Tonya Davidson has been a professional artist for 19 years. She graduated in 1992 with a double major from the University of Arizona in Interior Design and Marketing. She worked in the interior design field under the award-winning Lori Carroll before moving to Chicago. She was awarded a Presidential Citation from the southern Arizona ASID chapter for her work as the Legislative Chairman.
While living in Chicago she developed a love for jewelry and beading by working as the manager of City Crafts. She was fortunate to study under the tutelage of NanC Meinhardt for several years and began exhibiting her work in galleries in several states. She also had her work accepted into the prestigious Beaded Object exhibit which traveled to many museums for over 16 months.
As a creative outlet from beading, she began painting pottery and in 1996 opened her first paint your own pottery studio with her mother in Tucson. From 2000-2002 she sat on the Board of Directors, as the Secretary, of the Contemporary Ceramics Studios Association for the United States where she met Tim McCreight at a conference where he was demonstrating PMC.
In 1997 she began teaching PMC out of her studio and in 1998 she opened her second pyop studio, Paint Yourself Silly. In 1999 she became on of the first six senior instructors chosen to represent the US for Art Clay. She was also the newsletter editor for Art Clay. In 2000 her piece Leaves Falling was a winner in the 2000 Silver Accessories contest held by Aida in Japan.
From 2002-2006 Tonya became a senior instructor for PMC Connection. Her teaching has come full circle by becoming one of nine senior faculty members for the Rio Grande Rewards program, 2006 to present.
Over the past 19 years she has studied under 37 accomplished master artists in glass casting, glass fusing, lampworking, wire work, polymer clay, and goldsmithing. Her love for materials and technique have led to a more than half of her life being spent teaching art. She is passionate about helping others!
She has taught all over the United States including Bead and Button, PMC Guild Conference and CCSA conference.
She opened Whole Lotta Whimsy, as a extension of Paint Yourself Silly, in 2002 with her mother, Sharon. In the past 9 years they grew the company from 100 items sold out of a garage, to now carrying over 50 different product lines and over 3800 different items. Within 3 years the company was doing seven figures and has continued to grow every year since.
She has developed several product lines, materials and tools and in 2010 launched the Master Muse program that now has over 50 tutorials available to inspire and teach others.
Tonya has also been an advisor for the Metal Clay Master’s Registry and also an advisor of Metal Clay Academy.
She has presented and lectured at 7 CCSA conferences and 4 out of the 5 PMC Guild Conferences. She loves to share her knowledge with others!
She has been featured in many magazines including Popular Ceramics, Lapidary Journal, Beadwork, and Metal Clay Artist Magazine. She is also a chapter author of several books: PMC Technic, Precious Metal Clay Mixed Media and Fired Up. She has been featured in Pure Silver Metal Clay Beads and PMC Decade.
Tonya has been married for 18 years to her amazing partner, a genius Apple software engineer, Drew, she has a 15 year old super-athlete son, Brandt, and three joy-filled fur babies (Gabby, Sadie, and Hercules). She enjoys hanging out at the bookstore, creating, learning, gallery hopping and spending as much time as she can with her boys (dad, son, hubby)! She counts her blessings each day for the gifts she has to share with others and dedicates them to the memory of her mother (her mentor, business partner and best friend) who passed away last year from cancer.
