Customer Reviews

Dragons: The CF Polymer Clay Sculpture Series

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dragons is the first book in a series of "non-project" books. This means that the author gives excellent step-by-step directions for making one dragon bead in her signature style and supplements it with many suggestions for customizing the dragon to make it your own. Techniques include sculpting the dragon and adding beads and other embellishments to your work.

I am new to polymer clay, but I found the instructions very clear and easy to follow. One caution: this should not be your first book on polymer clay. The author refers to well-established techniques without giving directions. I found it helpful to keep a basic polymer clay book like The Polymer Clay Techniques Book with me to help explain terms I didn't know.

The dragons in this book are wonderful, and the author pairs clear instructions with a joyous sense of humor that makes the book a pleasure to read. It is a very thin little volume, but it is packed with useful information. I am eagerly awaiting further books in the series.

I highly recommed Dragons for any polymer clay design library.

christi is an amazing artist and darn funny too! her book is filled with a ton of examples, any of which should fill you with the desire to drop the book (unfinished) and roll out some clay !the dragons do NOT look like cookie-cutter replicas of one another, each has its own personality. she writes this book with the understanding that the reader has some familiarity with clay so do not look for directions on how to... she does however have a wonderful chat group (that you can find on her website) where those inspired by her work help each other out with techniques etc. christi even chimes in herself now and again ! if you have any love of clay or even just want to fill you dragon collection with pictures of some really original characters, do buy this book.

nichol

I personally liked this book for what it didn't have, cookie cutter creations. Not that I don't have tons of books for making things step by step, but this author's step by step creation with a cute little guy gives alot of room for the reader to embelish in a personal way and even if you tried you could never make the same little guy she did.Although there is only the one "project" the author gives at several other ways you can do each step using photos to show examples for each as well as several pages of ideas and variations which I found inspiring.

Something I did with this book that I never did with other project books is read it from cover to cover before I sat down with my polymer clay, tools, etc. There is so many good tips and funny quotes I just couldn't put it down when I first opened it, and I think that really helped when I made my first dragon.

I found this book to be fantastic! It's humorous, and the instructions are easy to understand and follow. She really does give lots of examples and ideas to help with creativity. The pictures are good, too. The book is a nice size; not too big and cumbersome, but everything you need to get going. Love the headings (pick your nose!)....I hope to see even more from this author than the three she currently has!

I love creating with polymer clay, and I LOVE dragons, so when I saw Christi Friesen's book on creating clay dragons, I was in heaven. This book does not disappoint - well thought out, step-by-step instructions on how to create your own dragon, with your own touches. You don't have to copy hers!

There's humor throughout the book, wonderful full color pictures, and oodles and scads of ideas and tips on how to work with polymer clay.

If you like clay, and you love dragons, you will want this book!

DragonsChest

I like this book for the simple step by step approach. I also admire the author's other polymer clay books. Pretty much everyone I showed these dragons to though...thought the curled up shape with no legs reminded them of worms. Honestly, they remind me of worms. I don't look at this shape and think- oh! the legs are just curled up underneath! Legs are more challenging to do than this curled up shape, so perhaps this is a place to start. I added legs to mine and as someone relatively new to working polymer clay, found that separating the toes and getting them to look right took a bit of work. What I primarily learned from this book is how to make the eyes she uses for dragons. The eyes turn out really cute. Learning how to do that was worth the price of the book for me.

As some reviewers already mentioned, this book gives wonderful photographs of the authors "signature style" with ideas for changes and creating your own unique style. The ideas truly are wonderful and whimsical. I didn't expect the dragons to be so flat though! I was expecting a true 3 dimensional sculpture-type dragon. Instead, the dragons are flat on one side. She does give some clever ideas for turning her flat dragons into nice (though large) focal beads.

When I received this book was one of the happiest days of my life. I adore dragons and dreamed of been able to do them. It is really amazing, I haven't done any sculpting before and I was amaze how easy it was to do my first dragon with all the explanations and instruction. When I finished I only could wander "Did I do this wonderful dragon?" I didn't know it was that easy, it seemed more difficult, but Christi's explanations make it easy. This book is really my favourite one. I love to have a look at it from time to time for inspiration.

As an artist that has been working with polymer clay for several years, I find Christi Friesen's "Dragons" a refreshing, fun and wonderfully instructive book. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Kathy Weaver, Sandusky, Ohio

While I did learn a bit from this book on sculpting dragons in polymer clay, I had hoped for a bit more than just the one dragon she sculpted for instruction. Although Christi Friesen offers a bit of extra instuction on different aspects of dragon sculpting, I believe she could have done a bit more in this 48 page book. Oh Well, I will say I enjoyed it and do recommend it to those who are fans of Ms. Friesen's type of art! A+