If you know Bettina Welker’s artwork you might notice that she really likes the “engineering “ part of putting polymer clay jewelry pieces together without using too many pre-made findings or clasps. “I love to make it all from polymer. I always have a lot of fun coming up with useful connections and clasp solutions for my polymer work,” says Bettina.
This bracelet is no exception. We were so amazed by this recent artwork that we had to ask Bettina about it and share that with you!
“The individual elements are connected by small polymer rods that work as hinges and that are also part of the clasp,” she explains. When cleaning out an old jewelry box at her mom’s house, Bettina saw an old cheap bracelet that had this type of connection between the links. “I was wondering if it was possible to translate this into polymer. It obviously worked.”
Bettina shares her design idea in a tutorial on Etsy that you can purchase and create your own. Her tutorials are well-known in the world of polymer and even though creating tutorials can take a lot of time, in this case several days, it’s truly worth it as many fans of Bettina’s work love to learn her techniques and construction ideas.
With the situation we are in for two years already, Bettina also found herself in a strange mood. “I was in kind of a creative limbo for a good while - no inspiration, no focus, no ideas,” she says and is truly looking forward to the time we will be able to travel again. “I really don’t want to dive into the zoom world. Of course it helped a lot over the last two years but it’s just not the same. I need my students in the room, I need personal contact. Students should have the opportunity to come to me and ask questions and solve problems during a workshop, which is way easier in person than on a screen. It’s also not so easy to teach a class while dealing with the software all the time,” shares Bettina her feelings and we could not agree more. Let’s hope we will be able to meet with many of you during polymer clay classes soon!
