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Book Review: Ancient Modern: Polymer Clay and Wire Jewelry

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ancientmodern
Ancient Modern: Polymer Clay + Wire Jewelry  by Ronna Sarvas Weltman

  • Paperback: 136 pages
  • Publisher: Interweave Press (June 1, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1596680970
  • ISBN-13: 978-1596680975

I was blown away when I saw the cover of this book and HAD to have it.   This distinctive jewelry book artistically combines polymer clay and wire into  organic, sophisticated, and contemporary jewelry.  Bead crafters and jewelry makers will learn a number of innovative techniques in designing beads and components from polymer clay, making wire work elements, clasps and ear wires, wire bead caps, polymer clay tipped head pins, and more.  The author has a very distinct  modernist primitive style that I personally LOVE, and if this is your style  as well,  you will be making some amazing  jewelry.

Ancient Modern discusses the fundamentals of jewelry design as well as what makes a piece “primitive” and how to achieve an organic effect through color mixing and textures.  There are 15 one-of-a-kind detailed projects and a gallery of more stunning jewelry to be inspired by..

The book starts with an introduction to deigning jewelry, color inspiration, the tools used with wire, wire techniques, creating clasps, and all about polymer clay. In that section she goes over how to cure clay, tools, various techniques like canes and marbleing and how to make a simple bead.  Then its on to the projects.

The projects range from Lush Sonata Necklace, Three Ring Circus Brooch, to Dancing Bells Earrings and Embrace Me ring. All have very detailed photos and instructions.

This book is truly one of a kind polymer clay book. I”m inspired to pull out my old polymerclay (hope its still soft!) and try out these techniques.

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Cat Themed Learning Activities

I recently shared a bunch of dog-themed learning activities in honor of National Pet Month. Now it’s time for the cats (which are actually my favorite, shoutout to Baron and Haru!).

Homemade Heather has a great set of cat activity printable sheets including the life cycle of a cat, parts of a cat, a page kids can fill out about their cat and a little reading comprehension with a cat theme.

World of Printables has a super cute cat coloring page that asks you to color cats of different shapes in different colors and then count them. Like an I Spy, but with cats!

Speaking of shapes, give kids practice tracing basic shapes and writing the words for them (square, circle, oval, triangle, diamond, etc. there are 12 shapes in all) with these cat-themed printables from Tot Schooling. These would be good to laminate so you can use over and over while kids are learning about shapes.

Royal Baloo has a great printable cat pack that includes activities for toddlers up to third grade, so this is perfect if you’re homeschooling kids of different ages. There’s literacy and math activities in this pack, including shape tracing and matching for the little ones, beginning sounds and skip counting for pre-k kiddos and addition, multiplication, writing pages and more for older kids.

Fluffy Tots has a cute printable emergent reader on a cat theme, and Sunny Day Family has a super cute cat matching memory game you can print. Build a cat with the printable from PJs and Paint, or cut and fold a stretching cat with this activity from Krokotak.

1 Plus 1 Plus 1 Equals 1 has a cat unit study and printables for kids who are learning cursive writing. There are also three part cards about cats, a printable on scientific classification of cats and more.

Your Therapy Source shared this cute motor skill idea of using pipe cleaners as cat whiskers, which makes a fun quiet time activity or something kids can use in the car.

Take your love of cats on the go with this printable cat activity placemat from The Art Kit Blog. It includes a word search, maze, word scramble and some cats to color, tic tac toe boards and more.

Older kids can learn how to build Lego cats with these instructions from Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls.