I’m going to use wax for this tutorial but the same effects can be achieved with polymer clay.
Tools needed:
- Polymer clay or wax
- Mechanical pencil
- Dental Tools
- Soft brush
- Build out the basic tentacle shape (with wax you just form the shape that you are looking for, with polymer clay you will need to build out a wire armature and go from there. If you are using polymer clay do not bake the tentacle at this stage.)
- Take little balls of wax or clay and place them randomly along the tentacle.
- Using the tip of a mechanical pencil (no lead in it of course), create little circle patterns in the tentacles. Keep in mind that you will create the patterns around the bumps that were created in Step 2. Also the best way to create the circles is to twist the mechanical pencil to the right and left as you press it into the clay (this will create a cleaner look).
- Using a very sharp pointed tool create little holes into the clay. For this step make sure that you create the little holes or divots around the circle pattern (along the edge of the pattern but not in the circle itself). I also create little holes on the bumps that were created in Step 2 (this will help blend the edge of the balls into the base of the sculpture).
- Using a larger pointed dental tool create little holes into various parts of the sculpture. When you do this step on the bumps that were created in Step 2 you will create something that looks like a barnacle. Again just don’t press the tool into the clay, twist and turn it back and forth to create a cleaner look.
Keep in mind that this process does take some time to master. The pictures below will take you through a visual tutorial of what is outlined above. The first two images are another tentacle that I had previously created while the remaining images are the step-by-step process I used to create the new tentacle.
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