Air-dry polymer clay and acrylic paint
Posted Nov 10, 2018, 5:52 AM UTC
910
Oh this is awesome! I used to love polymer clay but I could never have gotten that kind of texture without smushing it all right back in (:
1
Thank you! I found that to combat that myself I had to keep going back over my lines. Lol.
2
Just to say that it's much easier to achieve and hold detail if not using one of the softer brands/lines of polymer clay.
So you might want to try a firmer polymer clay and have another go Firmer ones would be Premo, Fimo Professional, Kato Polyclay, Super Sculpey-Firm, and Super Sculpey-Medium as well as most of the other neutral-colored polymer clays sold in bulk except for regular Super Sculpey and especially original plain Sculpey...plus Cernit and Souffle tend to be temperature sensitive (that's not all the brands/lines of polymer clay but many of the main ones).
Too-soft clays can also be "leached" of some of their oily stuff to make them stiffer, but too much leaching can affect the structural integrity of the baked clay. Better to just buy firmer polymer clays in the first place.
Also, warmth will make polymer clay softer so try to avoid hot hands, warm environments, working-and-working the clay, etc, all of which will create heat. Clay and/or hands can be cooled though, clay doesn't need to be held as fully or tightly or manipulated as hard while working on it, and sometimes rooms can be cooled.
http://glassattic.com/polymer/Conditioning.htm
http://glassattic.com/polymer/texturing.htm
http://glassattic.com/polymer/sculpture.htm
If you want to try polymer clay again, check out r/polymerclay and ask any questions there, and/or scroll all the way down the Table of Contents page of my site then go to any category page you're interested in for loads of info, tips, explanations, etc.
http://glassattic.com/polymer/contents.htm
2
OHHHH thank you so much! You're so knowledgeable, and I really appreciate all the info! My hands are always freezing, so I'm covered there (: I haven't messed around with clay in a long time, so maybe I should try out the extra firm one. I've only ever used the basic sculpey.
2
Super Sculpey-Firm is really-really firm, so you might want to start with Super Sculpey-Medium (or some proportion of SS + SS-Firm you create at home), or with another brand/line of polymer clay altogether.
===========================
If you want info about the various "neutral-colored polymer clays sold in bulk and often 'for sculpting then painting over'", I've written about those over in a Facebook polymer clay group. I'll copy those in here:
...Well, for sure I wouldn't recommend original-plain Sculpey unless all its disadvantages won't matter...e.g., it's the most brittle line of polymer clay in any thin or projecting areas after baking, although the cheapest by volume, but there are other disadvantages too.
Several other lines will be brittle like that too, though not quite as bad, all under the Sculpey/Polyform brand: regular Super Sculpey, Sculpey III, Craftsmart, Bakeshop.
The neutral-colored polymer clays sold in bulk sizes often sold "for sculpting, then painting later" are listed below:
(opaque:)
...Sculpto-Firm polymer clay (by Van Aken)
...Super Sculpey-Medium
...Super Sculpey-Firm
(...original plain Sculpey, a brittle one mentioned above)
(usually at least somewhat translucent:)
...Cernit Doll (the most colors, I think)
...Fimo Professional Doll Art (some colors translucent, some opaque)
...Prosculpt
...Living Doll
(...regular Super Sculpey, a brittle one mentioned above)
Many lines of polymer clay can also be purchased in larger bricks (cheaper by volume than same color in the smaller bars).
Online most colors each line offers will be available (e.g. Premo, Kato Polyclay, Cernit, Fimo Professional, Fimo Soft).
In retail craft and art supply stores, you might also be able to find some of those larger bricks, but only in white, black or brown.
