Polymer and Pamela come to Metalwerx

Polymer clay is becoming a serious medium and some remarkable developments have been happening in recent years. The well-known Racine Art Museum, which is home to one of the largest and most impressive contemporary craft collections in North America, established a permanent collection and hosted a special exhibition called Terra Nova: Polymer Art at the Crossroads, in 2011 which featured over 200 polymer works. The show focused on the advancement of this material as a noteworthy and innovative medium for art over the past few decades.

Pamela Cole, metal clay, glass and polymer artist/student/teacher, approached us about offering classes in polymer at Metalwerx. We were intrigued and wanted to know more. Here, she shares her story with us and the special pieces that mark the trail along her polymer journey:

It is very exciting to finally have my favorite medium acknowledged as a serious art form! I love to introduce people to all the possibilities of working with polymer, whether I’m teaching a class or wearing a piece that starts a conversation.

I embarked on the polymer adventure by purchasing a book, a pasta machine and some clay…and became very frustrated. The gap between the exotic creations I had seen in the Bead Museum and in the book and the crumbly mess I had created seemed impossible to bridge. Since this was in the days before Internet tutorials and the small town of Prescott, two hours north of Phoenix, didn’t have any classes, I gave up on polymer clay. Fortunately, I wasn’t discouraged enough to get rid of the book, clay and pasta machine.

In 2003, I moved to coastal Rhode Island and discovered The Bead House. A friend had told me that I might find something interesting there but I had no idea of the adventure that was about to unfold. Shortly after meeting the owner, Kim Otterbein, I discovered not only did they sell beads but she also taught classes—and one of the classes she taught was in making polymer clay beads. I told her of my frustration when I had tried to work with polymer before and she suggested a private lesson to get me started.

Pamela’s first polymer clay necklace!

The private lesson with Kim opened a door to all the possibilities in making beads. I learned some simple canes, how to shape different types of beads, how to condition the clay, blend colors and cure the clay in a toaster oven. I spent the next several months buying books on polymer clay and trying all the techniques, and the next several years taking classes with Kim and visiting polymer clay artists. These included some of the most well-known polymer artists: Tory Hughes, Sarah Shriver, Ronna Sarvas Weltman, Celie Fago, and Kathleen Dustin.

Over the past ten years my work has moved in many directions as I learned from others and experimented with my own artistic vision. While I like to create sculptural art jewelry pieces, I’m also a fashionista. When Kim shared how every time she bought a new outfit she immediately went to her studio to create jewelry to go with it, I knew that was what I wanted to do. Because you can create all the colors you want and all the shapes you need, it’s easy to create a perfect piece for the ‘look’ you imagine. So in the past few years, after going back to work in the corporate world fulltime, making fashion jewelry has been my focus. I used Kathleen Dustin’s beach rock techniques as the foundation of the series I’ve created. You can see them at www.pamelacole.com.

Because I am also a glass artist I find it is interesting to compare the different experiences between working in glass and working in polymer. Both are about color, shape and form but with polymer I actually get to touch the medium. There is something very satisfying, in a primitive way, about shaping a bead in the palm of my hands—it unites me with native peoples all over the world, my own ancestors.

If you would like to explore this exciting medium and the world of color it opens up, Pamela will be teaching two upcoming classes at Metalwerx. Add both color and texture to jewelry in our upcoming workshop Polymer Clay and Metal Clay, February 22 – 23. Students will study the essentials of working in silver metal clay and in polymer clay while learning a variety of methods for combining the two together in unique ways.

Our 4-week class starting in April, Beads and Bangles: The Art of Polymer, will focus on ways to mix colors for custom blends, achieve interesting effects with translucent and opaque color mixing, combine simple canes to make surface textures, and form a variety of different shaped beads!