Cynthia Toops

Cynthia grew up in Hong Kong, but left in 1975 to attend college in the United States, Despite graduating summa cum laude with B.A. in Biology and a year of graduate school at Drake University, she eventually decided to switch focus to art, graduating from the University of Washington with a B.F.A. in printmaking in 1983.  

She began working with polymer clay in 1986, a material she first encountered during a visit with her sisters in Hong Kong. As a struggling artist, the low cost of the material, equipment and setup was a definite bonus. The lack of history and established “rules” with an emerging craft material was also liberating. Although polymer is her main medium, she occasionally uses other material such as glass, felt, paper, metal and other plastics in her work.  

For almost 40 years, she’s made beads, pendants, necklaces, bracelets and other forms of jewelry, but is best known for her micromosaics, a technique she developed in 1992. She takes inspiration from ethnic jewelry, folk art, and nature and enjoys collaboration with other artists.  

Her work is found in galleries, private and museum collections including the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, Fuller Craft Museum, Racine Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Tacoma Art Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Art, Museum of Art & Design (New York) and the Swiss National Museum (Zurich).