Sculpting Sanding Tips

I'm bad at sanding too, i used to think it was because i had such weedy arms.What i do now is i paint over my sculpt. Once you sand off the paint you'll see all the irregularities in the sculpt because the paint will remain in the dents.... this gives you a clearer idea of how much you need to do to give it a nice finish ^_^ I think i've seen other people here doing it.

I used to hate sanding but now its fun :P

 

I find that sanding is always time consuming, but having the right grit is important and can save you a lot fo time. I usually start with a 220 grit, then move on to 440 and eventually 600. Other people will have their preferred combos though. It's also helpful to purchase a flexible sanding pad and some steel wool to get to those hard to reach places. My flexible sanding pad has been a real boon though as it makes it much much easier to sand a whole swath of curves at once.

 

One tip I got from some thread here was the usefulness of those rectangular blocks they use for sanding acrylic nails. You get them in a beauty supply store and they come in fine, medium and coarse. Because the interior is foam, you can press them into curves and sand, or use the long edges for finer areas or points. Using them enabled me to "save" a pair of lips someone had virtually destroyed on a head. I find the yellow one is the finer one, and you only need to go over things with a 400 or 600 wet/dry sandpaper to get a nice finish. Whether sandpaper or the blocks, i find they work better (and you get less airborne dust) if you dip them into water before sanding. Then just keep a tissue handy. The white one (called "polar bear something), is a medium-grit and gets a lot done, but tends to come apart faster than the yellow (fine) or the blue (coarse).

There are other brands/colors of sanding blocks, too. I bought some to experiment with!

Also in the beauty supply shop are small discs, that are even marked as 200 on one side and 400 on the other. The only things I found weren't worth using were the wooden sticks with abrasive on the ends. The abrasive tends to crumble right off after a bit of use, and is usually coarser than the blocks. (Ooh, and not sanding-related, but the pointy-ended cotton swabs there are very useful too!)

 

Can these tips be applied to super sculpy after it has been baked. I have heard its really hard to sand because the grit can get stuck in the clay. Is that true?

 

I used to make polymer clay beads. Once they're baked, they're essentially plastic. We used to sand our beads all the time, to get a nice satiny finish to them. You take some fine grit (400-600-or even 800) sandpaper, a small piece. You take a plastic container on your lap while you watch TV, and either put water in it, or put a bowl with water - anything that won't tip over and wet YOU down - and you hold the bead in one hand underwater and the sandpaper in the other hand, underwater, and sand away. Underwater keeps the dust localized and out of the air. Our aim was for a smooth, satin finish, get rid of any slight irregularities, fingerprints, etc. Worked fine.

Oh - and a fun tip - if we wanted a gloss finish on the bead? The easiest thing we used was Future floor polish - total acrylic, worked great. Do they still make it?

And ALWAYS wear latex or vinyl gloves while working on your UN-baked clay. It's rife with plasticizers, to keep it soft, and they leech out constantly.

PS - I'm not a fan of Sculpy, super or otherwise. We found Fimo made a better surface, and held up much better for thinner things. I've heard of mixing some Fimo into Sculpy to build up the strength. Lot of brand-mixing goes on with the really advanced polymer-clay artists.

 

I've been working almost constantly with sculpey and its dilutent fluid, which is pure plasticizer. I haven't had any problems with it personally, but having it on my hands has made my 18 year old cat so ill we thought he wasn't going to make it. I advise everyone to be very careful with the chemicals they're using, and to clean their hands and fingernails very carefully. I will not pet my cat anymore unless I am absolutely certain my hands are pristene.

 

Yes, all sanding takes place after the super sculpey has been baked. The powder from the super sculpey as you sand though will actually start clogging up your sandpaper, BUT if you get wet-dry sandpaper, you can wash and re-use your sandpaper a few times before it wears out entirely. Another thing to note is that if you are sanding dry, you should wear a little face mask that covers your nose and mouth so you don't inhale the dust.

 

What i do is, first with a 150 grit sand away any lumps and bumps in the original sculpt (this is for Sculpey, softer air dry clays might want to go with a 220 grit)

Then I coat the piece in layer after layer of gesso primer, leave it to dry over night to get to a good hardness, and sand with 150 to get rid of brush marks (if you use spray on probably wont be such a big deal)



After that I use the 220 grit followed by a 380 or 400 grit to get the piec smooth, If you wet sand with the 380 that will get rid of alot of stubborn imperfections.

