Maureen Carlson has put together a very easy to read book that will help any beginning level sculptor learn the materials and techniques necessary to make wonderful figurines. She moves from the simple and "cute" to figures with more personality and emotion. This book will give you a step by step guide to recreate figures featured, and thereby provide you with the skills to go on and create from your own imagination.

If you have any interest at all in polymer clay figures, you must have this book. Carlson "shows and tells" each step in creating these charming characters. The book begins with simple figures and builds up to distinct, individual characters with fully sculpted faces and detailed clothing and accessories. The photography is beautiful. Every step is clearly illustrated and described. This is an essential book for any polymer clay artist or dollmaker

This is a fantastic book with easy step-by-step instructions which cover: Choosing clay, tools needed, basic techniques, making body parts, creating lifelike faces and expressive figures. All illustrations are colorful and the figures are delightful. You won't be sorry for purchasing this book--one to be shared by beginners and the experienced, by children and adults.

I work with Fimo almost for six months - it's my hobby.
Last month I bought two books from "amazon" :
1."How to make clay characters"
2."Family and Friends in polymer clay".
They teach me how to do fascinating characters in so clearly ways.
I love those books because Maureen Carlson explanations are simply, clearly, amusing and accurate.
They can teach everyone how to make clay characters.
I find lots of full color pictures and detailed in those books that make this fun and easy to create clay characters.
The chapters about choosing the clay, gathering tools, basic techniques, and problems and solutions are very much comprehensive, and I wish I had those books when I first started to work with Fimo - because they would save me a lot of time and clay! ! !
I can't stop reading and doing the things in the book.
Everyone who see the things that I do with Fimo from those books can't believe that I did those characters, because they are so charming, adorable, exciting and breathtaking! ! !
I think that everyone who works with polymer clay should have those books.

The step by step illustrations in this book have saved me a great deal of time. I did not have to figure it all out for myself. I am very grateful to have found and used this wonderful book.

Artist Maureen Carlson has presented a wealth of information in this wonderful book. If you're interested at all in the art of dollmaking or figure sculpture, buy this book! Her caricatures of personal friends are absolutely delightful.

The Impressionists are the most famous French Art Movement of the late 19th Century. At about the same time, France was also producing a great school of historical painters and illustrators. Edouard Detaille in my opinion was the greatest historical painter/illustrator of the 19th Century. Do not buy L'Armee Francaise for the text. It is an English translation of stilted and heavily baroque 19th Century French. However, the illustrations are simply amazing! This is one of my favorite books.

An important source of 19th century military history is the beautifully illustrated, two-volume work, L'Armée Française, produced in 1883 by the renowned military artist Edouard Detaille, with text by Jules Richard. Through his remarkably detailed and beautiful artwork, Detaille has rendered a compelling look at this most dramatic era of warfare dominated by the French art of war, military organisation and uniform styles. This classic work has been known for over a century in its French edition and is now translated into English for the first time. This lavish reprint contains the entire two-volume translation, and is richly illustrated throughout with Detaille's original published artwork depicting accurate portrayals of uniforms and military life. The book has been further embellished with an additional full-colour section displaying other works by the artist.Contains the entire translation plus over 300 illustrations from the original artwork by the military artist, and gives background information on regimental histories, army organizations, recruitment, training, battledress and equipment.L'Armée Française is the only military history book of its kind, giving background information on regimental histories, army organisations, recruitment, training, battle dress and equipment of the soldiers of France. It is a guide to the French armies that fought in the Napoleonic Wars, Crimean War, the Mexican Expedition, the Conquest of North Africa, and the Franco-Austrian and Franco-Prussian Wars, as well as a contemporary look at peacetime army in the late 19th century.No one can make a serious study of military history without becoming familiar with the wars fought by the armies of France.

This book is superb. Profusely illustrated by French artist Eduard Detaille, it covers the French Army from 1790-1885, describing in great detail the combat arms, staff, schools, gendarmerie, the navy, and the 'bric a brac' of the arms and services.

There are numerous tables of commanders of units and orders of battle, and the text is comprehensive; trying to keep up with its pace is like being force fed with a firehose. Quite simply, it gives an amazing amount of detail is what is actually quite a small space. There are both color and black and white illustrations, and they definitely have the look and feel of the 'smell of gunpowder.' Detaille was one of the best military artists of all time, and this book shows of his work perfectly.

Having seen the original volumes in French, this translation and edition have lost nothing in the trasition. The detail and minutiae are amazing, from the formation of the not-properly-sanctioned 15th Cuirassier Regiment in Hamburg by Marshal Davout in 1813 to the conquest of Algeria, this volume has much information that was not available before in English. It is a definite must for the military historian.

Much of the book is about the French Armies of the Revolution and Napoleon's Grande Armee, which is fine with me, as it is my favorite period. You can ride once again with the cavalry of the Empire, work those terrible guns of the Imperial Guard that tore allied armies to pieces, or sweat in the ranks with the infantry of the line (infanterie du ligne) as they go on just one more forced march into the thunderous hell that was combat in the Napoleonic period.

Highly recommended and you won't be disappointed.

Kids are going to love this book - so many wonderful ideas for making their own gifts for family and friends. I think a lot of adults are going to like this book, too. Every project begins with simple steps, but the results are polished and beautiful.

Thirty projects, lots of great basic info about colors, color mixing, making shapes, combining shapes, changing expressions, etc.

Everything is illustrated in imaginative ways - even the basic color wheel is a whimsical thing.

The elves are adorable and the dragon beautiful - a huge range of critters and creatures in between - all appear to be quite do-able.

I think this would be a great book even for an adult who wants to try sculpting/modelling - you'll get some great inspiration from this! Plus, the "story-process" in the second half of the book is terrific and all the pictures are just gorgeous! :)

Elizabeth