Studio Saturday: Cindy's Box of Inspiration and Creativity

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

Last week's winner is Tabby of Crooked Heart Art! Congratulations! You have won one of Lynn's "Make Art" pieces! Send Lynn an email and she will get it right out to you.

Welcome to the Studio of Cindy Gimbrone!



Every winter, I complain about my unheated studio and how I make more jewelry in the winter time.

This year however, I needed to keep my hands at work and making jewelry just wasn't enough for me. I'm a beadmaker and I had to make beads. After experimenting with bronze clay and moldmaking this past summer, my hands were urging me to try a new medium and one I could manipulate with my 10 digits.



You probably didn't know I have a stash of polymer clay. I've had it for years and add to it every now and then. Sometimes I use it to try to work out a prototype bead rather than draw it. Until now, I've never dove head first into creating with it.

But the box of polymer clay started to call me from under my bed where it's been sitting. Like Pandora's Box, I had to open it. Pandora's Box unleashed the troubles of the world, but this box unleashed a sea of creativity. When I opened my box of stashed polymer clay, I really opened a box of inspiration and creativity.

I started warming and rolling out the clay eager to make beads. But what would I make? I wasn't sure and just went with the flow.

First out of the box was Grunge Beads....


Then there was the Steampunk styling of "Flying Ace".....


Followed by the Victorian Garden Bee Skep...



I'm partial to the bronze color of the gold polymer and the faux ivory. I like the quickness of the curing compared to glass (hours of kiln annealing). There's something deeply satisfying about touching the medium directly.

I'm thrilled at the beads I've made so far. So, rather than calling it my stash of polymer clay, I'm referring to it hereafter as, "Cindy's Box of Inspiration and Creativity!"

Maybe not.

Sounds a little self important yet my little box of polymer clay has been a source of inspiration during a cold winter and has kept my spirits high. Seems like it should have an appropriate label, don't you?

Do have your own box of inspiration and creativity waiting for you? Do you have a stash that you haven't quite tapped into yet? Share your story by leaving a comment and you will be entered to win the Faux Bois Noir Pendant.