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POLYMER: Finer Points Of
Mar. 9th, 2006 07:25 amHere's some fine points I've teased out of tutorials, books, and experience.
Making gray clay for maquettes: one pound of Super Sculpey, ONE ounce black Premo or black Kato Polyclay, TWO ounces white Premo or white Kato Polyclay. Mix. A lot.
You NEED a pasta machine for mixing clays and making sheets of clay.
They can be had for $25.00 or so now at stores like Michael's and Jo-Ann.
Get a coupon from Hobbylobby.com (they have a 40% off one almost every week), and/or sign up for Jo-Ann's weekly mailings. Michael's will honor either coupon. Behold, pasta machine for $14.00, which beats the $40.00 I paid.
You can get a tub of "waterless" hand cleaner, which is ACE for smoothing sculptures (using a brush), for about a BUCK at Wal-Mart. You only need a dab for smoothing. It's way safer than using mineral spirits, and works better.
You will be GLAD you have that second food processor because Mom forgot she gave you one a couple years ago. It is ace for conditioning clay, and chopping it into cottage cheese-sized bits you can make into pancakes for putting through the pasta machine.
The processor bowl is easy to clean after, too! A bit of waterless hand cleaner and a shop rag will do it. It tends to stay relatively clean.
Sculpey III is too damn soft for canes, and gets extremely sticky. Hate the stuff. Get Premo (better) or Kato (best). Kato is the same price (about $2.00) as Premo, but comes in 3 ounce bars, to Premo's 2 ounces.
There is no beating fibers. You will get them. Keep your workspace clean, use a sticky lint roller on yourself and your work surface, cover clay, wait for a while after vacuuming for dirt to settle. Discourage cats from the work surface, which will attract them.
Pick out fibers as they appear.
Wear plain white t-shirts. Do not wear colors, or anything fuzzy.
Sit on a chair or stool that's wood, or covered in vinyl.
This will cut fibers by half. Which means they'll go down from ruinous to fucking irritating.
Clean your hands often with disposable wipes, or some waterless cleaner and a lint-free shop towel/detailing cloth.
Have something fun to watch/listen to while mxing clays. It will take a couple hours to mix that pound of maquette gray.
I made myself eye-making tools last night. I was unsatisfied with the roughness of the bunny's eyes, so I made myself tools to make nice smooth eye shapes for me!
P.S.: listened to the Bravo show where stars play poker for charity. Jason Alexander is a huge fucking creep.
Making gray clay for maquettes: one pound of Super Sculpey, ONE ounce black Premo or black Kato Polyclay, TWO ounces white Premo or white Kato Polyclay. Mix. A lot.
You NEED a pasta machine for mixing clays and making sheets of clay.
They can be had for $25.00 or so now at stores like Michael's and Jo-Ann.
Get a coupon from Hobbylobby.com (they have a 40% off one almost every week), and/or sign up for Jo-Ann's weekly mailings. Michael's will honor either coupon. Behold, pasta machine for $14.00, which beats the $40.00 I paid.
You can get a tub of "waterless" hand cleaner, which is ACE for smoothing sculptures (using a brush), for about a BUCK at Wal-Mart. You only need a dab for smoothing. It's way safer than using mineral spirits, and works better.
You will be GLAD you have that second food processor because Mom forgot she gave you one a couple years ago. It is ace for conditioning clay, and chopping it into cottage cheese-sized bits you can make into pancakes for putting through the pasta machine.
The processor bowl is easy to clean after, too! A bit of waterless hand cleaner and a shop rag will do it. It tends to stay relatively clean.
Sculpey III is too damn soft for canes, and gets extremely sticky. Hate the stuff. Get Premo (better) or Kato (best). Kato is the same price (about $2.00) as Premo, but comes in 3 ounce bars, to Premo's 2 ounces.
There is no beating fibers. You will get them. Keep your workspace clean, use a sticky lint roller on yourself and your work surface, cover clay, wait for a while after vacuuming for dirt to settle. Discourage cats from the work surface, which will attract them.
Pick out fibers as they appear.
Wear plain white t-shirts. Do not wear colors, or anything fuzzy.
Sit on a chair or stool that's wood, or covered in vinyl.
This will cut fibers by half. Which means they'll go down from ruinous to fucking irritating.
Clean your hands often with disposable wipes, or some waterless cleaner and a lint-free shop towel/detailing cloth.
Have something fun to watch/listen to while mxing clays. It will take a couple hours to mix that pound of maquette gray.
I made myself eye-making tools last night. I was unsatisfied with the roughness of the bunny's eyes, so I made myself tools to make nice smooth eye shapes for me!
P.S.: listened to the Bravo show where stars play poker for charity. Jason Alexander is a huge fucking creep.
