[JP Thomas, Founder & Designer of Hand Guitars] [Jon Anderson, Polymer Clay Artist]
JP Thomas first picked up a guitar at the age of two… and instinctively rode it like a horse around the house. Oddly enough, this early act of bravado would set the course for the life of a modern Renaissance man, bent on innovation, creative expression and adventure.
Art, music and design came naturally to JP. Having learned to play guitar in his early years, by 15 he was already a veteran on the local club circuit and life on the road led him to California for the legendary summers of ’67 and ’68. There he found work as a guitar tech at a music store which eventually landed him a job as a roadie for the Doors — the first gig was the infamous Miami Coliseum riot!
At eighteen, JP left the States with a guitar and a one-way ticket that took him on a decades-long journey through Australia, Indonesia, India, Japan and Thailand. During his experience living in Asia, JP absorbed the culture, worked with exotic materials, developed new products from obscure traditional processes that met with commercial success.
Still on the traveler’s road, in the late 80s JP settled on the shores of Maui, Hawaii where he currently resides. Since moving there he has raised a family, authored 2 books, exhibited as a fine artist, designed Aloha shirts and finally built a workshop to thoroughly explore his passion for the electric guitar.
After several years of prototypes and musician critiques, Hand Guitars was founded in 2009. JP Thomas’ eclectic designs and vast knowledge of the craft, in combination with Jon Anderson’s polymer clay artistry, possess that certain something that not only makes them incredibly attractive but also sound as good as they look!
-Jon Anderson-
Jon Anderson is the most accomplished practitioner in the medium of polymer clay today. His works are shown, sold and collected in museums and galleries world wide. Mr Anderson has made the exploration of this medium his life's work. He continues to expand the uses and applications of polymer clay through obsessively focused experimentation. He works year round. He has no other vocation. He's having too much fun to stop.
Since polymer clay found Jon Anderson almost 20 years ago, this artist remains awe struck with its potential and mystery. Approaching the clay with a method similar to millefiori, essentially a multi-layering technique developed centuries ago in Venetian glassware, Jon continues to break new ground using a 3D process to create a dimensional 2D graphic result. Incomprehensible in it's complexity, his inspiration is found in nature, sacred geometry, the universal truth in symmetry, and entheogenic mystical states. Jon is utterly omnivorous in what influences his work. Rusted farm machinery, rare orchids, electron micro-graphs, ice-encrusted mud flaps...it's all idea provoking beauty to feed his creativity.
In approaching the guitar, Jon has again found a new and vibrant voice for his medium. Adorning this instrument is something artists have done since the ancient Greeks decorated the kithara. This time, it's Jon Anderson's turn.
Jon believes artists have yet to scratch the surface in this medium's potential. His goal is to carve out a hole big enough for others to walk through.
