Just When You Think It's Over, An Unexpected Miracle Happens

My name is Merna Dano, I’m 28 years old, and I grew up and live in Ramallah city. I graduated with a BA in Marketing management from Birzeit University. Soon after graduation I started working in the media field for a period of four years as of now I work as a Public Relations and Media Officer.

During the 2020 pandemic, I was forced to stay home for a couple of months, and it was then when I started to think of new ways to fill my free time. I was very interested in doing something with my hands so after going over several ideas I stumbled upon an online courses for Polymer clay art.

 As a very artistic, imaginative and creative person, I love to build and create things with my hands, especially in art. I enjoy sculpting and creating tiny things with clay like earrings and other accessories. I can describe myself as someone who likes the opportunity to create new things and find new ways to be innovative.

But why polymer clay??  It’s a material available in many beautiful colors, it’s a fine plastic modeling compound that can be baked into a permanent medium, and there is no need for expensive tools, just an oven and items for cutting and sculpting.

This clay has become increasingly popular over the last years for making modern and moderately eccentric jewelry. Although, spending time working with polymer clay is very interesting and exciting, but I’m facing many difficulties and obstacles, some of these are the lack of the clay itself, in addition to the fact that buying the materials costs a lot in comparison with other countries. The sculpting and forming tools can’t be found, so I need to look for alternatives which makes my work even more difficult.

Promoting my accessories is another difficulty as people here aren’t familiar yet with this kind of handmade jewelry and don’t know the real value of these things.

Working hard to create new designs and promoting them is still something I enjoy and will keep doing because the smiles that I create on people’s faces give me the motivation to overcome any difficulties I might encounter in the future.