Donna Greenberg is a well established and well known polymer clay artist. She creates mostly organic by nature inspired pieces that amaze everyone who sees them. Here is the little lidlifting and peeking inside her studio where the new collection The Nature of Things was born out of the pressure, like diamonds are, in the wake of the first Pandemic wave.
“The subsequent lockdowns hit my city extremely hard and I found all my commercial work came to a grinding halt. I’m fortunate to have my studio in my home so after the initial shock of quarantine, I decided not to stress over making something ‘sellable’ and instead committed to throwing myself into an idea that had been germinating for years. Hence, ‘The Nature of Things’ collection was born,“ says Donna about the beginning of this project.
Donna wanted to see if she could translate her process of making smaller pieces into larger vessels and biomorphic sculpture. Some pieces such as ‘Ficus Impossibilis’ started with covering a short glass vase, then attaching molded polymer pieces to create the final shape. ‘Little Alien Tomato’ was the first all polymer piece in this series and as she became more comfortable with working larger she began to focus mostly on an all polymer construction.
“Once my clay forms were sculpted, I used copper tubing to create long stems. The tubing in works like the purple ‘Florent’ helps to anchor the forms. One of the hardest tasks was figuring a way to attach the hollow pods to the round body as well as to the stem so they would not droop or break. Choosing twisted wires was part of the solution. And my paint work which usually comes only after a whole piece is finally cured, would have been too big and wet and ungainly to handle which necessitated me doing some partial painting and curing between steps. Multiple curings in such a large piece is also very worrisome so I used the heat gun to spot cure whenever possible,“ shares Donna the process obstacles.
“All in all, these pieces are very challenging to balance and fraught with potential disaster but the joy of seeing them intact after final curing is well worth it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” And we love it that way as well, Donna! Thank you for sharing your work with us.
