Polymer Clay Fan

When I first started sculpting with polymer clay I basically only had around six weeks of sculpting experience. Up to that time the only clay that I even knew existed was a water based clay. For those of you that still sculpt with water based clays my condolences. To say that they are a challenge to work with is an understatement (unless you are using them for pottery or something along those lines).

I’ve always been one to push myself to the limits with my art and my first polymer clay sculpture was no exception to that rule. I wanted to create a sculpture that was both dynamic and unlike anything that I had ever seen before. I personally have always liked artwork that depicted angels so for my first piece I decided to create a piece that was my own version of how I think an angel would look like.
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Clayburn Moore has to be one of the most talented artist for sculpting the human form that I have ever seen. The level of detail, the shape and the accuracy of the individual muscles are truly amazing. As impressive as Clay’s sculptures are of the male form, it is probably his sculptures of the female physique that really grabs my attention. I personally find that sculpting females is a lot harder than sculpting males. It may be that I’m just more familiar with the male physique or that I have a lot more experience sculpting the male form. It’s a common issue with a lot of sculptors and one that I just have to continue working at to improve.

However Clayburn Moore is unique in that he is capable of masterfully sculpting both the male and female forms. I do not know if he finds one form more difficult to sculpt than the other but his end results are truly amazing. Oh, and before I forget to mention it a lot of Clay’s detailed and impressive sculptures are created in polymer clay. Living proof that it is possible to sculpt highly detailed and complex sculptures in polymer clay. Read the rest of this entry »

Polymer clay example

Polymer clay is a unique sculpting medium that offers a versatility unmatched by any other product in its class. Although other sculpting mediums, such as waxes, may allow more ease for sharper details no other medium can duplicate polymer clays ability to easily create a completed work of art. Details are not foreign with polymer clay either, with enough time and practice anyone can create highly detailed artwork using nothing but polymer clay.This site is a collection of information, tips and sculpting tutorials for my favorite sculpting mediums…Polymer Clay.

My name is Gerald Gore and I am a self taught sculptor. The tutorials on this site are a step-by-step pictures of some of the sculptures I have created. You can read more about me and how I got started sculpting on the About page.

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Whether you’re an expert or just starting out, Polymer Clay books are a great resource to have.

Polymer clay books are a great resource to both improve on and learn new skills. No matter what your experience level is there are a lot of great books out there that will help teach, inspire and motivate you to making amazing looking artwork.

Here are a few polymer clay books worth considering.

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One of my wife’s complaints is that none of the current animals we have seem to take to her like they do with me and the kids. One of the dogs in my house is literally my shadow and follows me wherever I go. I think this is the type of companionship that my wife was looking for so she put together a well devised plan to spoil our new puppy until it fell in love with her. Seems to be working since the new puppy has really taken to my wife. So, now my wife is happy and in my house when momma is happy, everyone is happy :-).

Now where am I going with all of this? I decided for one of the Mother’s Day gifts this year to give me wife a sculpture of her new puppy. It will be a surprise and one I think she will appreciate. I’ve done a few dog portraits in the past and they really do make a great gift. One of the commissioned portraits I did was for someone whose dog had recently passed away. I created the sculpture from several pictures that the client sent me and in the end she was more than pleased with the final results.

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Looking for free polymer clay projects?

Whether you are looking for a few craft ideas for your kids or you are just young at heart, the possibilities for polymer clay projects are limited to your own imagination. Need help with some ideas? Here are a few examples that you can try at home:

• Christmas ornaments
• Refrigerator magnets
• Necklace or other polymer clay jewelry

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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

Stop the press, isn’t this site suppose to be about polymer clay sculpting, after all the name of the site is Polymer Clay Fan! Yes you have read the title to this post correctly, I’ve started playing with wax lately and although I’m still wet behind the ears I thought why not put together a little post to compare the two mediums. I’m sure a few diehard polymer clay artists may snub their nose at this post but I recommend reading through the entire article before jumping to a conclusion. This isn’t an article about discrediting wax or even polymer clay, it is just my observation of the positives and negatives the two different mediums have to offer.

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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.

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Filling out the torso

The goal in this lesson is to continue from the previous lesson by building out all the individual shapes that makeup the Fiddlers torso. In this lesson I plan to block out the chest and abdomen areas of the sculpture. The sculpture is still going to be pretty smooth at this stage of the game but this stage is very important for getting the shape of the individual muscles down correctly. All right, now onto the torso.

Again, the polymer clay I am using for this particular piece is Super Sculpey.

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