OK. I'd like to put my two cents in to the Fimo V Sculpey debate. (And I bet you didn't even know there was a debate, didja?)
Anyway, Fimo and Sculpey III are these modeling polymer clays. Well, technically it is not really a clay, but a bunch of little plastic molecules that are colored. Fimo is the first one I tried and I was happy with it. It was really hard, but once you started kneading it and stuff, it softened up a little, but not a lot. It comes in lots of cool colors, too. Sculpey III on the other hand is like buttah. This stuff is so soft after just holding it in your hand to let it warm up. I thought "I am in heaven!" (Excuse the reference, please.)
So I made a few figures with it and I really like to just play with it and stuff, and then I heard that people were mixing the two together and getting a decent amount of kneadability. So I did that. OH, YES!!! I thought I had found my medium. Anyway, that didn't last for long.
I am really into "canes". If you're into polymer clay like I am, you'll know what I mean. For those not in the know, it's these logs of clay with pictures in them formed from clay. The tricky part is getting the picture in there without a lot of distortion. So, I decided to make a cane with my University symbol in it. Indiana University has an "I" and a "U" overlapping to make a sort of "cactus" looking thing. (As soon as I figure out the scanner, I'll be putting pictures up of my better stuff.) That was kinda hard until I figured out how to make more complex canes. So I got past that hurdle and was feeling rather proud of myself until it came time to reduce it. See, when you make a cane, you start out big and then reduce it by rolling it into a smaller log. IU's colors are red and white. By the time I got it reduced, IU's colors were pink and red. I was so MAD!!! This stuff ain't cheap, especially when you're a poor college student like me. So, basically it was wasted. Now I have a big hunk of nasty pink clay. It's not even a pretty shade!! I don't know what happened.
Anyway, I've decided to stay with the Sculpey III and Fimo combo, but to decrease the amount of Sculpey III relative to Fimo. I really did like the consistencey of the half and half, but it's the Sculpey III that is prone to the smearing and "bleeding" of the colors I was experiencing. Now I use Sculpey III strictly for molding little figures - I like to make miniatures of stuff like animals and space aliens right now. And I keep the Fimo for the cane work.
Oh, One of these days I am going to put pictures of my work on here. I have recently gotten into the bead making business. In fact I will be trying to sell some stuff at the Lotus Fest coming up in a couple of weeks here at IU. Check back soon!
If anyone reading this out there knows some good books of ideas for sculpting miniatures, let me know. You can e-mail me at uurzua@indiana.edu
Here are some of my FAVORITE clay links. There's a whole lot of them, and they are basically here for my use, so I don't have to go hunting for them or memorize the addresses. I have them bookmarked on a computer at work, but I'm not always at work (though at times it feels like it). Anyway, if you were to visit only one, I'd go with the first one. It's the mother of all clay pages.
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