It is a beautiful book to look at and to admire. But if you are a beginner I suggest going with "New ways with Polymer clay" and or "The polymer clay techniques book". The Techniques book is very helpful!! I loved this book but for now all I can do is look and dream.

I love this book and I know you will too if you are into clay or just thinking about trying it. The projects are all wonderful, with easy to follow instructions. Everything to keep a beginner or an advanced clayer busy. Sarajane Helm out did herself this time. Can wait to see what's up her other sleeve.

This book is a treasure - elegant, informative and just plain beautiful. Sarajane Helm has outdone herself this time with a great introduction/basics section, clearly laid out instructions for projects and a stellar gallery of examples by many talented polymer clay artists, both established and up-and-coming. Beautiful photography throughout. Highly recommended.

Ceramic Extruding: Inspiration & Technique by professional studio artists Tom and Jean Latka, is a thoroughly "user friendly" guide ideal for both aspiring ceramics workers and dedicated hobbyists to the use of a ceramic extruder or pugmill in new and wondrous ways to craft memorable and adventurous artworks in this challenging medium. More than 200 color photographs illustrate the easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions, as well as display possibilities for the finished product. Ceramic Extruding is a highly enjoyable how-to artbook and a strongly recommended addition to any personal, professional, or art school reference collection.

If you have been waiting for the best book on ceramic extrusion, it is
available now Ceramic Extruding by Jean and Tom Latka successfully answers the question of, "Why are all of those clay extruders rusting on potter's walls?" Their answer is thus: Ceramists, like everyone else, have to be inspired to create beautiful work. This book acts as a magical muse for artists by showing over 300 quality photos of beautiful work by some of the finest international contemporary artists working in the medium today. This book's focus is on the recent emergence of extruded ceramic art as dynamic and surprisingly varied form of creative expression.

"Though the words extrude and extrusion are not ones most people encounter in everyday conversation, we live in a world where we are surrounded by extruded objects. Our brick houses and their tile roofs are made from extruded clay. We shower on extruded tiles, send our smoke and fumes up extruded chimneys and our waste down extruded sewers. From the round O's in your breakfast cereal to the pasta on your dinner plate, extruded objects occupy every conceivable nook and cranny of our lives". Beginning with bricks, Ceramic Extruding details the history of the extruder then demonstrates the ease, as well as the necessity, of using an extruder in one's pottery. The book is organized in a logical manner in order to guide the reader by employing numerous step-by-step instructional methods.
Essentially, Ceramic Extruding is a how-to book and the projects gradually become more advanced. Apart from the photos, another subject that distinguishes this book from other books on the market is its comprehensive theory of extrusion and was the only chapter I had to read twice. It is a difficult subject. The authors give detailed information on why extruders act in the manner in which they do. For instance, I didn't know that clay moves faster down the center of the barrel than clay closer to the walls. This information is useful for artists who want to design their own dies.

Educators take note: As a teacher, I know how it feels to give students a
blank canvas and ask them to be creative. In contrast Ceramic Extruding
shows how to create a limitless supply of foundation material from the
extruder for the student.

The book truly has an international cast of artists, photos of ceramics
spanning from Australia to Inge Pedersen in Norway. I became aware of
several renowned European ceramicists. Antonio Cumella, Alessio Tasca, Elina
Brandt-Hanson, Jim Robison. Other artist's work that impressed me was Ken Williams, Jutta Golas, and Jack Sures. Jean and Tom Latka have an excellent body of work apart from each other, but their collaborative work shines superior.

Everyone has been waiting for the next thing in clay. Well Latka's Flying
Hybrid Extruder and Michael Sherrill's novel extruder/wheel could lead to
the new revolution in clay. The quick release system makes these extruders user friendly. The expansion box is larger than most other machines, and in the case of Flying Hybrid, it out performs slab machines by making slabs faster and more superior. Oddly enough, slab machines compress the clay from the center of the roller to the edges. This creates an unstable molecular structure and cracks result. The clay is evenly compressed in the Vertical Flying Hybrid. An 18"x24" slab is the result when an 8" cylindrical shape 18" long is extruded and sliced lengthwise.

