erudite er′yo̵̅o̅ dīt′adj
having or showing extensive scholarship; learned
[from Latin ērudītus, from ērudīre to polish, from ex-1 + rudis unpolished, rough]
The new Erudite Collection is a collection of rough hand-faceted polymer clay pieces fashioned into wearables. I was really inspired by Diane Hawkey's faceted ceramic nuggets that she sent me in the Bead Soup Party and before that time, I had already been contemplating a new ready to wear jewelry line that incorporated faceted pieces of some kind. I'm getting ready for Indie Craft Parade and I wanted to have a bunch of one of a kind affordable pieces on hand to sell there.
Part of my love affair with polymer clay is taking standard items like tribal fetishes, stones, netsuke and translating them into polymer clay. Polymer clay is such a versatile medium and I leave the mokume gane and canework and complicated things to the polymer clay masters. I am, by my own admission, not a polymer clay master. I couldn't make a cane to save my life and I don't really care to!
I use polymer clay as an extension of my creative process. I could be using any medium, so long as I achieve the aesthetic I set out to get. For me, I have developed a process which I like to follow. For polymer clay, it is sculpting, carving, painting, sanding, polishing.... It is focused and therapeutic to an extent. I use these same process over and over but often the work speaks to me and asks me to change.... Sometimes it asks me to stop and think and reexamine. Should you carve after you paint? Should you carve after the baking/firing?
I've come to realize that I'm very much a process oriented artist. I think that process art gets a bad name sometimes. Sometimes, people associate that those who make process oriented art do not care about its outcome. I think that is untrue. The outcome IS important to me and through the process, I reach this state, where the process is finished and the outcome is apparent. It is very similar to Wabi-Sabi. One accepts the impermanence of all creation or that this piece is finished for this maker.....
What is your aesthetic? How do you work?
The above pieces are currently available for purchase in the shop.
