Our membership appreciation program awards prizes to randomly selected members that join or renew their membership during a given quarter.

Announcing Our Second Quarter 2021 Member Appreciation Award Winner

Details: Category: Member Benefits Program Member Benefits Program

Marina Merkulova (Marina Primavera) lives in Moscow. She prefers femininity in a no-frills style. Marina experiments and likes to combine elements made in different techniques in her jewellery. As a purposeful person, she constantly learns herself and shares her knowledge with other people.

Marina began to sculpt from polymer clay in the summer of 2016. The youngest son, a young artist who offered her to make Pokémon together, introduced her to polymer clay. “Then I thought of a small brooch with roses. It was a gift from my aunt when I was in school. I looked, rotated it in my hands and decided to try creating something similar,” says Marina. Nevertheless, fashioned roses and flowers do not prevail in the work of Marina Primavera (this name was born in February 2017).

Announcing Our 1st Quarter 2021 Member Appreciation Award Winner

Details: Category: Member Benefits Program Member Benefits Program

Polyform has generously extended our quarterly membership award prizes for 2021. The 1st quarter prize was randomly selected from our new and renewing members during that time period.

Meet Amy Goldin, IPCA Member Appreciation winner for the 1st quarter of 2021

Amy’s polymer journey began in 2015 when she started decorating what has now become almost 2,000 eggs. Amy says, “I went from painting to collaging to embellishing with polymer and from there I have not looked back. For the first 3 years I was self-taught, then in 2018 I found Clayathon and my head exploded with possibilities. Since then, I’ve taken classes with many great artists, gone to several retreats, joined a few guilds, tried various techniques, made a LOT of friends, and sold jewelry and covered glass at craft fairs. Most recently I started making miniatures that I use in dioramas with my pet mice. In the future I plan to use polymer clay in combination with paper, felt, metal, wood, and found objects.”

Announcing Our 4th Quarter 2020 Member Appreciation Award Winner

Details: Category: Member Benefits Program Member Benefits Program

Polyform generously extended our quarterly membership award prizes for 2020. The 4th quarter prize was randomly selected from our new and renewing members during that time period.

Meet Marlen O’Mahony, IPCA Member Appreciation winner for the 4th quarter of 2020

Marlen O’Mahony is a new member to the IPCA, and she comes from Kilkee, Ireland. Marlen says this about herself: “I have always been a child of 2 worlds - the creative and the logical one. The unusual combination of a mathematically inclined Irish Dad and a creative German Mum.

Announcing our 2020 Third Quarter Member Appreciation Winner

Details: Category: Member Benefits Program Member Benefits Program

Polyform has generously extended our quarterly membership award prizes for 2020. The first quarter prize was randomly selected from our new and renewing members during that time period.

Meet Christine Harris, IPCA Member Appreciation winner for the 3rd quarter of 2020

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Christine is sculptor and art therapist. Key concepts from her art therapy training, including emphasizing process over product and using art as a vehicle for self-expression, are important in her artwork. She was first attracted to polymer clay as a way to make findings for her collage, to making faces using Super Sculpey, and now using polymer clay exclusively.

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Announcing Our Second Quarter 2020 Member Appreciation Award Winner

Details: Category: Member Benefits Program Member Benefits Program

Polyform has generously extended our quarterly membership award prizes for 2020. The first quarter prize was randomly selected from our new and renewing members during that time period.

Meet Our 2020 Second Quarter Winner, Kathy McCurry:

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Kathy tells us that her first polymer inspiration came from seeing Helen Briel’s work. “…which intrigued me to find out what the heck her pendants were made from. I bought some polymer clay and fell in love! Just six months after discovering polymer clay, I had the opportunity to take two workshops with Helen Briel herself! And of course, immediately joined the IPCA to find others who shared my new passion. Everyone I’ve met has been so generous, encouraging and supportive, so thank you to the community.”

What Kathy loves about the Polymer medium: “The aspects of polymer that I love the most are its versatility and dimensionality. Both of these characteristics provide unlimited potential for an artist to express her ideas. I started with creating large shadowbox mixed-media pieces, then moved into bowls and for the past few years have re-imagineered botanicals in my ‘Fantastical Flower’ collection. The journey has been exciting and rewarding, but it’s really the PC community that I treasure the most... What a thrill to learn I was the quarterly IPCA Member Appreciation winner. Thank you!”

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Kathy has also received recognition for her work, which have provided her further encouragement. Recognition and awards include: Emerging Artist in The Polymer Arts; work selected for Polymer Journeys 2019; 2^nd Place and Honorable Mention in international botanical art competition for Light, Space, Time; Artist of the month at local Heights Arts Gallery; two years juried into the American Craft Council shows.

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Announcing Our First Quarter 2020 Member Appreciation Award Winner

Details: Category: Member Benefits Program Member Benefits Program

Polyform has generously extended our quarterly membership award prizes for 2020. The first quarter prize was randomly selected from our new and renewing members during that time period.

Meet Our 2020 First Quarter Winner, Phyllis Cahill

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Phyllis Cahill began working with polymer in November 2015, after working for many years as a graphic designer and children's book illustrator. Phyllis says: “Polymer captivated me from the beginning. It's a wonderful, versatile medium, but initially I didn't find it easy to work with. I did many tests to understand it better and overcome difficulties I was having.” Phyllis has documented these tests on her blog, PolymerClayJourney.com.

Announcing Our Third and Fourth Quarter 2019 Member Appreciation Award Winners

Details: Category: Member Benefits Program Member Benefits Program

Polyform has generously extended our quarterly membership award prizes for 2019. The second quarter prize was randomly selected from our new and renewing members during that time period.

Meet Our 2019 Third Quarter Winner, Sandy Farber

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Sandy has been working with polymer clay since the 1980s. She says that she was sucked in by all of the colors and what the clay could do. Sandy attended a couple of retreats and conferences (Ravensdale and Making History: Pushing the Craft of Polymer Clay in TN) and she fell in love again with the art and the people in the polymer clay community. Sandy says she likes learning new techniques, but she seems to always find her way back to canes and sculpting. Sandy hopes to someday start a guild in her area, to meet and create alongside likeminded artists.

See some of Sandy’s work here:

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Meet Our 2019 Fourth Quarter Winner, Penni Jo Couch

Penni Jo’s history in polymer began at 39, Penni Jo says, “I had no idea I was a sculptor until I picked up a block of clay”. She spent the next 7 years as a stay-at-home mom, creating one-of-a-kind items from polymer clay. She was hired in ’90 as a designer/sculptor by United Design Corp and was there for 15 years. Now, Penni Jo is retired but still keeping busy. Her designs and molds are now sold world wide. She travels occasionally to polymer clay retreats to demo and teach, and participate as a vendor. Some of you may know Penni Jo by her “Best Flexible Molds” brand, where Penni has created a line of flexible molds for use with polymer clay.This brand was birthed one weekend when Penni Jo wanted to make a pair of earrings to match her mother’s pendant, but did not want to sculpt two alike; so she sculpted one and created a push-mold to make a duplicate for the second earring. That little mold was the beginning of what became Best Flexible Molds.

See some of Penni Jo’s work here: