Studio Ramiii: CLC Artisan

The season of summer is beloved for the vibrancy, warmth and fruitfulness of our surroundings. On Aug. 9–11, Salt Lake City will celebrate summertime, along with the best of our state’s DIY engineers, craft foodies, performers and craftspeople at the 11th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented By Harmons at the Utah State Fairpark. Every year, Craft Lake City commemorates the best of Utah’s creators, this year being CLC’s first at the Utah State Fairpark—there is much to celebrate! Visit craftlakecity.com to learn more about the 11th DIY Festival.

Officially beginning in January of this year through an elating and well-accepted Instagram post, Studio Ramiii (@studioramiii) has been taking our earlobes by storm with her handcrafted, carefully curated, polymer-clay earrings. The trend of handmade polymer clay earrings has been going strong for a couple years now, and they have been making appearances in most local stores and boutiques. However, Nicole Morris of Studio Ramiii has been able to apply her teachings from her BYU Studio Art bachelor’s degree to really take the reins and tread her own path with this medium by applying unique and inspired patterns/imagery to her wearable art from artists such as Henri Matisse in addition to architecture and nature.

Morris’ venture began at a Bountiful Davis Art Market in November of 2018, as she accompanied her mother, Lonnie Wadley, whose art goes by Mila Roads and who creates handmade leather bags, as a vendor who just wanted to “dip their toes in.” At the time, Morris was creating leather earrings along with her polymer-clay jewelry as she was still experimenting with mediums. After selling out at her first market, it was clear that the next step was to dive into the warm waters. The name for Morris’ art (Studio Ramiii) is actually an acronym for her husband’s full name, Richard Alexander Morris III: “I guess I just really like him!” she says.

Using the slab, marble and flat-art techniques, Morris creates a large range of styles and is constantly pumping out new ideas day by day. Morris finds it difficult to recreate pieces because, for her, creating each piece is a different form of expression that cannot be duplicated. Nonetheless, this makes it so each piece is truly unique and priceless. Morris recently created a limited-edition collaboration series with embroiderist Aurelia Gowen—a collection of the same floral pattern that they worked on together—truly seamless. Come meet Morris and feast your eyes on her polymer creations at this year’s DIY Festival where on the Saturday of that weekend, Aug. 10, she will be doing a buy-two-get-the-third-pair-free deal! –Bianca Velasquez

More on SLUGMag.com:

Anika Quinn Jewelry: Craft Lake City Artisan
Desert Rose: Craft Lake City Artisan