I need a materials overview (scupture)

[ivow]

Ive just finished for summer and for my last project i did some basic sculpture with regular clay. now that summer is over id love to carry on doing sculpture, but i obviously cant use regular clay, because it will only dry to greenware, and thats useless for a portfolio, or to keep.

Ive read a limited amount about sculpey and super sculpey, but in all honestly i dont know the difference between the two, and i cannot find a single place apart from eBay that sell it in the UK.

If someone could please tell me what the different types of home-friendly clay products are, and where to get them in the UK i would be very very happy.

[KoBold]

http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/Characteristics.htm

http://www.gocreateworkshops.co.uk/

[ivow]

Amazingly helpful! Thank you!

Mods: You should sticky a thread with links like these, to help newbies find alternative materials.

[The Dark Power]

Good links.

There's also:

http://www.polymerclaypit.co.uk/

and

http://www.tiranti.co.uk

[ivow]

The Dark Power - Have you bought from tiranti.co.uk before? They seem a little too cheap, if you know what i mean..

[tysiony]

Tiranti are fab they are quick and sculpey is always fresh and soft which is most important lol and believe me they aren't that cheap when you count up how much you spend on sculpey! Also try
South western industrial plasters for super sculpey +sculpey firm-they cheapest i've found it so far.You have to ring up for a catalouge 01380 850616.
These are a few other uk links incase they are of any help
__________________________________________________ _____________________
http://www.gocreateworkshops.co.uk/

http://www.tiranti.co.uk/indexhome.asp

http://www.jacobsonchemicals.co.uk/contact.htm

http://www.fredaldous.co.uk/trolleyed/7/index.htm

http://www.allaboutcrafts.co.uk/acat...Materials.html

http://www.julesgems.com/beads.php?Cat=Polymer%20Clay

http://www.monster-costumes.co.uk/

http://www.theartshop.co.uk/

http://www.polymerclaypit.co.uk/index.html

http://www.morbid.demon.co.uk/

http://www.homecrafts.co.uk/index.asp

http://www.southernhandicrafts.co.uk/index.html

http://www.suttontools.co.uk/acatalo...ing_Waxes.html

http://www.themodelmakersresource.co.uk/index.html

http://i.webring.com/hub?ring=ukartsandcrafts

Need anything else let me know and i'll see what i can do.

[tysiony]

Sorry just one bit more

Ive read a limited amount about sculpey and super sculpey, but in all honestly i dont know the difference between the two, and i cannot find a single place apart from eBay that sell it in the UK.

If someone could please tell me what the different types of home-friendly clay products are, and where to get them in the UK i would be very very happy.

Sculpey is little blocks of colours -good for mixing into normal sculpey and detail -you could use it on a large sculpt but i wouldn't it would cost an arm and a leg.
Super sculpey-flesh coloured - bigger box ,good for beginers,it's quite soft so some smaller details are hard to get but it's amazing what the pro's can do with it.The only thing with the pink is that it doesn't photograph as well and its harder to see bumps and lumps in your sculpt,most people mix in sculpey white and sculpy black to make it grey which allows you to see your bumps easier.
Sculpey firm -already grey so no mixing is involved easier to do detail as it's not as soft as the flesh coulored one.

Hope my gibbering helps-as for the other clays i've only used clay and sculpey-so maybe someone else can help you with the other clay such as chavant and other clays.

[ivow]

tysiony - How cheap are south western? Worth ordering via catalogue for? How much is a 1lb super sculpey?

[The Dark Power]

The Dark Power - Have you bought from tiranti.co.uk before? They seem a little too cheap, if you know what i mean..

Hi, yeah I've bought tons of stuff from Tiranti - I was in there this lunchtime as it happens!

I think cheap is a relative term though - I spent £107 on silicon *sob*

[tysiony]

tysiony - How cheap are south western? Worth ordering via catalogue for? How much is a 1lb super sculpey?

Hey a 1lb of super sculpey is £5.75 ex vat and postage -if you order 12 boxes there is a discount and it comes down to £4.95 a box

You can also buy a 8lb box @ £37.50 again exculding vat and postage.

Firm is £5.97 each- if you order a box of 6 it's £5.45 each, again without vat and p+p.

[ivow]

I got the catalogue today. I didnt realize where they were located, i went with someone down past bristol yesterday for a favour... i could have stopped off and bought some! Oh well! :p

I might order 1lb before i take the 8lb dive. How much would you expect to use/waste when starting out? Can you reuse any that youve not baked, or does it air harden?

[GDragon]

How much would you expect to use/waste when starting out? Can you reuse any that youve not baked, or does it air harden?

It can be difficult to properly cure (bake) polymer clay when it's too thick. If you use packed aluminum foil to bulk up your sculpture first, you will use much less clay and it will cure better. I try not to cure clay that is more than a half inch thick. You can also cure polymer clay in layers to help with the thickness issues.

Yes, you can reuse polymer clay that hasn't been baked. It wont air dry but you need to store unused clay in a closed container. Leaving it in the open air will attract dust and it will lose some if its elastic properties. This would take several months though, so you have plenty of time to work on your sculpture.

[tysiony]

Ditto to what gdragon said.How big is your sculpt gonna be? For a 6 to 8 inch model i tend to use 2 boxes but i tend to have 3 handy just incase.But aluminium foil is your best friend.Armature planning is key,bulk out as many areas with foil as you can.Hammer it into place so it's tight and compact then you can start with your sculpey.If you havent already look at Troyboys joker sculpt-i think he has wip photos explaining the foil stage,http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=59727
and smellybug's http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18287 he doesnt use foil to bulk out, but his tips on working with sculpy are priceless.

[ivow]

Thanks for all the tips. Today i totally lost it and went and bought 1lb of firm fimo, because nowhere around here sells sculpey and im really unsure about ordering over the phone, and barely have time in the day to do so.

I payed £10.50 ( $21 ) for 1lb....

How do firm fimo and firm scupey/super sculpey compare? If anyone knows it would help me decide whether its worth ordering sculpey when ive done playing with this overpriced shit.

Should i work with this as advised with sculpey? Using a foil base?

[GDragon]

Yes, the advice given about Sculpey also goes for Fimo.

Go to This Link for information about the different brands of polymer clay and how they are different. Look for the section labeled "Brands and Characteristics".

[ivow]

cheers mate, its the puppen fimo i got, because the other stuff was so soft i couldnt imagine how i could possibly do small sculputres with it.

I will post a piccy of what i just made in a while, i started tiny to get a feel of the stuff, im going to do a proper design some time this week.

[ivow]

Here it is. Its about 1.5" long. The eye hole squished a bit and i didnt notice until after baking it . Also i totally squished the left side so i decided to put 'cloth' on it. When i do a real sculpt ill create an armature so i dont have to hold ( hence the squishing ) the piece in my hand.

Anyway, im pretty impressed. I know how this stuff handles now, so i will do a proper sculpture.