Sculpt Versatile Particulars with Sculpey Flexible Clay

In the event you’ve ever labored very onerous on a sculpture with superbly detailed, skinny, delicate areas solely to have them break off in a while, you understand the frustration of the restrictions of polymer clay flexibility.

Sure, skinny items of polymer clay which might be cured correctly are versatile after baking, some greater than others, relying on the model.

However even essentially the most versatile of clay manufacturers is probably not sufficient when doing issues like wings and antenna.

Enter in Sculpey Bake Store Flexible Oven-Bake Clay. This can be a 16 ounce pack of eight colours of polymer clay (and two bonus plastic instruments,)

It’s very tender proper out of the package deal, and nearly doesn’t want conditioning. The draw back is that it will possibly be onerous to get high quality element.

One approach to obtain element is to make use of molds. However for the reason that clay is so tender it may be onerous to launch it from the mould with out distorting. Your greatest guess is to make use of a mould that may be baked, reminiscent of silicone. In the event you can’t bake your mould, give it spritz of a launch reminiscent of Armor All.

I experimented with a number of completely different shapes and thicknesses.  These items are all extraordinarily versatile after correct curing. I might counsel you disregard the time directions. As an alternative, bake your items for 45 minutes to an hour on the specified temperature, 285°F

You may see these two dragon wings, after following the instructions the one on the left broke once I tried to bend it, however the one on the fitting bends in half with none indicators of pressure after a forty five minute treatment.

Very skinny items, reminiscent of this feather, might be bent into just about any form you need, whereas thicker items, such because the yellow medallion might be curved to form an object. It might must be gently warmed and cooled in form so as to keep curved.

One issue with the Flexible clay is that it’s tough to roll very high quality with out breaking. The darkish inexperienced clay is 100% Flexible clay and this was as skinny as I might get it. The lighter inexperienced clay is a 50-50 mixture of Flexible clay and Sculpey Premo, and you’ll see how far more thinly I might roll out.

Each are equally versatile after curing, versatile sufficient to be tied in a knot!

The identical goes for sheets of clay, reminiscent of you may use on a wing or one other delicate protruding element.  Each of those items, the 100% Flexible and 50-50 combine, are equally as versatile.

That is going to be splendidly useful in holding your sculptures sturdy, particularly in the event that they embrace particulars like mine usually do of ears, leaves, vines, and flower petals that protrude.

If you wish to add much more form to your items you possibly can attempt forming them round wire. This isn’t straightforward to do, however for those who want one thing specifically and want it to be particularly sturdy, you possibly can gently feed wire right into a clay log, then roll it or twist it. These items had been each baked straight after which I exploit the wire inside to make them into curlicues after baking.

This glorious flexibility, even when blended with different clay, may be very useful as a result of the colours that come within the package aren’t nice. However with a bit little bit of colour know-how you possibly can combine in different clays to get the not solely the precise colour shades you want, however the energy you require.

I’m excited to do that product on delicate flower sculptures, such because the above brooch. It initially included candy little curled stamens, however these have lengthy since damaged off.

Even the information of the flower petals have damaged. 🙁 I’ll must remake this brooch utilizing Flexible clay in key areas.

What sort of particulars are you able to consider to make use of Flexible clay on?

P.S. I bought this package deal of clay at Passion Foyer within the spring of 2024. The retail worth was $22.99, which works out to $2.87 per 2 ounce package deal. Don’t neglect to look at their gross sales, clay normally goes to 40% off each different week.