Featured Artist: August 2020

The August edition of pcPolyzine features polymer clay artist, Milagros Angulo!

Milagros (Mily) Angulo is a Peruvian artist and art lover. During the day, she's a psychologist and business consultant. But in her free time, she's a polymer clay jewelry designer. 

We wanted to learn more about Mily and here's what she shared with us:

pcPolyzine: How did you get into polymer clay?

Mily: To start, I love to travel and learn about new cultures. On one of my trips, I discovered a totally unknown material about which they did not give much information.

From that moment, I investigated the material that had impressed me and I found that in my country, polymer clay was not commercially available and was not known.

When I traveled to Canada, I found a place where they sold it and I bought all the colors, tools, and more without knowing how to use it.

After 3 years from the time I met polymer clay, one day in Lima, Peru, I visited a craft fair and I met Amanda who became my polymer clay teacher and a great friend. She taught me many techniques and gradually I improved my work, until I managed to design my own jewelry.

pcPolyzine: How long have you been working with polymer clay?

Mily: I have been working with polymer clay for 8 years, but since May 2019, I have had my own brand as a jewelry designer.

pcPolyzine: How do you come up with an idea for a project — do you plan it or just start working?

Mily: Generally the night before, I plan how I will work a piece (jewel). It is as if I left my creativity homework because I when I wake up, I go to my workshop and the ideas I have just flow. I also just sit in front of the clay and my hands decide what to do and what colors to choose.

And sometimes I let people who want a specific piece of jewelry design their own pieces. They choose the colors and I make the jewel they imagined come true.

pcPolyzine: What inspires you to create pieces in polymer clay?

Mily: I am inspired by colors, people, life, and psychology.

pcPolyzine: What's your favorite piece or project you've made in polymer clay?

Mily: Actually, they all are. It is difficult to choose only one piece. They all have many expressed feelings, but there is one that made me feel fully satisfied. It was the one that motivated me to create my own brand. When I exhibited it on a Facebook page of many artists in polymer clay, an Italian jeweler designer asked me to teach her the technique because she had tried to make a similar piece that looked like a piece of murano and had not succeeded. I was filled with emotion to know that an artist admired my work in a certain way. 

pcPolyzine: Does your work have a theme or message?
Mily: Yes, definitely, and the message is that we all have a lot to discover about ourselves and many times we don't even know what we are capable of. It is only a matter of giving us the opportunity to know ourselves more.

pcPolyzine: What are your favorite (or most important) tools you use when working with clay?

Mily: My favorite tools are my hands because they adapt to the flexibility of the clay. I like to work with the extruder, too.

pcPolyzine: Do you have any advice for new artists to polymer clay?
Mily: The final finish of a piece is very important, on this depends the acceptance of your jewel and to make the piece shine you must be patient when polishing the jewel. I do not like to use any type of varnish.

pcPolyzine: Any final thoughts for our readers?
Mily: One of my tips to achieve the desired shine is to mix the clay that we are going to work with a little translucent clay.

pcPolyzine: Mily, your work is beautiful. We are excited to share your work with the pcPolyzine community and congratulations on your new line of jewelry. Thank you for taking time to share with us!

To connect with Mily and see more of her work, check her out on Facebook and Instagram.