Polymer Clay Fan

Hey Gang, with Halloween fast approaching did you know that there is a really cool and great way to really impress your friends and family with your talent?. Although this website centers more around sculpting with polymer clay and wax, there are a lot of other types of materials that you can easily sculpt. Metal and wood seem obvious answers here but how about pumpkins. Can you think of any better way to spice up your Halloween this year than sculpting a really cool looking pumpkin?

Now I don’t want to be misleading here, sculpting pumpkins in very different than sculpting in wax or polymer clay. It’s kind of like sculpting with wood, the process is 100 percent a subtractive. You have to carve away the flesh of the pumpkin and any mistakes made could force you to reshape or even change your design. I know it sounds challenging but with a little practice it really is not that bad and most important of all it is a ton of fun! Read the rest of this entry »

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Mark Alfrey

One of my favorite sculpting videos of all time is Mark Alfrey’s Sculpting the Human Head. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mark Alfrey, he is both a sculptor and special makeup effects artist for the television and movie industries. Mark’s resume includes popular movies and TV shows like Men in Black I and II, 300, X Files, Ghostbusters II and much more.

Mark is not only an extremely talented sculptor but is also a great teacher as well. I have two of Mark’s videos and both videos are consistent in their teaching methods. Mark uses time-lapsed photography in his tutorials and narrates as you watch a lump of clay transform into a sculpture before your eyes.

In the Sculpting the Human Head video you learn how to create the different shapes in the face, how to create wrinkles, skin textures and much more. He really covers in detail on how you approach the different features in the face such as the shape of the eyes, the skin folds around the nose and the placement of the ears. 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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From time to time I plan to write a post highlighting the artists that have had a positive influence on my own artwork. As I have stated many times before I for the most part am a self-taught sculptor. I’ve never taken a formal sculpting class and most of the techniques that I have learned up to now have been through a lot of trial and error (in some cases mostly error) and various forums and tutorials from other websites on the web. I still believe that I have a long ways to go before I become the skilled artist that I want to be, however I have progressed a lot over the past few years. I owe that progress to a lot of tutorials from a handful of sculptors that are out there today.

When I first started sculpting in November of 2003 the only clay that I was familiar with or even knew existed at that time was the water based clays. I had never even heard of polymer clay and naturally when I started my sculpting journey I picked right up from where I left off during my high school art experience. I did a brief two to three week sculpting project back in high school so I was already familiar with some of the basics for sculpting with water based clays (i.e. How to remove the air bubbles, making the sculpture hollow, firing the sculpture in a kiln but nothing on how to sculpt different forms, etc). Read the rest of this entry »

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There are several different ways that I could approach sculpting the scars on my sculpture and no one way is really better than the other. Since I’m working with polymer clay, Super Sculpey to be specific, the easiest approach in my opinion is to roll out snakes of clay and remove the unwanted pieces. If I was working with wax I may take a different approach such as adding small balls of wax one at a time but I would have to experiment first before confirming.

* Note: I’ve blocked out parts of the sculpture in case anyone is sensitive to nudity. Once I’m finished I’ll add a link to an uncensored picture of the sculpture for anyone that wants to see the complete design. This will be done at the end of the tutorial and for now I’ll just censor the pics as needed. Read the rest of this entry »

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If you are using a polymer clay and are happy with the results from the previous lesson then I would recommend that you go ahead and bake your sculpture. It’s not a requirement but you will mess up the details if you like to hold your sculpture in you hand while you sculpt. If you choose to bake your polymer clay sculpture make sure that you apply Vaseline to the baked piece before proceeding with this tutorial. Read the rest of this entry »

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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

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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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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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Recently I had put together a little article that outlines some of the key differences between sculpting with wax and polymer clays (http://www.polymerclayfan.com/sculpting-with-wax-vs-polymer-clay.htm). In hindsight, the review was more of a comparison between sculpting with Super Sculpey and a relatively new wax called FUSE. I think it is important to point out that not all polymer clays are created equal and the same case could be made for wax. As of the writing of this article, FUSE is the only wax I have ever tried so the chances are that my opinions regarding sculpting with wax could drastically change from one wax product to another.

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