Mary:  The Internet.  When I first got online, in 1994, I landed in Usenet and signed up for every rec.crafts group there was.  I had never heard of polymer clay but I read the group anyway, and gradually I started to learn about the material.  I found a used copy of The New Clay shortly thereafter, and that really opened my eyes to the possibilities.  I got a little hunk of blue FIMO and began to play. It's been an on-again, off-again hobby until this last encounter, which began two years ago and seems to be entirely on-again..

Marty:  Who has been your biggest influence in your life and your clay?

Mary:  In my life: my parents, and the children's author Daniel Pinkwater, my childhood hero who became a friend. In clay: among the strongest influences are Susan Hyde, Jody Bishel, Pier Voulkos, and Kathleen Dustin.

Marty:  What is your most favorite clay method or process?

Mary:  No fair!  My favorite thing about polymer clay is that there's always something completely new to explore.  It keeps me interested as no other medium ever has.

That said, I love to cover objects in clay -- I seldom make beads or jewelry.  Of surface techniques, I particularly love Jody Bishel's Crush Helix technique, and have developed several variations.  Lately I am enraptured by Kathleen Dustin's layering techniques.

I have had lots of fun with various types of Mokume Gane, ripple-blade, and mica shift techniques.  I love Susan Hyde's fabric techniques.  I like processes where precision isn't important (so, not conventional caning.)  My idea of a good time is to feed colors into the pasta machine, follow a series of steps, and have a beautiful pattern emerge. 

I have developed a technique for applying tiny holeless beads to clay, which will be my second article for Expressions.

Marty:  What tools are you most favorite?

Mary:  Of late, I have grown very fond of my dental scraping tools.  I have a large collection of brass stencils.  I love the ripple blade

I also make a two-bladed strip cutter that is always close at hand.  You know that saying "When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"?  When I have this strip cutter, everything looks like it would be better off cut into strips. A lot of the techniques I use involve cutting strips or squares to stack into a loaf, and the strip cutter helps me to eliminate ragged edges and waste.

[Note: Mary sells these strip cutters. I have one and love it. Contact her via email for pricing]

Marty: Electric or manual pasta machine for your production work?

Mary:  I don't have a pasta machine motor and will do without one as long as I can because I don't like the noise.

Marty:  How you do decide on your colors?    Theory or just what you like?

Mary:  A combination of both.  My taste runs so strongly to rich, cool tones and harvest colors that my sister snickers because every item in my wardrobe matches every other item.  So if I stick with colors I like, I don't have much problem.  However, I do apply color theory when I step out of my comfort zone.  I particularly love the vibrancy in juxtaposing a vivid jewel color with a muted but luxurious complementary (like purple and gold, ultramarine and rust, ruby and olive.)  I used to do most of my work with colors straight out of the package, but at Kathleen Dustin's demo for the Lone Star Retreat, my mind was blown by a little pile of scrap metallics she had mixed into custom colors.  Since then I've been muting my colors more, and I think the results are considerably more sophisticated.

I also love it when people choose their own palettes for custom work, because I get to play with combinations that would never have occurred to me.  My sister asked for a purse in sweet potato orange with fuscia beads, a friend expressed a preference for "dusky rose."  It's great fun figuring out how to mix these colors in the first place and what to put with them.

Marty:  Are there any Tip and Tricks you might want to share with the readers?

Mary:   I use about ten different grits of wet sandpaper from 320 to 2000.  My life has gotten simpler since I started cutting each sheet into small pieces and then making "sanding packs" that include small swatches of each grit (two of 320) stacked in order and fastened with a paper clip.  Instead of pulling out every package when I want to sand, now I just reach in the drawer and grab a fresh pack.

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