Meet Etsy Artist: jangeisen

Jan Geisen has a BA degree in Art "from a long time ago and originally worked as a photographer and printmaker." 18 years ago she discovered polymer clay and fell in love. "I consider myself an 'improv' artist," she jokes. "I let the item tell me what it wants to become." She enjoys making "wearable abstract works of art" and polymer clay is the perfect medium. In her skilled hands it can look like like metal, turquoise, or anything else she sets her mind to. She has even made a pieces that look like water color paintings by creatively controlling the way she blends and rolls the clay. "My favorite raw material is the scraps of clay that other polymer clay artists don’t know what to do with." She never plans her unique designs ahead of time. "I think of myself as just the hands that allow the jewelry piece to become what it wants to be. I need to lock myself away for days at a time and many hours each day to create properly. That is the only way I can get into the creative, right brained, mode needed to make successful pieces." While her art is not just a hobby, she will "never consider my creative endeavors a 'job.'" She explains, "For many years it wasn’t what I did to support myself. It is what I did to fulfill myself, and keep myself sane." Now retired, she supplements her income with her art. "Marketing is key," she advises. "I have had Etsy sales because people have seen images of my work elsewhere – Flickr, website, blog, and photos posted in online subscriber galleries of jewelry magazines that I subscribe too." Please check out her shop: http://jangeisen.etsy.com/

-Wendy Baylis

Dharma Designs

http://dharmadesigns.etsy.com/