This is where the artist within me goes — to an inner space, the visionary side of life when I am in my studio. Before I can even contemplate I find myself go into another world, closer to your my own soul and beautiful creations happen. The feeling of peace is as good as you feel when you are meditating. Yes, finding the truth about ourselves is unsettling, the Artist within me gives me confidence and a sense of purpose. And each day I express gratitude for all the glorious manifestations that start coming to life.

The connection to art excites your inner self and manifests your life in beautiful ways. I draw parallels with art to technology architecture. When you connect with your heart you do things that you love to do without worrying about the outcome. With practice, experience and playing with various options you learn best ways to create the most authentic pieces of art or architecture.

I can say that don't be scared of trying new mediums of art as there is no right or wrong here. The nature is so beautiful and it is full of imperfections. When you see flowers, trees, rocks, birds, butterflies, and colors around you, you do not see a perfect picture. We learnt to live with an imperfect world and that is what is beautiful. Let's get into what excited me to polymer clay and the creations you can make with this medium. Polymer clay is a man made modeling material made with gels, plasticizers, resin and all pretty colors. The colors can be mixed and that is why there is no limit to going wild with your creativity. A few years ago, I was helping my kids with their school projects and while looking for options, I was introduced to polymer clay. My first creation was building a DNA model, then I made some cute ice-cream cone minatures, followed by earrings and so on. I did not stop there because my kids and other family members were interested in seeing more. I made a bride, groom, Harry Potter, Hermaine and many other figurines.

Polymer clay opened up doors for me to innovate more. I was intrigued with cane making and this did open up a can of worms for me, but in a good way. I will talk more about what that is in a moment but before I went that path, I can assure you that starting with simple canes and combining them in unique ways will help you build the best "kaliedoscope" effects and you can make pretty snowflakes. It does require patience as you build up this art. You will be building the components first and then architect your way to design your pretty creations.

Here are some fun jewelry projects that are super easy to create.

My work is inspired by Carol Simmons, Polymer Clay and Instructor. Here is a sample master cane from her and snowflakes creations by me.

In the art blog series I will dig deeper in making components for jewelry and we will also draw parallel with data architecture. If interested please gather supplies that will be required for the project.

I recommend starting with a list of supplies:

Board(wooden/ceramic), acrylic roller, blade, ruler, craft knife, needle tool, toothpicks, straws, cookie cutters, textured sheets, sculpey III clay ( 36 pack starter kit), gold sheet/flakes, sculpey bake and bond glue, sculpey glaze, and pasta machine.

For making jewelry, I find that having these supplies handy helps

Pliers, wire cutter, beading needles, silk thread, waxed thread, leather cords and scissors. Chains, jump rings, rhinestones, eyepins, pendant mounts, metal beads, glass beads, findings, bugle beads, liquid gold, gold and silver flakes, hoops and metal wires(gold, silver, copper, rose gold)

I will be posting my next blog to go into the design aspects. See you later!