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2.
What is Super Sculpey
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Sculpey is the clay that you see used by movie animation studios
and professionals worldwide for prototypes and Marquette. Super
Sculpey is a soft and smoothable clay that only seems to come in
a fleshy tan color. It can be relatively brittle so not ideal for
items that are to be handled a lot.
As with other polymer clays Super Sculpey should not be baked at
too high a temperature or it can scorch.
You can read more about Super Sculpey and Polymer clays at the Sculpey
homepage
I have have great service and delivery (in the UK) from The
Polymer clay pit. They are now stocking the 8lb blocks of Super
sculpey from £48 plus £4.50 post and packing (at the
time of writing). With the 1lb blocks being £8.50 the bigger
packs are a great deal.
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2.
Tools and preparation |
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Having decided to create a large Minotaur figure I collected all
the ,materials that I would need for the job. As well as 3lb of
Super sculpey I gathered together a roll of galvanized wire for
the armature (wire skeleton), several roles of tin foil, a set of
basic sculpting tools, a wooden base and some screws to attach the
armature to the base.
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I
attached some of the galvanized wire to the wooden base using 4
screws. I then used twisted lengths of the wire to `rough out` the
frame. When I had the basic humanoid shape I began to tightly wrap
the wire with tin foil. As I wanted to use as little Sculpey as
possible I decided to build as much of the Minotaur in this way
as possible. I re-wrapped the tin foil figure in even more wire
and the figure was already very solid but having a wire frame I
was still able to move the arms and legs into more acceptable stance
when needed.
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I made the hands in the same way but kept them separate from the main
torso so that I could add fine detail with having to handle the whole
figure . |
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2.
Adding clay and baking parts off |
I
started adding clay to the head and neck and then worked down
the shoulders and onto his belly.
The process I used was to roll out large sheets of clay and
add these to the model as strips in a paper mache way. I smoothed
these strips with a flat sculpting knife then added more clay
where I needed more detail.
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To create
the head I made all the tongue, teeth and eyeballs and baked these
off. Once set I added these parts to the head and added more clay
around them. Because they were already baked they kept their shape
which it ideal for areas like the mouth. I re-bake sculpey over and
over again and never have a problem unless I use too high a heat in
the oven. I have tried this with FIMO in the past and I find that
it can easily burn. Super Sculpey seems fine. Whilst making the teeth
I also made a set of toe claws and finger nails and some of the parts
for a belt to be added at the end of the project. |
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The image below shows has been digitally edited to show which parts
were pre-baked. The red areas are pre-baked and the gray areas are
sculpted around them.
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Once
the head was complete I worked down the body adding and sculpting
as I went. I added the pre baked toe claws to the feet and then sculpted
the toes and feet around them. |
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