For every taste and budget, a paperback

Sculpturing in Clay, by Janice Lovoos. Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: Tab Books Inc. 214 pp. $9.95.

First, this is a craft book appealing to novices and advanced clay-workers. Abundant and excellently reproduced photographs, drawings, and graceful step-by-step explanations make the processes clear.

Second, it is a kind of art book revealing both the aesthetics and sculptural methods by which three principals of a California studio, ''Clay in Particular'' (a potter, a sculptor-modeler, a painter-decorator), produce small clay figures -- droll or elegant, natural or stylized, human or animal. The systematic treatment invites the reader to try sculpturing in clay for himself.

Tips on materials, tools, and even marketing your product complete the presentation.