To get the hard to reach places like ears, creases along the eyelid etc, I wrap some cloth around a pointed wooden sculpting tool, and wet it, then kinda buff away till those parts are smooth. Works great if you've coated your pieces in gesso.

and finish off with a coat of Mr White Surfacer.

To get the hard to reach places like ears, creases along the eyelid etc, I wrap some cloth around a pointed wooden sculpting tool, and wet it, then kinda buff away till those parts are smooth. Works great if you've coated your pieces in gesso.

 

gesso sands wonderfully, it's a primer used for creating a flawless surface for paintings and sands like a dream. I used the mr white surfacer to cover over any tiny scratches that might have been left over.

None of these things effect the molds at all.

 

Hmmnn, so do you just use white gesso, or clear that you mix with a colour?And what would you use to spray it on with, an airbrush?

 

I've never seen clear, but that would probably work too. The Spray one comes in a spray can. i've never used it but seen it exists if you can find any.

 

How do you apply the Gesso? Do you just rub it all over the piece, or is there a more precise way to go about it? For the larger surfaces burshing it would not create any extra bumbs, but for the smaller areas I would think it would make all the sanding on the original sculpt not make a difference.

 

Thanks lolipop.I haven't seen a spray version yet in the UK...

 

for working with polymer clay and apoxies I use sand blaster brand sanding sponges 180 for bigger bumps then 320, dry then wet.
then a finer grit and rubbing with a paper towel or cloth to buff if a shiny smooth surface is needed.

there is a sander that I have used in doll restoation, called the dremel contour sander, it can do rounded edges like legs (may work on building a larger doll?) I've also use the Dremel
(or any other rotary tool) for some things, but honestly for most small or detailed things by hand is the safest.

 

I brushed it on with a biggish brush. It did add brush line which I have to sand, and while that does add extra sand time, it will be much esier to sand than the sculpey, and you'll be able to get a much nicer finish sooner over all, and since all you are doing is removing added surface, there is less risk of sanding away your actual sculpting.

 

So you are acutally spending more time sanding the Gesso, as apposed to the sculpy? I mean obviously you do want the sculpy mostly smooth, but since you are adding stuff with the gesso, it fills in the holes, and you just sand away the imperfections from that?

 

Maybe it's just my craft store, but the only gesso we have here (Bob Ross brand Gesso DX) dried into a rubber-like layer and did sand.. but was so goopy and thick that it destroyed all detail in the process of being applied. I mean, even applying tiny amounts, it would just fill in everything.. which was good for deep dents or scratches... but also.. Because it had dried in a soft 'rubber' state.. if you held it too long or pressed hard onto the gesso surface, it would dent all the way down almost to the clay.

Is Gesso absolutely neccesary? Usually with air dry clay it is easier to sand and get smooth... but I dont know. Everyone here is using much, much finer grits of sandpaper than I have. (I just used 3m medium, fine, and super fine; now I have 60, 100, 150, 220, 440, 660, and one that leaves a 'glass smooth surface' that is actually film, not paper)
When I make my doll I want it to be able to be cast... can air dry clay stand up to silicone in the proper way to make molds?

 

Isn't Bob Ross that guy who used to have a painting show on tv? His style was very specialized. Regular Grumbacher, or Liquitex, or other brands gesso dry almost like a layer of plastic plaster, quite solid, not rubbery.

There IS a whole spectrum of texture-making gessos, and I remember one of them that had a strange feel (not quite solid) when dry.

You want one of the gesso (a/k/a "painting ground") types that would come in a jar, probably, and be brushed on. Why not check the online sites for Pearl Paint and Dick Blick and get a feel for what's out there?

 

I can ask if they have anything else at the craft store, I guess. I know for sure they dont have spray surfacer, though. They have all the spray products in one area and it doesnt take up more than a quarter of one side of an aisle. It's just paint and acrylic sealers, mostly off brand, too.

 

hobbywhelmed -- thanks for sharing how toxic polymer clays are. I was planning to sand outside and maybe even wear a mask, but I never would have thought to wear gloves while I was working on my sculpt. The warnings on their labels should be much stronger. Now, I'm wondering if paperclay would be the safer choice.