artist corner

artist corner FUNKY CLAY BY ALLIE WANDA - LUDLOW, MA

FUNKY CLAY BY ALLIE WANDA - LUDLOW, MA

INSTAGRAM: @FUNKYCLAYBYALLIEWANDA ETSY: ALLIEWANDAART FACEBOOK: CARICATURES & FINE ART BY ALLIE WANDA WEBSITE: WWW.ALLIEWANDA.COM

Tell us a little about yourself!

My name is Allie Billeter (née Litera) and I am 31 years old. I’ve been doing art for my entire life and have always had a creative spirit! I went to Minnechaug Regional High School in Wilbraham, MA from 2004-2008 and graduated from the Hartford Art School in 2012 with a degree in illustration and minor in art history. I have a full-time job doing website content management and do art in my spare time. I also just got married in October 2020!

My main “side business” is Caricatures & Fine Art by Allie Wanda, where I primarily draw caricatures at weddings and other special occasions. However, I haven’t done too many events in the past couple months because of the pandemic. So here I am keeping creative by making things with clay!

What town is your studio based out of?

I grew up in Springfield and Wilbraham and currently reside in Ludlow, MA.

How would you describe your design aesthetic to someone who’s never seen your work?

Right now, I’m working on finding my voice as a clay artist, a.k.a. my designs are a bit all over the place! Some are colorful, some boho, but many are leaning toward art deco, celestial, and vintage-inspired. I suppose if I had to hone in on one aesthetic phrase, it would be “bold earrings for bewitching babes.”

What are your favorite materials to work with?

It’s really fun to add “extras” to the clay, like gold foil and glitter glazes. I have been experimenting with different textures and stamps as well to add more dimension to plain polymer clay. I just ordered some silkscreens on Etsy and am excited to try silkscreening designs onto my clay!

In addition, I enjoy supporting other businesses on Etsy that make clay-related goods like cutters, texture tiles, stamps, and jewelry findings. It’s a cool little community that I’ve stumbled into and I’ve met some awesome makers in the process! Make sure to support your local businesses!

When/how did you get interested in crafting with polymer clay?

Funky Clay by Allie Wanda is a quarantine-born business. I’ve tried so many crafts and hobbies over the years, like weaving, photography, alcohol ink paintings, collage, wreath-making, and more. Around the holidays (November/December 2020), I discovered some local and national makers on social media who create polymer clay jewelry and thought “wow, this looks like fun!” I felt a surge of inspiration. Since I went to art school and am well-rounded in other art forms like ceramics, sculpture, and printmaking, I decided to give it a try and it immediately stuck with me. There are infinite colors, shapes, textures, and patterns to work with, which I find really stimulates me and gets my creative juices flowing. and working with my hands. I hope to try some diorama-type pieces down the road using clay. It would be a cool way to combine illustrating a scene and sculpting with the medium.

What are your inspirations?

I’m inspired by a little bit of everything! I love anything iridescent/glittery. My studio space is colorful, bright, and filled with things I love. Some of my inspirations are the 1920s, 1960s/1970s, bright colors, celestial elements, fairy tales, the circus, vaudeville, and vintage curiosities and oddities. I marvel at so many different historic time periods that sometimes I think I may have been a time traveler in a past life. Fun Fact: My middle name is “Wanda” (after my paternal grandmother), hence my business name, “Allie Wanda!” Some of my friends call me “Wanda” for fun, too.