Bishonen House 2.0 sculpting/progress of my new doll

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for all the kind words, Im glad you like him :^)

I think it is the 5 gallon tank, Id recomend a CATech tank to anyone (especially if your casting in large molds) and some of my molds are very large.
The CATech tanks are teflon (spelled wrong Im sure) coated inside so minor resin spills usually peel of the bottom, but if i would have thought in advance i would have poured a small layer of leftover silicone at the bottom of my chamber and let it cure so my larger resin spills would have been even easier to clean up.


Ok, now for something new (hopefully)

Ive been really busy lately making dolls so unfortunately Ive been a bit of a slacker updating/posting new stuff to my doll making thread.
Soooo for all those working with polymer clay i decided i would post my hollow core/armature tutorial, (for all i know somone else has already posted this technique, if so just ignore)

hollow core/armature tutorial

When sculpting large parts with polymer clay its often best to sculpt over an armature, not only does this save you from having to buy 100+ pounds of polymer clay to finish your doll but it also makes your parts lighter and sometimes even adds strength to your finished sculpey pieces.

Polymer clay has to be baked to be cured so materials like styrofoam are inapproprite to use as an armature because they melt at the temps needed to cure poly clay and give off toxic gases in the process.... cyanide anyone?


Most people use aluminum foil as an option but the problem with foil is that its not really that stable, and polymer clay never really sticks to it in a firm stable way,..
A good armature should give you a stable sculpting base,..this is important if your doing lots of detail work or layering.

Sooo what to do?

Step one, get some non-hardening modeling clay, any non-hardening clay will do. Then rough out the shape of the part needed,..here were going to make the core for what will eventually become an abdomen....a manly manly manly abdomen... notice how the lump of clay slightly tapers toward the top (this is important!, make sure yours does as well)



Step Two, cover the clay with plastic wrap, make sure all the clay is covered.



Step Three, Now this is the fun part, first get yourself some some Celluclay. You can find this in Michaels and in most craft/artstores that sell sculpting supplies.
Celluclay is basically a really strong type of Paper Machè and Its a great material for making armatures for sculpey. Its safe, nontoxic, relatively inexpensive and easy to mix "all you need to do is add water". Mix up some Celluclay but go easy on the water, we want it thick so we can build up a 1/4" layer all over our plastic coated clay form. Once you've coated your form sit it somewhere warm with good airflow, normally it takes anywhere from 2-5 days for it to dry (you can accelerate this by using a hairdryer, or sitting it near the heater) but remember too much heat will melt the modeling clay underneath and that would be BAD.



Step Four, Once the Celluclay is dry or mostly dry, slowly slip the clay form out of the bottom, remember above where i said it was important to have a tapered shape to your form? well, this is why. The more tapered your clay form the easier it will be to remove.



Step Five, Your hollow Celluclay core/armature is complete, once youve removed it from the clay it may need to dry for a few more days or you can put it in the oven at 200 for 3 or 4 hours to help speed up the process.



Once your Celluclay core is completely dry it will be extremely strong. If youve never worked with Celluclay before you'll be shocked at how strong it is. Once your Celluclay core is completely dry coat it with liquid sculpey then you can begin to sculpt over it with sculpey/premo polyclay. The liquid sculpey will soak into the outer layer of Celluclay and bond to your sculpey making an extremely strong and durable surface for sculpting.

I hope the above core tutorial was useful :^)

take care,
Donn

 

Thanks :^), I really like working with Celluclay plus when its dry you can sand it and drill it and sculpt it with a Dremel tool,..the only bad thing about it is the drying time is long but then again doll making isn't exactly an art for the impatient ;^)

Trial and error are what its all about :^) theres no set way to do any of this and by experimenting you learn all sorts of new techniques.

If you can use a kiln and are used to making plaster molds, then silicone molds and pressure chambers will be no problem for you...

You probably could use it as a base for air dry clay, you might want to leave it on the clay form just in case the moisture from the clay softens it,.then you could remove the clay core when its all completely dry.

I usually do one or two molds at a time in my pressure chamber, sometimes for smaller parts ill do three molds at once, basically whatever i have time/room for before my resin sets up,

When i used to have my compressor in my studio it would scare the beans out of me when it would kick on out of the blue, eventually i ran an air hose through the wall and put the compressor out in the garage, now casting is a nice silent affair :^)
I knew eventually the pressure tank wouldn't be a big deal for ya, mine gave me the willies at first but as you use one you realize that unless you do something REALLY STUPID (like hammer on it with an ax while its fully pressurized) they are pretty safe :^)

Yes, the Celluclay isn't harmed at all at the temperatures needed to cure Sculpey plus it adds strength to the Sculpey but i suppose that if you didn't coat the Celluclay with liquid Sculpey making it waterproof you could always submerge your finished baked piece in water and dissolve the Celluclay out of it.

Thanks, sculpting veins is fun process

 

Hi Bianka, at the moment i have no plans to make MSD sized dolls but i do plan on releasing a female doll in scale with my new guy (shell be around 27inches) probably next year sometime.