About Hankmade

Firstly, thanks so much for coming to check out my site! I'm Henry Smith (you can call me Hank!), and I live on the north side of Chicago with my partner (Jess), my two tuxedo kitties (Tux and Tuna), and a baby beagle/cattle dog mix (Minnow). When I'm not making polymer clay stuff, I work as a massage therapist and caterer. I enjoy reading, taking walks by Lake Michigan, and playing retro video games. I'm originally from The Ozarks, in southwest Missouri, and my upbringing there – surrounded by nature, color, and quiet – influences a lot of my work.

I've spent a few years connecting with, disconnecting from, and reconnecting with the versatile medium that is polymer clay! and I felt like I might try to capture that journey here. If you don't want to read all that follows, I think I could summarize it by saying this: Art is about how we transform the medium, as well as how our engagement with the medium transforms us. And sometimes art is also about playing around and having a good time!

My Intro to Clay (2021-2024)

The first polymer clay cane I tried to make was a lemon cane. However, I used Sculpey III (I now know this is notoriously too soft for most designs – check out my "Learn" page for more information about ideal clays), and it just turned into a light yellow blob.

The second cane (first successful cane) I remember making was a flower cane in green, orange, and pink. I made it around 2022! I can't find a photo of just the cane, but here is a collection of beads from late 2022-early 2023 so you can get an idea of how my creations were looking early on. The only design I still use and enjoy currently is the star design - I love the pink and green stars! The rest were useful experiments in my early cane-making days.

I had some successful experiments with canes, but was having trouble finding ways to expand beyond kaleidoscopes and simple shapes. That's when I met Carmen Johns at a zine fest, and she showed me Meg Newberg's incredible PolymerClayWorkshop. I think this is where a lot of things clicked for me! I subscribed to Meg's Patreon for about a year, and learned so, so much about cane techniques.

Around late 2024, I started to feel like what I was making wasn't "high art" enough. I think I fell into a trap of thinking that the medium is what makes something art, rather than the thing being expressed through that medium. I'd also stalled in terms of inspiration, and was having trouble figuring out where I fit into the world of jewelry-making specifically... this period coincided heavily with a financially fraught time in my life, so I think a part of it was that I wanted to work in a medium that felt more competitive in the market. Honestly, I'm not totally sure if it was burnout due to financial strain, plateauing with my abilities in polymer clay, or (probably) a combination of both. I started making beaded pieces without polymer clay elements in an attempt to sell more of my work, and it did sell, so I put my polymer clay away for the time being.

Driven to try and improve my technique with jewelry making beyond beading and clay stuff, I started taking metalsmithing classes at Benches on Division here in Chicago. I had a great time taking two courses, but had to take a break due to finances (this is a common theme in my ability to make the art I want to make...). This break is what helped me rediscover my passion for polymer, because I was desperate to keep making art with materials I had on hand.

Falling Back in Love with Clay... (2025-Present)

When I was considering playing with clay again, I started watching a lot of Philip Wiegard's Phimo tutorials, and felt so moved by his work! I hadn't seen people making large-scale art pieces with canes before, and seeing this helped me reimagine polymer clay as a fine art medium. Additionally, I discovered resources that I'd previously overlooked (again, check out my "Learn" page to see what these are!). Many of these resources included the work of clayers from the 80s-90s, all with a distinct, colorful, captivating style. It's interesting that I had overlooked so much of this history of the medium, because now the history is what has flung me back into my passion.

Through reading old polymer clay instructionals and learning more about the prominent figures in clay, I realized that one of the most important aspects of polymer clay is the same thing that had me questioning if it was cool enough in the first place. Polymer clay's unique position in the space between "craft" and "art" medium is what sets it free from a lot of the gatekeeping, unnecessary posturing, and general inaccessibility of "high art." Instead, because it has been relegated to the role of "craft" material, or even, perhaps, "toy," it remains highly inexpensive and accessible to creators of all backgrounds. Additionally, because it has been treated as a "craft" medium, I find that there is a passionate group of artists who are consistently generous with their techniques. I believe this may be because "fine art" relies on an idea of scarcity and exceptionalism that isn't often applied to "handicrafts" like polymer clay. But I don't know, this is a working thesis, so we'll see where I end up with this idea...

My most recent work has been centered on replicating sensations I feel when I look at canework pieces of the 80s and 90s (Polymer Art Archive is a wonderful resource for tracing the history of polymer clay if you're interested in exploring). Colors, textures, layered canes and collage... clay work that feels like you should be able to take a bite. I have been experimenting recently with covering glass vessels, designing brooches, and trying to make beads that are HUGE. I'm also working on improving my cane technique and my understanding of color theory so that I can do a better job getting my ideas out of my brain and into the clay.

I have so much gratitude for this medium, the folks who have been working in it since its early days, and the folks who continue to share free and inexpensive resources. The collectivity of the tiny polymer clay community is a huge part of what keeps me interested in the medium. That, and the satisfying feeling of rubbing my hands against a perfectly-sanded piece.

I hope you'll enjoy this site, which is my contribution to the claysphere. I have a lot of things I'm learning all the time, as I'm relatively new to the medium compared to many of the artists I obsess over. I hope to share resources I've gathered, my own process as an artist, and images of my finished work as often as I can. Please bear with me as I try and organize these pages! It is certainly a work-in-progress.

If you'd like to see what I'm up to outside of this website, you can follow these links: Instagram My Shop