Clay Art for Special Occasions Spiral-bound – November 17, 2009

A true masterpiece. Love this book.

Good book.

I love flowers. Love, love, love them! Growing up, all I knew where real flowers, then silk flowers came into my view. I remember thinking as a kid, silk flowers........great! Now I could keep them forever. Then as my culinary senses developed in the baking field, sugar flowers became all the rage and once again, woo-hoo!! A permanent keepsake.Well I have now been circling the "clay flowers" wagon and my feet are doing another happy dance as I pursue this latest craft. I never dreamed of being able to create such gorgeous bouquets using such a standard medium but Yukiko Miyai has become an instructor extraordinaire!!"Clay Art for Special Occasions" is the continuing education of floral creations using a special modeling clay that air-dries to a spectacular finish and makes a person have to look closely in order to tell them apart from the real things!Yukiko Miyai, who resides in the beautiful state of Hawaii, is the daughter of Kazuko Miyai, who herself is a talented and gifted clay artist, and who has passed along her love and talent of clay art to her daughter. Mrs. Miyai has also created the precise clay material which she perfected in her quest to make the most perfect clay models. Now Yukiko has continued and built this empire of beauty and elegance by writing this, her second book on the subject.I purchased Yukiko's first book, "Clay Art for All Seasons" several years ago and have been most pleased with this art form. And there truly is a difference in the clay that I purchased through her company as opposed to the clay available at craft stores. You need a certain pliability and molding effects in order to capture the essence of the flower or project that you are working on, and the Clay-Craft products work beautifully. At the same time, though only Clay-Craft molds are shown in this book for the leaves and petals, etc, I have found the molds I use for making sugar flowers work just as well and may be more easily available.In this particular book, Yukiko builds upon the foundation of clay floral creations that she taught us in her first book and assumes that most people are familiar with the basics of floral clay work, though she does have several pages at the beginning of the book to help the reader begin or refresh their memory. As you continue, there are photographs and accompanying charts for both tools and items used, how to work with this medium, the techniques used, as well as three color charts that give you a broad color palette of both primary and pastel colors.This hardcover book is spiral bound with crystal clear, close photography of seven sections of floral and theme ideas, then ends with Templates and Patterns used in some of the projects. The sections themselves are:Bridal Showers (cherry blossoms and peonies)Weddings (ranunculus, tuberose and rose, hydrangea, and gardenia)Baby Showers (baby shoes and butterflies)Spring (basket, bird ornaments, poppies, and freesia)Summer (cymbidium orchid, anthurium, and torch ginger)Fall (dahlia, pear, and apple)Christmas (Christmas stocking, reindeers, and Christmas trees)Each project is given an introductory page with the finished photo as well as the tools and materials needed, then is followed with step-by-step photography.My only longing was for more projects and perhaps closer photography in the steps but could it be that I need to get stronger glasses? :)Another little hint of my own would be to consider placing beautiful glass or crystal pins in the center of some of the flowers or perhaps within the bouqet itself to catch the eye as the light hits the flowers. It can add a very dramatic and elegant look.Thank you Yukiko; you are amazing! We look forward to your next book!

This book I actually found a little easier that the first book "Clay Art for all Occasions". If you are a total beginner with Clay Art, I would suggest that you buy this book first. Both books are very well laid out and the step by step photographs are a real bonus as they are all in colour.I have made many flowers with both books and have found this book a bible with all the hints and tips. This book would be a great present for a crafter that like to use clay or even sugar craft as I have used these techniques in making Sugar Craft flowers!

The tutorial is so intense that you wonder if you can follow the step by step instructions. It look so easy but its hard to do it. It will take me years to learn how to create these beautiful clay flowers. It will also take more time to do this. Overall the book is wonderful! presentation wise beautiful pictures but hard to make.

If only I could blink and be able to have the skill to make these flowers the same as the author does! But I'm sure if Ipractice (a lot!) I will be able to. Having the book to show step-by-step is very helpful. And the pages being in a binder-type book that can be folder over is great.

It looks to me that the intended audience of "Clay Art for Special Occasions" by Yukiko Miyai is not the beginners, but my experience with Deco Clay art has started with this book regardless of it. I'm taking Deco Clay classes, and "Clay Art for Special Occasions" is extremely helpful and inspiring for me. The book shows basic and more advanced clay craft techniques, images are very clear and explanations are done very well. "Clay Art for Special Occasions" was one of the reasons why I decided to create my Deco Clay Art gallery/blog.

Useful if you work with polymer clay, but not a polymer clay book. More of a "how to use our products" kind of book.