How to Make Polymer Clay Beads, a DVD presented by Ronna Sarvas Weltman and published by Interweave ($29.99 US) as part of its Beading Daily Workshop series, includes three chapters covering bead making with polymer clay. Weltman is known for her unique primitive style jewelry as well as the book
Ancient Modern: Polymer Clay and Wire Jewelry. In this DVD she shows how to make many of the beads and elements she has in her book such as round, half-round, and disk-shaped beads. This DVD runs 1 hours and 15 minutes.
DVD Organization
The DVD is organized into three chapters: 1) Conditioning, Shaping, and Texturing; 2) Marbling, Caining, and Embellishing; and 3) Putting It All Together. The first two chapters cover the techniques included in the chapter titles, and Weltman is obviously at ease in front of the camera as she demonstrates each technique. She also provides tips along the way. For example, she suggests that if you aren't completely happy with the finished product then that probably means you need to redo it. Luckily, she shows how easy this is with polymer clay since you can just roll it through a pasta machine and start over for the most part.
She also explains the various supplies you need as well as shows a very important part of bead making - getting those beads round! She offers a lot of detailed advice and slows herself down a little so the viewer can clearly see how she is forming the round beads.
After demonstrating the techniques included in the first two chapters, she ends the DVD with lots of examples of how to incorporate the finished beads in to lots of different types of jewelry.
Final Thoughts
This DVD is very technique oriented, which is really the most important part of making polymer clay beads, and Weltman offers enough variety that you could make lots of different looking beads. Because of this, it is possible to create your own voice (as she puts it) or just copy her methods to make beads that look as great as hers.
While there is a lot going on in this DVD, it would have been nice to see a little more attention paid to finishing the beads. She does explain how to get finger prints off, but curing (baking the clay, which she does explain varies depending on the clay manufacturer) and adding any type of protective finish to the beads is not discussed in much detail compared to the rest of the DVD. Since this DVD does such a great job of covering the other aspects of polymer clay bead making, it just would have been nice to see this covered as well.
Beginners or those not very familiar with polymer clay will feel like they are taking a class since Weltman doesn't simply talk from a script but talks to her audience. She also demystifies a lot of what can be challenging with this medium.
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our
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