Hi! I am new here and just started my doll project. I was wondering has anybody else done this. Last weekend I tried making head base out of Fimo that I have rolling around. I used basic white styrofoam ball as core, just put some Fimo over and shaped it. I baked the head WITH it fillings15 minutes in little under 110°C, might have been something like 90°C just to be sure I don't burn or melt anything. I have used this method before in my other sculpting projects too. Like when I made stuff for cosplay or just needed to make hollow of the thing on hand. This basic styrofoam that consist of tiny foam balls has tendency to shrink about 60% of it size when baked. It shrinks relatevely quick so you got to be careful with it or it melts to plastic like stuff. So that is why it is better to bake it in smaller heat and less time that the polymer clay needs. It's not a problem because after the bake clay is hardened enough but flexible. So you can cut the head open and take the shrunken ball away and bake some more if needed or just continue adding clay or sculpting and baking again. Example picture: After removing the styrofoam ball from inside, the walls of the head have this coarse surface that is copy of the styrofoam ball, but it is easy to cover. Some of you/us use polymer clay so I wondered if this would be any good for its users, or to others. It's kinda easy way of making things hollow. What do you think? -Crunchy- PS. Sorry for the bad English and horrible picture
I made a hollow head similar to yours in super sculpey. I wrapped the styrofoam ball in plastic wrap then formed the head over it. What I did was bake it outside in a solar cooker I built for 2 hours reaching temperatures of 150F. This made it solid enough to surgically remove the styrofoam. Then I baked in the oven a little longer to harden more. I was also able to use straws to make hollow limbs. Try baking straws in the oven....hehe The solar cooker I made is a large box with a smaller one inside it just enough to put some crumpled newspaper between for insulation. The inside of the inner box is covered with foil. I removed the flaps from the larger box and folded the inner box flaps over the outside of the larger one to seal in the insulation. You could go a step further and add foil panels to help focus more sun, but I figured 150F for 2 hours is adequate for my needs. On top of this solar cooker I put a glass panel (that came from a retired scanner...hehe) to keep the heat in. Since I didn't think direct sunlight beamed at my super sculpey parts was a good idea I placed a smaller box inside the cooker to house what I am baking. Make sense?
Straws to oven, uuuuh nasty also didn't the plastic wrap melt? Solar cooker sounds very interesting! Where did you get instructions to make it? I know a friend of mine who would be very interest to try that one. He's likes stuff like that. Also it sounds very handy if there isn't oven for use! Not that I would go camping and suddenly want to bake a doll or anything.. he hee.
Well, if you want to. You could go camping and make a doll...lol Here is my solar cooker. Just do a search on any search engine and you will get a lot of them. It can be really easy to make your own, or you can make it more complex. I made mine with whatever I had around and am fine with it only hitting about 150F since I am not cooking food. If I was cooking food I would probably add more solar panels to direct the sun better... But if it got too hot, it would melt the straw and plastic wrap. At 150F for 2 hours, the super sculpey became hard enough to hold its form and have the additions removed easily. The straw was easy to slip out of the limbs. 2011-07-27_18-31-19_120 by Mothi03, on Flickr I wrapped it with duck tape to make it look nice... contradiction? I place a smaller box inside to keep the sun rays away from my clay and put a glass panel on top so it keeps in the heat... else it won't even hit 150F.
Hi Mothi, When you said you removed the straws easily from the limbs, do you mean before or after baking please..? This sun box method is SO interesting... ;-) Marina x
I formed the clay over a straw. Then I baked it in my solar cooker for 2 hours at 150F. Let it cool so it is easy to touch, and then pull the straw out. I had to use the pliers to get a good grip of the small section of straw I still had visible. If you left more straw you can easily grab it by hand and pull it out of the middle of the clay. But it has to be baked hard enough to do so. Otherwise you end up squishing your limbs...hehe Keep in mind I don't know what durability or decrease of happens when you bake at lower temperatures for longer period of time. But I figured, Hey. Her head has been in the oven tons of times I don't think it is going to matter now...haha
I was wondering about what i could use as a core with polymer clay, i though styrofoam would toxic but it seems fine. I saw this topic just now; http://www.denofangels.com/joints/s...rofoam-warning!&highlight=hollow+polymer+clay So its not that save? I wonder what i could use instead.
ive used styrofoam alot in pollimer clay, and while i realised it was bad for you, i never knew it was that bad o.O untill now its been my main form of hollowing stuff out, as its easy to sculpt round and easy to get out after cooking, but i guess i have to find something else... does anyone know what happens if you boil sculpey with it in?
