Learn To Work With The Most Versatile Art Medium In All Of The Art & Craft Market!

That medium, of course, is Polymer Clay. You can sculpt it, carve it, make it look like glass or stone, imitate metal, and cover just about anything that will withstand curing temperatures. The possibilities are endless!

And now, thanks to the Master Artisans Video Instructional Series from MindStorm Productions, you can learn to work with clay to transform ordinary objects around your home into artistic treasures.

"Introduction To Polymer Clays" is the first video in a four volume set featuring renowned Master Polymer Clay Artisan, Donna Kato. Pop the tape in your VCR and get ready for 56 minutes of instruction covering a variety of ways you can use clay to create works of art. You'll be amazed at the amount of information packed into this program!

Donna starts off by defining what is polymer clay. She then shows you how to prepare it and cure it for use in your projects. The opening section features an in-depth look at the basic types of clays available on the market, their features and applications. Among them: Sculpey, Super Sculpey, Sculpey III, Promat, Premo Sculpey, Granitex, Fimo, and Cernit.

Donna then offers suggestions for choosing the clays that are best suited for your projects. She explains that your choices will be influenced by a variety of elements, including the temperature of your hands and the particular techniques you'll be using to create your pieces. And she reminds us that when it comes to working with clay, success is determined by the skill and patience of the person using it. When selecting clay, she encourages you to, "Try them all! Then decide which one works best for you."

After you've chosen your clay, choosing the tools you work with is a critical step in the results you'll achieve. "The best tools you have are probably your two hands," says Donna. Then she demonstrates additional tools you'll need to make your job easier. You'll also learn what type of surfaces are best to work on, what types of ovens you should use to cure your projects, and why it's important to avoid shiny surfaces while curing. You'll also learn a simple formula for determining curing time based on the thickness of the clay.

The beauty of working with clay is the large variety of colors that are available from which you can choose. But what happens if you can't find the color you're looking for? Don't worry. Donna will show you how to mix your own, using primary and secondary colors. And she'll teach you how to reproduce those same colors over and over again. She'll also demonstrate a simple method for creating graded colors.

Once you've been working with clay you'll find that you have a lot of "scrap" pieces left over. But don't throw them out! You're going to learn how to use that "scrap clay" to create push molds from objects as common as seashells. You're also going to learn how to make clay figurines, how to imitate granite, malachite, and stone using polymer clay and embossing powder, and how to turn a "silly" technique borrowed from your childhood into beautiful works of art!

Donna also introduces you to the basics of millefiori, the most popular technique used by polymer clay artisans. "What millefiori does is build pictures lengthwise in clay," says Donna. Confused? You won't be after seeing examples of it and creating your very own lime cane! This section is also a great introduction to Volume 3 of Donna's series: "Millefiori Basics."

"Introduction To Polymer Clays" covers a wide range of topics. The beauty of this program is that you'll learn by doing. While some of the projects may seem complicated, by following Donna's step-by-step instructions you'll see how easy and how much fun working with clay can be.