Sofie Skein, the creator of Bonjour Poupettes, continues to branch out into new art forms. Her new website shows her creative diversity as well as a glimpse into her everyday life. In this portion of her interview, Sofie gives readers a chance to delve deeper into the mind behind the artist.

ToonariPost: When you first started did you ever hit any bumps in your art process. What were they and how did you overcome them?

Sofie Skein: In the beginning, with the Poupettes, I had very little money to invest in materials. Fortunately, polymer is affordable and my pieces were small. At that time, I was more interested in form than color and all of my figurines were monochrome, about half the size that they are now (4-5″), and I made them in my hands, without tools of any kind.

I kept getting requests for pet portraits and larger figurines, which I was game to make, but they were particularly time consuming and sometimes impossible to make without tools. I reached a point where I had to decide whether or not I was going to invest in this project or move on.

I have never regretted the purchase of a single tool, and every one I’ve acquired has improved my work considerably. The tools I speak of are mostly hand tools for modeling as well as a pasta machine for conditioning and blending the polymer compound. They completely transformed the way that I worked.

TP: Who or what are your inspirations and why?

SS: I’m inspired by the creatures, ideas and things that I love – and what I love tends to be both vulnerable and brave. These are qualities associated with the human soul, but I recognize them in poetry and music, plants and animals, special places and objects as well. Also, the logic of dreams and fairy tales has always been close to my heart.

A world where animals stand up and walk around on two legs, wear clothes and have conversations in human languages makes sense to me in a way that the everyday world does not.

TP: Have you ever had to deal with a situation where someone else took credit for your work?

SS: Fortunately, I’ve never had to deal with a situation like this. My style of figurine is pretty unique and it has evolved over time in ways that I could have never planned for. Not only do I custom blend most of the polymer I use, I also use particular techniques and tools to achieve each piece.

TP: What is your favorite subject to design and why? You design a lot of animals, does any one in particular have special meaning to you?

SS: I’ve always loved to study faces. To me, animal faces are as expressive and revealing as human faces if you pay close enough attention. I do enjoy creating animal people and pet portraits because it’s an excuse to study their faces and discover what qualities really differentiate, for example, a fox from a wolf – and decipher what qualities are essential to maintain our recognition of a type of animal.

For me, this is an ongoing, evolving process of discovery. I have a personal story to tell about almost every creature I make. For example, when I was a child, a small circus came to my village and set up in the empty lot behind my house for a week. We were free to wander about and I spent most of that week watching the elephants and even got to ride on their backs.

I realize it sounds like something that happened in the nineteenth century, not rural Oregon in the 1980′s, but it did happen and those elephants have been a part of my imagination ever since.

TP: If there was any art medium that you wish you could master, what would it be and why?

SS: This past year I have been exploring an ancient technique of portraiture using encaustic wax medium and a torch using a four-color palette of naturally occurring pigments. It is exceptionally difficult but the results can be astonishing. It would be an amazing achievement to master this technique!

TP: How did you hear about encaustic portraits and what made you decide to take on this new medium?

SS: I’ve actually been painting with encaustic for a lot longer than I’ve been making poupettes. The pieces that I’ve shown publicly have been exclusively encaustic landscapes.

The portraiture technique I mentioned is based on a four color palette that the ancient Greeks developed. I was inspired to learn about this technique after studying a book (‘The Mysterious Fayum Portraits, Faces from Ancient Egypt’ by Euphrosyne Doxiadis) about the Greek funerary paintings entombed in Egypt. It’s something that I would absolutely love to study in depth.

TP: You have also mentioned that your partner is an artist?  Can you tell me a little about his creative process?

SS: Nicolas describes himself as ‘a maker of things’. Currently he’s making miniatures, digital artwork, and Egyptian votive sculptures. We are both passionate about our work and share a studio, however, our creative processes couldn’t be more different. My creative process is rather orderly and structured, whereas his is much more organic and flowing.

My approach toward my work tends to be painstaking – working from a big picture idea and whittling it down to the detail; his ideas seem to spring out of nowhere, fully formed. We are both very appreciative of each other’s approach and instead of our differences creating conflict, we get to share our unique perspectives, which I think enriches our work as well as our relationship.

TP: What are your goals in life?

SS: I’ve reached a point in my life where I’ve finally achieved two long-term goals: supporting myself with my creative work and making a home on the coast. For now, I’m content with continuing this path; however, I do feel called to share more of my writing, in the hope of encouraging and inspiring others who are trying to find their way to a life that truly supports who they are.

Five years ago, I couldn’t have imagined achieving the goals that I had dreamed of, and I strongly feel that if I could do so, it’s possible for anyone who is willing to commit to their plans.

TP: Do you feel that your culture or background has influenced you in some ways that make you different than other artists?

SS: I never planned to make animal figurines and would have been nonplussed if you had told me even just five years ago that I would be doing this full-time. However, it seems kind of inevitable to me now. I grew up next door to a veterinary clinic, both of my parents were passionate vets and horse-people. Animals were such an intrinsic part of my world and considered a part of the family.