I would like to sum up with a quote from Michael Cohen. "It is important to find a well-made extruder that is adaptable to your needs. As for the
wheel, once you learn how to use it, one question ultimately remains: What are you going to make? After mastering centrifugal force and friction, perhaps it's now time to use gravity and inertia to make a personal statement. Like throwing, it only looks easy."

"Extruding clay takes on a wonderful new meaning when you use the extruder as you would any tool---as one step in the making process, not as an end in itself. The extruder's contribution to the studio can be as profound and influential as the potters wheel --- a slab for the imagination to leap off from". Jean Latka

Two thumbs up! Burn the other extruder books; this is the only one you will ever need.
I am an college art teacher at U.S.C. and find it the best book for my introduction course on the Extruder.
...

The book has an international cast of artists, photos of ceramics
spanning from Australia to Inge Pedersen in Norway. I became aware of
several renowned European ceramicists. Antonio Cumella, Alessio Tasca, Elina
Brandt-Hanson, Jim Robison. Other artist's work that impressed me was Ken Williams, Jutta Golas, and Jack Sures. Jean and Tom Latka have an excellent body of work apart from each other, but their collaborative work shines superior.
Peter Helm

This book on the Korean War is very complete and very detailed. The book gets down to the battalion level, getting into the battles, the cold, the terror, the heroism and the mistakes. It even touches on the treatment of the black soldiers within the American units. The only problem a reader might have is the amount of details. It is 1136 pages long, the first 976 pages cover the war, the last hundred or so covering sources and notes.
While there are few pictures, each one is powerful, no doubt carefully selected.

This book reflects a colossal effort at detailing virtually a day by day and unit by unit account of the Korean conflict. If you need to know what happened in Korea at a particular time or place or to a particular military unit or commander, this book will tell you. Although well written and organized, I personally was bothered by the author's emphasis on the command level personalities and actions. This book could more accurately be titled 'A History of West Point Graduates and Their Careers in Relation to the Korean Conflict'. Reading this book could leave the impression that there were no enlisted men, non-commissioned officers or field grade officers involved in the war. Excepting mention of Medal of Honor recipients during the conflict, there is very little use of personal accounts or activities of participants below the rank of colonel. The author's ritual of calculating average ages of commanders during every command change was at first irrelevant and then became irritating. I also would have appreciated inclusion of a little more contextural information along with the battle outlines. Despite an enormous amount of command and maneuver information, very little information is included on weapons systems, civilian populations, and the opponent forces and strategy in North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union.

While very long and very detailed, Blair proves himself by not leaving anything out. What is most impressive about this book is how Blair seamlessly transitions from discussions within the National Command Authority to battalion and brigade-level combat. It took me a few months to get through this one, but it was well worth the time. Superbly written for the lay historian.

Al Gore might have grown up there had his father been a plumber who moved north for work. Not many St.Albans boys in that neighborhood though. As in none. Gotta wonder if Harrington and Gore don't hook up once in a while what with the wellheeled intellectual Nashville/DC connection. All in all not a bad intro to a forgotten people in a very interesting time and place. I was happy to have stumbled upon it.

This book should be mandatory reading for all high school students in the United States. Poverty is indeed a virtual reality in this book. You cannot help but gain an appreciation for all you have, however little it may be.

Howell utilizes a "hands on " approach to drive home the reality of a very large segment of our society by literally moving in with them and living the life - in spite of peril for one year. Through this approach, he gains the trust of two families, the Shacklefords and the Mosebys, and we are able to move into their homes, travel with them on their drunken runs, and thereby gain an insight from a perspective within that no "text" could ever offer us. I applaud this book and have used it yearly in classes since 1978 with raves from the students.

This is probably the best "fiction" book I've ever read. I really appreciate all the research that went into this book. VERY suspenseful, full of useful knowledge (especially in today's political climate), great characters, action, relationships. I think this book will appeal to just about anybody. I can't wait to read more of Clay Jacobsen's stuff!

