Dotty McMillan

Ihave been playing with the clay for so many years I can’t imagine not having it in my hands a lot of the time.  It started with my doing puppet shows when we moved to Orange County.  That was over 40 years ago.  I made puppet heads and hands with it.  Not great ones, but the kids watching the shows didn’t care.  Later I spotted an adorable little carousel horse pendant that I was sure was made out of my puppet head stuff.  I tried making one, but my sculpting ability almost doesn’t exist.  The I saw Nan Roche’s book, The New Clay and WOW!  I had no idea what a small, very talented group of  people were doing with polymer clay.

From that point on I split my time between writing books, magazine articles, and acting as a stringer for newspapers, with creating

things with the clay.  For a lot of years I did numerous classes all around the country.  But I don’t do that much now as I’m mostly writing, and working with the clay for fun,  because I just can’t stop doing it.  I wrote  two books about creating  things with the clay.  They are out of print now, but you can often find a copy in either  hard-cover or paperback,  at Amazon, or Ebay, or used book stores.  The titles are  “Creative Ways with Polymer Clay”  and  “Artful Ways with Polymer Clay.”

These days,  I love to experiment with the clay and try to create new projects, as well as new techniques.  I have a few private students, and am always open to emails when other clayers need some help or information.   My main message to those who are starting out with the clay is that it is very forgiving, anyone can get good results, and that it doesn’t take being a great artist to succeed.

For a lot of years, my husband and I created decorative kaleidoscopes as a business.  We added some some lady vessels that can store things inside.  We sold hundreds of those until the recession unfortunately closed every gallery that sold them. But for anyone wanting to try either of them, we have a lot of information on how to create them, and we are always happy to share.

 

Happy Claying

Dorothy (Dotty) McMillan