If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or Newsletter for additional free sculplting tips. Thanks for visiting!

Using Alcohol With Polymer Clay

Rubbing Alcohol is a great tool that is used to help smooth and blend polymer clay when sculpting.  Like the Vaseline tutorial, I have several other tutorials where I give examples on how I use alcohol while sculpting (I’ve included a few examples at the bottom of this page).  When I first started sculpting I used water based clay (I had never even heard of polymer clay at that time).  With the water based clay I was able to achieve a smoothing and blending effect by using a wet sponge or Q-tip.  However, when I started using polymer clays, water did not have the same effect.  At first I tried to use water and Q-tip on my polymer clay but the results were pretty poor.  After doing a lot of research on the internet I discovered that rubbing alcohol dissolves polymer clays.  Thanks to other polymer clay artist I was able to learn that alcohol on a Q-tip, sponge or paint brush has the same effect as water on water based clay. I have experimented with different potencies of rubbing alcohol and found that not all are created equal. 

From my own experimentation I have discovered the following: 

70% alcohol - takes quite a bit more strokes to blend and smooth the clay.  You can get the effect that you are looking for but it is going to take a lot more patience and time. 

91% alcohol - seems to be the magic formula since it is not too aggressive and doesn’t require too much effort to use.  However overuse can produce a tacky surface on the clay (until the clay dries out). 

99% alcohol - recently found 99% alcohol at my local grocery store and thought I would give it a try.  The 99% alcohol is pretty aggressive so you have to use it with caution.  Another issue is that when you over use it the clay starts to get a white film on it.  I do like the 99% alcohol but it is one that I have to use more caution with to avoid erasing some of the finer details in some of my sculptures. Here are a few examples of past tutorials where I have used alcohol during the sculpting process. 

http://www.polymerclayfan.com/sculpting-veins.htm

http://www.polymerclayfan.com/sculpting-hair.htm 

http://www.polymerclayfan.com/torso-details.htm 

Rubbing alcohol may not be used from the beginning to the end in the sculpting process but it is one of the key tools used in sculpting.  In fact I would have to say that rubbing alcohol is in my top five sculpting tools that I can not live without.  It is the key ingredient that will help you turn a rough work of art into a masterpiece.

Go out and experiment with it and happy sculpting, 

Gerald

Popularity: 17% [?]

Using Vaseline With Polymer Clay

I’ve already covered the use of Vaseline in a few of my tutorials but though I should also do a little write up on it under the tools section of this site.  Vaseline, or Petroleum Jelly, is used to help non-baked clay, which I will refer to as new clay in this article, stick to baked clay.  One of the benefits of working with polymer clay is that you can bake the sculpture multiple times during the sculpting process.  This key advantage allows you to bake the sculpture in stages verses having to sculpt the entire piece before baking. 

Some of you may be wondering why anyone would care to bake a sculpture multiple times.  The key advantage of being able to bake the sculpture multiple times is that you can work on the details on one area of the sculpture and then bake it to preserve your hard work.  Nothing is more frustrating then spending a lot of time working on detailing part of a sculpture only to accidentally grab it with your hand and undo all of your hard work.  I’ve done this many times myself.  I have spent hours detailing an arm or face only to accidentally grab it and squish some of the details.  See my partial baking article for an example on how I bake a sculpture in stages.

Here are the quick and easy steps for using Vaseline on a sculpture

1.  First step is to select a paint brush for applying the Vaseline.  Use this paintbrush for only applying Vaseline.

2.  Lightly apply the Vaseline to the baked sculpture 3.  With a tissue remove the excess Vaseline (it doesn’t take much for the new clay to stick to the baked clay)

4.  Apply a thin layer of clay to the surface of the baked clay.

If you would like a visual on how to use Vaseline on baked clay then check out one of my previous tutorials here.  The pictures in the tutorial walk you through the steps I use to add new clay to baked clay.  It’s an easy process and one that will save you hours of frustration.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Attaching the scroll to the neck of the fiddle

In the previous tutorial I did a rough sculpt of the scroll (top piece) for the fiddle.  The next step is to add the scroll to the neck of the fiddle.  Once attached I will then begin to work on the details.  The process for adding the scroll to the neck of the fiddle is the same process that was used to add the neck to the body.  The first step is to lightly coat the baked pieces of clay with Vaseline, then take a tissue and wipe the excess off.  Next just add a new thin layer of clay and the scroll should easily attach from there.

If you look at a scroll on a violin or a fiddle you will notice that the center of it curls outward.  Initially I rolled the clay, in the previous tutorial, to create this effect but unfortunately the balance was off between the right and left side of the scroll.  I decided to shave down the center of my scroll and create a flat surface instead.  I’m still going to keep the design on my scroll, I am just going to sculpt it at a later time.  I’ve started the center section of my scroll by adding a small ball of clay.  From there I will begin to work on the detailing for the scroll.

