Sculpey Teacher Ambassador, Sharon Nelson is writing to give us a look into her family’s exploration of the Sculpey products for her son’s artwork.
I am an art teacher of 12 years and I like to try out new art supplies with my own children first. My son and I have been using Sculpey clays for about a year and half now. Before going to the Sculpey Oven Bake clays, we had experimented air dry clay. We had many frustrating art projects that hardened before completion.
Once we found the Sculpey oven bake clays, one of the benefits for his creativity was that the clay can be used over many sessions. This gives him the time to experiment and adapt his designs without fear of the material drying up.
We started watching YouTube videos of how others work with Sculpey clays and slowly expanded the various styles and types of materials we used. After some good designs and bad, my son found that Sculpey® Medium Gray was just the product he needed to be forgiving of his mistakes so he can learn to create realistic forms. He is really into creating monsters, and some of the early creations are, let’s say “Interesting”. His skills have improved over time and experience with the clay. I have included some pictures of the Sculpey creations that my son has created.
When started with only using Super Sculpey® Medium Gray, he would make his sculptures, bake them, then paint them with acrylic paint. As his sculpture got more complicated, he started using Sculpey III® Translucent for the monsters’ teeth and Super Sculpey® Living Doll. for realistic skin. He also learned that using 92% isopropyl alcohol can clean away fingerprints before baking the clay.
With traditional clay or air-dry clay, the little details will be lost or broken during drying or fired in the kiln. Sculpey oven-bake clays stayed malleable and he was able to work on a lot of details with simple clay tools and they came out just the way he wanted after baking.
Our favorite products are the Super Sculpey® Medium Gray and the Super Sculpey® Living Doll. We are still experimenting with the Liquid Sculpey and will share his progress next time.
