Interview with Jill Newman By Elissa Powell

Click on images for larger picture Jill and cat Babe	About eight months ago, I began the adventure of selling my hearts at a popular online jewelry auction site, JustBeads.com. It was there that I discovered the exquisite work of Jill Newman, also known as "Tatercat" (she actually has a cat named "Tater") in auction circles. There is a unique quality to her work, as if it were a product of a separate evolution. Actually, my impression is not far from the truth!
	Jill and her husband, Kevin, live in Portsmouth, a sparsely populated rural area in southern Ohio, with an assortment of felines currently numbering an even dozen (her fascination with cats is apparent in many of her creations!) A few years after leaving high school, Jill went to work as a graphic designer for a large shoelace manufacturer, where she worked for over ten years. During that period, she made Victorian-style decoupage plates, which she sold in a local gallery. Her work sold so well that she was able to quit her job to turn her art into a full-time career.
	Then fate stepped in. An auto accident in 1996 caused a severe whiplash injury. After a three-year rehabilitation period during which she created very little, Jill began decoupage again, selling her works at the same gallery, but found that she was no longer able to spend long periods hunched over her work. So began a search for a new creative outlet. It was not long before she discovered those colorful little packets of polymer clay at a local crafts store. She made a few pins, which when placed in the gallery sold almost immediately!
	Six months of continuous production and steady sales, and Jill began to tire of the high commissions that she had to pay to the gallery. She considered the internet as a way to reach a larger market on her own. Then, while thumbing through Jewelry Crafts magazine, she discovered an advertisement for the jewelry auction site JustBeads.com, and, as Jill says, "the rest is history!"
	Jill's work is the product of an endless process of experimentation and discovery. She credits the uniqueness of her style to her deliberate avoidance of influence of other polymer clay artists. "There is a conscious effort to not let myself be influenced …I don't care to have all the polymer manuals that explain this or that…I want to discover on my own," Jill says. "That way, while my work may at times resemble some technique that you have seen before, there is probably some twist or turn in the process that makes it unique because I taught myself."
	Upon closer examination of Jill's work, its independent evolution is clearly evident. Each of her techniques is refined and perfected. From the intricate patterns in her mokume gane, the precision of her staining techniques in her sculpted work, to the treatment of shading and line in her "sketches" series, there is that uniqueness. "I don't feel that what I do is so complicated," says Jill. "I just do my own thing. It all seems simple to me." Hard to believe that Jill has been working with polymer clay for only two years!
	Jill's creativity has been challenged lately. In its remote forest location, her home with husband Kevin fell victim to flooding, and runoff water caused severe damage. As the family endures extensive repairs and renovation, Jill's workspace consists of a card table set up in her living room/disaster zone, with boxes of supplies stacked against a wall. A fully equipped upstairs studio is in the renovation plan, but for now, she "makes do." For Jill, creativity appears to flow unimpeded, regardless of circumstances.
	Jill avoids answering specific questions regarding her techniques, explaining, "Since I work so hard giving my customers one-of-a-kind items, I think I would be cheating them to give out my info." True to her word, Jill's work is truly one of a kind. She does not discount the value of learning and sharing via books, videos, workshops, and online tutorials, but says, "Don't be afraid to experiment. You know… you're making something, and that leads to an idea, and that leads to something better than what you started to make." Regarding mistakes: "Most people seem afraid to blow clay to learn…those people that never make mistakes sure are missing out."
	The one lesson that Jill would seem the most qualified to teach: "It would do people good to isolate themselves from outside influences once in a while, to see what they could come up with. I think they'd be surprised!"
	To see a gallery of Jill's work, go to Tatercat. To see Jill's current auctions, go to JustBeads.