Tips...
The things I've learned over the past 4 years
Polymer clay picks up EVERY piece of dirt within a 100 mile radius!! OMG!! Just when you think your hands are clean... NOPE! LOL! I wash my hands first, dry with a clean paper towel (never a cloth towel), and then roll a piece of clay between my hands, fingers, nails etc., to get off any residue. Guarenteed you'll still have a few specs! UGH!
Make sure your tools are clean, just like your hands.
Take care when conditioning your clay. Make sure you don't create any air bubbles if folding over pieces together. A lot of people use pasta machines to condition their clay. Unfortunately, I've had HORRIBLE experience with it. Black streaks all over the clay, and after investing in about 4 different machines and LOTS of cleaning, I said screw it. Manual conditioning for me!
I always start a sculpt with the head first. For some reason, if I sculpt the body first, I can NEVER get the head the right size!! But then again, I hear that others start with the body! Go figure, everyone has they're own rules! You'll see!
I use a skewer (yes, a shish-ka-bob skewer) to sculpt my head on. Be oh so careful when your holding the head, because you can do some serious damage putting too much pressure on the back! You might have a lovely face, but a flat head isn't very becoming! LOL. And then, if you do have a flat back of the head, if you need to add clay, be careful! You might squish that lovely face! So, my point is, hold her (or him) gently. If at all possible for you, I don't even hold the head. I hold the skewer.
Sometimes I bake the head prior to making the body. If I've worked SUPER hard on a face, and I really love the way it looks, I'll bake it. Make sure you always bake for the recommended time on the package, or else you'll have breaks later on (or even now!). The clay is super brittle when it's undercooked. Believe me, I know from experience! YUCK!
Have you finished a face? Is it gorgeous? Do you LOVE it?? STOP! Don't bake her/him. Take this lovely little face over to a mirror, and look at it. Does it look grossly different? Features uneven? Every single time I sculpt a face, when I look at it in the mirror, the left side of her face is ALWAYS higher then the right! WHAT?? How can that BE?? She looked so pretty before!! But seriously, you won't like it if you see pictures. In fact, you can also take a few pictures of the face and look at the pictures. It gives the same effect, a mirrored image. The face may definitly take on a new image! LOL
I use a thick gauged wire when sculpting, you should really make sure that there is little to no movement with the armature before you sculpt. The problem is, when you bake this beauty, the weight of the clay can cause your sculpt to fracture. NOT pretty, and oh so upsetting! I've thrown quite a few of them out the window!
If I bake the head, then I attach it to the started body pretty quickly. However, if the head is not baked, I usually don't add it to the body until most of the body is actually sculpted. Don't want to hurt that pretty little face with my big man hands! LOL
Once you've sculpted, and like what you've done, the hard part comes in! For me it's the hard part! The smoothing. NOT fun! In fact, it takes me the longest to do this part. I've experimented with so many things to smooth. Bare, oil, lotion, you name it, I've tried it. I do like prosculpt's oil, but you have to use it sparingly. I've used a lot, liking the effects I see on the raw clay, but once baked it's all bumpy and rough!! ARGH! Paintbrushes help alot with smoothing, and good old fingers too. But I tell you, those little creases along the nose wings and eyelids are the WORST!! Just keep trying....
BAKING! Make sure you bake exactly like the package says. Period. Don't underbake, yes it's easier to clean up, but that's because it's not fully cured. It'll break. No good.
I'll add more to this list later, if you have any questions or think I should add something here, please email me!