Polymer Clay for the First Time

Readily available, inexpensive, and easily manipulated, polymer clay is an ideal beginner's medium, and Syndee Holt does an admirable job of introducing it. She sets the stage with background on materials and basic handling, then presents 27 approaches and variations as a series of questions on technique whose answers are full-fledged projects. "How do I make a pinroll cane?" for instance, explains a simple cane process and uses it to cover a candleholder. Other cane methods yield jewelry, a frame, a barrette, drawer pulls, and a covered pen, utilizing both basic canes (bull's eye, banner, checkerboard, blended) and pictorial types (flower, millefiori, star, face, shaman).