How I Became a Metal Clay Artist
My mother tells a story of how I as a child just loved to roll tiny balls of playdough in my fingers - sometimes she could even find me in my bed fallen asleep with my precious playdough pressed tight in my hands.
Later on as a pre-teen I remember crafting a series of earrings for my mother of colourful plastic foam sheets which were a novelty at the local crafts store at the time. It felt exhilarating and new ideas just flowed in. Then the ceramics came along. I attended a ceramics workshop as a teenager and oh, how I loved the material. To be able to form clay from ideas into solid three-dimensional objects, it was fantastic and new to me. I continued at the workshop for years creating pottery and sculptures of different forms and sizes.
Then came a period when I didn't have anything to do with ceramics. But I longed for it from time to time and leafed through some course catalogues. But there never seemed to be a suitable time. Until a few years back when I decided I wanted to take a summer course on ceramics. I went online and searched for suitable courses. I didn't find any great ones but instead found a course for silver clay. Suddenly I remembered reading about it earlier and after giving it a bit of thought I enrolled to a weekend course.
And there it was, the incredible medium I had been waiting for years, this magic compound which could be formed like clay but turned into pure fine silver after a visit to the kiln. I was amazed and thrilled. I had to quickly learn more and before I even realized it I had enrolled myself to an Art Clay Silver Instructor course. I wanted to learn things beyond the basics and to learn them well. The course was excellent and led me to a path of continuous exploration.
What is perfect with this medium is that you always seem to be able to learn more, experiment and find new ways to work with the clay. To challenge yourself with complicated three dimensional forms and to make valuable unique pieces for yourself and others to wear. I seem to never grow tired to working with metal clay - and I really hope that I won't either.
