Even on ordinary days, wearing jewelry can make us feel unique. "I've always loved jewellery, and the thought of making my own appealed to me very much," says Belinda Broughton, an Australian artist who has been in the world of polymer for many years.
Belinda lives in a small town in North Queensland and at the beginning of her journey she was struggling with the distance between her and the polymer clay community until a few years ago she met a group in a nearby city.
One day she came across creator Debbie Crothers and was inspired by her work. She was blown away by all the things that can be added to polymer clay and her unique work and techniques inspired her.
In 2017 she decided to visit Debbie's workshop even though it was a thousand kilometers away. After her first workshop, she gained a lot of new inspiration and materials to draw from including using a heat gun to crackle. "Creating veneers with surface treatments became my new obsession. I have since spent the past five years exploring different textures and experimenting with different mediums and finding which combinations work well for me," says Belinda.
Since then, she tried to work on her creations and learned from her mistakes, even if something didn't work out, it was always a motivation for her because she could move one step closer to the desired creation. Before the pandemic, she was attending markets to sell her jewellery but she put that on hold for the time being. In the meantime, it has given her time to experiment with other things such as making little crackled veneer vessels, pods, and little wall pictures. It also gave her time to think about what she might want to create in future.
Recently Belinda has been making asymmetrical earrings which have been a wonderful challenge for her. Even though most creators decide to sketch their creations first, Belinda wants to do things differently. "I don’t sketch my designs as I prefer to idly fiddle and find inspiration that way, spontaneously adding as I go," says Belinda who doesn't favor any particular color palette but rather works in whatever mood she is in that day. "I still have a long journey ahead, with so much more to learn, but I’m more excited now than I have ever been!"
