Sculpey advice peas~

By Mandie_Chan. 31/10/09, 03:15 am

hey peoples~

So I'm getting ready to make Illua for chchgeddon and all my props have some pretty awesome details and i figure sculpey could do the trick nicely ^_^
Picture:

Spoiler:

So few questions:
1) do you think scuply is a good idea?
2) If I was to use it on the sword (the lighter bits at the end) when I cooked it could it keep it's 3D shape or would I need to rest it on something in the oven?
3) would it work for the spikey ends on the book and the earings?
4) Where can it be bought and should I get the right colours or just paint it afterwards?
5) how would be the best way to attach it?

29) any advice you would give me?
seems like I'm gonna need a bit >_<;

By **seraphik**. 31/10/09, 07:41 am

the problem with sculpey is that it's quite expensive... also i find fimo is more durable than sculpey (i.e., breaks less when dropped).

By **JVCA**. 31/10/09, 08:35 am

1) do you think scuply is a good idea?
I would use it for some parts but not others - sculpy/fimo is best for intricate things, whereas air dry clays like DAS, Modelling Clay, or Paperclay is better for bulky things, mostly because it's cheaper. You can't really do intricate stuff with air dry clays because it dries before you get all the detail you wanted in.

2) If I was to use it on the sword (the lighter bits at the end) when I cooked it could it keep it's 3D shape or would I need to rest it on something in the oven?

It would keep its shape just fine - it doesn't really flop or anything, but with thin bits I always put a wire support in to make sure that it won't break under pressure. The other thing is - if you were using sculpy for the stuff on the end of the sword, keep in mind that sculpy IS oven bake, so make sure that whatever you make the sword out of won't melt in the oven.

3) would it work for the spikey ends on the book and the earings?

Yes. Again, for the book make a wire support, and for the earrings, if you can't find a suitable ball to use and thus want to use sculpy, then just make a ball out of tin foil and cover it in a layer of sculpy - much lighter and cheaper than making the whole ball out of sculpy. ALSO: If you're making sculpy bits for earrings, make sure that if you need to have loops coming out of them to attach jump rings too, then put the wire for the loops in BEFORE you bake. Look up a tutorial for making sculpy charms on dA to see what I mean, and if you've never made earrings before I recommend you head to the Chch craft hall and go to the bead shop there and see if they have any lessons or will show you quickly. :3

4) Where can it be bought and should I get the right colours or just paint it afterwards?

Sculpy can be bought from spotlight, Fimo from Whitcoulls, and there are other polymer clay brands like Du-kit which you often find in craft stores. I've been told that Du-kit is hell to work with, but am indifferent on the sculpy/fimo thing personally. I do think Fimo is cheaper though. If you can buy the right colours then it makes life a hell of a lot easier - it can be painted though with any acrylic paint.

5) how would be the best way to attach it?

Depends on the context of each piece, really. If it's in a jewellery-thing, then stick some wire through it before you bake it, and make a loop on the end to attach it with. If you're sticking it flat to something then hot glue works pretty well because polymer clay is a plastic, so like craft foam the hot glue basically melts it onto whatever it is you're sticking it to. Plastic glue is very expensive but very, very effective. Um, most glues will work, really.

Advice: WATCH IT WHILST YOU BAKE. The cooking times are a lie. I had to remake a couple of things on Rosa because I put my faith in the cooking times and they LIED to me. T_T If you smell something that smells like burning plastic, or see it start to bubble, PULL IT OUT STRAIGHT AWAY coz it's been overcooked. If you do get air bubbles, you can save it by popping them with a pin, squishing them flat, and then doing another thin layer of sculpy over the crappy bit. Sculpy can be baked and rebaked, (so you can add stuff to already baked sculpy) but let it cool completely before you stick it back in or else the stuff that has been cooked once will cook faster than the new stuff.

Uhh. I hope this helps? >.<

By Cookie Monster. 31/10/09, 09:14 am

I'm cracking a mega sugar honey iced tea atm, so I don't really feeling like giving any input to something atm; maybe I will later if i feel like it, but:-

Try 2-part epoxy window putty. (Use gloves on your hands and water is your friend when sculpting and smoothing it.) It air dries, and the result is virtually like plastic. It also holds detail down to the millimetre.

By **JVCA**. 31/10/09, 09:19 am

Ohoh, I know what new material I want to play with.

By Tracer Kinship. 31/10/09, 09:30 am

JVCA wrote:: Advice: WATCH IT WHILST YOU BAKE. The cooking times are a lie. I had to remake a couple of things on Rosa because I put my faith in the cooking times and they LIED to me. T_T

I agree with this comment completely. My tonberry came out burnt and brown by the time I took it out of the oven when I first started with sculpy clay.

As for my two cents on sculpy/fimo, I started off with sculpy, but find fimo quite nicer to use. In my experience, fimo is easier to mold with, especially with the fiddly bits.

Word of advice on painting: it's much, much better to use that paint you use on canvases for acrylics before actually painting (I think it's called Gesso), otherwise the colours don't turn out as expected. For example, I painted a sculpy figurine thing blue without that paint I was talking about (I'll tell you what exactly it is when I get home), and it turned out turquoise somehow. I still have no clue how that actually happened.

