Clay materials question. Help?

[kwithers]

Hi all,
This may sound silly, i'm a total newbie to these materials, could someone (or everyone) tell me what the characteristics of the clays such as super sculpey are and how do you prepare it for sculpting?
What should i be looking for and how should it be used?

I have some 'creall-therm professional' which seems impossible to use (don't laugh)
Straight out of the packet it crumbles like mature cheese.
When kneaded it, it goes soft and tacky, maybe too soft and tacky, i end up pushing the stuff around until its all in one lump on the other side of the model. It's funny for just the first hour, but it gets softer the more you play with it.
Should i be letting it air for a few hours before i start tooling it? (is this important?)

I've read that super sculpey stretches when pulled, is this true?
The stuff i'm using stretches a little bit and then breaks. It actually breaks and crumble quite alot unless it is really soft and tacky, but i can't seem to use it either way.

Another important question i have is about the baked characteristics, creall-therm doesn't seem to bake hard, a thin sheet will bend like soft plastic and you can press your nail into a solid piece, a solid piece will deform quite a bit.

Does sculpey bake any harder? , i need a bit more rigidity - more towards a cured resin, for thin parts especially.


Currently i'm trying to 'cast' the clay inside a paper prototype of the model, packing inside with clay in small balls, baking it, removing the paper and then applying a finishing layer of clay before rebaking (it's only small). - i'm useless at sculpting from scratch!

Any information on the diffent clays, solid and liquid, and any material usage tips would be really helpfull and very much appreciated.

Thanks
keith

[Tommy Allison]

Apoxie Sculpt is your solution I think.

[maddmaestro]

as someone totally new to the art my advice is to peruse what others are doing, and see what you might like to try. there are loads of step by step instructions out there it's all about comfort. most people tend to start with sculpy...it comes in a bunch of varieties, super and super firm are the two most used though, and they bake quite solid in your home oven. a more advanced material are aves apoxie or magic sculpt these cure solid in a matter of hours without baking. check out the tutorials at the top of the page though for step by step instuction or look at kent kidwell's thread for a lot of details...you can see just where the medium can take you. i have to say the stuff you're using sounds impossible especially for a novice. good luck and stick with it, i'm glad i did!

[kwithers]

Thanks guys,
will try to find some apoxie, sculpey 3 if i can't, or maybe HT araldite for thin 1mm parts.

I found this clay comparison page some might find useful :- http://www.gigagraphica.com/poly/polyclay.html

The creall-therm seems to be like fimo but extra-extra sticky. The problem is that the resin leeches to the surface, causing it to stick to the tool too much. Guess i shouldn't buy the cheapest thing on the shelf then.

I got so fed up with it last night i tried adding talc to the clay, funny thing is it actually worked. Now have a bakable cheese wax - YAY

Already read the stickies and kent kidwell's excellent post, fantastic stuff, maybe in 25 years i'll be that good :)

Sorry to bump the post, wanted to say thanks

keith - back to lurking.

[maddmaestro]

don't give up so easy, get some ss firm, and play around...believe me it's worth it. if you can't find any in your local art store try the complete sculptor.com they are very expedient and you won't wait forever to get what you order.

[artemon]

Hello, I decided not to start new thread, and ask here.
My Super Sculpey dried and I read somewhere that I can add few drops of baby oil to make it softer, but isn't it's bad for baking.
Thanks.