This book was the first one I ever bought to support the start of my polymer clay journey 4 years ago. It was an excellent choice and remains my ‘go to’ book whenever I need a bit of inspiration or a piece of quick information. The main premise of the book is to guide the reader through the numerous techniques that can be applied to polymer clay. It was this that was such a revelation to me when starting out and I realised I had found a medium that would just keep on giving. As it says on the front cover, it is a directory of mixes, colours, textures, faux finishes and surface effects. The effects included are texture, inclusions, printing, caning, patterns, mosaic and embellishments.The book begins by giving a brief overview of basic skills, colour mixing and finishing. This is followed by the directory of effects which follows a similar format throughout the book. Each well laid out chapter gives information and materials list and shows how to achieve the technique using excellent photos and easy to follow instructions. I like the fact that it is not too wordy. This is followed by tile samples showing and explaining variations of the main technique. Every chapter finishes with a gallery of polymer clay artists’ work, showcasing how they have used the different techniques shown, within their work. The author, Marie Segal is a professional artist and has been working with polymer clay for over 30 years. She helped to develop Premo clay so her knowledge of the medium is excellent.The book was a constant source of inspiration for me during a recent project I took part in where I committed to producing a tile a day for 100 days. My goal was to utilise as many techniques as I could and put them together into a large finished wall piece (see below). Although I chose to produce many of the techniques as tiles in this instance, every idea can be used to produce stunning jewellery or sculpture as is show in the ‘Artists at Work’ sections throughout the book.This book is suitable for anyone just starting out on their polymer journey or for those to want extend their creative horizons. I think it is easy to navigate and totally inspiring. If I could only keep one polymer clay book on a desert island, it would have to be this one.

published in 2013

review by Jane Cox