Book Review: Metal Clay The Complete Guide

Since I just started dabbling in metal clay, I wanted to share the book I have been using as my beginner's textbook. It's called Metal Clay The Complete Guide: Innovative Techniques to Inspire Any Artist, written by metal clay artist Jackie Truty. This is a great book for a beginner, because it provides you will all the information you need to get started, but it also contains plenty of information on more advanced techniques to try as your skills improve. I really appreciate craft books that are written as a reference guide and not just a series of projects, and while this book does contain four step by step projects (two easy and two very challenging) the majority of the book consists of explanations of techniques, troubleshooting for common problems, and tips on combining metal clay with other materials. I also like that the book is spiral bound, so you can keep it open hands-free while you work. My only criticism of the book is that it's almost a little too concise, and I occasionally felt that I could use a little more explanation, but once I went over it all a second time, it all made sense. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book for anyone using metal clay.