Sculpey Help!?

E

Elbow

New Member
I am making an approximately 1/3 scale bust out of Sculpey clay.
I am not new to Sculpey, but am new to the larger scale; most of my previous projects have been miniatures in the 1/10th to 1/12th scale range.

The problem is, I was a complete idiot.
I had seen many people use materials such as tin foil or even paper to bulk up their Sculpey models and save money, and figured I would do the same. The problem is that in between the layer of paper and tin foil I used some clear packing tape to hold pieces together.

I have completed the face of the bust and am extremely happy with it, so I don't want to start over, but I am unsure if their is anyway to safely put packing tape into the oven, even if it is surrounded by 1/2 inch to an inch of clay.

I honestly don't know what I was thinking; any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
That's a difficult one... the temperature required to bake sculpey is relatively low, but it guess it would depend on the temperature the tape combusts. You could try putting a strip of the tape in the oven and see if it burns. Are you planning on making a mould? If so you could just do the minimum bake time to harden it and which shouldn't cause too much of a problem.
 
Last edited:
I boil my sculpey all the time now, even put it in a second time just to cure it a bit more if its not totally hard.
 
I boil my sculpey all the time now, even put it in a second time just to cure it a bit more if its not totally hard.

I found a heat gun pretty useless, just scorched the outer surface and did not cure it all the way through
 
Alaneye said:
That's a difficult one... the temperature required to bake sculpey is relatively low, but it guess it would depend on the temperature the tape combusts. You could try putting a strip of the tape in the over and see if it burns. Are you planning on making a mould? If so you could just do the minimum bake time to harden it and which shouldn't cause too much of a problem.
Click to expand...

That's what i was thinking. If you have a heat gun you could even do that very carefully not just so the tape doesn't melt (and if it does you're outside so there's no fume issue) and that you don't burn the sculpy. I just go with the heat gun to get the outside cured enough for casting and such.
 
zorg said:
I boil my sculpey all the time now, even put it in a second time just to cure it a bit more if its not totally hard.

I found a heat gun pretty useless, just scorched the outer surface and did not cure it all the way through
Click to expand...

You have to keep the gun moving and not too close to avoid scorching/bubbling. But it's only good for fixing the outside details of thicker pieces.
 
Thank you guys so much!
I really did not expect so many responses in just one day!

I'm not planning on making a cast; I'm using Super Sculpey Living Doll Clay (If anyone's never heard of it, look it up - it's great for a quick way to replicate human skin) and I don't even own a heat gun anyway.

I will probably use the boiling method; I never even thought that that would be possible.

Are there any other tips anyone could give about boiling sculpey?
After perusing the thread that was linked to I see that it would be best to leave a small hole since I am working with a foil-filled model.
Is there any possibility of shape warping or color inconsistencies that I should watch out for?
Thanks.
 
All I do is boil the kettle, pour the hot water into a suitable container. Plop the piece in and walk away.
 
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