The Tour is pleased to have Joyce Fritz back as a participating artist for 2011!  Joyce has been an active member of the Planning Committee for many years with just a couple of years off for various reasons.  She has been very involved with the design of the brochure, which always turns out beautifully.  The “bugs” Joyce makes in her studio, Yipes! are wonderfully detailed and even those who don’t like bugs will enjoy them!  The Yipes! studio is brand new, so be sure to stop and say hello.

Joyce Fritz Bio

Joyce Fritz fell in love with clay in college.  During that time, she experimented with putting colorants directly into porcelain clay.  She created slab-built sculptural vessels and multi-section wall pieces.  Upon graduation, she created, exhibited,  and sold her work regionally and nationally.  During that time, she also made jewelry, mainly pins from leftover scraps of clay from the sculptures.  In time, the reality of needing to make a living set in.  Joyce found that she was selling more jewelry from the scraps of her sculpture.  By 1986, Joyce was making porcelain jewelry full time. Her work soon outgrew her home, facilitating the construction of the studio behind the house.

In 1988, attracted by the range of color possibilities,  and convenience of polymer clay, she began to experiment with it.  Her first “bugs” appeared in 1993 as a unique promotional item for a local museum’s garden-themed exhibit. When a local distributor took samples of the bugs to a New York Gift Show, it immediately generated nationwide orders.  The critters were an instant hit, and the Yipes! line was born.   Since then, Joyce has continued to design new species of insects and other creatures each year.  Some are based on real insects, while others are her own invented species

Joyce has principally marketed her work on a wholesale basis, selling to galleries, shops, and museum stores nationwide. While her children were young, this enabled her to work and still be at home.   She also exhibits at a few regional art fairs in the Midwest.

In 2010, Joyce built a new studio behind her home, where she continues to produce the Yipes! line of jewelery  and to experiment with new media.

Joyce Fritz, Joyce Fritz Studio

822 S. Clay Street, Green Bay

920-435-3840

www.joycefritz.com

yipes.bugs@yahoo.com