Review – Make Cute Stuff With Polymer Clay!

Shelley Kommers is a fine artist and illustrator that enjoys immensely creating art with a joyful, whimsical style. She lives in Los Angeles, California. When she was invited to do this book about polymer clay, she really got to do enjoyable pieces, with a main characteristic: they are bigger than the average polymer clay project you get to see in tutorials.

That is a deal changer! It approaches the material from a kid’s point of view and allows them to engage in the fun, with easy-to-follow projects.

Make Cute Stuff With Polymer Clay by Shelley Kommers

I would say that modelling clay has changed dramatically over the years, from traditional clay, to air dry clay, to model magic, to polymer clay: color availability, endurance, drying-out-times and malleability are improving every day.

Dexterity of fingers, hands-on creating and construction of different shapes is pivotal for our body coordination and mind development. We are tool makers, and kids specially need to know that progressive shapes can derive from simple forms such as coils, pinch pots and tear drops. It is one of my favorite subjects to teach and the one kids engage in the most.

Having said that, polymer clay scares me. The baking part always makes me hesitant, because I live at a very high altitude and everything changes under that condition. However, it calls to me because of the sheer range of possibilities you can make with it: it has the consistency of plasticine but, once baked, it hardens.

You can make very small objects, (such as the Among Us charm depicted bellow), but also very large ones, (as the owl included in the book) and Shelley knows how to explain this to you, from the very basics.

The best tip for me was about what to do with ugly colored clay, the one you get when not mixing colors very well, because if you are like me, when this happens you get mad for “wasting” clay.

The best part though, are the sample photographs. They are colorful and LARGE. You need large photos so you can follow the details up close, the photographs have such a consistent and fun quality that your kid will want to make every last one of the projects, from the owl pot planter, to the beautiful sloth, to the aliens and space ships, all of them are so much fun!

The Art Makers series is designed for beginning artists and arts-and-crafts enthusiasts interested in experiencing fun, hands-on mediums, including polymer clay, embroidery, and papier-mâché.

‘Make Cute Stuff With Polymer Clay’ is on sale since December 7th, 2021. You can pre-order here. Take into account shipping delays and pre-order early!

Publihser: Walter Foster Publishing
Series: Art Makers
Format: Trade Paperback 128 Pages
ISBN: ISBN9781600589409
Published Date: December 7th, 2021