For those who’ve ever labored very exhausting on a sculpture with superbly detailed, skinny, delicate areas solely to have them break off afterward, the frustration of the constraints of polymer clay flexibility.
Sure, skinny items of polymer clay which can be cured correctly are versatile after baking, some greater than others, relying on the model.
However even essentially the most versatile of clay manufacturers is probably not sufficient when doing issues like wings and antenna.
Enter in Sculpey Bake Store Flexible Oven-Bake Clay. It is a 16 ounce pack of eight colours of polymer clay (and two bonus plastic instruments,)
It’s very smooth proper out of the bundle, and virtually doesn’t want conditioning. The draw back is that it will probably be exhausting to get high quality element.
One technique to obtain element is to make use of molds. However for the reason that clay is so smooth it may be exhausting to launch it from the mould with out distorting. Your greatest wager is to make use of a mould that may be baked, akin to silicone. For those who can’t bake your mould, give it a superb spritz of a launch akin to Armor All.
I experimented with a number of totally different shapes and thicknesses. These items are all extraordinarily versatile after correct curing. I’d recommend you disregard the time directions. As an alternative, bake your items for 45 minutes to an hour on the specified temperature, 285°F
You may see these two dragon wings, after following the instructions the one on the left broke after I tried to bend it, however the one on the appropriate bends in half with none indicators of pressure after a forty five minute treatment.
Very skinny items, akin to this feather, may be bent into just about any form you need, whereas thicker items, such because the yellow medallion may be curved to form an object. It could should be gently warmed and cooled in form with the intention to keep curved.
One problem with the Flexible clay is that it’s troublesome to roll very high quality with out breaking. The darkish inexperienced clay is 100% Flexible clay and this was as skinny as I may get it. The lighter inexperienced clay is a 50-50 mixture of Flexible clay and Sculpey Premo, and you’ll see how rather more thinly I may roll out.
Each are equally versatile after curing, versatile sufficient to be tied in a knot!
The identical goes for sheets of clay, akin to you would possibly use on a wing or one other delicate protruding element. Each of those items, the 100% Flexible and 50-50 combine, are equally as versatile.
That is going to be splendidly useful in protecting your sculptures sturdy, particularly in the event that they embody particulars like mine usually do of ears, leaves, vines, and flower petals that protrude.
If you wish to add much more form to your items you possibly can attempt forming them round wire. This isn’t straightforward to do, however in the event you want one thing specifically and wish it to be particularly sturdy, you possibly can gently feed wire right into a clay log, then roll it or twist it. These items have been each baked straight after which I exploit the wire inside to make them into curlicues after baking.
This glorious flexibility, even when blended with different clay, may be very useful as a result of the colours that come within the package aren’t nice. However with a bit of little bit of coloration know-how you possibly can combine in different clays to get the not solely the precise coloration shades you want, however the energy you require.
I’m excited to do that product on delicate flower sculptures, such because the above brooch. It initially included candy little curled stamens, however these have lengthy since damaged off. <unhappy face>
Even the guidelines of the flower petals have damaged. 🙁 I’ll should remake this brooch utilizing Flexible clay in key areas.
What sort of particulars are you able to consider to make use of Flexible clay on?
P.S. I bought this bundle of clay at Interest Foyer within the spring of 2024. The retail value was $22.99, which works out to $2.87 per 2 ounce bundle. Don’t overlook to look at their gross sales, clay often goes to 40% off each different week.
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