In this book, they offer instruction and inspiration that focuses on polymer clay as a learning tool that readers can use to explore their own color instincts and preferences and develop their own palettes.Each chapter investigates a specific color principle, with the discussion supported by a related exercise, a “studio tool” assignment or demonstration, a polymer clay jewelry project, and a profile of a prominent polymer clay artist. Sample topics include:•The Complexity of Color•Three Properties of Color•Choosing Your Palette•Mixing Colors That Flow•Matching Colors with Precision•Games Colors Play•Orchestrating Color Combinations•Color Composition: Placement and Proportion•Playful Patterns•Tantalizing Textures

    In Venetian glassmaking, slender rods of molten glass are shaped, then cut to reveal amazingly detailed patterns: flowers, geometric shapes, dancing colors. These slices are called millefiori, “thousand flowers,” because they form a carpet of flowers when placed side by side. Now celebrity author Donna Kato shows crafters exactly how to re-create these intricate, fascinating designs in polymer clay. The Art of Polymer Clay Millefiori Techniques reveals the entire process: how to work with the polymer clay, the basics of planning and creating a cane, and using color effectively. Dozens of canes, from simple to simply stunning, are included, and everything is clearly explained and illustrated with full-color photos, the Donna Kato way. Throughout the book, examples of stunning work by such millefiori artists as Kathy Amt, Pier Voulkos, and Kathleen Dustin provide inspiration. There must be a thousand ways to make beautiful millefiori . . . explore them all in The Art of Polymer Clay Millefiori Techniques.

    Styled as a cookbook for the beginning miniaturist "chef," the introductory chapters discuss the "basic ingredients" and techniques used for polymer clay and jewelry-making. The remainder of the book offers 20 "recipes" grouped by category: fruits, breakfast, lunch and dinner, sweets and snacks, and holiday foods. Each recipe has a list of "ingredients," step-by-step directions with photographs, and suggested variations. Each piece is presented as a particular finished jewelry item, such as a necklace, but readers are encouraged to adapt the piece into any type of jewelry they choose. Each chapter also includes one of the authors' own cherished recipes for real food, including Sunday Morning Cinnamon Rolls, Grandma's Pasta Sauce, Decadent Raspberry Chocolate Cupcakes, and Mom's Holiday Sugar Cookies. Throughout, the authors--who are sisters--share their enthusiasm for family, sisterhood, and the tradition and feelings surrounding our favorite foods.

    With the friendly medium of polymer clay and the step-by-step instructions in this book, you can achieve the same magical results! Inside, Katherine leads you through then utterly charming projects, such as a sweet little bluebird, a basset hound and a white-tailed fawn. And that's just the start! The "Making Changes" chapter will help you create your own original animal creations by changing poses, making realistic bases, and even modeling your animals to look like bronze, fade and other materials.

    The straightforward instructions discuss topics that include conditioning raw clay and making simple shapes; producing more complex shapes, such as rounds, canes, and spirals; decorating the beads with foils, powders, and milléfiori; and creating faux effects like ivory, bone, turquoise, marble, and silver. A gallery of beads by internationally renowned artists, hundreds of step-by-step photographs of new beads designed by the author, and a clay gauge that allows one to estimate how much clay is necessary to make a specific quantity of beads are included, making this a comprehensive guide that will provide inspiration, demonstrate the range of effects that can be achieved in polymer clay, and teach beaders how to incorporate these beads into jewelry designs.

    Pretty cool! The popularity of these resins for jewelry making has soared with the introduction of easy-to-mix, low-odor products, ideal for crafters. Now best-selling author Sherri Haab shows how to put the miracle of modern technology to work making necklaces, bangles, bracelets, pins, earrings, and rings. Projects range from simple to sophisticated, from Bakelite-style heart pins to faux amber earrings to glitter gem bracelets, from scrimshaw bracelets to cloisonné pins to transparent resin necklaces backed with gold leaf. Packed with tips on tools, supplies, finishing, and creating special effects, including ideas on combining resins with polymer clay, The Art of Resin Jewelry is a beautiful and practical introduction to an exciting craft.

