MindStorm Productions has recently released the latest video in its Master Artisans: Polymer Clay Series, featuring Dotty McMillan in "Transfer Magic." Magic is just what Dotty seems to produce: vivid, crisp designs replicated on clay. Already well known as the author of suspense novels and as a nationally exhibited artist, Dotty makes her video debut here as an excellent polymer clay instructor.

After a detailed introductory explanation of the tools and materials required for her projects, Dotty begins with a basic black and white transfer. Using an image which has been either freshly photocopied or printed on a laser printer, the artist places the image on raw clay, burnishes it well, and bakes it. The steps are explained and shown in very clear detail. Dotty shows how the use of two colors of clay creates easily achieved visual interest. She explains the importance of burnishing, "the very most important part of doing transfers." Following the transfer of the image to clay, a pin is created with the addition of a contrasting frame and a pin finding. As will happen throughout the video, Dotty throws in an additional suggestion or two for using or presenting the finished pieces.

Next, Dotty shows how to make a collage pendant. She creates black and white copies of images from a variety of sources, colors them with colored pencils, and burnishes the design onto raw clay. Having problems with an incomplete transfer to the clay? Dotty shows how to remedy the situation. For this project, she molds the frame clay in the "matrix" which is part of the rubber stamp manufacturing process. Talcum powder or "Armor All^TM" is used as a mold release, and a needle tool is used to smooth the seams. An embossed tube of clay is made to form a holder for the pendant's cord. the entire frame and cord holder is enriched with the application of Liquid Sculpey^TM which has been thinned and tinted with artists' oils. Viewers are also shown how to use successively finer grades of wet-dry sandpaper to obtain a satin smooth finish on the baked piece.

The next project is the transfer of color images. Dotty reveals the special type of paper which makes these transfers possible (and which type does not). Her clear explanation of why things work or don't work will appeal to the inquiring minds among her audience. Copying original or copyright-free art is explained, as is another demonstration of burnishing. Liquid Sculpey^TM is used to coat and protect the image. A large, colorful pendant is made using black clay, pressed into a mold to create an embossed effect, as a frame for the color image.

The use of rubber stamps and their reverse molded images is an integral part of the projects on this video. Dotty explains how to create, purchase and use these tools to add either subtle or dramatic emphasis to transferred images.

Dotty now goes into considerable detail about using various finishes to create patinas or weathered appearances on finished work. She shows how she makes pins and pendants which look like reassembled shards of broken pottery or tiles. Black clay, subtly embossed with a related pattern, forms a frame. Antique looks are achieved through the use of acrylic paints, Enhancers^TM, and metallic wax. The addition of dangling beads completes these unique and handsome works of art.

Dotty also makes dimensional images by using rubber stamps and thick pads of clay to make her own molds. After baking her molded clay pieces, she "antiques" them and demonstrates the use of sandpaper to achieve a clean contrast among the different thicknesses of clay.

The final section of the video is packed full of enough ideas to keep polymer artists at work or play for a long time - suggestions such as sources for images, making shaped frames and boxes, miniature books, creative pendant and pin backings, and the use of a computer to create images and/or add color to them.

Dotty McMillan is a talented and imaginative artist who shares her ideas generously with her viewers. When she lists sources at the end of the video, she even lists herself as available to do scanning, sizing and printing on transfer paper. Be sure to stay tuned for the now-famous MindStorm video outtakes at the end of the tape; it's such a relief to see and hear that the experts among us make their share of mistakes and can laugh heartily at themselves.