Tools, Eyes, Inspirational Blogs and Christmas.....

My friend Lucy recently moved house, and donated her modelling supplies to me as she had no room for them. I now have just about every sculpting tool you can buy, I also have a large amount of Super Sculpey oven bake clay, some stuff called CX5 which is a sculpting wax, various gauges of wire and a wax melter!
Awesome! Thanks Lucy!

I had been trying to sculpt eyes, but was not having much success, and then I read in a blog (can't remember which one, sorry) that it's easier to use plastic beads. When I sculpt the heads, I hollow out the eye sockets and pop the beads in, simple!  Now my models have eyes that are the same size, and aren't squashed flat! I think it might be trickier with oven bake polymer clay though!

Over the last few months I have found a couple of blogs that I refer to on a regular basis, they are both informative and have lots of tutorials and links to tutorials. Definitely worth checking out.

Don't eat The Paint

Shoestring Stable

Miss December is Feathers the Irish Cob (almost finished).

Today is Christmas Eve, so I'll be back in the new year, in the meantime, have a wonderful Christmas, and happy sculpting!

Armature Tutorial

Things you will need:-
Wire
Masking tape.

When sculpting animals it's best to start with a wire armature, especially if those animals are going to be standing. Any thin bits that stick out, for example legs, arms and tails need to be a fairly hefty gauge wire.
you can get away with thinner wire in places that have a thicker layer of clay.

When I make horse armatures I start with a picture of a horse skeleton, that way I know I have an accurate foundation to start sculpting from, and it takes out a lot of the guesswork. So the first thing to do is to print out a picture of the skeleton of your animal at the size you want to sculpt it.

Now to make the armature....Starting at the hip, follow the shape of the ribcage with your wire as closely as you can, going back to the hip and then turning the end of the wire back towards the head before you cut it. Now use your masking tape to tie together those loose ends (and save your fingers from pointy bits of wire!)

 Next make a small loop inside the head and follow the shape of the spine, until you reach the end of the shoulder blade. Now tape it to your ribcage as shown below.

 Next we will add the legs, making sure that you have enough wire to make both front legs, fold your wire in half, and starting from well behind the shoulders follow the bones of the leg, making sure to bend both pieces of wire at once. You can either cut the wire to length, or leave it long if you want to mount your model on a stand. tape it to your armature as shown below and repeat the process for the back legs.

The tail is simply wrapped around the armature as shown below. I use a piece of wire bent double and I twist it all the way down the tail.

Next I wrap all the exposed bits of wire with masking tape, so that the clay has something to grip to.
By now you should have something that looks like this......

The best thing about these armatures is that you can play around with the poses until you get exactly what you want, these little guys have a lot of life and character to them, unlike the cardboard cut out I used previously!

I hope this tutorial will help somebody, I'm not a particularly brilliant artist, but I'm getting good results with this method.

Air Dry Clay: Tips and Techniques

I've only been modelling with ADC for a few months now, but I've learned a lot in that time and I thought I'd share some of what I've learned with you.

ADC Brands I have tried.

DAS air dry clay is what I started with, and I have still to find anything better. It is what the Americans refer to as a "paper clay". It is quite fibrous and sticky, and initially I found it hard to work with, but soon found some techniques to make life easier, (see below.)
It dries well, with no cracking and is very lightweight and strong. Scrumpy was made with Das and is much lighter than other models I have made.

One day we went to Smyths toyshop and I bought some cheap ADC from there, it seems to have been made in China, it is terracotta in colour and crumbles and cracks when dry. The only way to stop it cracking was to mix it with DAS in a ratio of two parts DAS to one part cheap clay. As an experiment I mixed it with PVA glue, but it still cracked, and took longer to dry.

I also bought some of Hobbycraft's own brand ADC, it is white and very soft and about the same price as DAS. It's smooth and nice to work with, but I couldn't get it to dry without cracking, so once again I found myself mixing it with DAS in the same ratio as before.