Now the scroll and the neck of the fiddle are still in the early stages and need a lot of work.  However the end is near for the fiddle.  The only things left, after the scroll and neck have been completed are to round out the bottom of the fiddle, add the hand to the fiddle and from there attach the fiddle to the Fiddler’s arm.  I’m looking forward to moving on from here since I feel I’ve been working on the fiddle forever now :-).

Next lesson - Detailing the Scroll

Previous lesson Sculpting the scroll

Back to the series home page

Popularity: 11% [?]

Creating a Marbled Vase

This is a quick and easy tutorial that will demonstrate how to take a plain Jane glass vase and turn it into a work of art with the help of a little polymer clay.  This is the first time I have ever done something like this myself so at the end of the page I will cover some lessons learned. 

This really is a simple tutorial and I’m convince just about anyone can easily create a marbled vase.  If it seems a little challenging at first then just keep practicing and it will come to you in no time at all.

The polymer clay I am using for this particular piece is Premo.

	No need to cringe, you do not need that much clay for this tutorial.  I was shopping at my local Hobby Lobby and went a little overboard on the clay.  All is good since I will have plenty of clay for future projects.  To give you an idea on how much clay you will need, I ended using less than one block of two or three colors by the time the vase was completed (My glass vase is around five (5) inches tall).Note:  Make sure the glass vase that you purchase can be baked in an oven.
	The first step is to condition the clay.  Premo is a little firmer then the clay I normally use, Super Sculpey, so a pasta machine comes in handy here. I’m only using two colors on my vase so I keep rolling out the clay until it is fully conditioned.
	The next step is the mix the two colors together and roll them both through the pasta machine. I repeated this step several times until I got a design I was happy with.  Just roll the clay, fold, squish it together and roll it again.  You don’t want to fully blend the clay, the key here is to keep the marbled look.
	Simply press the clay onto the glass vase. I started from the bottom and worked my way up on this piece.
	Still applying clay to the vase.
	Using one of my dental tools I blend the individual pieces together.  Spend some time on this stage since you want the clay to look as if it was on piece.  Try to avoid parting lines if possible.
	Once you create your own vase you will see how easy this tutorial really is.  I personally like to try and take things to the next level when I create my art.  A marbled vase is cool but a marbled vase with art hanging off of it is much cooler. I sculpted an Indian on my vase just to give it a little something extra.Tip:  To cure the piece bake it in the oven at 275 degrees for 30 minutes (per 1/4 of an inch).
	A side view of my vase.Probably 98% of the colors on this vase are made up of clay.  I added a little paint to tint the skin but other than that no paint was applied to this piece.

Lessons Learned

As I stated at the beginning of this tutorial, this was the first time I have tried something like this.  The vase was a good learning experience for me and I did learn a few good lessons along the way.  Here are a few tips I plan to use in the future:

1.  Wear surgical gloves when sculpting a vase - No issues with the skin here, I just ended up with tons of fingerprints in my piece.  Latex gloves would have been a quick and easy solution to avoid any fingerprints.  Alcohol can remove the fingerprints but that is a lot of extra work.

2. Don’t rush the project - in all honesty this is not my favorite piece that I have created.  I have a lot of other projects I should have been working on but just had to give this idea a try.  I only gave myself a few hours for this piece and now looking at it I wish I would have set aside a little more time.  All is not lost since I really did learn a lot by creating this vase.

3.  Keep your area clean - key warning here, little clay particles lying around will somehow end up in your lighter clays.  Also be sure to clean off the pasta machine before mixing different colors of clay.

That’s it!  I’ll be sure to do more vases in the future and will probably show more of the sculpting stages in the process.  The goal for this tutorial was to show you how you can mix glass and polymer clay to create a piece of art.

Until next time,

- Gerald

Popularity: 18% [?]

Sculpting the scroll

Ok, soooo we have added the base (belly), a rough neck and now it is time to add the scroll (top part of the neck). The following steps are quick and easy and a good start to building a basic scroll. I still have a lot more to do to the scroll, like cleaning it up and adding the keys. However, as I have done in all the other tutorials, I always first cover the foundation or basic steps. Once you get a good foundation then adding the details is a cinch.

The polymer clay I am using for this particular piece is Super Sculpey.

	The first step is to rollout out a thin layer of clay using a pasta machine
	Next I trim down the sides to form a long and thin triangle.
	The attached picture shows the basic shape that I am trying to achieve.
	Roll a cylinder with clay starting with the widest part.
	After I roll my cylinder I add a little clay to the back of the piece to create a little more thickness
	Smooth out the sides a little
	I’ve added a little more clay to the top of the piece and sill smooth it out using the same steps from above.

