Polymer Pizzazz: 27 Great Polymer Clay Jewelry Pro (Best of Bead & Button Magazine) [Paperback]

Bead&Button Magazine (Author), Kristin Schneidler (Compiler)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2006

Polymer Pizzazz is the essential resource for learning to use polymer clay. This book showcases the many ways of using the material to create beads, pendants, brooches, and earrings. A variety of techniques, such as canes, chains, and faux effects, including faux cinnabar, faux porcelain, faux lacquer, and faux stone pieces, are taught by innovative clay artists. A thorough Basics section will help beginners. Projects include making painted disk beads, marbled beads, filigree beads, and more.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bead&Button magazine, America’s favorite beading magazine, brings readers a wealth of beautiful beading projects, techniques, and inspirations with every issue. Every project is tested by the editors and includes step-by-step photographs and complete instructions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Kalmbach Books (November 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871162369
• ISBN-13: 978-0871162366
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #889,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Creative Adventure, December 9, 2006

By 

Rebecca Johnson "The Rebecca Review" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Polymer Pizzazz: 27 Great Polymer Clay Jewelry Pro (Best of Bead & Button Magazine) (Paperback)

Have you always wondered how you could make custom beads for your custom jewelry projects? Polymer Pizzazz gives you ideas in 27 projects to inspire your own creative adventure. Each "step-by-step" project is intriguing and explores the possibilities of using polymer clay to create beads, pendants, brooches and earrings.

Faux cinnabar, lacquer brooches, enamel, porcelain and stone are also addressed in detail. The first section explores all the tools needed and the best products to buy - manufacturers names included. Some of the clays are better for projects you will bake and others are best for sculpting. What is truly amazing about these projects is how beautiful and silvery the beads can become with the use of special pearl powders.

The beads can be baked in a toaster oven and temperatures are given, as well as what to expect the item to look like when it is baked. The complex canework is especially exquisite with colorful flowers, black beads and floral adventures. Detailed instructions show how the flowers are formed from small pieces of clay and how you can use a pasta machine to make your projects even easier to complete.

The polymer clay tassels could be customized to suit any décor and the faux porcelain beads are mysterious. You can make the print with stamps. The Faux Stone project is perhaps the most intriguing with the resulting beads looking just like stones with a high-polished finish.

The lockets have many possibilities and are very artistic - perfect for gifts. The pendants have many possibilities, including ideas for using your computer to make images and to type out quotes.

Items you will need (if you don't already have them): pasta machine, Prismacolor pencils, ink pads, rubber stamps, X-acto knife, gold foil, small acrylic roller (like a rolling pin), Premo Sculpey (various colors - ASIN: B0009FHGR6 is a blue color), Fimo Soft (ASIN: B000A3SHOI), Liquid Sculpey (ASIN: B00083MH28), Sculpey glaze (ASIN: B0001DU934 - also look for GLOSS version), Sculpey Diluent and carving/modeling tools (ASIN: B0001DU948).

ASIN: B000CPNDQQ - this is a nice collection of colored clays you can bake. They have a wide variety of samplers to choose from. They also suggest having jewelry tools such as crimpling pliers, diagonal wire cutters, pliers and a ball peen hammer (ASIN: B0002DSPO8) and anvil (ASIN: B0000DD6Y8), or use a flat piece of metal for an anvil. You might want to go for a jewelry making set: ASIN: B000ITITJC. This one has just about everything: ASIN: B00065DZ2O.

~The Rebecca Review

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun projects by a variety of talented artists., July 1, 2007

By 

Book Addict (Decatur, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Polymer Pizzazz: 27 Great Polymer Clay Jewelry Pro (Best of Bead & Button Magazine) (Paperback)

I very much enjoy this book. The projects--by different polymer clay artists--are varied, and all are presented clearly with many photos. Even the projects showing jewelry I don't care for included techniques that are worth knowing and that can be applied in ways I do like. This book's a keeper!

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Ideas but Execution Needs work, February 2, 2007

By 

K. Pierz (Clarkston, MI) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Polymer Pizzazz: 27 Great Polymer Clay Jewelry Pro (Best of Bead & Button Magazine) (Paperback)

This book was a bit of a disappointment. There are some interesting ideas but the book was not organized in the best way. The instructions and the photos do not match, one has numbers and one has letters which is very odd. This book could also use some more innovative ideas, not the same types of ideas from other books and magazines.