Reviewed by annieb123 on
Make Cute Stuff with Polymer Clay is a tutorial guide to working with polymer clay by artist/sculptor Shelley Kommers. Released 7 Dec 2021 by Quarto on their Walter Foster imprint, it's 128 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.
Virtually everyone has used polymer clay at some point. It's available at crafts and big-box retailers, by mail order, and I've even seen it at some larger grocery stores. The disconnect comes when you get your little packages of plastic home and try to make something. Even with the best intentions, none of my creations bore the slightest resemblance to the pictures I had up in my head. I needed a step-by-step tutorial, and this is a good one. The book is full of cute exuberant and colorful projects and well written tutorials to guide readers through projects to finished items (which actually look like the things they're meant to be).
I'm definitely a process based learner, so this book was perfect for me. The photographs are crisp and clear, the steps are very well delineated, and the projects are super cute and appealing (see cover). There are a wide variety of subject tutorials; florals, fantasy animals, food, pets, etc. The projects are mostly whimsical and have a younger/kid-age feel in my opinion; but could easily be adapted for more grownup projects.
This would make an amazing activity guide for scouts, church or library kid groups, or classroom art instruction. I'm a middle aged adult and I am absolutely going to use the tutorials here to make myself some charms for my embroidery scissors and needle minders. This is a wonderfully inspiring book which had my fingers itching to get started!
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 9 January, 2022: Finished reading
- 9 January, 2022: Reviewed