Art Clay Master Instructor
Cindy Pankopf

Bio:
Cindy is a graphic designer turned jewelry instructor. The moment she set foot in a bead store, the seed beads drew her in. A deep love of the complexity of color is the foundation of her explorations in beading.

She soon discovered Art Clay Silver, and has been experimenting with new techniques since the hours after her first class. Cindy quickly realized she wanted to become an Art Clay instructor so she could share her abilities and enthusiasm for this amazing medium. Cindy is very proud having achieved Senior Instructor status with Art Clay World. Her work has been published in various magazines and books. Cindy’s first book ‘Beadmaille: Jewelry with Bead Weaving and Metal Rings’ was released with much success in June of 2010. Her latest project is the upcoming book ‘The Absolute Beginners Guide to Making Metal Clay Jewelry’ which will be out in the Fall of 2012.

For the last six years, Cindy has been teaching classes of her own designs locally and nationally in beading and Art Clay several times a week. Cindy was the founding President of the Art Clay Society of Orange County, and served in that role for several years. Her goal is to broaden the scope of her techniques and continue designing, teaching and sharing with others every day.

Philosophy:
Inspiration and education are two of the primary components of Cindy’s teaching philosophy. She believes in helping people to discover their own talents by encouraging and challenging them to grow, and sharing with students many of the things that are possible with metal clay. The flexibility, ease–of–use, and versatility of this medium make it an ideal means of creative expression and problem solving.

Cindy likes to teach classes focusing on techniques, rather than creating identical projects, as much as possible. She believes that demonstrating specific things in great detail will give her students a greater understanding of specific techniques/products which she hopes will translate into general knowledge that her students can use in future projects. It gives her great satisfaction to see her students create and explore on their own.

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