I was excited to see this book when it first came out. Read it the same day and had mixed thoughts. It is useful if you have never made a mold... but helpless if you have moderate to high experience. It is visually layed out better than anything else out there... and I keep it on the shelf for student reference. If you teach ceramics, keep it around. If you are seeking to learn mold making...it is just one of many books that you will need to peice together the real information that you will need to be a confident mold maker.

Michael Joy
chicagomoldschool.com

This well thought out guide gets right to work explaining in clear, concise steps how to construct various types of clay molds. From basic one-piece molds to complex multi-piece molds, Clayton describes their design, construction, and infinite utility. The book is loaded with excellent color and black and white photographs. Some depict the tools and process. Others show a magnificent sampling of finished products. This guide can take the average pot-throwers hobby to the next level. Makes a pretty decent coffee table book too. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.

Author Pierce Clayton and Editor Chris Rich have assembled instructions, guidelines and black/white assembly illustrations to make both plaster and rubber molds. Eye appeal in the form of dashingly colorful photos of ceramics of many accomplished artists is also included. His easy-to-follow instructions and pictures have answered every question I had about making plaster molds. I do have one suggestion: trying to keep your copy clean with a plastic book cover might be a good idea!

This is a vastly overrated book. The recipes are pedestrian at best, in lineal descent from Betty Crocker. The author apparently thinks of food as 'food products.' Touted as including microwave cooking in clay, it does not, just offers a page of advice. If you like to cook, buy a different book.

I bought this book after I created several clay pots myself in my pottery studio. Not only did the pots work great with many of the books recipes, I found myself making more casseroles for friends and relatives.

Would you believe microwave cooking? How about oatmeal cake with coconut frosting, bouillabaisse or whole wheat cinnamon rolls? I had no idea how versatile a clay cooker is. This book not only gave me recipes for a variety of foods, but gave me information on care and storage and how to convert standard recipes to cook in clay. The recipes are wonderful and easy to follow. If you've ever thought about cooking in clay, this book will make convince you. I loved it. I use it all the time.

I am extremely disappointed with this book. I bought it because I thought it would provide more ideas for "Jewelry Making"-it did not. When this book arrived, I had been working with polymer clay for 4 days and I learned nothing from the book that I had not figured out for myself, with the exception of how to make weird naked women from clay-not quite was a looking for.A waste of [money].

If you want to learn to make canes this is your Bible. It is not limited to cane but its step by step guide to all the different types is terrific. I must look at it several times a week. Love it.

This book has been around a while, and for a good reason. It's one of the best books for learning polymer clay techniques like millefiori and bead making.

Even complex techniques are well explained here. The gallery of pictures is inspiring. If you have to get one book, this is definitely one that will start you off right and be worth keeping.

Warning: this is a very FUN craft and can be quite addictive. Fortunately, there are lots of uses for polymer clay, like beads, buttons, hair clips, decorated boxes and much more.

Wide range and variety of projects for those wanting to begin working with PC. Something for just about any area of interest. Instructions are adequately detailed for easy duplication of the projects. Projects tend to be "homemade crafty" and simplistic in nature and lack any real creativity (probably a plus for those just starting out.)Good background information on manufacturing differences and available tools. For me the best part of the book was the technique for different canes although they too are pretty basic. Not a bad addition to your PC reference library.

I do not appreciate the craftmanship exhibited in this book. The projects are fine, but I did not find them particularly creative. Irene Semanchuck-Dean(sp?)'s book had better projects and more finesse.

This book is full of a wide variety of fresh projects for beginning to more advanced polymer clay artists. Each project includes step-by-step instructions accompanied by illustrations and finished project photos.

The book starts out by thoroughly covering the basics, including a discussion of several tools that will make working with polymer clay easier. Over 25 projects follow in 5 sections including miniatures, jewelry, gifts, home accents, and special occasions.

Miniature world is my favorite section. You learn to make impressive projects such as a grandfather clock, Victorian fireplace and Christmas tree. The jewelry section is also a treat. Along with a necklace, bracelet and earrings, it shows you how to make a bunch of different of beads and buttons.

My favorite project was the sun & sea clock. Though it is time consuming it is surprisingly easy to create. I have seen similar items in craft stores sell for over $50. The special occasion projects are little less sophisticated, but great for doing with kids during the holidays. I personally loved making the simple, but beautiful decorated eggs.

Conveniently, a list of suppliers is included in the back and templates are provided with instructions when needed. This makes a great gift for anyone wanting to learn all about polymer clay and try a medley of great projects.

