Book excerpt: Discover a world of inspired and colourful jewellery-making from the comfort of your own home. Just make, bake and wear! In this comprehensive guide to modern polymer clay techniques, artist and designer Heidi Helyard reveals the simple techniques that can be used to create one-off, contemporary jewellery pieces with minimal tools and equipment. Polymer clay, which has been around for nearly eighty years, is currently finding itself popular amongst contemporary jewellery makers as the bright colours and sheer versatility of the material allows makers to create bold and graphic modern designs. The beauty of polymer clay is that it presents so many opportunities to explore colour combinations, patterns and texture. In this book you will learn ten easy yet exciting techniques including slab and cane making, marbling and colour mixing, inlay techniques, printing onto clay, surface embellishments and more to create twenty unique jewellery pieces. The projects in this book vary in complexity, but are accessible to both novice and advanced makers alike. If you are a beginner, the extensive step-by-step photos and instructions will help you develop your polymer clay skills and complete the projects with confidence. As you build your skills and learn the techniques via the book, you will realise that you can combine techniques to create all-new results. The skills you learn in this book will open up a limitless world of further experimentation for you to discover.