Donna Kato

One of the first instruction manuals for working with polymer clay, this remains my favorite beginner's guide (probably because I've worked so much with it). The "lessons" are clear and well illustrated, and the photography is outstanding. To me, the most impressive thing about Donna Kato is that she was able to create beautiful art from that soupy mess called Sculpey III (and Fimo Soft is no better). The damned stuff just melts in my hot little hands. She has now developed her own formula show more for polymer clay, marketing it as Kato PolyClay. It's much firmer than Sculpey III (thus easier to work for hot hands like mine), but conditions with the same ease as Sculpey's popular Premo! show less

I love this book! Donna Kato shares her creativity and shows tons of different techniques for texturizing and finishing. She offers new (to me) ideas and takes the reader, step-by-step through a variety of projects. The techniques are easily adaptable to other projects. The variety of designs are great inspiration for creating items of your own.

I consider myself a beginner in polymer clay even after working with it for several years. This book had projects that were easy for me to do, and they helped clean up a good deal of the scrap clay that I have accumulated over time. The pictures of Donna Kato's work as well as that of other artists are very inspiring as well.

Basic book, aged well. Basic information on caning is very good.