Just Play!

I was catching up on my emails today and I had received an offer from one of my craft magazines for a book on polymer clay. While I have seen some interesting projects done with polymer clay, I haven't been overly inspired to work with it. This book, though, really piqued my interest in wanting to go buy a bit of polymer clay. I was also very interested in the book. The woman who wrote the book (Patterns in Polymer, by Julie Picarello, ISBN: 9780871164094) had some fascinating designs and techniques that had me entranced by the detail, color and composition of her pieces and not seeing them as just another item made out of polymer clay. I may still buy her book, but I want to attempt to do as Ms. Picarello did.... find my technique and 'voice' in the material. I do not want to copy what another artist has done, but rather learn their technique and make it my own or incorporate it into my repertoire of skills and knowledge. For now, I think I will just play....or as Nike says, 'Just Do It'. I think that in this play or time of experimentation, I will see what it is that I can do and what more I would like to learn of the material. It will be then that I think I will be ready to seek out the instruction of Ms. Picarello's book and build on my own experience. I have some plans to block out time to not only play with polymer clay, but to also play with some other materials and techniques (particularly resin and soldering) and see what I come up with. I will definitely post my results.