I would say about two years. The same friend who showed me into the beading world also introduced me to polymer clay. I was her first student, and have stuck with her since, but now we learn together. I show her new techniques and she shows me new stuff. We marvel at all the polymer clay artist on etsy. We send e-mails back and forth have you seen this person and this one tutorial, and how do you think they did that. We're generations apart, she around 50 something and I'm 20 something, but polymer clay has made us best friends!