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How to smooth oil based clay?

Started by cube5, April 06, 2012, 08:19:01 PM

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cube5

I am using with oil based clay (Roma plastilina) to create my dinosaur sculpture. I find it very hard to smooth the surface of the clay. In fact the best I can get is like a rough tree surface :(

Anyone with experience can share your way of doing this? Thank you in advance.


Weaver

Heat, mineral oil or rubbing alchohal (both used sparingly!) should work. It also depends on the clays hardness. I'm not an expert (only has a few sculpts in progress) but those should help. Do you have a 'kidney'? It's a tool that really helps with the initial smoothing of clay for me. ;)

cube5

Quote from: Weaver on April 06, 2012, 09:00:13 PM
Heat, mineral oil or rubbing alchohal (both used sparingly!) should work. It also depends on the clays hardness. I'm not an expert (only has a few sculpts in progress) but those should help. Do you have a 'kidney'? It's a tool that really helps with the initial smoothing of clay for me. ;)

Thanks very much for your kind help. My clay is medium hardness (#2 I think), is it better to use slightly harder one instead? I found out that there are quite a number of choices for kidney tool, metal and rubber, soft and hard.. Which one works better?

Sorry for so many questions because I am new to sculpture and have no prior knowledge. Thank you in advance :)

cube5

Also, what sculpting tools do you guys use or suggest? I haven't bought any tools yet. I just use my hand, small spoon right now. Thank you.

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