Latest Scratch built Polymer Clay Original Sculpture of Aspergillus Mold humanoid Woman Statue

 

I thought it was time I did another complete scratch built sculpture before doing another work from a press mold. In this post I am going to show how I created my Standing Aspergillus Lady from scratch. She will be posted to my Etsy shop once I'm finished painting her. This post will only cover the sculpting part. 

I started off with a wire armature with only a little bit of foil in the torso area. For polymer clay I am using super sculpey living doll mixed with colors of cernit translucent clay. This sculpture finishes up the custom mix that I have been using for my last few polymer clay creations. The cernit that I received from mail order Michaels was incredibility crumbly. I have not used cernit before outside of this purchase from Michaels, but I would think that the clay is just old as opposed to that's how it was supposed to be. Mixing with super sculpey seemed to work well, although it took awhile to get a nice mixture. I liked the blue tint of this mixture. 

For sculpting tools, I am using a hard wooden tool that was actually original purchased as part of a doll making kit from Patricia Rose many many years ago. I almost ruined by having epoxy resin dry on it but I think I was able to save it.

 Also I use Clay shapers by Royal Sovereign Ltd. You can get cheaper silicone tip tools on Amazon but these are really made better. The extra firm black tip ones are the ones to get and they work well for any type of sculpting, Blick sells size 0,2, and 6 in 5 different shape tips sets. I only got the flat chisel in size 6, shown above, since I try not to sculpt too big. 

I start off just adding clay to the armature. Because this a humanoid type sculpture I am not concerned too much for the hands, individual legs, etc. 

At this point I baked the sculpture for the first time in the Deni oven, about 250F for 10mins or so. I am not concerned with the back of the sculpture at this point, so I lay the clay figure flat on the tile. After baking the areas in contact with the tile will be flat. I know many people use their regular oven to bake clay but I just don't feel comfortable doing so. Many times I find oily residue inside the Deni oven in-between bakes. I read that if I don't bake completely, this will happen. But for my final bake I bake for the full duration thickness at 275F, still finding the oily residue inside. I just really recommend getting a stand alone oven just for clay. I only spent maybe $50-60 on this. The only downside is to be limited by the space of the oven. This setup wont work for really huge one piece sculptures. 

After the basic shape is there, I start working on the face next. I carve, then sanding, followed by adding additional clay back. Cycle repeat until satisfied. 

Here is some progression pictures of the face. 

I move on to working on the hair next. 

next sculpting progression, working more on the hair. I switch between using the wooden tool and the clay shapers. 

I work on the body a little bit more. I am going for as if the body is made up of hyphae. 

Sculpting progression back of hair. 

Next baking I already did quite a bit of details on the back so I don't want it all be flatted by the baking. I put a layer of cotton balls underneath the sculpture, and on top of the tiles. I put the cotton balls in foil to kinda keep them together. I had before where once the oven turned on the individual cotton balls swirled all around the oven. 

At this point I am done with the polymer clay and will finish up this sculpture using Fixit Sculpt. Why? I sculpted this one as a standing figure, so I want the bottom of the sculpture to be as the base, and be nice and strong. I actually think a screwed up woth some of the hair peices, I should have done them in fixit sculpt instead of polymer clay. It seems to be fine now but I just worry if the hair stand is strong enough. 

Fixit Sculpt will just stuck to anything. The Idea is to just have it gradually flow into the base part. I really will miss this color of polymer clay since it looks to be a good match for fixit sculpt once cured. Fixit Sculpt is very soft until it hardens. It hardened on a slight slant that needs to be sanded. 

I added in some more fixt sculpt to fill in some areas, I couldnt do the whole thing in one batch. 

The sculpture is almost done at this point. You cannot see where the polymer clay ends and the Fixit Sculpt begins. 

I used 100 grit sandpaper in a bin filled with water and went back and forth until the bottom was sanded flat and the sculpture could stand on its own. 

Here I'm gluing the conidia to the phialides. 

And this is it until painting. Working time probably would have been only a few hours if I was able to work on this continuously, maybe 5-6 before painting.

I will post a short priming video before moving on to the painting.