Creation at Your Fingertips

The cultivation of succulent plants had just gained popularity in China, no one had attempted to reproduce them with polymer clay. Gao’s works immediately satisfied many netizens’ demand for novelty. “Since I started making succulents, the number of my followers on Weibo has constantly increased,” said Gao. “Later, I tried to model animated figures. Once I spent a whole week making ‘Toothless’ from the movie How to Train Your Dragon. I got a lot of likes, reposts and comments as soon as I published the photos, attracting more followers. Last year, I made ‘Baymax’ from the movie Big Hero 6, which turned out to be very popular too!”

Succulent plants handmade by Gao.

So how did Gao make her figures and their colors so lifelike? Gao explained that in addition to skills perfected by practice, artists put a lot of heart into their work. Here, “heart” refers to many things, such as love, childlike innocence, patience, and meticulous effort, which are all essential in the process of creation. “In fact, the artists’ nature and experiences, their angle on the world, as well as their attitude towards life will all be embodied in the details of their artworks. That is how artists give their work soul.”

Concentrating on Innovation

By 2014, Gao had reached a certain level of achievement in her art business. Looking for more room for development, she left her hometown Panjin for Beijing.

Living in a mega-city does create more opportunities: “A studio contacted me on Weibo, inviting me to give regular lectures on making succulent plants or felt items,” Gao said. “Some schools invited me to teach children how to make small items with polymer clay in their extracurricular classes. I also make bespoke items for clients based on their specifications. In my spare time, I try out new ideas and create more art pieces.” She added: “I never plan to move to other areas by utilizing the fame I gained. The process of creation brings me a sense of achievement and I enjoy making handicrafts with a calm and peaceful mind.”

As for the question of competition within the art world, Gao answered: “I will stick to innovation and constantly make progress, so I can make more and more objects that people will love. Moreover, I will never stop learning to enrich my mind and broaden my horizons. In addition to interests and persistence, artists must have original ideas.”

At regular intervals, Gao gives lectures in other cities, some she organizes herself, and others are organized by studios that partner with her. “I am encouraged by the enthusiasm of some of my students. Last year when I taught in Shanghai, a girl from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, far from Shanghai in southern China, came especially just to attend the class. I saw her this year too when I had a class in Guangzhou City,” said Gao. She admitted that she enjoys every minute spent with handicraft amateurs and she would like to share all that she knows with her students. In August 2014, a handbook on polymeric clay creation, which Gao had carefully drafted, was published.

Gao’s ultimate ambition is to make “garage kits,” which are assembled scale model figures portraying humans or other living creatures such as anime characters. “That job means to make models of the details of different parts of a model figure and then to make molds, so that the mass production of those delicate figures will become possible,” Gao explained. But she said she still has a long way to go to reach this goal, because the process requires a lot of knowledge and skills in various fields. She said that she will keep studying and putting in the effort to practice in order to make her dream come true.