Materials Crayola air-dry clay

Even at $5.99 per 2.5 LBS. tub, the Crayola Air Dry Clay is still quite expensive
compared to a reusable modeling material.

An example of a reusable modeling material is oil-clay, also known as
plasticine, and plastilina. If you plan on making a silicone rubber mold over the
oil-clay, you must make sure that the oil-clay you purchase is sulfur-free,
because sulfur and certain types of silicone rubber do not play nicely together.

Oil-clay is usually a soft modeling material that does not harden or dry-out.
To use it, you first construct an armature to support the oil-clay, and a modeling stand
to support the armature. Oil-clay is a traditional sculpture clay, and is modeled using
the traditional sculpture methods for a modeling material.

Because it is soft, it is usually transitioned to a harder material for refining, before
making the final molds.

In traditional sculpture, a plaster original is cast in a waste mold, made directly from the oil-clay original.
The waste mold is opened, the oil-clay removed, the mold is fastened back together,
and plaster is cast in the waste mold.
It is called a waste mold because it is usually chipped off the plaster original.
Then the plaster original is refined for the final mold, to make the wax patterns for bronze casting.
Note that the oil-clay, once it is removed from the waste mold, can be reused, over and over to make new sculptures.
The initial investment for the oil-clay, which seems steep at first, becomes less and less, each time it is reused.

In his book, Pop Sculpture, Tim Bruckner models the original in oil-clay, then makes a silicone rubber waste mold directly over the oil-clay. He calls the silicone rubber mold a waste mold because a large portion of the mold is made from old, chopped-up silicone rubber molds. He casts carving wax into the waste molds, and refines the carving wax for the final molds. Carving wax is also reusable. It can be remelted and cast into new molds, over and over again, thus making it very inexpensive in the log run.

Martha Armstrong-Hand, in her book, Learning To Be A Doll Artist, suggests using oil-clay over a wire armature, supported by a modeling stand. She removes the oil-clay original from the modeling stand, cuts it apart at the head, torso, and limbs, then makes plaster rough shell molds of those parts. The plaster molds are saturated with water, then carving wax is poured into them, to make the doll parts which are refined to make the final plaster slip casting molds for casting porcelain slip. Both the oil-clay and the carving wax are reuasble for making new projects, over and over, and over again. Thus, in the long run, they are very inexpensive.

I use brown sculpture modeling wax in lieu of oil-clay. The brown wax is reusable. I have been using it over and over and over again for sculpture projects over the past several decades. I am making hot-pour moulage molds over my brown wax doll parts, then casting carving wax in the moulage molds. The carving wax is refined for the final molds, which can either be silicon rubber molds for casting resin doll parts, or plaster slip casting molds for casting ceramic slip or composition slip. The brown wax, carving wax, and moulage materials are all reusable. over the years of being reused, over and over and over again, their cost is now almost zero (a few pennies per pound for each new project).

The cool thing is, they will continue to work as materials for new projects, even after this one is completed. I can reuse them over, and over, and over again.

 

Oil clay or modeling wax isn't for everyone, they all have different properties we either take to or don't. I find that I like air dry (paperclay) the best so far out of everything I've tried, despite the messiness of it. And I actually do reuse it..maybe not the master sculpts, but I save up all my shavings and dust to rewet for base sculpture.

Hyula, I've seen this stuff at walmart too but didn't really consider trying it out, figuring it'd be difficult to work in so your experiments are interesting to see. It's pretty cheap so I think I'll pick some up next time and experiment with it too a bit Maybe it'll be good to practice heads with since I don't actually like paperclay for heads or hands/feet, and it would be nice to not have to go downtown for more clay (and hope they have a half off coupon to even make buying there worth it haha).

 

relativity

Beginning doll makers may not be familiar with the traditional modeling materials, since most of the contemporary BJD making tutorials recommend the newer modeling clays, which are quite expensive due to not being reusable over, and over, and over again for many, many years, or even decades.

$5.99 for 2.5 pounds of Crayola Air Dry Clay is relatively inexpensive when compared to
$7.99 for 1 Kg of DAS Air Dry Clay, or
$11.99 for about 1 pound of LaDoll or Premier
(prices based on the current shelf prices at the local Michaels).

How do those compare to $0.05 per Kg (or less) of oil clay that has been used and reused over and over again for several decades, and just gets better and better with use?

The nickel per Kilogram is just a wild guess because I have no idea how many projects I have made using the oil-clay over the past several decades?
The oil-clay did not cost $0.05/Kg when I bought it.
That is what it costs me now, after decades of use and reuse.
It has amortized to almost zero cost.

If beginning doll makers are at least aware of traditional sculpture materials for making BJDs, and they even remotely think that they may be making sculpture for more than just one OOAK BJD, then I think it is a Good Thing(TM) to talk about.

I will agree that the Polymer Clays and the Air Dry clays are excellent materials for making OOAK (One Of A Kind) BJDs.

I cannot see anyone spending money for oil-clay if they only plan on making one OOAK BJD, then move on to some other hobby, like scrapbooking, or whatever.

Oil-clay is an investment in your sculpture studio, whether you are sculpting BJDs, statuettes, toys, 3D design, or whatever.

However, I have seen questions asked about how to make molds from Air Dry Clay originals, and if the doll maker is thinking about making molds for reproducing the BJD, then there are much less expensive modeling and molding materials available, even though they are not mentioned in contemporary BJD making tutorials.

BTW, thanks for the pix that show the shrinkage factor of the Crayola Air Dry Clay. That means it probably won't work too well over armatures that must be removed later? Perhaps two-piece doll parts could be made around an armature, then later, after the first layer of clay has dried, the armature could be removed, and the two halves put back together and more layers applied over the hollow doll part? Or, the parts can be modeled solid, and hollowed out later?