Next lesson - Attaching the scroll to the fiddle.

Previous lesson Building out the neck of the fiddle

Back to the series home page

Popularity: 11% [?]

Attaching the neck to the fiddle

Ok, now that we have a pre-baked neck for our fiddle it is time to attach it the body. For this particular sculpture there has been a lot of sculpting then baking and then sculpting again. I’ve already baked various components of the fiddle multiple times through this series and will be baking a few more times before everything is completed. Not all of my sculptures work this way, in actuality most don’t, but for this piece is just seems to be the best approach. Once a piece is baked it is hard and easier to work with. The key is to be able to add more clay to the baked piece so that you can add the details. You will wee exactly what I mean in the next couple of lessons.

The polymer clay I am using for this particular piece is Super Sculpey.

	Apply a light coat of Vaseline (Petroleum Jelly) to the bake fiddle components. Don’t forget to wipe the Vaseline off with a tissue before applying clay.
	Add a thin layer of clay to the neck to the fiddle’s neck (was baked in the previous lesson)
	If you read the previous lesson then you saw that I would have sculpted things differently if I had to do it all over again. Here is the reason why I said that. There is no support for the neck on the fiddle. To get around the issue I add a ball of clay to the bottom and top of the area where the neck and body of the fiddle come together. I also support the fiddle’s neck with a lump of clay so that the weight of the neck does not cause my piece to break.
	Ok back to the oven. My goal here is to just get the neck attached and create a hard piece of clay to work with. This will be my foundation for the neck. Same as before, I bake at 275 degrees for 15 minutes.
	Once my fiddle has cooled down I again apply a thin layer of Vaseline and clay to the previously baked parts.
	Smoothing everything at and starting to bulk up the neck on the fiddle
	Looks a little rough at this stage but believe or not we are starting to make real progress here. My neck is a little too long and I plan to sculpt the top of the neck separately. I draw a line where I think my neck should end.
	Remove the clay from above the line and …….
	Cut the excess clay to get the right length.
	Still rough but here is what the fiddle now looks like with a basic neck attached. I have some work to do but we are getting closer to completion now.

Next lesson - Sculpting the scroll

Previous lesson Cutting out the fiddle neck

Back to the series home page

Popularity: 11% [?]

Cutting out the neck of the fiddle

If I had to do this all over again I would have handled the neck on the fiddle a little differently. Instead of attaching the neck at the top of the body, I would have attached it more towards the center of the fiddle’s body (part of the neck would have laid on top of the body to give it more support). It is too late to turn back now and I can still work with what I have in front of me. As I have already stated in this sculpting series, you do learn from your mistakes.

The fiddle for this particular project is coming close to completion now. I’m really looking forward to completing the fiddle because it will really change the feel of the sculpture once it is attached to the Fiddler, our subject matter for this series. I still have to build out the arms and work on the details on various other body parts but at this stage in the game I’m comfortable to say that we are past the halfway mark in the sculpting process.

The polymer clay I am using for this particular piece is Super Sculpey.

	The first step is to use my fiddle template and punch out the outline of the neck. This is the same process that I used when I first cutout the shape of the body of the fiddle.
	In this image you can see the outline of the neck for my fiddle.
	The next step is to cutout the shape of the neck in the clay. What we are creating here is a skeleton to build on. From here I will bake this piece for 15 minutes at 275 degrees in the oven. After it has fully cooled I will then proceed adding the neck to the body of the fiddle. The goal here is to have a hard piece of clay to work with before I start building out the neck on the fiddle.

Next lesson - Building out the neck of the fiddle

Previous lesson Fiddle Components

Back to the series home page

Popularity: 10% [?]

Creating a bronze finish for the dog portrait.

Bronzes do add a look of elegance to a sculpture and creating a bronze finish with paint is a pretty simple process. What I like most about a bronze finish is that it does not take long at all to complete the paint up of the sculpture.

I’m by far a better sculptor then painter so the bronze technique is an easy way for me to “complete” a project. I do from time to time paint a sculpture using technique other than the bronze finish but the process usually takes me more than a week to complete and I am running short on time for this project.

* This sculpture is created with Super Sculpey.

