Ancient Modern: Polymer Clay + Wire Jewellery

Aug 09

Ancient meets modern in this book when polymer clays are used alongside wire in some original and fun-to-make pieces. If you thought that polymer clay was just for making into novelty earrings or for the children to make models with then think again! Well, that is what I mainly see it being used for! It certainly comes of age in this book and you can read all about what tools you need to use it at its best, safety advice for optimum curing and how to make it look like a surprising number of other materials. Learn too about gauges and different types of wire, what pliers and other tools you need and even how much you need if coiling it around another piece of wire. Making wire look primitive and polymer clay look futuristic is only a small part of it, and much fun can be had making beads that resemble oranges, or wrapping wire around to make a cage-like bead. Then you can extrude clay to resemble wire, discover millefiori technique and more with the aid of various project and lots of well-illustrated staged diagrams. Each project is part of the learning curve, with different techniques explored every time so you need never make another pair of earrings or key ring to look like sweets or teddies…unless you want to!

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Ronna Sarvas Weltman has had her work featured in Art Jewelry, Bead Style, Lapidary Journal/Jewelry Artist, Step by Step Wire, and Wire Artist Jeweler magazines. She regularly teaches workshops in polymer clay and wireworking and has appeared on That’s Clever! on HGTV. She lives in Seattle.