Bill Rylander @MurriniMaker
Who Are You?
I am an aspiring artist working with polymer clay to create murrini art work.
How would you describe your art style?
My art style is pattern based imagery meant to evoke a feeling of flowing energy or movement. I like to use color fades for 3D effects and sacred geometry shapes.
What is your relationship with cannabis?
I’ve been a long time stoner, fell in love with cannabis at the first toke back in high school in the 1990’s. Living in Texas it’s always been on the “wrong side of the law” so it’s been a source of both stress and stress relief. Smoking weed introduced me the world of glass art pipes. After seeing some amazing art work from people like J Lee and Mike Fro I was hooked on creating art.
What is your creative process?
My process takes two main routes now. If I’m working on the “Seer” series it all starts with the glass cabochons I get from a glass artist to collaborate with. Once I see them I’ll roll up some murrini cane patterns that can complement and contrast the glass cabochon. The patterns and design of the “Seers” are all based off the inspiration I get from the glass cabochons. When I’m working on any other project then the “Seers” it all starts with a theme or central ideal that will tie all the patterns together. Sometimes it’s a color, sometimes it’s a pattern, sometimes it’s an actual idea like “space” or “winter”. From there I’ll roll up patterns or play with patterns that I feel like best evoke those feelings or ideas.
Where do you source your glass?
I get all my glass from the artists I’ve been fortunate enough to network with on Instagram.
How long have you been sculpting?
I’ve been working with polymer clay for a little over 8 years now. I don’t sculpt very much but I’m always rolling something up.
What brand of clay do you use?
I’m pretty much Kato brand clay only. For me it’s the perfect consistency for murrini caning.
What are your favorite tools?
My tried and true favorite tools are both from Lucy Clay. I have the Mammoth Machine roller that has been my work horse for years to make color fades, sheets of clay, and color mixing. I also have the Lucy Slicer which enables me to make consistent slices off my canes and really does help me get every last bit of useable cane.
Why do you use polymer clay?
Many many years ago when I was 10 years old my parents took me to visit a place called Wheaton Arts in New Jersey. It has one of the oldest glass crucibles in the US and I got to watch my father make a paper weight. After that I was entranced with glass art work. Jump to high school and getting introduced the world of glass art pipes. Through that love of glass art I found the world of murrinis and millifiori. I swore that one day I’d be making my own murrini pipes. After graduating I took a few lamp working classes but could never set up my own studio or get on a torch to practice. One day I came across polymer clay murrini art on line. After doing a bit of exploring that rabbit hole I decided I’d try out polymer clay murrinis so I could at least get started learning how to build a cane. It might be a different medium but I could at least pick up the concepts of creating an image. So I bought some clay, an acrylic rolling pin, a $40 clay rolling machine, and just started messing around with one of the tutorials I found on line. 8 years later I’m pretty much all in on working with polymer clay. I still dream of one day getting on a torch but I’ll always be working with polymer clay. One day I’ll be able to create my own glass cabochons, pipes, and rigs to use with my polymer clay.
Tell me about your polishing process.
The sanding and buffing process for my pieces is really more of a high quality finish than anything else. I feel like it takes a piece to the next level, making the patterns seamless, giving the piece a nice shine, and just making it more touch friendly. The whole process starts with sanding the piece smooth, then working through all the grits to a nice surface, and finishing it off using a buffing wheel I attach to a power drill. I start with either 80 grit or 120 depending on how much I need to smooth out the surface, then its 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000 grit sanding papers finished with 4000, 6000, 8000 grit polishing paper before the buffing wheel. I avoided the whole sanding and buffing process for a long time in the beginning because it's a ton of work and the first few times I tried it I lost pieces sanding completely through the patterns. Then I found an awesome sanding tutorial from Ginger Davis Allman at The Blue Bottle Tree (@thebluebottletree) that really helped me. I still don't love the sanding process, I am still getting better at it, but it's no where the dread inducing nightmare I always avoided. I'm still on the look out for some kind of sanding machine/device won't blast holes in my art work!
Describe the piece you're most proud of and why.
I’m most proud of the last run of “Seers” I did with Hong Kong based artist Kenji’s Glass. He sent me 4 beautiful reticello cabochons that are so crispy clean I knew I had to go all out on the patterns. I made three 5” dunnys and one 8” dunny that I am super proud of.
What is a "Seer"?
The "Seers" are a series of artwork intended to celebrate Ajna the sixth chakra also known as the inner eye or third eye. The Dunny was a perfect platform to start the Seer series on, it already had a recognizable shape and is a study vinyl platform that I knew would be robust enough for my needs. I reached out an artist and asked if they could make a few fumed cabochons about the size of a nickel or quarter. The cabs represent Ajna and my murrini patterns symbolize the energy flowing from a fully opened chakra. Once I received the cabs I rolled up some canes to accent the cab, place the cab in the forehead of the dunny, then covered the rest of the figure with my patterns. I feel like the Seer series embodies my artistic ideals and is a truer expression of my imagination. I've been lucky and honored to work with some really amazing US based and foreign glass artists from all over the world for the Seer series. I look forward to collabing with more glass artists to expand the Seer series!