I’m in my thirties, so I might not have enough perspective on this – but the older I get, the more impressed I am at the profound influence of both landscape (especially the physical landscape of our childhood) and history (personal history as well as family history) on who you are and how you view the world.

It seems that many of us spend the first half of our lives trying to escape those forces, and the second half trying to find a way home to them. If you are an artist, your work is likely to reflect this cycle of departure and return.

The article Artist Spotlight: Sofie Skein, Interview Part 2 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Sofie Skein is a the creative mind and artistic hand behind the heart-warming polymer clay figurines known as Poupettes. Outside of her artistic career she lives a very quiet life with her partner, who is also an artist, and her cat. She has recently left the city of Portland to live on the northern coast of Oregon.

Her world is full of books, art supplies, musical instruments and great home cooking. Both her and her partner are content to spend most of their time focused on their work or watching the storms roll in.

Toonari Post (TP): How and when did you first start practicing your art (are you traditionally trained or self-taught)?

Sofie Skein (SS): My mother used to draw pictures and sculpt miniatures with my sister and I when we were very young. I think it set in motion an intimate relationship with my hands and sense of confidence about what I could create with them. I am always making something and cannot resist exploring every medium that I can get my hands on.

I would have loved to study art but my formal education was in landscape architecture, which seemed to be a sensible compromise between a creative and practical education at the time. I am mostly self-taught in the arts, although I have taken a variety of classes over the years in whatever has interested me. My current focus on miniature polymer sculpture is entirely self-taught.

TP: What made you decide to work with polymer clay instead of another medium?

SS: These particular figurines would be impossible to make without the polymer modeling compounds. I’ve worked with nearly every modeling medium available and nothing compares with the level of plasticity and detail possible with polymer.

These qualities support the expressive silhouettes of my figurines and allow for the details that make them what they are. I build each one along a spiral axis which makes them difficult to re-create and virtually impossible to create molds for reproduction.

I also enjoy the synthetic beauty of the material itself. Some polymer compounds are blended with pigment and mica, which creates a subtle marbling and sparkle with a satin finish. Others are blended with pigment and kaolin clay, which creates a pristine matte texture.

There is a remarkable variety of polymer compounds available commercially and I use them like a painter uses a palette; custom blending various compounds to create new colors and textures. Although polymer can be painted, I prefer the challenge of creating color variations through meticulous layering and blending of the material itself.

TP: When you first started making your Poupettes did you ever think they would make it to homes around the world?

SS: I actually had no intention of making a living from the Poupettes and started the shop on a dare. I was one of the millions laid off in 2009. Before that I had been working full-time and spent every free moment pursuing freelance illustration gigs as well as my own private art practice.

After I was laid off I knew it was time to start an online shop for my artwork but the learning curve seemed overwhelming and I kept avoiding it. In the meantime, I’d begun making these little animal people, which I called Poupettes, just for fun. They made me smile and were good company at a time when I was feeling pretty isolated.

Finally, after many months of watching me procrastinate, my boyfriend dared me to set up a shop for the Poupettes on Etsy. It seemed like it could be a good way to practice for when I opened my ‘real’ shop and somehow it was less scary because it was just ‘practice’. I was totally shocked when I sold five figurines within the first week.

That is how it all began and it’s continued to evolve from there. I had no idea who, if anyone, would appreciate these figurines. It turns out that there are quite a few who do, and over a third of my sales are to addresses outside the U.S.

TP: Do you have any art projects outside of your adorable Poupettes?

SS: Honestly, in the past year, I haven’t had time for any other art projects besides the Poupettes. I did have one show of encaustic paintings last year and I would like to get back to painting in the future but for now I’m really enjoying my work.

TP: Can you tell me the story behind the Poupettes name?

SS: I never planned to make the first one. I was just playing around and all of a sudden it seemed to be forming itself in my hands. When it was complete I looked at it and asked, “What are you?” and the word that came to me was ‘Poupette’. I said, “Poo-PET?” and it sounded right, but I had no idea what it meant.

Was it sort of like a puppet or a poppet? Maybe, but it definitely sounded French. Finally, I did some research and found out that ‘poupette’ is a diminutive form of ‘poupée’, which translates to ‘doll’. A ‘poupette’ is a ‘little doll’, which is how I see all of my figurines. When I needed to choose a name for my shop, my boyfriend suggested ‘Bonjour Poupette’ and it was so much fun to say that I couldn’t resist it!

TP: What of your designs is your favorite and why? Which one are you most proud of and why?

SS: One of my favorite figurines is the siamese twins because of the play on words as well as the sense of drama between the two cats. When I was growing up we had a Janus cat (a cat born with two faces) for a short time. He was a magical creature to behold and made quite an impression on me.

The figurine that I’m most proud of is a custom cat portrait of an Egyptian Mau named Alice. When I saw photos of the cat, it seemed to be an impossible task to recreate the complexity of her stripes with polymer.

After many discouraging attempts, I used a Millefiori glass work technique to create a patchwork ‘skin’ for the figurine. It was painstaking work but I learned so much in the process and was thrilled with the final effect.

The article Artist Spotlight: Sofie Skein, Interview Part 1 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.