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scenceable — Mini Baking Clay Tutorial
Published: 2011-07-26 08:48:53 +0000 UTC; Views: 40534; Favourites: 1104; Downloads: 462
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Description
So, I get tons of questions on this type of thing. At some point I do plan on making a new unicorn tutorial that explains things start to finish. However, for now, here's a little one on baking. I did another little tutorial a while ago on hairing sculptures. Eventually I do hope to make a big long one.Anyway, I'd like to mention that this is just how I do things. There are many ways to bake and mine is certainly not the only way. Just what I do, and what works for me currently
I also want to say that I paint my horses, so I can be a lot more flexible with baking. When making dolls or humans you have to be a lot more careful since the skin tone of the clay matters a lot. Dirt particles, cracks, dents, and discolouration can ruin dolls, but with painted sculptures they hardly matter.
As always, if you have questions please ask... I kind of threw this together randomly so I may have left things out. I have a FAQ section on my website where I talk a bit about materials and things, you might find it helpful as well! It's here: [link]
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Comments: 164
Thank you so much for this!! I am a needle felting and paper mache artist and some of my sculptures need horns,teeth, hooves and antlers that I just think look better done with clay...I am having difficulty with breakage when I add baked clay to an armature...the clay just breaks so I think it isn't baked long enough or at high enough of a temperature. I am using a regular oven so I'll have to go out and get a thermometer to see what the real temperature is inside. Any other tips you can think of for my problem would be greatly appreciated...especially when adding clay around a wire (antlers).
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which brand of clay are you using? If it's super sculpey/ polymer clay it sounds like it's underbaked if it's crumbling off like that. Apoxie sculpt is a more durable, air-dry blend too that you can try
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Very cool. 
I also never knew you could put Poly fill in the oven. No more flat shiny spots on my sculpts in the future!
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I know that this is older, so I'm a little late on commenting. I follow you on FB and Deviant and you are such an amazing artist! Thank you for taking the time to show how you do things! I love your horses!
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wow this is ammaaaazingly helpful. baking things on stuffing pillow is brilliant, how on earth did you figure that out? and I love the tips on what types of clay to use for different parts, solves so many problems I've had with polymer clay projects in the past... this tutorial is really making me want to get back into it again, thanks!
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The pillow thing was taught to me by other who make dolls, wasn't something I figured out 
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I tries this, time and time over. I don't think 'm very good at sculpting... I wish!!! give me your skills, Master! XD
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Aww if you have any questions feel free to send me a note, I can try to help! I'm slow with comments, notes are better
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Aww thanks, I thinki might and that's okay ^_~
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Very interesting read! I made my first sculpture yesterday, and this tutorial helped me alot!
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i've been told that tinfoil shouldn't be put in ovens, but this honestly sounds like a great idea!
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I've never had an issue with tin foil, I use it for cooking all the time too. I thought it was invented specifically for putting in ovens, lol!
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awesome tutorials you have! love your work! you are the reason I am exploring this media so thank you!
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Thank you, glad you're enjoying them! If you have any questions feel free to send me a note
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Thanks alot its nice to know that there are people who are willing to share their techniques! I will note you if I have questions (and I do have a few lol)
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Thank you so much for all your help. You are making my first time much easier, and with less corrections. I'm not sure I got the right eyes, that site was really hard to navigate (I was using a tablet). There were no wires just flat backs. But all and all I am really happy with the results. Now she goes in the oven and I can't wait to continue!
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Glad you liked it! I'm not sure whether Amanda makes eyes on wire, but I imagine there are ones you can get elsewhere. The ones I get are flat backed with no wire, makes it a little harder to insert them but they stay in once the eyelid is sculpted over. I'm curious to see photos of what you're working on!
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Just letting you know, you have given me inspiration beyond reason with your artwork and I've ordered clay and other things to try this out!
Thanks so much
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Thanks so much! Feel free to send me links to what you come up with, I'd love to see!
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You say not to preheat the oven, but I'm using a full-size electric oven. How do you adjust the time to know when it's been fully cured? Do you start the recommended time once it's fully heated up?
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I usually bake it on a temperature lower than recommended and leave it in longer than recommended, just to be sure it's cured all the way through. I let the sculpture heat up with the oven, but I assume it doesn't really start curing until the oven is fully heated. The sculpture also continues to cure for a few minutes as the oven is cooling down, but a few extra minutes won't hurt polymer clay either way. You can test your own oven by making a few little discs of clay and baking them for different times. You can tell clay is uncured by cutting into it; cured clay cuts but uncured clay chips and flakes apart.
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Thank you so much! This is great information to have.
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What is the brand/name of your convection oven? I'd love to get one like yours, I don't want to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars for something that could possibly be too small and what not.
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Sorry for the delayed response, it's a Hamilton Beach rotisserie oven with a convection setting. It was $120 or so at walmart in Canada (so it would be cheaper in the States I'm assuming!)
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Awesome, thank you for the info! c:
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Great tutorial! :3 I made mini-sculptures a few years ago and wanted to get back into it. This gave me a lot of inspiration and advice! Thank you ^^
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Thanks, glad you found it helpful!
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I have a question. What is that stuffed pillow? Is it just the filling of a pillow?^^ Is it not burning in the oven?
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It's just the filling from a pillow, yes! It doesn't burn
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Okay cool^^ Thank you, I will try it out next time
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Great tutorial! Good to have something to use as refference when I got my super sculpey!
I have a question: have you ever used FIMO? I got that fimo soft but I didn't like it too much.. Do you like to sculpt with cernit? Is that better than Fimo? Or are they too similiar?
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Thank you! I've only ever used fimo puppen for dolls, not the other stuff. Cernit is really good but expensive to get here. I've heard cernit is better than fimo but I'm not sure!
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Really? Where I live Cernit cost a half of fimo ><
I just got some cernit! Now I need to test it.
Thank you very much
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LOADS of good ideas and very useful hints here. Thank you for sharing it with us.
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