My Art Jewelry Magazine Polymer Clay Article from 2012: A Creative Throwback

My Art Jewelry Magazine Polymer Clay Article from 2012: A Creative Throwback

Every once in a while something surfaces in my studio that makes me take a pause – in the best way.
This week it was a copy of Art Jewelry Magazine from May 2012, and inside there was a project I wrote all those years ago.

The article was called “A Fresh Take on Polymer Bead Construction,” and it featured these long tubular beads with recessed grommets that mimic the look of a metal core (the premade cores were all the rage back then but I decided to create my very own version).  If you’d like to see the original magazine layout, you can view the archived low-resolution PDF here.
I even found the actual necklaces I made for the issue — a full circle moment!
Back then, I had to mail the actual necklaces to the magazine so they could take the photos, and when it was sent back to me, I had to pay duties to get my own jewelry back! (I was reimbursed lol.)

It’s wild to think that I’ve been making jewelry for about 40 years now. Not continuously, and certainly not full time, but always in some form. When I was still in college studying fashion design, I made jewelry from leather leftovers.  Then  polymer clay showed up  for me (through my foray into making art dolls.)  Once I saw its possibilities,  I knew I’d found a material I could push and experiment with endlessly.

Seeing this article again reminded me of a time when everything felt brand new — when I didn’t overthink anything, and if an idea popped into my head, I just… went for it.
I submitted projects to magazines and of all the ones I was in, Art Jewelry felt like my biggest win.
I tried techniques I had no business trying. I was fearless in a way that only my younger self could be.

And I miss that sometimes.
But finding this brought a little of that spark back and do you know what’s the most interesting about all this?
It’s the fact that only a few days ago, I made the decision to start looking into what creative magazines are currently out there because I really miss sharing my ideas in print.
I’ll confess that I’m a bit out of the loop so if you know of any publications with the right vibe that I should investigate,  please message me and let me know.  I’d really appreciate it.

Art Jewely magazine itself is no longer around (which is such a loss — it was a fantastic publication, but the techniques still hold up and seeing the project again still makes me smile.

If this little throwback inspires you — maybe to try a new technique, maybe to revisit an old idea — then mission accomplished.
Creativity has such a long memory, especially when you’re given an old piece of it to hold and remember where you started.

Thanks for walking down memory lane with me.

If you’re curious, the earrings and the focal piece below were created using the CaBezel mold ” Frame It”
The necklace andearrings on the right were made using “Get To The Point” CaBezel mold.