I know at the range we call our clays "birds" but I thought the title was a little misleading. The book is very helpful for range work and "taking more clays" but was disappointed when I found only a small section indicating that the technique would be helpful in the field. Upland bird hunting is considerably different than range shooting and those differences deserve much more attention than this book provides.

If your primary focus is sporting clays, this is a good read. From the start of "Taking More Birds...", the author states that the book is directed at the sporting clay enthusiast. I was a little vibed because I bought the book to improve my wingshooting. My decision to buy it was largely based on its title (last time I checked clay pigeons didn't have actual wings). There is a lot of good information and much of it does transfer to wingshooting. But if you are more interested in wingshooting, I would pick up the Brister book or the Orvis book (heck, even the author of "Taking More Birds..." refers to them - what does that tell you?). It's a good addition to a shooter's library, but definitely not the bible.

A simple, practical guide to the basics of Sporting Clay shooting. This book will assist everyone taking up the sport to improve their scores and techniques.

A little reminiscent of Donaldson's white gold trilogy, in the corruption of the land, but there's no explanation given for the corruption. In fact, there's no explanation given for most of the things that happen, including some pretty confusing ones. The main character seems to take being dropped into a fantasy world pretty calmly, except when she's demanding to know why nobody told her something before. There are a couple plot twists which are nicely sprung, but they're overshadowed by a number of plot directions which just seem inexplicable.

From the reviews of this book, I guess you either love it or hate it. I personally found the book to be very imaginative, containing interesting concepts and ways of thinking that i have only seen in M. Lackeys works before.

Entrancing. This is one of the books which moves slowly, but doesn't seem like it. Some plot elements are never fully explained (the wolf pack, Eli, the cup itself) but since there are more books in this series, the incompletion is more tantalizing than annoying. The heroine is one of the few in fantasy who does not annoy me with either her passivity or her stealy, "feminine" belligerence. And the idea of having children accompany the main characters throughout their adventures - very refreshing! Any average hero would feel obligated to rescue children from the evil guys, but who would accept them as comrades and friends for the rest of the book? The whole woman-disguised-as-a-man idea is nothing new in fantasy, but this time I was as surprised as the main character to learn what everyone thought of her. Most side characters are well drawn, especially the old-lady sidekick and the Littlelost. The ending is painful, twisting, and sickenly beautiful. My only complaint is that I never grew much sympathy for the male lead. He was too devoid of compassion of any kind. I hope for his sake and everyone else reading about him that he goes through some big dynamic change in the next part of the series.

Anything by Queneau attracts attention, but this was dissappointing, and hard work to get to the end. The plot, unusually, meanders or is obscure - a thin technique to print the mad scientists' manuscripts that clog up the text.

Raymond Queneau's works are generally circumscribed in scope, with a small cast of characters and restricted, usually Parisian settings. Their vastness comes from a philosophical play with time, and a casual use of recondite allusion. 'Children of Clay', however, is quite literally encyclopaedic. In the early 1930s, Queneau compiled an anthology of 19th century literary lunatics (cranks, conspiracy theorists, alternative semioticians, cosmologists etc.), which failed to find a publisher. This novel features a provincial, aristocratic headmaster who researches and compiles such an encyclopaedia, huge, dizzying chunks of which prop up the novel, hatstand versions of the universe's beginning jostling with paranoid accounts of what really happened in French history.

'Children of Clay' is many other things too. It is a huge historical novel, set in the France of the late 1920s and early 30s, with the Stock Market Crash, the decline of the aristocracy and the giant industrialists, working class unrest, anti-Semitism, the rise of fascism. The large dramatis personae include the Hachamoth family, the Jewish Baron and his extreme Catholic wife, her foppish younger brother, her beautiful daughters and religious zealot son; Clemence, their disfigured maid; the Gramignis, refugees from Fascist Italy; Robert Bossu, a barowner's son, convinced of his impending greatness in the new France; Chambernac himself, an inept sexual transgressor, who, in a reverse of the Faust story, forces a devil to sign a contract to help him complete his encyclopaedia.

Mirroring his madmen's cosmologies, all these characters ultimately descend from one man, Claye, only glimpsed in one paragraph, committing suicide from a plane. The novel is full of parodic Biblical allusions and restagings (the children of Claye are also the children of clay, i.e. all Mankind), as characters struggle to live in a violent, evil world that God has seemingly abdicated. The novel ranges in space from Italy to the English Channel, by way of the Riviera and Paris, and in time from the French Revolution to the rise of European fascism; or, more precisely, from the creation of the world to, perhaps, its imminent demise.