I love this book! It is really good. I started reading it as soon as I bought it, and I could not put it down. It was really exciting, which says a lot because there's not many books I consider "exciting". I do reccomend this book to everyone, it's suspenseful but it is also thought-provoking. It takes you into what Islam is about. Also technically speaking, it seemed really accurate from my limited amount of knowledge about such things concerning the U.S. marines, the bombs, the CIA, and the FBI. I think this is great book and well worth the money.

I inhaled this book! I'm one of those readers who finds it all too easy to put books down. This one must have had super glue on the cover because I found it in my hands all day long! Jacobsen's research in weaponry, espionage, the military and Islam is astounding. Islam has always seemed so mysterious to me and I've known little about it other than turbans and beards and women taking small steps in their swathing garments. Clay opened my eyes in many ways regarding this growing world religion. So much is at stake in Interview With the Devil, you wonder how could Jacobsen possibly fit this together? But he does, with well-developed characters and breathtaking suspense.

Making Polymer Clay Jewelry is a wonderful book for those who work with the medium or aspire to. The book is well-written and a lot of fun; it would be enjoyable for anyone who is not already expert at working with polymer clay.

The content is quite good. The introduction covers tools, materials, and basic techniques; the remainder of the book is projects. The twenty projects show polymer clay's versatility and utility very well, and the instructions are clear and detailed. The photographs are plentiful and attractive, and the frequent illustrations contribute a great deal to the book's clarity.

I do wish that the author had included the amount of clay that each project would require. Many of the pieces require mixing clays to produce specific colors, and without any idea of how much clay will be used, it's hard to make enough, but not too much, of a color you may not need again.

The most serious problem with the book is the quality of the binding. The copy I have is so poorly bound that the spine is loosening noticeably, and I've had it only two days. I would suggest that anyone who purchases this book have it immediately cut and spiral bound; this will also enable the user to keep the book open to a specific page while working.

All in all, a very good book, but the publishers should have paid closer attention to the quality of its production.

I had to finally buy this book because I kept checking it out of the library! I think the pictures are great and the instructions are easy to follow. The things you make are perfect gifts for people who wear jewelry. Very highly recommended!!

This is such a wonderful book.
My sister gave it to me for my Birthday and I just love it.
The directions for the projects are very clear and the projects themselves are beautiful.
I highly recommend this book.
I've already made 4 of the projects and don't see an end to the variations available.

This is not a book written by a professional theologian. Instead it's a collection of real-life stories told by the people who lived these experiences, themselves, and told in their own words. Each story is a glimpse into the soul of another human being and each reminds us that there is a spark of the divine in all of us. God is present to us in the most unexpected and, often, simple but powerful ways.

William Faulkner noted that the only stories worth a writer's blood and sweat and tears were stories of the human heart in conflict with itself. TREAURES IN CLAY JARS is a rich example of worthy efforts of writers. To read about everyday events and the presence of love and spiritual power within them is a treasure beyond measure. Pastor Linda Hoopes' story of communion touched me deeply. It's said that the prefix "com" once meant the exchange of burdens and her story of "communion" surely does just that. It shares burdens and brings to life the power of connections to heal our bodies and our spirit.. Stories heal too and that's what this book does: it heals. Buy it! Give it as a gift! Treasure it for yourself. As an author of both fiction and non-fiction including A BURDEN SHARD, I can share with you this view that TREASURES IN CLAY JARS is a fine and worthy read! .

I was captivated the moment I read these words from the one whose idea it was for this book. Rev. Andrea Leininger is a United Methodist Pastor serving in Brownstown, IN. Her words about how the book came about are moving and haunting, "In the wee hours of the morning I awakened, remembering the story of a mother who lost her son and how she overcame depression and loneliness, of a man convicted of fraud and... of a victim of incest who conquered despair and, through her profession, now encourages others to grow and live fulfilling lives. I recalled numerous occasions when ordinary people entrusted their extraordinary stories of hope and courage, of strength and joy..." "Treasures in Clay Jars" are the stories of such people who shared their faith journey in hopes of instilling hope and courage in readers who too have had to endure similar experiences. I found myself becoming misty-eyed from stories of sorrow as well as stories of joy and humor. I myself am a contributor to this compilation of faith stories. My story "Corn Supper" is humorous but also sobering. One writer shares her own poignant story of her personal struggle with multiple sclerosis and her haunting experience when visiting Liberia a year after the gruesome massacre of over 800 refugees. As the writer was, so too, will you be changed. This book is definitely a treasure not to be overlooked!

