Interview with Polymer Clay artist Anne-Sophie D’Souza

French artist Anne-Sophie is known of her eye-catching polymer clay jewelry work. She has chosen this handcrafting form to work with because she finds it a flexible medium to creating something bautiful either to wear (for example, jewelry) or embellish one’s home (vases, cutlery and even light switches). “Working with polymer clay is like entering a new dimension. The possibilities of creating amazing art are so many, I could not list all of them,” she says.

She gains her inspiration from world leading polymer clay artists such as Donna Kato, Sara Shriver and Alice Stroppel. Hailing from Maine et Loire, France, a region known for its castles and history, she also gains inspiration from nature.  If you were to pop by Anne-Sophie’s studio, you will not only find polymer clay and liquid polymer clay but an array of other tools and materials which may be trash to others, but remain invaluable to her work. “I use alcohols to enhance my work. Apart from pasta machine, cutters and tools that are part of the polymer clay art creation process, I keep every single thing that I feel I may use in some project or another. Things like glass jars, bulbs, spoons to shape a bead. For creating impressions on the clay, you may find that I use a cap of a pen, or even a kid shoe print with flowers.” She smiles smugly and declares, “I have become a collector in my own home!”

 

Like many artists, Anne-Sophie loves working in other art forms, stitching and painting being on top of her list. “But only second and third to polymer clay,” she reminds us. While she invested in her first pack of colourful polymer clay way back in 2006, she only started to work with the technique in 2009. Eventually, this led her to participate at ARTE in early 2011.  “I love Mokume Gane technique, which involves having several layers of different colours and then impressing with tools of your choice (either stamps or sharp tools). Then you slice delicately and each slice is a different pattern with different colors. You use these slices to cover your core beads or shapes.”