Tuesday, March 11, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

ARTISTIC MEDIUM: All in a Clay's Work

Las Vegan known for her skills with polymer clay

Photos by Amy Beth Bennett. Lisa Pavelka runs a millefiori sheet of polymer clay through a pasta machine she uses only for clay. The machine smoothes and thins the clay. Pavelka has embellished numerous varied items with polymer clay, including a glass mug and stand constructed with metal teaspoons. A clock. One of Pavelka's polymer-clay purses. Lisa Pavelka uses an array of tools and other materials to add form and texture to her polymer-clay projects.

Lisa Pavelka wears a finely detailed Victorian-style pendant made of polymer clay. She sometimes carries a purse made of polymer clay. The switch plates in her Las Vegas home are decorated with polymer clay, as are the wineglasses, clocks and her fireplace surround. The back panels of her van? Polymer clay.

So what is this stuff? If you don't know the answer to that, you haven't been following the craft shows on TV or investigating many of the items found in gift shops. Polymer clay is one of the hottest craft trends.

Don't think traditional mud-based clay and, for heaven's sake, don't think Play-Doh, although some of the colors are similar. Polymer clay, which was invented about 50 years ago but took a few decades to catch on, is composed of polyvinyl chloride, plus plasticizer and the all-important color pigments. What has endeared it to proponents is its ease of use, versatility and durability.

Pavelka, one of the most prominent polymer-clay designers in the country and the author of a new book, "Polymer Clay Extravaganza," from North Light Books, got into the medium via a somewhat circuitous route. A Colorado native who moved to Las Vegas nine years ago, she had always been artistic as a child -- which her parents encouraged -- but saw art as more of an avocation. She earned a degree in technical journalism and later worked in commercial and industrial TV production, at one time as a producer-director for Adolph Coors Co.

When Pavelka and her husband began having children -- they'd eventually have three, plus a foster daughter -- the plan was for her to be a stay-at-home mom. One problem: "I realized I needed a little bit more than that."

"I was dabbling with stained glass and oil painting, but those media are dangerous, and not conducive to children" in the house, she said. She started painting her children's clothing. People would ask where she'd found the items, then ask her to make some for them, and she eventually started doing the craft-show circuit and selling through craft malls and gift shops. That became unwieldy, she said, because "I was schlepping three kids."

Sculpture had been an interest, but again, all that equipment and all those kids were kind of mutually exclusive. In 1988, she discovered the joys of polymer clay.

"I came up with a figurine line," Pavelka said. Her Bearly There figurines of hand-sculpted miniatures soon were selling in shops in 10 states.

Her husband got a job promotion in 1994 and the family moved to Las Vegas. At about the same time, she was beginning to feel the drudgery of manufacturing and was considering something more creative. Then the Hobby Industry Association show came to Las Vegas. Polyform Products Co., which manufactures Sculpey, Premo! and related brands of polymer clay, had a large booth.

"I got up the nerve to show them my products," Pavelka said. Donna Kato, a polymer-clay designer who was then with Polyform, "really encouraged me and made me feel like I had something." The company asked Pavelka to design for them. Her first project was a Hanukkah kit for kids, who could use it to make a magnetic menorah. She designed other kids' kits and greeting-card kits.

"Then they encouraged me to start writing articles," she said of Polyform representatives. "The whole journalism thing came full circle." She wrote for Family Circle, Crafts, Rubber Stamper and Memory Magic magazines, among others.

She started designing kits for adults, then teaching and demonstrating at trade shows and in-store appearances. She also has been a frequent guest on the "Carol Duvall Show" on HGTV. Her children even got involved in demonstrations at a trade show and in school.

In 1996, she founded the Las Vegas Polymer Clay Guild in her living room, with five people. The guild now has 134 members, of which 30 to 40 are active. Its main focus, Pavelka said, is to teach and explore "what a wonderful, versatile medium it is."

And just how versatile may surprise those who still think of this medium as strictly the domain of the hobbyist.

"There are people throughout the world who do this for their full-time careers," said Pavelka, who now represents a new brand, Kato Polyclay.

On the other hand, she said it's accessible to beginners.

"There's no one in the world who can't learn to do this if they have the desire," Pavelka said. And, because of the speed with which some projects can be completed, "it's instant gratification." It's also economical; blocks generally are priced at less than $3.

The steps are simple. The clay primarily is sold in 2-ounce blocks; supplies can be found at craft stores and some rubber-stamp shops. It must be conditioned before it's used, by warming in the hand or running through a pasta machine that's used only for this purpose. Then it's baked at a low temperature -- usually 265 to 275 degrees, depending on the brand of clay -- for 20 minutes per quarter-inch of thickness.

It can be formed with primitive tools including fingers and tweezers, or more elaborate ones, such as extruders and punches. It can be combined with materials including paper, cardboard, foil, some plastics (such as those used in switch plates), wood, glass, fabric, feathers, pearls, or glass or crystal beads. "You can put it on anything that doesn't burn at 275 degrees," Pavelka said. It can be baked and then epoxied to items that don't fit into the oven (such as vans).

Baked pieces can be layered with new clay and baked again. Colors can be blended, marbleized, layered, made into millefiori canes or mixed with things such as red pepper, glitter, oregano, black pepper and coffee. It can be sealed and polished and made to mimic any other material, including cinnabar and jade.

Some of the materials are more unconventional. Pavelka sometimes uses gin to transfer noncopyrighted art prints to polymer clay.

"It's not the medium that makes it art," she said. "It's what you do with it that makes it art."

Pavelka's purses sell for $300 to $600. Customers include Julia Roberts, for whom Pavelka has worked as a photo double. Her low-end pieces start at $18 for a travel amulet. Most of her work is done for commissions.

Still, there's a little bit of a "hobbyist" stigma.

"It hasn't gotten the respect it deserves," Pavelka said, although she noted one polymer-clay artist recently was accepted into the Smithsonian Craft Show. She remembers one traditional sculptor who pointed out that polymer clay is essentially plastic.

"What they're working with," she said, "is dirt. I don't know how that makes them so much better than me."