I found this book contains everything for a beginner to get started in the craft of polmer clay. My 15 year-old has already started her project, and I'm into my 4th project. All this production and we have had the book for only 2 weeks. I'm already ordering the polymer clay by the pound. The two ounce packages are wa-a-a-a-y to small for this new found medium! If you are looking for summer projects to keep the kids busy, this is the book for you. Both Mom and the kids will be hooked in no time.

This is my favorite polymer clay book -- the first book I "ask" whenever I have a question. Irene gives clear explanations, painlessly taking the reader through 20 gorgeous projects....

This book is a must for any beginning to intermediate polymer clay crafter or artisan. The projects are beautiful and very "do-able"! Irene's own projects are displayed in very good photos, and are a marvelous source of inspiration for combining techniques and textures. Her tiled mirrors and wall pieces are breathtaking.

I have always wanted to get my pilot's license, and I came across this book and decided to read it. This book explains all about what steps you need to go through and what to expect when starting flight training to get your private pilot's license. I had no idea that so much was involved before I read this!

If you are thinking of getting your pilot's license, I suggest that you read this book. I am now finishing up my Private Pilot training, and the book was very accurate about the training involved. Very informational and highly recommended!!

Greeting from Cleveland (BKL) Airport. This is one excellent book. It is a book if you are thinking about starting flying. It goes into detail but it is real basic. It has help me out greatly, even after 60 hours of flying. Good Luck.

I'm planning on taking up flying as a career and this book did a lot to explain to me the different licenses and ratings and also explains how the plane flies and the aerodynamics. Before, I was clueless and now I know what to do. Thanks!

Neca Stoller is a poet rooted in the soil of the rural South. Her latest volume is filled with images of the red clay of her home state, as well as characters from her family, uncles and aunts and cousins, former college roommates, and others who populate the Georgia backwoods.

Stoller, born in Savannah and educated at the University of Georgia during the tumultuous 60s, has spent the past several years living, working, and writing on a Georgia cattle farm. Her love of the land and the gentle rhythms of rural life sparkle in her poems. Bound by Red Clay is a slim volume of 60 selections, arranged in five titled chapters. It comes after numerous accolades for her verse from such diverse organizations as the Palomar Showcase and the Haiku Society of America.

Ms. Stoller is at once both peaceful and poignant when she focuses on the slow and repeating meter of country life. "Sultry Evening" is an evocative short poem about the pleasures of rocking on a porch hammock while crickets harmonize on summer evenings. In "Red Clay," we follow along as she wanders through sites of the Civil War, still heavy with memory. "Baling Hay" reminds us of the heat of such summer work, but rewards us with an image of " an iced mason jar/ black tea thick with sugar."

Stoller's themes throughout the book are telling: homecoming, death, lost love, the summer's heat, rural life, the social history of the South. She obviously has roots in her homeland, and that foundation creates lovely verse. The truths she finds among Georgia's red clay and pine forests ring true through time and space.

"Bound by Red Clay" continues to astound the contemporary poetry market! It has been nominated for these awards: Georgia Writers Inc. Book of the Year--Poetry Category, Tufts Discovery Award, and the poem "Gopher Tortoise" was nominated for the coveted Pushcart Prize. The first run sold out in 6 months, and the second printing has sold 50% in only a month. Neca Stoller's work is indeed slated to become one of America's best.

When I ordered Neca Stoller's book I wondered if the high standard I had admired in examples of her work I'd seen on the net would be sustained through a book. It was.

My other concern was whether poetry specifically drawing on a Georgia, USA, landscape would be relevant in Australia. It was. Australian friends have validated my opinion on this.

Like the book itself the poetry is spare, direct and captures the essence of her subjects. Her focus is not distracted by any vanities. The discipline of Japanese genres shines through. The poetry is strong and credible.

I commend it to anyone with a sense of place and community, no matter where in the world they are centered.