Artist's Profile
Sue Heaser is a professional craftswoman whose skills range from polymer clay and Art Clay, glass engraving and puppet-making to textile crafts and pottery. After a foundation course in art and a degree in geography and archaeology she became an archaeological illustrator, working on jewellery and artefacts from sites all over Britain. She became fascinated by the shapes, designs and techniques of ancient jewellery.
She first discovered polymer clay in 1981 and within a year she was supplying an ever-increasing number of craft shops with her delightful jewellery. Over the years she continually expanded her repertoire of designs, experimenting with as many different effects as possible. She applied her knowledge of jewellery design to her work with clay, stretching the limits of the medium to embrace the wide range of techniques.
In 1985, she founded The Polymer Clay Pit - a mail order company supplying polymer clays tools and accessories in the UK and Europe. The fledgling business was at once a great success, and Sue sourced products from all over the world. The "Clay Pit" as it is affectionately known is now the largest specialist polymer clay retailer in Europe and is a major stockist of Art Clay Silver. Sue sold the company to George Weil and Sons Ltd in 2008 so that she could concentrate on her writing and teaching.
Click here to visit The Polymer Clay Pit
Sue first started writing articles on polymer clay for craft magazines, illustrating her articles with her own detailed drawings. Eventually this led to her first book, "Making Polymer Clay Jewellery", which was published in 1997. A series of doll's house books followed and her book "Making Doll's House Miniatures with Polymer Clay" has been a worldwide best seller. Many more books have followed and she is now acknowledged as a world wide authority on polymer clay and metal clays. She has taught workshops all over the world during the past 15 years from as far afield as Taiwan and Japan to the USA, Italy and France.
In 1997, with the aid of of other polymer clay enthusiasts, Sue founded the British Polymer Clay Guild which is a flourishing organisation that produces a lively website and organises biennial conferences.
In 2004 a teaching trip to Japan introduced her to the manufacturers of Art Clay Silver, a precious metal clay that is modelled like modelling clay and then fired to produce pure silver jewellery. She qualified as a Senior Art Clay Instructor later that year, the first to qualify in the UK, and was appointed founder Director of Art Clay World UK, the British Guild that promotes the understanding and use of Art Clay Silver and Gold. She handed over the reigns of the Guild in 2009.
Today, Sue teaches regular workshops at all levels in polymer clay and Art Clay Silver at her studio in Suffolk. She is a regular instructor on P&O cruises and travels all over the world to teach at conferences and events. Her 14th book (The Metal Clay Techniques Book) is to be published in 2012 by Interweave in the USA and Search Press in Britain.