AND
Here are some of the other skin-colored polymer clays (that are sold in larger sizes)...some of the pics show raw clay though rather than how the clay would look after curing:
Fimo Doll Art:
https://www.google.com/images?q=polymer+clay+skin+colors+Fimo+Doll+Art
Cernit Doll Clay:
https://www.google.com/images?q=polymer+clay+skin+colors+Cernit+Doll+Clay
ProSculpt:
https://www.google.com/images?q=polymer+clay+Prosculpt
Sculpey's "Living Doll":
https://www.google.com/images?q=polymer+clay+Sculpey+Living+Doll
(regular) Super Sculpey:
https://www.google.com/images?q=polymer+clay+Super+Sculpey+-Firm+-Medium
Sculpto Firm:
https://www.amazon.com/Sculpto-CEC15117-FIRM-Polyclay-Beige/dp/B01FWG8YAO (click on the 2 pics of sculpts on the upper right to see sculpted examples)
If you want info about the pre-colored polymer clays instead though, check out my previous comment here at Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/polymerclay/comments/9uk8c2/i_need_suggestions_on_good_clay_brands/e96dxdr
2
Was this made using polymer clay or an air-dry clay? Nice job either way, but don't want to confuse viewers.
Oh! Sorry. Maybe I'm confused myself. The package says Polyform Model Air.
You're certainly not the first person to get confused!
The Polyform/Sculpey company makes 15 lines of polymer clay, but also has one line of air-dry clay (Model Air).
The Staedtler/Fimo company is the same, but its one line of air-dry clay is called Fimo Air.
Other confusions that happen are:
... the Polyform polymer clay called Craftsmart when sold at Michaels, also puts out a plasticine-type clay (those never harden) under its brand name in packages that look a lot like Craftsmart polymer clay
... the company called Van Aken's main clays are plasticine-type clays (mostly for stop motion animation), but they began making Kato Polyclay sort of as a sideline some years ago, and now they also make a "sculpting" polymer clay in two neutral colors called Sculpto that isn't part of Kato Polyclay afaik
Also, some manufacturers (especially in the Far East) put the word "polymer" on their packages of air-dry clay. That's technically correct since many things are "polymers" chemically, but isn't the way the term polymer clay is used in the rest of the world (sometimes that's on purpose to elevate the status of their air-dry clay).
Some people at YouTube, etc, also tout recipes for making polymer clay at home, but don't realize that true polymer clay can't be made at home, and that the air-dry clay they're making may look like polymer clay but is water-based and can't do all the things polymer clay can do, etc.
And of course, many people don't really understand the differences between the 4 basic kinds of "clay" there are these days, including the differences between polymer clay and air-dry clay (how to recognize which is which, how each can and can't be used, advantages/disadvantages/etc).
P.S. You might want to try a polymer clay even if you only want to sculpt. It will be much easier to sculpt than most brands of air-dry clay, and have other advantages.
One easily-available line of neutral-colored polymer clay (if you just want to paint over everything) that will be medium firmness and strong even in thin areas would be Super Sculpey-Medium (or mix regular Super Sculpey and Super Sculpey-Firm half-and-half at home).
Thank you! This was very informative! I will look into buying some Super Sculpey, because I'm kind of hooked now! It's so much fun. I've seen things people have made turn out so smooth and I couldn't understand why it was difficult to get that outcome with this stuff. Still, probably just user error! But I'd love to try actual polymer clay!
Polymer clay will create smoother surfaces than air-dry clays, even without doing anything extra. Again though, best to use one that isn't too soft since that will start being a bit more difficult. You might be interested in various ways to smooth polymer clay too, collected on these pages at my site (in addition to always conditioning the clay till it's smooth and supple and all ingredients are mixed back together evenly, and to always begin with smooth balls, logs, or sheets of clay then shape further from there):
http://glassattic.com/polymer/sculpture.htm > Fingerprints, Smoothing, Dust
http://glassattic.com/polymer/sanding_tumbling.htm > Smoothing--Before Sanding if needed (plus regular wet-sanding below that, if ever needed)
I would suggest Super Sculpey-Medium rather than regular plain Super Sculpey. Regular SS will sculpt okay, but it's one of the 5 lines of polymer clay that will be brittle after baking in any thin or projecting areas. And it will plaque easily during baking, although if you'll just paint over everything that wouldn't matter.
If you haven't used polymer clay before, there are a few things to know about the medium however, like baking correctly and using permanent armatures in areas thicker than 1.25", etc.
http://glassattic.com/polymer/baking.htm
http://glassattic.com/polymer/armatures-perm.htm
(And btw if you didn't know, polymer clay can do many more things besides just "sculpting," although "shaping" in various ways is involved in most anything.)