She knew that part of the immersion process should involve being with other artists, especially since she was no longer working and bumping up against other creative forces. So she joined the Greater Los Angeles Polymer Clay Guild, learned from guild demos, and continued taking classes from polymer clay artists she admired. 

The rewards have been great, and instantaneous. “I am so instant gratification now,” Michelle said, explaining that neither watercolors nor ceramics were able to provide her that gut reaction. “And that’s a big thing for me.  I like teaching polymer clay because some newbie person who has never touched clay can create a project and be successful in just a matter of hours.  You can watch them feeling really good about themselves.”

She ruefully noted that she also has a “short attention span,” so “polymer clay is absolutely perfect for me. If it’s not happening with one technique, I can take my mica powders or alcohol inks and do something else with it. How can you ever get bored?” she queried.

She numbers herself among the fans of employing alcohol inks in any number of ways with polymer clay, saying she used them to “paint” in one of the first polymer clay projects she demonstrated on “The Carol Duvall Show.”

“When I discovered that I could paint on clay with alcohol inks, I almost broke down and cried,” she said. “It looked so much like watercolor, and I had not painted with watercolor in years because I was so sad when my mom died.  But painting with alcohol inks on clay was almost like being reborn.  I was incredibly happy that I had found myself again.”

One of the characteristics of a Michelle Ross polymer clay work of art often is texture, which she invariably uses in making boxes, many of which boast an Asian theme and her transfer technique. ”I’ve always been excited by texture. In my ceramics, it played a very big part.  And I love colors; rich warm golds, orange reds, green next to purple.  I don’t love the purple-blue thing, but I like warm dark eggplant purples.” All of which is understandable when you know it was said by a woman with flaming red hair. 

Much of her time in recent years has been spent pitching ideas and preparing for her several appearances a year on “The Carol Duvall Show.”  Not many people realize how much tedious prep work goes into those 5-10 minute show segments. “So much time goes into preparing for a show. Every season, the producer calls up and says that you have to submit three new ideas at least, so your mind is constantly trying to come up with new ideas to show them,” she said.

Each one of those ideas has to be worked out and presented in finished form for a pitch meeting. “So you have to work the bugs out and make enough of them so there is a gallery showing for the opening of the show.  And you must write the resource guide and project instructions for the website. Then, you have to make the step-outs. This usually takes several days because my projects always seem to end up fairly complicated.  I don’t know how to do simple,” she laughed.

Step-outs are the partially completed parts of a project that guests point to or briefly manipulate during their show appearances, since there is no time to actually make the entire project during one or two show segments. In the event of accident and a step-out is ruined, the show requires three sets of step-outs for every project. “That’s an enormous amount of work,” said Michelle.

Last year, she appeared on the DIY channel’s new “Jewelry Making” show, but Michelle has decided to concentrate on new areas with the end of “Carol Duvall Show,” specifically writing for magazines and beginning to work with silver clay. “I knew about PMC when it first came to America,” she remembered, “but at the time I didn’t really see how it applied to me.  It was expensive and I didn’t know how I could afford it.  Now I am wondering how I can incorporate this new material with my polymer clay.”

She also has a new website up – www.polymerclayplay.com -- with all of her television show projects, as well as a gallery of her work. “People can email me there and I am happy to answer any questions they have,” she said.

Meanwhile, Michelle Ross plans to continue to react to what life presents her. “I’ve never lived my life with a particular vision of the future or a long-distance plan. I just go with whatever comes up for me at the moment, if it feels right,” she says…. “Hah, it wasn’t even my idea to write this article; it was your idea, Cassy.”