the first of these posts and we hope to follow up with more. Special thanks to Nancy Travers who organized all the materials about MIPCES.

Masters’ Invitational Polymer […]

The Early Development of Polymer Clay Bead-Making: Part Four

This is Part Four of the speech delivered at Synergy: the 2008 National Polymer Clay Guild Conference held in Baltimore, Maryland in February 2008.  The entire speech will be publish in serial form in five parts on Polymer Art Archive .

In the Washington, D.C., area also in 1986, where I was working as a ceramic artist, I […]

The Early Development of Polymer Clay Bead-Making: Part One

This is Part One of the speech delivered at Synergy: the 2008 National Polymer Clay Guild Conference held in Baltimore, Maryland last week.  The entire speech will be publish on Polymer Art Archive in serial form.
Polymer clay developed initially for making dolls and puppets but it wasn’t until it was embraced as a bead and […]

A Look into Translucent Layering

I first became intrigued by the particular characteristics of translucent polymer in 1989 when I made two goblet forms entitled “Angel’s Goblets.” I layered it very thinly with some opaque millefiore intending to let light pass through it in order to see patterns layered over other patterns. I did not continue exploring this whole idea, […]

Paying Close Attention

This image, stunning for its deceptive simplicity, provides unusual insight into the development of polymer artistry. Shown are the 12 beads Pier Voulkos brought to exhibit and sell at the 1995 International Bead conference in Washington D.C. Those who know Pier’s work well will recognize that these beads both mapped her past work and forecast her future. […]

Beadazzled Show in Washington, DC

I was certainly bedazzled to see the this show at Beadazzled in Washington, DC in 1990. It was the first time I had ever seen the work of Pier Voulkos, Sarah Shriver, Grove & Grove and City Zen Cane in person.
The show was displayed in the back room of the store’s original location on Dupont […]

Food and Fimo

I became interested in polymer clay in 1988, when a number of things serendipitously led me to take a workshop from Kathleen Dustin. At the time I had a large vegetable/herb garden and was experimenting with different colored inlays of herbs and vegetable purees into handcrafted pasta. One day I’d been tempted to buy FIMO […]