'Children' is one of those huge, counter-encyclopaedias, like Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy', Swift's 'Tale of the Tub', Melville's 'Moby Dick' or Benjamin's 'Arcades', works that gather together masses of alternative knowledge, marginal, ephemeral, 'useless', trivial, rubbish, countering the encyclopaedic ambition to totalise and classify and explain life. by focusing on what seems unimportant, even mad, these works are perversely never complete, spiralling endlessly, creating a counter-knowledge that can make life, the world, the universe, seem vertiginously new and inexhaustible.

There is so much going on in 'Children', it might be overpowering if it wasn't written in crisp, sprightly, ironic, elliptical comic prose. The novel is contemporary with Marcel Carne's poetic realist films that seemed to prevision the Fall of France, and it shares their profound pessimism, but instead of suffocating in dead ends, Queneau offers us a dazzling collage of possibilities, different ways of looking at the world, all bonkers, but as we try to find a way out of the mess produced by prevailing mindsets, than maybe we could do with a little madness.

While this volume is a difficult read, it is at once tragic yet humourous; thought-provoking yet full of madness; fantasic yet realistic. Anyone who enjoys a though provoking book, touching on almost all aspects of life will enjoy this book.

I found this to be a great book. The photos were beautiful and the instructions were detailed. I enjoyed the section on polymer clay. The book has chapters on making beads of out felt, paper, metal, glass, & polymer clay. If you enjoy making beads or thinking of starting beadmaking, this book is for you.

I love this book. This is a great book for the bead artist. The variety of projects and materials is great and many of the techniques for one medium can be translated to other mediums. The polymer clay section is especially good. Not the only book to own on making beads, but definitely full of excellent inspiration.

This is a wonderful book for "how to's" on various methods of making beads including polymer clay, fiber, metal and glass. For any beadmaker or aspiring beadmaker, this book will provide inspiration and instructions for making beads. It gives a great overview of the various methods to wet your appetite! A must have book.

I'm very dissapointed that I bought this book. When I received it in the mail, I immediately turned to the first page that gives an excerpt from the book. The two main characters were in romantic silence when a cat interrupted them with a "meow." From that moment, I knew I was not going to like the book. Why would the author include a cat? Just think about the main characters kissing and the "Hack, hack! Oh pardon my lady, I happened to choke on one of your cats furballs." It is just so random. In addition, I didn't favor the relationship between Eliza and Huntley. Something about courting someone the same age as your father is a turn-off. When the author describes Huntley's "graying hair", I wished that they sold "Just for Men" in the regency period. The maybe I could have taken the book without thinking "Ole Huntley needs to get his hair died."

I forgot to mention that the beginning is somewhat slow. Eliza is a weak heroine and didn't capture my attention.

-I recommend this book for people who like cats and old men.

I cannot concretely explain why this book doesn't work. It has interesting characters and good writing, but the whole thing just doesn't do it. Perhaps it is because the plot backfires on itself. The premise of the book is that 18-year-old Eliza wants to show her 40-year-old father that his being smitten with a 19-year-old girl is wrong. She does this by getting involved with a 38-year-old war hero. Then, of course, Eliza and March, the war hero, get together. The underlying problem is that the author convinced me that these May-December romances are wrong: this is the equivalent of a high school senior and a middle aged man. This is emphasized by the heroine's extreme immaturity (what we are supposed to perceive as "innocence") and the hero's somber gravity. Add to that that every character is trying to teach the other characters "lessons" through deceit and artifice. By the end, I was thoroughly sick of the whole mess, though everyone forgave everyone else and the whole thing wrapped up in literally one page.

Sorry, but this book isn't worth your time.

Again I was impressed by this author's deft handling of two very unusual characters. The hero is quite satisfied with his life as a military man, until Miss Eliza totally disrupts things by drawing him into her outrageous scheme to prove to her father that she knows best. Each scene that unfolds draws this mis-matched pair deeper into trouble. But, the author manages quite skillfully to sort things out and let Miss Eliza and the general discover that they truly do love one another. A delicious read!

I looked for some specific information in this book and found that there were *many* typos in the examples I examined. I contected the publisher (O'Reilly) and they told me that they rushed this to press. (Not at all typical of O'Reilly and hopefully not a harbinger of things to come.)

I work as a web developer and I use this set all the time. I can take it with me to help other developers and/or read it while away from my computer. It is very easy to locate what I need and allows me to find what I'm looking for when I don't quite know exactly what I'm looking for. It's not the end all to Perl references but it is the best hardcopy out there so far!

I must be honest, I'm writing this review mostly to netralize the bad reviews thus far.

That this book is on a CD only begins to demonstrate the effectiveness of it's contents, but this IS indeed an important feature.

I only wish this came out sooner (or I bought it sooner), when I was web-designing free-lance a couple of years ago.