Respectable Polymer Clay
Polymer clay has been around for quite awhile, but didn’t really start to rise in popularity until the 80′s and started being taken seriously as an artistic medium until the 90′s. I think it was difficult at first for the art world to know what to make of polymer clay. Polymer clay is made out of plastic (polymer polyvinyl chloride) and until artists started pushing out its boundaries and showing what it is capable of, outside of cutesy craft applications, it was hard to know what to make of it. One of the great things about it is accessibility – you don’t need a kiln or a torch and it can be relatively inexpensive to use.
Today, there are many amazing and respected polymer clay artists and also collections of polymer clay pieces in museums and galleries. I’d love to write about them all, but I was thinking about two people in particular who have been around since the beginning of the polymer clay resurgence: ford/forlano is the collaboration of Steve Ford and David Forlano. They do beautiful work and one of the things I appreciate about them is that they continually work on new ways of doing things and using materials.
Cane Earrings ford/forlano 1989
Big Bead Necklace 1996 ford/forlano
Flower Pin 2008 ford/forlano
ford/forlano: fordforlano.com
I’d wear any of the items shown. My nieces and I played with the clay a few years ago and made some interesting beads.