sculpey and painting

I have not made a BJD with Sculpey, but I've made a lot of non-BJDs with Sculpey. If you've sculpted her, I'd do a test stringing before painting her. What do you plan to use for paint?

(And can you post pictures? I LOVE to see people's sculpts!!)

 

Mmm, the only think I can think of is to coat her with gesso (tinted with whatever skin tone you want to make), seal her and then paint over top her. You might be able to skip thesealing step though.
Just an idea!

P.S. I hope you post pictures once you paint he!

 

Genesis Heat Set Paints are best with Polymer sculpts. You only such a tiny amount to apply that even starter/sample sets on ebay will last you forever! Seriously, I recommend buying a sample starter set from someone on ebay and ask them how to use it (though they often put in instructions anyway).

You will need to put the pieces back in the oven but only for like 3-5 minutes tops! The paint lasts on the clay, it doesn't rub off after dry so you have to make sure while you are applying that it's just as you want it. You can get it off while you're working with it, it never dries until you bake it but it does get thick, say if you leave it on a piece without baking it for a week or longer it gets kind of nasty and hard but it's not actually set, which can be problematic later. You can apply and heat set then apply more and heat set again if you wish. Once you learn how to use them they are great.

Remember one thing: you must apply thinner of some type to these paints, it can be the Genesis thinner or any other brand of preference. I've met many artists that don't like the Genesis thinner because of its consistency but you can experiment and find out your own preference. The starter sets on ebay will give you samples of the thinner, glazing gel, etc.

Try these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Ultimate-Genesi...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

Here's a link to Sue's ebay store, she is VERY nice and VERY fast with shipping and sometimes throws in some extras:
http://stores.ebay.com/Sues-Preciou...W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ10677680QQftidZ2QQtZkm

 

I've heard that rather than baking your super sculpey, you should boil it in the microwave. You put your peice into a microwave safe bowl (one that you will not be using for food afterwards) fill it with water and then microwave it. I have not tried this method myself, but others have and claim it works and you'll have little to no moonies.

 

Microwaving method: works okay on small items, not so well on anything larger than a bead....

Boiling: boiling sculpey will avoid moonies however it does discolor the clay and takes a fair amount of practice to find the perfect balance between cooked and only looking cooked

How I avoid moonies: I mix two packages of Premo! Sculpey into my super sculpey. Since I like photographic colors I use one Black Premo, and one white premo which gives me a nice extremely smoothable photofriendly gray. However, to keep the beige simply mix in beige colored Premo!. You usually don't get moonies in Premo! and it's cheaper to buy Super Sculpey. You get the non-moonyness of Premo! as well as some of the strength with the bulk of super sculpey, the perfect blend ^_^

As for the original question, heat set paint is indeed your friend

 

I'm sorry for butting in and being a newb at this sculpting thing
but what exactly are moonies
are they that bad?
and where would I get premo?

 

when handling super sculpy, there will inevitably be air pockets caused by your kneading the clay. Super sculpy when cured in the oven ends up being slightly translucent, and all the air pockets create these weird lighter-colored half-moon shaped imperfections. You can see very good examples of it on my doll here.

 

ooh O_O
I see
thank you so much for answering my question
I'll try to get some premo to blend into my super sculpy ~
it should make the super sculpey last longer too, right
thank you very much

 

Yeah, moonies look like scars, they appear usually as long lines or tiny curls and the color is light so they look like cuts or scars. It's aggrevating. I've heard that overbaking causes it. I've heard it's air-bubbles. I don't remember the best way to prevent moonies. But I'd never put clay in the microwave, water bowl or not, it even says so on the packaging.

 

After you complete sculpting and the Sculpey is all baked and sanded, thouroughly wash the sculpture with dishwashing soap (anything that eliminates oil and grease). Then dry it and spray it with the best primer ever: SEM Self-Etching Primer. As far as I know the only color it comes in is grey, but it's like a sprayable resin coating. It adheres to sculpey great, and won't scrape off. It takes plain old acrylic paint really well too. It's also good to spray on a coat to bring out any parts of the sculpture that need to be fixed. You can sand the primed parts, then re-prime and it all blends perfectly!

 

Hi,

Has anyone here tried Prosculpt clay?