finally finishing a sculpt. After hours of work, tweaking, adding clay, taking some away, you finally deem your creation worthy of the oven. Now, you know that after the clay is baked, you can't change it so you spend an extra part of your day smoothing, tweaking and smoothing again to make sure every last crease is absolutely perfect. Then you take a deep breath, put your sculpt in the oven, set the timer, cross your fingers and hope for the best (aka no cracks).
If you haven't guessed yet, my little asian sculpt was finished after spending all day working on it. She's in the oven now and I'm reaaally hoping she comes out perfectly crack free! Especially since I'm looking to get her reproduced. ;) Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck with my life size sculpts not cracking, but there's a first time for everything, right? I'll let you know how she turns out!
Friday, June 19, 2015
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
WIP Chubby Asian Sculpt! PIC HEAVY
Here she is! My first asian sculpt. I can't believe I haven't done one sooner as I'm asian myself lol. She will be about 20" when finished. I will update this post as much as I can on her progress. Loving her so far!
Sunday, June 14, 2015
7 struggles sculptors know all too well...
Sculpting is probably one of the most rewarding art forms out there. There's just something about starting with a lump of clay and seeing a little baby emerge from under your own hands. But it's not always artistic inspiration and fun and whatnot. If you're a sculptor, you know what I mean. If you're not, allow me to enlighten you. ;)
1. Dirty clay. No matter how much I wash my hands and clean them with a piece of clay before hand, some form of dust, lint or dirt ends up on my sculpts. And let me tell you, going back in with an exacto knife and picking out all the little specks when I could be sculpting is no fun.
2.Cheeks. This may sound strange, but I have this issue about either overdoing or underdoing (I think I made this word up) the cheeks. My sculpts often go through phases where they look like a chipmunk one minute and a shrunken old man the next. But I'm not the only one...right?
3. Bumpy clay. No matter how hard I try, clay will not stay perfectly baby skin smooth to me. There are dents and fingerprints all over by the time I get to it. As a result, I spend many an hour sanding and smoothing the clay with baby oil. My sore fingers are proof.
4. Cracks. Oh yes, cracks. It's the most disheartening thing when you put all your time and energy into creating a beautiful baby only to pull it out of the oven and have it broken. Sometimes cracks can be fixed, but there are other times when they just keep coming back no matter what you do. Thus the reason baking is the most terrifying part of sculpting for me.
5. Soft clay. Now I'm not talking about regular, pliable, soft clay. I love that stuff of course. But it's during the summer months and heat that my clay tends to take a downward turn to mush, making it difficult to work with. So now if you ever come to my house and open the fridge, you'll know why there will most likely be a bag of Super Sculpey sitting next to the milk.
6. Coming back to look at an old sculpt and realizing you hate it. That's happened to me sooo many times. I sculpt what I think is a masterpiece but after leaving it for an hour and coming back with fresh eyes, I realize what I actually sculpted was a creature unrecognizable as a newborn.
7. Smushing a baby you should have kept. This is probably the worst, because there's no undo button in clay (there should be). Knowing that all of your hard work that could of become a beautiful piece of art was destroyed in that second of frustration is always hard to take. All you can do is move on and keep on sculpting.
And that's it! Now don't get me wrong, I still adore sculpting. But of course no art form is perfect, and that's something that I've learned to accept. And yes, I do have a new baby in the works! This one is a first for me, so it's extra special. I'll post WIP pics soon!
Have a great week!
1. Dirty clay. No matter how much I wash my hands and clean them with a piece of clay before hand, some form of dust, lint or dirt ends up on my sculpts. And let me tell you, going back in with an exacto knife and picking out all the little specks when I could be sculpting is no fun.
2.Cheeks. This may sound strange, but I have this issue about either overdoing or underdoing (I think I made this word up) the cheeks. My sculpts often go through phases where they look like a chipmunk one minute and a shrunken old man the next. But I'm not the only one...right?
3. Bumpy clay. No matter how hard I try, clay will not stay perfectly baby skin smooth to me. There are dents and fingerprints all over by the time I get to it. As a result, I spend many an hour sanding and smoothing the clay with baby oil. My sore fingers are proof.
