Newbie questions about Super Sculpey

So a few days ago on a whim, I decided to begin my first personal sculpting project. I'm going to be sculpting a 10'' figure of Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas with as much accuracy as my talent is capable of.

I've never used Super Sculpey before, and it's been a long time since I've sculpted anything, so I have a few questions for you all.

Firstly: The baking instructions say to bake 20 minutes for every quarter inch of clay. It also says not to over bake the clay. Some parts of my sculpt are going to have about half an inch of clay, other parts will have just enough clay to cover the armature wire underneath. Is there a secret baking method or a different rule of thumb you all have found that works for this kind of situation?

Secondly: I figure acrylic paint will be the best kind to use, but should I sand the surface of my figure before painting, or will it stick to the clay just fine without any kind of priming?

Thanks for reading everyone! I plan to post pictures of my project soon.
-KT

Hi, I find that boiling the sculpey in water works better than banking in oven. No odors and full even heat. Just careful when lowering it in the water. You can also suspend the pieces on a string in the water so they don't bounce on the bottom of the pot.

As far as painting, you should dust it with primer before you paint it. Then use acrylic or oils. Whichever you like.

OK very cool! When you say boiling, do you mean that the water should be the same temperature as the oven would be, or just crank the burner up to full blast?

Rolling boil, don't worry about temperature. Just let it boil, time depends on thicknesses, then remove put from heat and let it cool of in the water. Experiment with a piece of sculpey and seeded how you like it. You don't have to worry about oven fumes our burnt edges on your sculpt.

It's also possible to use a heat gun or hairdryer to bake the polymer clay - would depend on the thickness, but it works great for smaller / thinner pieces.
For example, you could sculpt the figure essentially naked (stop that sniggering at the back!), bake it, then add the clothing in thin layers of polymer clay and bake that with a heat gun.

It can help to think of the sculpt as an action figure, and break it down into removable sections - for example the hands could be brittle once baked, and of course the head and torso would take longer bakes to harden fully.

Once baked, polymer clay takes Super Glue (Cyanoacrylate, I think) quite well so repairs are simple - just don't heat the super glue while its still wet! It fumes a bit. The heat might weaken the glue once its dry as well, so leave any repairs til last.

Polymer Clays don't take most aerosol spray paints & primers! It's not the paint, but the propellant. Brush on acrylics are fine.

I always had little luck in sanding polymer clay - it always seemed to 'chew-up' the surface, but that could just be me rushing the job.

Google for wire armatures (the skeleton under the sculpey 'flesh') - the thinness of the limbs would require it, I should think. Easy to make with a little garden wire or wire coathangers. You can wrap thinner wire around the skeleton (think ribbed, like a vacuum cleaner hose) to help anchor the polymer clay.
Tinfoil crushed / wrapped up tightly means you don't need to use loads of clay in thicker areas (head / torso).

There are a few tricks to smoothing the polymer clay while its still soft - Isopropyl Alcohol (Rubbing Alcohol) most often used in pre-injection swabs applied with a small, soft flat paintbrush will remove finger and tool marks, and help when bonding sections of clay together (it is also possible to mix up a little of the alcohol and finely shaved / chopped up clay in a smal glass bottle to make a form of 'slip' for this same purpose).
The alcohol evaporates fairly quickly, so doesn't leave the clay overly soft once used.

Last of all tho - always enjoy sculpting! If it starts to feel like a chore, take a time out. Start a silly little side project - that was always my trick. Something purely for the fun of it, takes the edge off of something you want to look right.

Wow, I just read this back - sorry for the long post!
Good luck!
Coz.

Some very nice tips there, the boiling water is a great idea as is using IPA to clean the pieces.

One cautionary note about boiling Super Sculpey: It won't be as strong as it normally would by using the baking method. In fact, I'd say that boiling lowers the strength by about 1/2. I also believe that the Sculpey absorbs some of the water during the process, which may be the cause of the weaker result, but I can't say for sure.

With that said, I've had good results with boiling the Sculpey for only a few minutes to form a good outer shell. Then I let it dry over night. The next day I bake it at a very low temperature (the lowest setting my oven will go) for an hour or so and keep an eye on it to avoid any burning of small/thin parts. That method should give you it's normal strength.

Of course, the above is only my experience with Super Sculpey, YMMV.

If you want to try it out, I would recommend using aves apoxie sculpt - a two-part self-hardening resin product that works similar to super sculpey but is stronger for thinner pieces, such as legs and arms.

Too Much Garlic said:

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If you want to try it out, I would recommend using aves apoxie sculpt - a two-part self-hardening resin product that works similar to super sculpey but is stronger for thinner pieces, such as legs and arms.

Yeah aves is awesome! It's the best on the market in my opinion...Also testers paints work great! Just make sure to keep things as ventilated as possible! GOOD LUCK! I can't wait to see your finished product!

Wow, everybody! Thanks for all the advice! I like the idea of at least forming a protective shell with the water. Her face has so many little details, it'd be nice to not have to worry about them once they're done. I'm not making Sally to be a toy, so I'm not incredibly worried about strength, but I do want her to last for a long time. Maybe a combination of methods would be the best solution here.

I've used tinfoil to bulk out most of the area on my sculpt. Her head is almost entirely made of tinfoil and wire, as well as her ribcage and "guts". Her skeleton is a combination of steel and aluminum 16 gauge wires.

I'm glad to hear that acrylic paint will work. I teach acrylic painting classes, so please believe, I have waaay more of it than is reasonable. Have a bit of Testors somewhere too, I think.

Never heard of Aves, but sounds like I should give it a try one day. Her neck is so long and thin, it's probably going to be the first thing to break down. Do you know if it bonds well to Sculpey?

Apoxie sculpt bonds to just about anything. Problem is... if the thing it bonds to isn't as strong as it is... that weaker material is what will inevitably break. And seeing as you are using tinfoil inside, basically making the super sculpey into a thin shell, it will undoubtedly crack and break and be a pain to maintain. Everything you describe you are doing with the sculpt will weaken it if using sculpey, that works better if being thick and solid.

Think of an egg-shell. That's pretty much the strength of the super sculpey when done like that - the thicker it is, the stronger it becomes.