Again with Craig Ferguson

[DollyKim]

Thanks. That's the second Craig. I have all kinds of polymer clay, and other doll making stuff, but didn't have the time to mess with it, the clay oven, cooling time... And I was working on some other air dry projects so I was set up for it.

The necks are made of sleeves of wire mesh wrapped around the neck post of a body with a Dragon brand style neck. I have a few spare bodies with that kind of common neck plug to use with spare heads and they're cheap and easy to find.

Craig there is the result of years of sculpting and practicing. Two of the best books I can recommend are http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Lifelike ... ic+figures and http://www.amazon.com/Pop-Sculpture-Fig ... +sculpture but I've had life drawing classes and access to books like Carving Humans and other artistic anatomy lessons along with years of practice.

[MeltedCaramel]

I sculpt as well, except I prefer the polymer clay for it's "leave it out and work on it when you can" properties. I often make little creatures!

Unfortunately those books don't help with anime anatomy (it can get pretty wonky), especially with such stylistic anime like Fullmetal Alchemist. I have this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Pop-Sculpture-Fig ... +sculpture

But no anime anywhere in sight! I have a few Japanese anime figure sculpting books (mostly of big busted, scantily clad ladies ) but of course since I don't read Japanese I'm limited to primitive interpretation via picture gazing. But the wire mesh idea is great! Is there any possibility of you knowing if the wire mesh being oven-safe for polymer clay?

[DollyKim]

You'd have to check the package of the wire mesh, maybe contact the manufacturer. I've never baked mine.

[MeltedCaramel]

I have a funny feeling the wire would heat up and burn the sculpey now that I think about it. Nothing worse than those burnt, shiny sculpey areas.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

It would depend on how think the sculpey is around it. I often bake beads suspended on metal skewers, and there's not external signs of burning at all (the hole is made by the skewer, so it's pretty much in contact with all sides. I've just shone a torch into a paler one I had in a bowl by me, and I can't see any burning on the inside, either. I'd guess the one I checked was maybe about 3mm thick max (the hole is too small to get the calipers in to get an exact measurement )

Oh - and fwiw small, slightly burnt white poly clay cubes make excellent brown sugar cubes - the colour is perfect for those fancy, roughly shaped ones. Give it a spritz with a matte spray if they're too shiny.

[MeltedCaramel]

ShortNCuddlyAm Thank you for the tip!! I have a bunch of sculpey so it can't hurt to do a test!! I think I'll just take a shishkabob(that doesn't look spelled right....) skewer and load a blob of sculpey around it and see what happens!! Having a wire mesh sleeve for some of my custom's necks would be a great help in figuring out how to sculpt a head that actually fits!

[yarwel]

Shiny parts of sculpy aren't burnt.
Sculpy becomes shiny when it's baked in contact with a smooth surface. Slightly burnt sculpy is darker in color than correctly cured sculpy(white or translucent will be brownish). REALLY BURNT sculpy is black and looks like pumice; it also releases really foul fumes which you would probably want to avoid.
Anyway, good luck!

[MeltedCaramel]

Whenever I cure my sculpey in my oven I make a little aluminum foil boat and try to make the surface as uneven as possible without puncturing the sculpture, and I don't mean "shiny" as in a little bit, I mean I get these dark brown (like chocolate dark) areas usually around the base and anywhere the sculpey is thinner, and it cures harder, in a plastic like consistency. It's an annoying problem, but I usually try and sand off the worst of it. Thanks for the warning about the REALLY BURNT sculpey though. I'll make sure to leave a timer on so I don't come back to a lump of coal (pumice ) in my oven.

[DollyKim]

My polymer clay heads are hollow with foil skulls, this helps give a more uniform thickness.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Shiny parts of sculpy aren't burnt.
Sculpy becomes shiny when it's baked in contact with a smooth surface. Slightly burnt sculpy is darker in color than correctly cured sculpy(white or translucent will be brownish). REALLY BURNT sculpy is black and looks like pumice; it also releases really foul fumes which you would probably want to avoid.
Anyway, good luck!

Ahh OK - that explains my sugar lumps then - shiny from where they were sat on the flat baking parchment - which was on metal, so might have been hotter than the air in the rest of the oven, which would explain why the bottoms were a light brown!