4. Cracks. Oh yes, cracks. It's the most disheartening thing when you put all your time and energy into creating a beautiful baby only to pull it out of the oven and have it broken. Sometimes cracks can be fixed, but there are other times when they just keep coming back no matter what you do. Thus the reason baking is the most terrifying part of sculpting for me.
5. Soft clay. Now I'm not talking about regular, pliable, soft clay. I love that stuff of course. But it's during the summer months and heat that my clay tends to take a downward turn to mush, making it difficult to work with. So now if you ever come to my house and open the fridge, you'll know why there will most likely be a bag of Super Sculpey sitting next to the milk.
6. Coming back to look at an old sculpt and realizing you hate it. That's happened to me sooo many times. I sculpt what I think is a masterpiece but after leaving it for an hour and coming back with fresh eyes, I realize what I actually sculpted was a creature unrecognizable as a newborn.
7. Smushing a baby you should have kept. This is probably the worst, because there's no undo button in clay (there should be). Knowing that all of your hard work that could of become a beautiful piece of art was destroyed in that second of frustration is always hard to take. All you can do is move on and keep on sculpting.
And that's it! Now don't get me wrong, I still adore sculpting. But of course no art form is perfect, and that's something that I've learned to accept. And yes, I do have a new baby in the works! This one is a first for me, so it's extra special. I'll post WIP pics soon!
Have a great week!
Sunday, June 7, 2015
come visit my etsy shop!
Just a quick post today...I started an etsy shop! This is where I'll be listing all my new sculpts as I finish them.
Have a great day or night!
Izzy
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
so i admit it...
I've been a bad blogger. A very bad blogger. And I apologize. Just sculpting has been on the back burner for a couple weeks now as I've finished school, and I have little to nothing to show you.
Remember that little sculpt wip I showed you awhile ago? Yeah, not very much progress on that little one. But...she does have hair now! Not very much of it, but I'm trying to keep it newborn looking. And I love that you can still feel her soft spot through her soft ginger curls.
So here's a quick little peek at her. I'm hoping that since summer has now officially started, I'll be able to be a bit more active on here. ;)
And, just for the fun of it, here's a quick peek of my one and only reborn at the moment.
Have a great summer everyone!
Remember that little sculpt wip I showed you awhile ago? Yeah, not very much progress on that little one. But...she does have hair now! Not very much of it, but I'm trying to keep it newborn looking. And I love that you can still feel her soft spot through her soft ginger curls.
So here's a quick little peek at her. I'm hoping that since summer has now officially started, I'll be able to be a bit more active on here. ;)
And, just for the fun of it, here's a quick peek of my one and only reborn at the moment.
Have a great summer everyone!
Saturday, May 16, 2015
a sculpting gem
Sorry I haven't posted in a few days, just been really busy and haven't done much sculpting so I have nothing to share. :P To make up for it, I thought I'd share a website I recently stumbled upon. I'm pretty sure it's run by the talented Jessica Schenk. She shares some invaluable FREE info about painting OOAK sculpts, applying hair and more! I love the techniques she uses and the babies she creates are absolutely amazing! For example...
I know right?! CUTENESS OVERLOAD.
Alright, enough gushing. Here's the link :) http://www.gobabydollkits.com/Tutorials_ep_46.html
I know right?! CUTENESS OVERLOAD.
Alright, enough gushing. Here's the link :) http://www.gobabydollkits.com/Tutorials_ep_46.html
Sunday, May 10, 2015
sculpting a polymer clay baby tutorial link
I've been sculpting for awhile now and along the way I've found lots of helpful tutorials on the web. I've decided I'm going to share one every week for anyone learning how to sculpt. :)
This tutorial is one of the very first ones I found. It's by Amanda Day from dollmakersdream.com and she has tons of other free tutorials and links on her website. I think her website's worth checking out if you want to learn more about sculpting and polymer clay.
This tutorial covers just about everything you need to know to sculpt a polymer clay baby. All of Amanda's instructions are really easy to follow in my opinion, and she has great pictures to back them up. I mean, just look at this adorable baby you can make!
Here's the link: http://www.dollmakersdream.com/polymer-clay-baby-index.html
Happy sculpting!
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