Customer Reviews

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

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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

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!

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.

This is such a great book and a great concept. It's an entire book of the best of Polymer Clay magazine articles. I love it. I like that it includes easy to follow directions, and I think it would be a great addition to any Polymer Clay enthusiast.

This is an awesome book for clayers of all levels. I just love it. You won't be disappointed with this book. The pictures are beautiful, and the directions are so simple to follow.......

Another great book that shows step by step how
to create these fabulous beads and jewelry from
Polymer Clay.

This looks like a super book. I haven't had time to try any of the projects yet but have looked through the book. It has some great inspirations. Instructions are thorough.

Crafters working with polymer, especially newcomers to the medium, will find POLYMER PIZZAZZ a fine place to start. Crafts libraries will appreciate projects which move logically from basics to more advanced steps - some 27 in all - and which pack in color photos, materials lists and more to assure successful polished results. A 'must' for any serious jewelry maker.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I absolutely loved this book. It is filled with great pictures and is clearly written. I have made so gorgeous pieces due to what I've learned with this book.