    The many-pointed star formed from large icicles balances on a rock in a quiet Dumfriesshire valley, a delicate bamboo screen stands on a Japanese beach, a great serpentine ridge of earth extends along a disused railway cutting on Tyneside, four massive snow rings mark the position of the North Pole.

    In The Elements of Landscape Oil Painting, established Watson-Guptill author and noted instructor/painter Suzanne Brooker presents the fundamentals necessary for mastering landscape oil painting, breaking landscapes down into component parts: sky, terrain, trees, and water. Each featured element builds off the previous, with additional lessons on the latest brushes, paints, and other tools used by artists. Key methods like observation, rendering, and color mixing are supported by demonstration paintings and samples from a variety of the best landscape oil painters of all time. With The Elements of Landscape Oil Painting, oil painters looking to break into landscape painting or enhance their work will find all the necessary ingredients for success.

    Using only pen and paper, you will learn to make 24 basic Zentangles as well as inspiration for incorporating these designs into your art. Zentangles can be used to decorate wearables and home decor objects as well as cards, scrapbook pages and journals. Best of all, you can do this even if you have never drawn anything before.

    Together they provide a complete painting programme.

    There are only a few books written on the subject and most of those focus on 'flat' needle felting on a surface. This book is about sculptural needle felting—creating 3-D animals and figures using the felting needle to sculpt wool.The book shows the techniques and describes how the felting needle works with wool fiber to create felt, while explaining the differences between this art form and other forms of felting. The reader will learn how to hold the needle, what sort of materials to use, and why.There are about 20 complete projects including various birds, bugs, four-legged animals, and people-each one unique and irresistible! Laurie also shows the reader ways to display their felted creations as mobiles, ornaments, or arranged in shadow boxes.

    Crafters dabble, collaborate, muse, and make, all in their own way and on their own timeline. For all crafts, there are established techniques to follow but wild, innumerable ways to experiment, using the basics to launch crafters to new heights. Crafter’s Devotional can aid that launch. Each day of the year is given its own focus, on which the reader will find a daily dose of craft content that inspires, instructs, and illuminates.

    The stylish design of this book, along with the interior photographs, illustrations and diagrams, make the learning process simple and fun for beginning painters and provides useful tips for more advanced artists.This book is divided into three sections. In the first section, you will find practical advice on choosing the necessary tools and equiopment as well as hints on mixing colorsâ?¬â?one of the trickier skills to master until you have learned some of the basic properties of color. Next, the techniques used in watercolor painting are explained in detail, from the most basic like laying washes and reserving highlights to some of the more unusual and exciting methods like wax-resist or spattering paint.Tutorials and more than 100 step-by-step sequences demonstrate how to paint a wide range of subjects, including landscapes, buildings, people and still life. Over 180,000 copies sold worldwide.

    More than 20 truly stunning projects, all using peyote stitch, come in a variety of flat and dimensional shapes, from triangles, teardrops, and pentagons to tetrahedrons, cubes, and diamonds. Sleek, contemporary, and breathtaking, these beadwoven pieces are perfect for the intermediate crafter—but with such clear and detailed instructions, even beginners will give them a try! Diane Fitzgerald is a featured artist in the book Masters: Beadweaving. Other books in Lark Jewelry & Beading's Beadweaving Master Class series have been authored by Marcia DeCoster, Laura McCabe, Sherry Serafini, Maggie Meister, and Rachel Nelson-Smith.

    A perfect blend of ease and functionality, the small, portable rigid heddle loom can be used to easily produce loose, drape-friendly fabric as well as dense, sturdy material. Eighteen projects—for scarves, bags, belts, tops, and a bevy of household goodies such as pillows, rugs, and blankets—explore how to combine colors and create textured fabrics using a variety of techniques. Additional tips on adding crocheted edges, beaded fringe, and needle-felted flowers are also included.