By **JVCA**. 31/10/09, 09:38 am

Yeah, it's called Gesso. :3

By **Rowan**. 31/10/09, 10:06 am

FIIIIMMMMMOOOOOOOO. Okay I've never actually used sculpy, but Fimo is really good! And it DOESN'T BURN (at least that I can tell)! Shannon and I left it in the oven for god knows how long before remembering, and it only turned vaguely pink. Plus it's actually pretty hardy stuff (which Lucy mentioned).

I get it from Gordon Harris. How much do you buy it for from Whitcoulls, Jess?

By **JVCA**. 31/10/09, 10:13 am

Bluhhh, I think it might be around $5/pack from Whitcoulls? But that might be with my staff discount, I can't recall.

For the record, I have burnt both Sculpy AND Fimo, but I think our toaster oven is just satan spawn, rather than either being down to the product.

By **Rowan**. 31/10/09, 10:18 am

Hah, maybe it does burn after all.

How big are the packs?

By **seraphik**. 31/10/09, 10:35 am

oddly enough, i've managed to burn sculpey but not fimo. fimo also seems to be more flexible once it's finished than sculpey, which just breaks.

By **JVCA**. 31/10/09, 10:56 am

I think rigidity/how easily it breaks just depends on how long you cook it for - I know both will break if you over cook them.

By **Rowan**. 31/10/09, 03:12 pm

I think Fimo is a bit rubbery. Like once you cook it and before it cools down it's a bit springy. And I dropped a medalion made out of it on Shannon's hard floor and it was fine (right when I said that clay is breakable so that's a good reason to cast in resin /facepalm)

By **JVCA**. 31/10/09, 03:16 pm

...I find sculpy a bit springy before it cools completely too. sweatdrop

But then, I only poke each of them with my fingernail 'coz they're too hot to actually handle, so I possibly don't have a very good indication.

If I hadn't thrown them out, I would grab the belt buckles that I burnt whilst working on Rosa and throw them to the floor to see if they'd break - but uh, I threw them out, so I can't. If I remember/am not too lazy though, maybe I should conduct a clay-materials comparison thingerjiger and post results on here for people over the holidays. o_O

By Selphiroth. 31/10/09, 07:12 pm

I'm the only Du-Kit lover here sob sob sob... I think so much of this is about which clay you are most used to, never tried Sculpey, bought Fimo instead of lunch (SO EXPENSIVE) and the ending result was disappointing IMO. Du-Kit however is the one I just adore to bits. Most of my clay charms are made with them. ^w^

I can't see the book THANK YOU FAKE INTERNET, but I do think the clay would be perfect for the earring. One trick I recommend personally is when putting in the wire, bend it at several direction in 3D then squeeze and smooth the clay over it, rather than just stick an end in. This is to give the clay better grip and it's less likely to dislodge five seconds before the stage. A bit of thrown in chemistry - polymer clay is essentially plastic, meaning that it binds very well to other plastic as well as acrylic paint, but are atrociously slippery when it comes to holding onto metal without glue. So to make the metal stay, relay on the physical shape of stuck wire rather than hoping the clay is binded to it via heat.

If you are going to paint it with acrylics, do it before baking. This helps the paint fixing onto the clay.

One huge potential problem with any sorts of heat based polymer clay is that sometimes they crack during or after baking. My way of combating it is by graduate change of temperature. Say if your intended baking time is 120C. Instead of stick'em in and zap it up to 120 WHILE WATCHING IT (JVCA's wisdom is vital here), dial the oven to 30C for two minutes, 60 for 1min, 80 for 1min etc until you reached desired temperature. Let it bake for 15 min at desired temperature provided that they are not bubbling or smell like burnt plastic, then graduate it down again. Don't take it out of the oven until the inside reaches room temperature. Cracking can never be completely avoided but this will make the cracks far less damaging.

As much I think clay is ideal for quality when it comes to sword, I have a feeling that it won't be cost effective as you will need $40+ of clay just for the sword if you picked the cheapest. I recommend using an alternative source instead.

By Mandie_Chan. 01/11/09, 06:07 am

YAY!!! People with wonderful advice I LOVE YOU~

So Fimo is similar to sculpey?
Would anyone reccomend one over the other?

By **seraphik**. 01/11/09, 08:37 am

fimo is similar as in it's a polymer clay, but as far as i know, it's made in NZ while sculpey is made somewhere else in the world (america, i think).

i might be biased, but i've used both fimo and sculpey quite a lot and prefer fimo much more durability/flexibility/cost effectiveness wise.

that said, if you stalk trademe, you can sometimes get 1kg blocks of sculpey for about $30, i think.

By Selphiroth. 01/11/09, 09:29 am

I believe Fimo is the German brand, Sculpey is the American brand and Du-Kit is the New Zealand brand.

Personally I would pay the most for Du-Kit for quality but it is also the cheapest as far as I'm aware of. That is before I realised Sculpey are going for $30 per kilo.

Gotta try out on those now!

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