“Polymer clay is, for me, the synthesis of all the arts that I love. It is my corner of happiness, silence, and meditation,” says a self-taught polymer artist and musician, Cecilia Leonini. We can definitely characterize her artwork by vivid colors and their eye-catching combinations.
A pianist by occupation, her encounter with polymer clay happened by chance in 2013. Since then, Cecilia has worked with the material and mixed techniques every free moment in search of new colors, shapes, styles, and techniques. She learned to work with polymer clay entirely by experimenting, desired to express an idea and give it shape, content, and sense through various surfaces and structures.
Born and living in Italy, Cecilia is greatly influenced by the Tuscany countryside surrounded by greenery. She is also inspired by the works of great painters, especially impressionists and expressionists, and nature. Also, her approach to polymer clay has been heavily influenced by music.
For Cecilia, music and polymer creation have several aspects in common, such as harmony, balance, shape, completeness, and beauty. "I also add the tactile pleasure of working with my hands. I felt the same vibrations in polymer clay and my instrument," Cecilia says.
“For me, color is a life, and I love life,” she states, enjoying chromatic contrasts, bright and lively colors, and crescendos of chromatic intensity that are gradual and powerful, which amaze the eyes and create light. She combines colors pleasantly and harmoniously and instills everything she loves into her jewelry.
Cecilia uses the shapes of leaves and other natural, as well as animal motifs or, for example, musical notes. Very important are also symbolic natural elements: earth, water, air, and fire. “I translate the theory of elements and apply it to polymer clay. I can get amazing effects,” she explains and adds that working with scraps is her favourite thing to do, as she can improvise and assemble beautifully strange things.
Nowadays, Cecilia also teaches her polymer clay techniques and experiments in live workshops and online courses. She has already achieved many successes, as her work has been featured in several blogs and publications and exhibited at the International Mineral Bijoux exhibition in Bologna. Now, her priority project is to continue to derive pleasure and joy from working with polymer clay and share with others what she has experienced so far.