What is your experience in the Art Toy community?
So as I started making canes and building up a supply of canes I wondered what can I do with all of these? How do I use these patterns!? Inspiration hit when after looking at Arik Krunk's chaos tubes, Adam Thomas Rees' polymer clay animals, and Jon Stuart Anderson's mind blowing work, I thought I'd try wrapping one of my vinyl Munny figures just to see is I could pull off an imitation of those styles.
Why Dunnys?
Well for one thing the vinyl the figures is made of won't melt in the oven when I bake the polymer clay onto it! I've always been a huge fan of graffiti art and it was through my love of graffiti that I found artists like Triston Eaton and Kaws. Triston created the Dunny in 2004, his work and others eventually became the juggernaut that is Kidrobot. He utilized the dunny as a platform for graffiti artists to share their art work on. I've collected a few munnys and dunnys over the years so I had a few that I could spare to experiment on. After the first munny figure came out of the oven I was hooked. This was the path I wanted to explore with my murrini patterns. From taking a single pattern and figuring out to make it wrap seamlessly around the entire figure to creating a more "choas" style.
What happened to your old account, @borobronson?
I started posting my work on Instagram using the account I setup to look at all my favorite glass blowers, it had the name of @borobronson. I had a very good response in the beginning. Since the murrini technique is shared by both polymer clay and glass I was able to connect with some of the artists I admired and looked up to! A year of two after I started posting I figured out how to recreate the pattern from the fashion house called Goyard. It was around the time cutting up desinger bags and reselling the material as lighter covers, wallets, etc was ramping up the hype. So I hopped on board the hype train and made a few dunnys with the Goyard pattern on them but I wanted people to know that it wasn't real goyard leather from a cut up bag so I called them "Faux-yards". They took off like crazy. I hit 10K followers on IG pretty quickly and was being asked to put the goyard pattern on all sorts of stuff. I did a Bearbrick, a run of Sake bottle style rigs, and a bunch of dunnys from 3' ones to 5' ones in pretty much any color way I could think of, It got the the point where I was only making goyard canes. Then the Goyard design house stepped in and had IG kill my account. Unfortunately I've locked myself into IG as my only platform to share my artwork so when I lost the Borobronson account I had to start over again as Murrinimaker. I knew I had to find something that was more "unique" and represents my artistic voice thus the "Seer" series was born!
What are your creative goals?
My ultimate goal is to be able to live off my art work. Realistically it’s to get started in glass art work and incorporate both mediums together to realize the visions I have floating around in my imagination.
What is your advice for beginners?
My advice to beginners to start small and don’t get discouraged if the final cane isn’t exactly what you had in mind. Each roll up is a learning process. Caning has a decent amount of waste and left over clay so it’s good to start small-ish and minimize your waste. I also highly recommend checking out tutorials online. There is a ton of good info out there, Ginger Davis Allman has a great website called thebluebottletree.com that has all the info from the basics to some really cool “effects” you can create using polymer clay.
HPCs 420 Bong Battle - Terms & Conditions By submitting an entry to the HPCs 420 Bong Battle ("the Contest"), participants agree to the following terms and conditions: Eligibility: Participants must be 18 years or older at the time of entry. The Contest is open to participants internationally, unless otherwise specified. Entry Requirements: Entries must be submitted through the official entry process outlined by HPC on this website and on Instagram. Each participant may submit only one entry to the contest. Entries must adhere to the theme of the contest, Favorite Strain. All entries must be original works created by the participant specifically for the HPCs 420 Bong Battle. Materials: The primary material for the sculpture must be polymer clay, with the option to incorporate other materials as long as polymer clay remains the dominant medium. Entries must conform to any safety and legal standards related to the use of materials. Submission Guidelines: Each participant must submit a well-lit 360-degree video of their sculpture, showcasing all angles and details. Submission videos must not exceed 30 seconds in duration. Participants must adhere to the deadline for submission, as specified by HPCs. Judging and Voting: The judging criteria include creativity, craftsmanship, adherence to the theme, aesthetic appeal, functionality, and presentation. Participants agree that the judging panel's decision is final and binding. The voting process will be conducted through community engagement on Instagram. Participants and followers may cast votes by commenting on the designated posts. Prizes: The winner of the HPCs 420 Bong Battle will receive a custom trophy pipe and $50 US Dollars. Prizes are non-transferable, and no alternative prizes will be offered. Use of Entries: Participants retain the intellectual property rights to their entries but grant HPCs a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, and display the entries for promotional purposes related to the Contest. Code of Conduct: Participants agree to conduct themselves respectfully and ethically throughout the Contest. Any violations may result in disqualification. Modifications: HPCs reserves the right to modify, extend, or terminate the Contest at its discretion. Agreement: By submitting an entry, participants affirm that they have read, understood, and agree to abide by these Terms & Conditions.