Models made with the Clay/DAS mix are much heavier than ones made with just DAS. I don't know how well they will last in comparison, I suspect they will tend to be a tad more brittle, but theoretically they should be OK.

Tips and Techniques

Always have a small bowl of water on your workspace, and dip your fingers in frequently, ADC sticks to dry fingers and is almost impossible to work with, but wet fingers will stay clean, and make smoothing and blending clay much easier.

A small spray bottle is your best friend. I always spray a little water into my clay bag before I put it away.
During hot weather a quick squirt can stop your project from drying out while you're working on it.

Don't expect to finish a sculpture in one day, build it up a little at a time, let it dry overnight and then add more clay. I take weeks to finish models, so I have several projects on the go at once. Also there's nothing worse than getting one part of a model exactly how you want it, and then sticking your finger in the wet clay and ruining it when you move on to a different part of the model.
I think this way of working also helps to prevent the clay cracking, which seems to be a problem for a lot of people.

Soften up small batches of clay by kneading them (with wet fingers!) and then keep them in plastic bags, give them a quick spray of water before packing them away at the end of the day.

Keep your clay in slightly damp plastic bags inside an airtight container ( plastic ice cream tubs are ideal) keep them in a dark cool place, as sunlight can reduce the working life of your clay.

Happy Sculpting!

Home Made Wild Bird Food Recipe

It's been a very mild autumn so far, but winter is just around the corner and the wild birds will be needing our help. I feed them all year round, and this is the mixture I use for the bird table. Ground feeding birds like pigeons and sparrows get fed a shop bought mix on the shed roof (this location keeps them safe from predators, and keeps any leftovers out of the reach of mice and rats, but not squirrels!)

Homemade wild bird food recipe

Ingredients
Cup of Tea.
A small handful of Dried Fruit (I use supermarket own brand sultanas).
3 level dessert spoons of Couscous.
1 teaspoon of Chili Powder or Paprika.
1/2 - 3/4 cup of Uncooked Oatmeal.
2 tablespoons of shop bought wild bird seed.
1 fat ball.

Method
Make a cup of tea, you'll need the hot water to soak some of the ingredients, and by the time you've drunk it, we'll be ready for step two.

Step one.

Place the dried fruit, couscous and chili powder in a bowl, cover with boiling water and leave to soak. Now go drink your cup of tea, answer a few emails, read the paper or whatever for around about 20 minutes.

Step two.

Break up a fat ball in your bird feeding dish, you should crumble it into small pieces. I usually mash it with a fork.
By now you should have fluffy couscous and plump sultanas, add them to the fat ball, don't worry if they are a little bit sloppy, but if they're very wet you may have to strain off a little water first.
Put in as much oatmeal as you need to dry the mixture a little. Note that we are using uncooked oatmeal, never use cooked oatmeal, as it can solidify like glue on birds beaks.
Finally add the bird seed, making sure everything is mixed in well.
Now go feed your friends, and be sure to leave some water out for them too!

What?When?Why? Feeding tips

1. Chili Powder. Birds are not affected by chili powder, but mammals are. If you put chili powder in bird food you will deter rats, mice and squirrels.
2. Uncooked Oatmeal. As I already explained, cooked oatmeal is very bad for birds. Always use raw uncooked oatmeal.
3. Bread. Feed bread sparingly, as it is not good for birds.
4. Peanuts. I mostly feed peanuts over the winter, as fledglings can choke on them. some birds start breeding very early in the year, so be careful. Occasionally I will run some through the food processor and put them in my food mix.
5. Dog/Cat kibbles. leftover dry pet food is a big hit with my garden visitors. I pop it in to soak with the couscous and sultanas. Never give dry kibbles to birds always soak them first.
6. Cheese/lard/suet. All of these are acceptable to birds and will help them through the winter, obviously, grate any cheese first!

Happy Feeding!