Polymer Clay Fan

Over the past few years I’ve gravitated from creating what I would consider more conceptual to functional based art. I still enjoy sculpting statues and figurines, that will always be a part of me, but I have to admit that creating a unique functional piece of artwork has a strong appeal to me. Not only is the artwork fun to look at, it’s also a great way to create an engaging conversation piece.

I started my functi0nal art journey a few years back making cigar related tools and as of late have spent a great number of hours creating art for the wine enthusiast. What’s intriguing about creating this type of art it that it really stimiluates my own creativity. I look at the world with a different view in that any and every item I interact with has an opportunity to also because an artistic centerpiece. Napkin holders, coasters, light switches, etc and etc offer endless opportunities to create something that is functional yet an attraction for its design and beauty.

If you have never created a functional piece of art then I highly recommend you give it a try. Push yourself with the design, make the challenge something that you have to give your very best effort. In the end no matter what you make, or how the design ends up, I truley believe you will grow as an artist. After all I’ve never grown much from my easy projects, it’s the ones I wanted to throw in the trash that really developed my skills. For me sculpting wine stoppers pushes the envelops of my creativity. I have to sculpt smaller than I prefer and on top of that I’m tasked with trying to create an appealing design that will rest on top of a wine bottle.

Go out and find your niche and try something new. Struggle with the project, push yourself, don’t give up and in the end I’m confident you will be a better artist for it.

If you would like to check out my latest endeavors you can view them at my

Etsy shop – www.etsy.com/shop/gorecollection or my website – www.gorecollection.com.

All the best,

Gerald Gore

Now that I have the angel underway the next step is to start sculpting the demon.  My goal here was to create a figure that was very contrasting to the angel.  Since the angel is a very muscular male I wanted to create an opposing creature that was not only female but also composed of an unfamiliar form.  Everything is still very rough at this stage but once I start cleaning up the sculpture I think it will all work out well.

** You can also see how the wings will merge together in some of the pics.

I’ve come to realize that most of my personal sculpting projects will probably never get completed.  One example of this is a warrior angel sculpt that I started some time back.  I really like a lot of things about this sculpture and after closely looking at it again I felt that it would be a great addition to my new cigar ashtray.  The side benefit here is that I’m also able to shorten the amount of time that it will take me to complete this project.

The gallery below shows some progress pics of my angel.  I’m sculpting the wings from scratch since the original ones really didn’t work well with my vase.

We know how difficult it is to come up with new and yet inexpensive ideas for classroom art projects. Our staff is always on the alert for great new ideas (if you have any, let us know! We are always adding to our library of free downloadable lesson plans). Our art lesson plans are either in PDF format or PowerPoint presentations, and they can be downloaded absolutely free. For elementary school students there are easy-to-follow explanations of lithography; portrait sculpture in clay; dinosaur bone clay relief sculpture; polymer clay bead making; prehistoric cave art; and even making clay skulls to celebrate Mexico’s Day of the Dead. For high school students there are more advanced art projects such as multi-color printing; sculpting insects with polymer clay; relief sculpture; making reproductions of Chinese vessels in bronze; sculpting life sized heads and ceramic self-portraits. There is also an Introduction to Glass in the Classroom; making fused and slumped warm glass objects d’art; glass casting; and glass jewelry making. Read the rest of this entry »

I have a lot of different interest and over the years my art has reflected a variety of different things. One of the themes that I have been drawn to since my early days as an artist is fantasy artwork. Fantasy art explores the imagination of the artist creating images of things that have never been seen. It’s a style that pushes the envelope and one that is a lot of fun to create.

Anyways, I show a lot of tutorials of artwork that is still in the clay state so I wanted to show a “finished piece” that I created last year. The sculpture in the image is a resin cast and was painted by me. It is the first fantasy art piece that I have done that takes place in the sea and it has inspired my imagination with a bunch of other creations that I hope to be building out in the near future.

All the best,

Gerald

Polymer clay is a very versatile and wonderful medium to work with. Whether your polymer clay art interest is jewelry, wildlife art, dolls, figurines or other polymer clay projects, there are no limitations to the quality of work that you can do. Listed below are examples of a few sculptures created in Polymer Clay.

Polymer clay angel

Finding your artistic roots. Always be true to yourself as an artist.

Out of all the lessons I will be putting together I believe this is the most important lesson of all. First of all your artwork should be an expression of yourself, your interest and your beliefs. Art should be more than just something that is pretty to look at, otherwise what is the point. I think a lot of us over time try to create art that we think will sell or please others. I myself have been guilty of this and in the long run I always felt a disconnect from my art that was solely created for commercial or monetary gains. Now, there is nothing wrong with profiting from your art but if your whole motivation for the creation of your art is the all mighty dollar then I think you have missed the point. The goal here is to get rich creating art you love, not art you hate or could care less about ;-).

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A few simple tips and tricks to help you evaluate your artwork

I’m a firm believer that when sculpting you should from time to time step back and take a different look at your art. If you stare at the same thing for too long of a period of time, it can become easy to overlook minor and sometimes major mistakes within your artwork. There are several different tools or methods that I use to evaluate my art when I am sculpting.

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Why bake individual parts of a sculpture?

Adding detail to a sculpture is probably the most time consuming part of sculpting. I have personally spent hours and sometimes days detailing just one area of a sculpture. Depending on your skill level, experience and speed, sculpting individual body parts like the face and arms can be a time consuming process.

I am a very “hands on” sculptor in the sense that I like to hold and grab the sculpture with one hand while sculpting with the other. I do not have hands as steady as a surgeons so at times I will grab the sculpture with my free hand. Unfortunately in the past I have accidentally grabbed an area of a sculpture that I had spent a lot of time detailing. As one expects, my hard work usually ends up with a giant fingerprint or smudge running through it.To bypass this problem you can bake your sculpture in stages using a heat gun. This is really beneficial when you are not ready to bake the entire sculpture.

Baking individual parts tutorial

To better explain the process I am going to use an example of a warrior angel sculpture that I am working on. In this example I have already detailed the angels right arm and chest but I still have a lot of work to do on the left side of the body and his face. * Click on the thumbnails to see a larger view of the picture
** This sculpture is created with Super Sculpey

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The tutorial in this video is for all of those interested in the process of creating a single part mold. I go into detail on creating the mold box and pouring the silicone mold.