Polymer Clay Fan

I still have some work to do on my Minotaur’s head, body, etc but I wanted to go ahead an attach him to a base to get an overall idea on how the sculpture is going to look.  Adding the base is a pretty easy task with wax since there really is no need for a support system (armature) for it to be able to hold up the sculpture.  Also, another huge advantage for using wax is that I was able to create wax cast from some of my other skull sculptures.  This allowed me to add a few of my already previously sculpted skulls to the base verse having to spend a lot of time sculpting each individual piece.  I have so many projects going on right now shortcuts like the wax cast really help me move the piece along.  I’m also able to sculpt the pieces together in a way in which they look unique, so the sculpture is not “cheapened” by this process. Read the rest of this entry »

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OK, for this lesson I will briefly cover the steps for blending the small round scars. I like to first layout my design before blending the shapes into the rest of the sculpture. The reason why is because if my spacing is off or I don’t like the way the design is taking shape I can easily make changes. Otherwise I would have to scrape away clay, smooth out the belly and start over.

Once I have everything where I want I just take a flat edge sculpting tool and blend the edges of my small ball shaped scars. The key is to make sure you blend all of the edges. To accomplish this I like to look at the sculpture from all kinds of angles. It is amazing how a sculpture changes when you look at it from a different angles, everything may like fine from one end while when you look at it from the other end all kinds of mistakes or imperfections appear. The same point holds true when painting a sculpture but that is another tutorial in itself. Read the rest of this entry »

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The next phase in this project is to start fixing some minor issues that I had with the original belly. Basically the main issue is that in some parts the torso was too flat and needed to be pulled out more. I’ve already sculpted my belly button so I want to be careful that I do not mess up any of the details in that area.

I’ve broken down my steps below.

1. Draw a line outlining the location of the sternum and the center line for the belly.
2. Add small balls of clay to bulk out the areas that need to be pulled out more. In this case I need to pull out the skin over the sternum, the portion of the belly above the belly button and the sides of my figure.
3. Blend the balls of clay into the base of the belly
4. Smooth out with my finger Read the rest of this entry »

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In this next tutorial I will walk you through the steps for sculpting a belly button. Belly buttons are actually made up of interesting shapes and there really is a lot more to sculpting them then just creating a hole inserted into the clay. Now belly buttons come in all types of shapes and designs but there are some traits that are common in most belly buttons. For instance there are small folds of skin in and around the belly button. Also, if you look closely the design and shape of the stomach also changes around belly buttons as well.

Because belly buttons come in all kinds of shapes and sizes there are many different types of belly buttons that you can sculpt. Keep in mind that this tutorial is just one example of how a belly button can look. So use this tutorial as one option for sculpting a belly button and see what designs you can come up with. Read the rest of this entry »

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This lesson is a continuation from the last one in the sense that I’m still working on adding and subtracting clay here and there to finalize the shape of the breast. The nice thing about sculpting with a polymer clay like Super Sculpey is that you can easily smooth out the clay with just your fingers. I’ve included some pictures below where I show how I shaped and smoothed out my sculpture using my thumb. It is quick and easy to do and I try to use my fingers as much as possible when smoothing out larger areas in the clay (belly, back, arms, etc).

Keep in mind that you if you can get the sculpture perfectly smooth with your fingers you can always use rubbing alcohol and a brush to smooth out the clay even more. The particular sculpture will end up having a texture to it by the time I’m done so my main goal at this point is to just get the shapes down. Read the rest of this entry »

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What is Polymer Clay

Polymer clay is a material you can sculpt. It is based on polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC) material. It usually contains no clay minerals and is only called “clay” because its texture and properties resemble mineral clay. Polymer clay is sold in craft, art and hobby stores. It is used by artists, hobbyists and children.

All polymer clay brands include PVC and one or more liquid plastic. Pigments may be added to the base to create colors along with small amounts of kaolin or white china clay. Mica may also be added to make a metallic looking clay.

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In the last lesson we covered the steps to created a mold box. Creating the mold box is half the formula in the mold making process and the next step will bring us closer to being able to replicate our artwork. The next process is time consuming and dirty but the results are worth every bit of the effort.

1. In the fist lesson we went over silicone as one of the materials needed for making a mold. There are a quite a few different brands of silicone out there so the key is to follow the manufacture instructions on whichever silicone you choose to use. My silicone of choice is the Smooth-On Mold Max 20. It’s a great rubber to work with and has been worth every penny in my investment. The rubber comes in a two parts (the silicone and the catalyst)
2. A scale is crucial for weighing out the silicone. Ideally a digital scale would be preferred but a food scale can work just as well (just don’t use it for food anymore). Normally what I do is calibrate my scale so that the weight of the cup brings the scale to zero (0). I also pour my silicone in stages, for example if my box requires 30 ounces of silicone I’ll pour 10 ounces at a time (with 10 ounces of Part A and one ounce of Part B – the mix ratio is included with the instructions on the silicone but in most cases it is 10:1).
3. Follow the manufacture instructions for stirring the silicone. A paint stick works great but keep in mind that as the silicone thickens it will become harder to mix. I usually mix mine for a minimum of 3 to 6 minutes. Make sure that the color is consistent all the way through (in my case the color is a bright pink). You do not want to see streaks of the base color in the mix (doing so will result in sections of the silicone not curing). Read the rest of this entry »

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Sculpting Hair Onto the Elbow

I wanted to add a little pizzazz to my arm so I decided to add some hair flowing from the elbow. Since the arm is already detached the best and easiest approach from this point is to sculpt the hair before reattaching the arm to the Fiddler’s shoulder. The pictures below will take you step by step through the process. In the third and fourth picture I used 90% alcohol to smooth out the sculpture.

* Keep in mind that Vaseline is required when adding new clay to baked clay (If you have no idea what I’m talking about start at the begging of this tutorial and work your way back here ).

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African scarification sculpture

Scarification is the act of creating shallow cuts in the skin to form designs and patterns. What happens is that the cuts would scar up forming bumps in the skin. The many bumps together form a pattern on the body in result creating a form of tribal art. Although scarification is not anything that I would want to do to my body, I have to admit that many of the designs are beautiful to look at. I’ve been wanting to sculpt a nude for some time because I knew it would be a great challenge for me.

Most of my figurative sculptures are of very muscular males and sculpting a woman, especially a nude, is not something that I have a lot of experience with. When it comes to my art I like to do things that are a little different then the norm. I love African art and a lot of the African culture so from the beginning I wanted to sculpt an African tribal woman. However, I wanted to do something different than the everyday sculptures that you see for this type of art.

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From my experience there is a vast difference in the amount of effort that is required to smooth out wax sculptures versus sculptures sculpted with any of the polymer clays. The underlying principles and concepts are the same but wax, when cooled, is a much harder medium and thus requires quite a bit more work to achieve the desired result. Keep in mind that this is under the assumption that you smooth out your polymer clay sculptures prior to baking, which I have always done in the past. Some sculptors will bake their polymer clay sculptures and use wet sanding techniques for the final smoothing stages (this process will exponentially increases the amount of work needed to smooth out the sculpture).

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