Lissa, what book do you have? I’d like to see if I can find it and take a peek at it, too.
This is my favorite one. The author walks you step-by-step through the process of making different animals. It starts off simple with the techniques getting more advanced as you go along. (I just finished making the bunny project tonight!) It looks like by the time you get to the end of it, you’ll have a really good overview of sculpting techniques.
I much, much prefer polymer clay (Sculpey) over ordinary clay. For one, it’s a hundred times less messy and I think it’s a lot easier to work.
This is another book that I have. It also gives step-by-step instructions, but the first book is a lot more approachable for beginners.
What did you mean about baking the clay being a stinky process? I baked my Sclupey bunny tonight and didn’t smell a thing. Is it just certain brands?
It’s been years since I’ve worked with ordinary clay… but from what I remember of it, I much prefer polymer clay as well! I personally prefer Sculpey III, but also work with Premo Sculpey, Fimo Classic, Fimo Soft and some Kato Poly Clay too.
Man, whenever I bake my stuff, it’s really stinky… I can’t really explain it. It doesn’t matter which brand I use or whether I’m using a full-sized oven or a toaster oven, it STINKS! I have a little table I set my toaster oven on, and will set it outside on the front porch with an extension cord running under my front door so as not to stink up the house.
My friend (who got me started) does the same thing. When we clay at her house, there are times that we can smell the clay baking, as she has her oven sitting in the breezeway between her house and her garage.
All I can say that that you’re lucky in the non-stink department! 
I would love to see some of your sculptures… do you have pix?
I’m flattered you asked. Here’s the bunny I made tonight. (There are three views of it in the album.)
Keep in mind that this is only the second thing I have ever completed. (I make lots of parts over and over.) So, please be gentle.
Sadness! I get this error when I try to access your pics:
Try again, or e-mail? I really wanna see!!!
Try this. Just in case, I sent you an e-mail invite from Snapfish.
My head just exploded from the cute! I saw the lil’ bunny and immediately said, “Awwwwwwww!”
That’s some fine work there, Lissa. Yes indeed!
Thank you very much. Hubby said the same thing, but it’s nice to get an independant opinion.
Isn’t it funny how attatched you get to your own work?
Please, if you have any example of your work, show it to me.
Your clay pal,
Lissa.
I do have pics… I’ll try to get an album set up tonight or tomorrow night and put them where you can get to them. 
My friends are putting on a Victorean Scienentific Fiction Ball and my buddy and I are planning ou life-size mock up of George Pal’s time machine.
This should be fun since he lives in California and I live in Ohio.
Lissa, try this link to my Clay Crafts Album. It’s also on snapfish. These were a few of my early tries in polymer clay… I have more pix and more stuff that I’ve made, but the pix are currently not available. I’d take pix of the other stuff, but I’m too tired right now! It’s been a vewwy, vewwy long day.
Oooh, pretty!
Is that first item a bookmark? What are those things pressed into the clay? Little shells?
Perhaps it’s a poor reflection on my creativity, but I never thought of making anything other than sculptures. Now you’ve given me some ideas.
More sewing. Lots and lots of sewing. I’m working on making the perfect combination of a cowl neck and a hood to get sort of a White Queen look, if that makes any sense. And finishing my niece’s sock monkey and slowly teaching myself to crochet (thank you, Stitch and Bitch: The Happy Hooker!) No big projects, just a steady stream of making things.
Today I took some 1-2 year old art projects and cut them up into postcards. They were in watercolor or colored pencil, and I added borders with a ink pen and slapped on a few more watercolor washes to fit the smaller composition.
I have promised myself that I will complete half a dozen projects before I start a new one. I really want to get into leathercrafting, and back into woodworking, but I have so many UFOs around already.
The things pressed into the bookmark (Yep, that’s a bookmark all right! Yay! Sometimes I worry that people will look at my stuff and think, “Huh?”) are actually sections of a “jelly roll” cane that I made using gold and pearl clay. I was trying to experiment with mica shifting.
The fact that you thought only of sculpture is not a poor reflection of your creativity at all, but rather a natural progression from using regular clay to polymer clay. At least that’s how I see it.
I’m glad you thought my stuff was pretty. I’ve got some hearts that I’ve made that I’d like to put in that album, too. Maybe sometime I’ll do that.
I’ve done a few things in the past that I liked, so if anyone is interested I might have some tips.
- Making my own cosmetics. Cold cream, shampoo. great fun, but far more expensive then buying. You learn a lot about cosmetics, though.
- Making Marbled paper.
- My silhouette cutting.
Currently, I’m making jam. Blackberry, prune: I love making it and storing jars months in advance and designing beautiful labels…
In my new house, I want to make planters with flowers under my windows. I also want to redo the shed in the garden and make it into a Bed & Breakfast.
Well, I’m currently in the middle of “finishing the new flat”. Today after the internet setup guys set me up (or find out that they can’t get a signal, it’s radio), I have to cut up planks of cork to turn the upper half of one of my bedroom’s walls into an enormous corkboards. That way I can redecorate just by changing the posters.
Once September rolls in, I want to go to a little crafts place in my hometown (now closed for vacation) and ask about fixing the traveling trunk I inherited from my great-grandfather. It’s oak with iron and leather fittings. Both locks have been broken: one by a would-be thief and the other by a customs officer who apparently didn’t see the huge sign saying in English and Spanish: “it’s unlocked, open from the sides”. When I got it it was very dry; I’ve been using lanoline cream on it occasionally and it’s now better: it feels like wood, not ultrathin sandpaper.
I used to make doll’s heads with this stuff, and I used polystyrene egg-shapes as a core, especially bought for that purpose. But my clay was of the self drying kind. It looked and felt like clay-ie paper-maché.
I just watched a gardening show on this very subject this morning. They said the best way to do it is to leave the plants in their own separate containers so if one goes south on ya, you can just change it out for a new one. Also, much lighter…less stress on the planter. Have fun! Sounds like a great project!