Bridget Derc

I live by the beautiful and inspiring river Wye in rural Herefordshire. I have many pastimes that compete for my time: making jewellery and other objects with polymer clay, off-loom bead weaving, painting with soft pastels, gardening, hiking, and cooking. I love nature and I love to make things.

When the weather is fine, I like to hike. I take my camera with me to capture special moments that I can then render in pastels back at home. I love pastels because of their vibrancy and immediacy. There is no canvas to prepare, no mixing of paints, no drying time, and no cleaning of brushes, although I do need to clean my hands. People often debate whether pastel pictures are drawing or paintings. In a way they are both: you can create a painting that is indiscernible from an oil painting from a suitable viewing distance, yet the surface is vulnerable and needs the care you would give to a drawing.

In the winter months I like to weave beads. I mostly make bracelets and necklaces and sometimes I incorporate pieces of polymer clay. I use various stitches, but my favourites are in Native American Peyote stitch and the South African Ndebele or Herringbone stitch.

Polymer clay is not something that I had planned to take up but did so when my mother returned a Christmas present that I had given her, thinking that it would suit her creative nature. Polymer clay is a versatile medium that can be used for so many different forms of artistic expression. I use it to make decorative jewellery, objects and veneers. I use the veneers to upcycle bottles, other containers, and old furniture. I create eye-catching patterns using a technique called Millefiori caning. It is comparable to the Millefiori glass technique often associated with Venetian glass, except that the canes are made of polymer clay. I have been fortunate to attend a Master Cane workshop with the world-renowned polymer clay artist, Carol Simmons, which has had a significant influence on me. My works have featured in various Polymer Clay journals and I am a member the British Polymer Clay Guild.