Archive for the 'Roche' Category

Courting the Muse

Courting the Muse: Enhancing Creativity and Artistry in Polymer Clay
In 2001, the National Polymer Clay Guild sponsored it’s second conference in Bryn Mawr, PA.  Courting The Muse was a week long conference filled with classes taught by polymer clay masters, thought-provoking and inspiring evening lectures, creativity seminars, and a retrospective exhibit entitled Illuminating a Medium, [...]

MIPCES Exhibition: It’s a Wrap

Six remaining artists participated in the MIPCES exhibition. If you are a new visitor to Polymer Art Archive, you can find background about this event in the 2 posts, Past, Present Future and All About MIPCES.

Nan Roche, CUP, 2” x 3” x 2”

All About: MIPCES

Elise asked me to lead a small team of volunteers to research and write about gatherings that influenced the development of polymer as an art medium. This is the first of these posts and we hope to follow up with more. Special thanks to Nancy Travers who organized all the materials about MIPCES.

Masters’ Invitational Polymer [...]

The Early Development of Polymer Clay Bead-Making: Part Five

In 1987, at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in the Washington, D.C. area, I taught my first workshop on polymer bead-making based on the simple techniques I had developed.  On the advice of an artist colleague, I submitted a short article to Ornament magazine.  Published in 1988, my article was entitled “The Use of Polyform [...]

Paying Close Attention

This image, stunning for its deceptive simplicity, provides unusual insight into the development of polymer artistry. Shown are the 12 beads Pier Voulkos brought to exhibit and sell at the 1995 International Bead conference in Washington D.C. Those who know Pier’s work well will recognize that these beads both mapped her past work and forecast her future. [...]

Polymer blossoms, seeded by Flower Valley Press

Many acknowledge Nan Roche and her book, The New Clay, as the source and the early inspiration for the explosion of information about polymer and its growth as a medium for artistry. 
 
But how many realize that this could never have happened without the support and vision of Seymour Bress, founder of Flower Valley Press.  In [...]

A Name You May Not Know

On this blog I suspect there will be some kind words said about me as the person who — by hook or by crook or by waving a magic wand – cajoled some naïve publisher into printing The New Clay at a time when almost nobody in America could identify the meaning of the phrase, “polymer [...]