Incredible Artists, Wonderful People: Bettina Welker

Happy New Year everyone! :) To kick off 2012 with great energy, and continuing with my monthly digest of inspiring artists, I have the honor of introducing to you the amazing and incredibly talented Bettina Welker! She is not only a wonderful polymer clay artist and great teacher, but also a graphic designer! :)

Her work is known, admired and respected all over the world!! Her pieces are fun, dynamic and perfect to wear any day and time! Her strong design skills are obvious in all her pieces, making them an instant fashion statement.

I had the opportunity to be her student at the European Clay Carnival and she is not only a very talented artist but a terrific teacher!

Her class was fun and highly creative! :)




Here is our interview:

Hi Bettina, when & how did you discovered Polymer Clay?

Actually I did know Polymer Clay (in the form of FIMO) when I was a kid, but money was short and I never got a chance to actually use it then.

In late 2003 I was looking for a material for making kitschy snow globes as a gift for Christmas and I stumbled over Polymer Clay again.

I was amazed over the possibilities this material had to offer - and looking at all these great pieces of jewelry made from pc that I found in the internet, I decided to skip the snow globe project and I did jewelry for Christmas.

And I didn't stop working with this amazing material ever since.

 

Would you mind sharing where does your  inspiration come from?

Oh, the big question:) I cannot really answer that - I guess if you walk through the world curiously with eyes open then inspiration can strike you at any moment.

You see a shape or a color or a pattern and your creative mojo just starts going. This can be everything for me - architecture, nature, paintings or just a walk through the hardware store ... And sometimes I sit down just to clay a little and it happens ...  even got new ideas just by cleaning up my studio;) 

How much of your art is influenced by your graphic design skills?

Well, I guess very much. When I was a design student I had to go through one year of Walter Gropius'  Bauhaus "boot camp" (http://bauhaus-online.de/en/atlas/das-bauhaus/lehre) where students receive a basic training in the properties of color, forms and material.

It was a tough year instructed by the very strict but genius Oskar Holweck, but I will be always grateful that my school offered this base training. So, as a trained graphic designer I'm equipped with a lot of knowledge about shape, spaces, color, composition and such. 

Color mixing and combining color comes easy to me. I never use color recipes to get a specific hue. I just start out with the base color and mix in other colors until I get what I want. 

The shapes and patterns in my jewelry are most of the time very geometric and I always try to feature the unique properties of polymer clay as an art material in my pieces.

Is there anything you would like to try in clay that you haven't explore yet?

Good question. I'm sure there is but I don't really have a plan. Well, from time to time I think about diving into sculpture a little bit more but I always get carried away by creating this new piece of jewelry that pops into my mind, you know? ...*g*

You can find her amazing work here:
http://www.beadworx.de
http://www.etsy.com/shop/beadworx
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beadworx/
http://www.craftartedu.com/polymer-clay/category-230?filterModel.searchKeyword=Welker

Thank you dear Bettina for your time and for sharing your wonderful art with us! :) I hope to be able to see you again real soon! 

Love, hugs and again Happy Wonderful New Year 2012!!!

xoxo

Adriana