A few Reviews

  Ronna Sarvas Weltman, author of Ancient Modern Polymer Clay and Wire Jewelry,  is an amazing artist.. If you haven't picked up a copy of her book, I would recommend it. It's very inspiring, I was just looking through my copy a few nights ago. I was inspired by her wire work for this and this!

My favorite thing about Ronna's projects are that she creates such organic forms with clay.

The beads are large, and speak volumes in shapes and colors.

Ronna now has a few videos out, and I had a chance to watch them last night. You can buy them at the Interweave store.

 Metalwork: How to Shape, Texture and Antique Wireworked jewelry

Ronna covers all of the basics in this video about what kind of wires are available, tools that are helpful and great tips like what gauge to use for things like earring wires.  I think it's a fabulous video for beginners, easy to understand, interesting, and Ronna is a treat to watch. I love that she gives little stories here and there, and tips and tricks to remember how to remember certain techniques.

Polymer clay beads do go very well with wire and metal, especially darkened metal. Ronna shows how to patina wire with Liver of Sulfur. I think this is great, especially having not seen it done correctly before (I just wing it) and it's really cool to see the metal turn different shades each time she dunks it into the mixture.  Another fun section of the video, is Ronna's instructions on making a funky copper wire ring from start to finish.

Mixed Media how to make Polymer Clay Beads

Another fabulous video for beginners! If you have ever wanted

to play around with polymer clay, I highly recommend Ronna's

instructional video. She covers the basics of conditioning

and curing the clay, mixing colors, and creating beads in cool

organic shapes such as discs and her famous Hemisphere

beads. These are my favorite, and I was pretty excited to find out

that you can bake the clay, and then bake it again - a technique she

uses when making the hemisphere beads.

Ronna has clever ways  of cutting the clay, and gives great tips on

forming evenly sized beads and perfectly round beads.

Marbeling clay is a fascinating process that can be altered in your own design style to create your own unique beads. I love that Ronna keeps the techniques loose, and open for interpretation for your own ideas and color choices. Forming beads in her distinctive style, but with your own twist, is important when sitting down to create polymer clay beads.

I also enjoyed the cane technique where she shows how to create two different types of cane, to embellish the other beads you've made.

I hope you enjoyed these short reviews,

don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about

the dvds.