Learning Sculpturing with Super Sculpey

I bought the book Sculpturing Mythical Creatures out of Polymer Clay for my Kindle a couple of weeks ago. I have been taking a Java class this summer and am starting to get a little burnt out on programming, so I wanted to do something artistic that didn’t involve a computer. I bought some Super Sculpey clay a while ago, but was just trying to teach myself at the time. It didn’t turn out so well, so I shelved the hobby for a few years.

I was a little hesitant at first with this book thinking it was going to be too childish. The verbiage didn’t have the technical jargon that I was used to from most “how to” books. I have been blown away, though, how informative and helpful the book has been. I guess when you know nothing, you need to be treated as a child. :)

I have only gone through the first two projects, but really feel a sense of accomplishment and progress with what I have done and learned. There are 10+ projects throughout the whole book, so the price (~$13) is well worth it in my opinion if you are just starting off.

Gnome Project: ( ~ 1 hour )

 

The one thing great about Super Sculpey is that it always stays soft until you put it in the oven to cure (harden). This means you can work with it for a while and put it away. Come back couple days later and continue working on it. The book uses multiple colors of Sculpey, but it really isn’t required.

I only have so much Sculpey, so I actually rolled this project back up into a ball once I was done. With 10+ projects, I don’t want these things filling up my small one bedroom apartment.

Most shapes start off as a ball or snake, and are modified from there using fingers and a couple tools. If I knew what I was doing, I could have done this in 30 minutes, but I spent a lot of time tinkering and playing with the different steps that he provided.

Pixie Project: ( ~ 2 hours )

First thing you might notice is that I realized how poor my backdrop was for the first model. I took a pillow case that had a nice subdued horizontal pattern and draped it from my wall. Looks a little better than the gnome does sitting on my workspace. I tried to iron out all of the wrinkles, but I couldn’t get them all.

This project started introducing creating more human-like faces with the nose and jaws. I also used a small armature (wire) to keep him standing up. I didn’t have any “armature wire”, so I just used a paper clip which worked perfect! The armature is inside of the model like a skeleton, so you can’t see it if you turn him around.