	The first step in painting is to prime the sculpture (which helps the paint stick to the clay ). I normally use an auto primer when I prime my sculptures. After the primer dries I then paint the sculpture black.Tip: If you use black primer it is easier to paint the sculpture black.
	My preference for the bronze paint is the Duncan Ultra Metallic UM 953. It is a little bright but I will tone it down in some of the later steps.
	The key is to leave some of the black paint showing through. You do not want to completely cover the sculpture with the bronze paint.
	Here is a picture of the sculpture with the bronze base. The bronze is a little bright for my taste so I’ll tone it down a little in the next step.
	I’m going to add a wash to my sculpture. I mix the black and bronze paint together with a lot of water. The goal is to get the consistency of milk with the paint. When you apply the paint to the sculpture it will run down the sculpture. I like to keep the paint dark so that the settles well in all the creases.Now doesn’t that look nasty…
	Here is a picture of what the sculpture looks like once wash has been applied. The bronze has been dulled down to a nice finish.

Previous Lesson - Sculpting a unique base to the dog portrait

Back to the dog portraits home page

Popularity: 12% [?]

Sculpting a unique base for the dog portrait.

I’m only sculpting the dog’s head for this particular piece so I want to do something that gives the sculpture a little more pizzazz. Usually when I do pet portraits I like to add a unique rock formation base to the sculpture. The rocky base basically helps create a uniqueness with the piece and also gives a little more height to the sculpture.

Tools Needed

1. Polymer Clay (Super Sculpey in this example)
2. Sculpting tools
3. Reference material (pictures of your subject matter or the subject matter itself)
4. Lots of patience

* This sculpture is created with Super Sculpey.

	The first step to sculpting the base is to cover the wire with aluminum foil. This not only helps to bulk out the wire, which save clay, but also helps the clay to stick better to the wire.
	Front view of the sculpture….
	Next I cover the aluminum foil with a layer of clay.
	I think adding little ledges here and there really make the a rocky base more interesting. All I’m really doing at this stage is adding clumps of clay in various parts of the base. Nothing really too strategic here, I just add a clump of clay where I think it will look good.
	I use the same texturing technique I used for my rocky seascape base on my water dragon sculpture. A ball of aluminum foil is an quick and easy way to texture the base.
	And here is a shot of what the sculpture looks like before we slap a little paint onto it.

Next lesson - Painting a bronze finish

Previous Lesson - Shaping the dog’s face

Back to the dog portraits home page

Popularity: 13% [?]

Shaping the Dog’s Face

Now that we have built a good foundation for our dog portrait, it is time to start adding the details that will bring our sculpture to life. The detailing stage may be the most time consuming stage in the game but really is the most rewarding stage in the entire sculpting process. It is nice to see a chuck of clay shaped like a dog turn into an actual dog portrait. The key is to take your time and not rush through this stage. Flying through this step will show in the end results to go ahead and already plan on investing a lot of hours to get the detailing done right.

The final details will not be completed in this tutorial. The goal for now is to build out the dog’s face, with wrinkles and all, and add the polishing touches a little later down the road.

Tools Needed

1. Polymer Clay (Super Sculpey in this example)
2. Sculpting tools
3. Reference material (pictures of your subject matter or the subject matter itself)
4. Lots of patience

* This sculpture is created with Super Sculpey.

	Sometimes I like to pre-bake my eyes before I add them to a sculpture. Two round balls will work perfectly for eyes on this piece since I will not be carving a hole for the iris and pupil like I have done on my other tutorials. Pre-baked pieces are nice because they give you the freedom to work on a piece without messing them up.* The eyes were created simply by rolling two round balls of clay in my hands.
	I’ve added the pre-baked eyes to the sculpture. The key is to insert them into the eye sockets where they look natural (not too sunken in are protruding too far out). It is probably hard to view them a “natural” looking with no eyelids but with a little practice you will get the feel for how far the eyes should stick out.
	I’ve added a few snakes of clay to start building out the upper and lower eyelids.
	Ok, this is the most tedious process and the only really good way to show all the steps would be via a video. I do not have a video of this piece so I’ll breakdown everything as best as I can. I believe that the key to getting the sculpture down was in the previous less when I went over how to block out the dog’s face. Blocking out gives us a sense of how long and wide the snout is, where the ears and eyes are located and how the cheeks are shaped. The next step is to add details to the foundation. Basically all I have done is carefully studied my subject matter, wife’s new puppy in the example, and added wrinkles here and folds of skin there. Wrinkles and folds of skin are easily accomplished by adding little snakes of clay here and there. You can also create a similar effect by carving little lines into the clay and smoothing out the edges.Most of my sculpting time is spent at this stage. If you built a good foundation by blocking out the dogs face then this stage really is not that difficult. The key ingredient here is to make sure that your resources are good (either the subject matter is available to study or you have pictures from various angles). As you can see in the photograph I’m have completed the dog’s face yet. The nose is not shaped well and there are a few other areas that need a lot of attention.

Next lesson - Sculpting a unique base for the dog portrait.

Previous Lesson - Blocking out the pet portrait

Back to the dog portraits home page

Popularity: 15% [?]