Prosculpt Clay Hair sculpted Mermaids OOAK

My next set of mermaids I used two other Patricia Rose Press molds. The larger one is Pearl. Here is what she looks like from the mold. 

I added more curves to her to make her older. I did not record too much of my WIP for these mermaids. I am very behind posting my projects. I want to post everything that I have on my memory cards so far and clean them before going on to next project. I have like 3-4 memories going and its a bit crazy keeping track for me right now. 

The white shell is eco-resin from a silicone mold. Here I'm doing the hair using prosculpt clay. So no mohair wig for these. 

Here im adding in the details in the hair and smoothing it over with polymer clay thinner. 

Here is the Goldie Press mold. The body is a young child. I painted her a teen.

Here I am also sculpting in the hair. All 4 of my mermaids have fins for hands. Fingers are not my strong point. I have to work really hard on them and it I just thought it wasn't worth the time/effort for these as the fin hands look ok. 

The smaller mermaid ended up with some breakage during the baking stage. I wanted a strong bond and I was still baking in the oven at least for the painting, so I had to use something that is oven safe. 

I used magic smooth. It is a very strong adhesive once cured. and it is oven safe for polymer clay baking temps. It takes 24hrs to dry. Even after 10-12 hours, the magic smooth will still feel slightly sticky. Becare it can dry in very sharp points, so be sure to smooth it out. can be sanded as well. smooths with water. Very sticky though. I use gloves to mix, then change gloves to apply. 

Here is the sanding box with the hand holes on the same side. This one is actually much bigger than the other type with the holes on either side that I showed in my mohair mermaid post. The plastic walls are much thinner on this model though, so it is very flimsly. This has since broke when it fell off the counter an a part chipped. I replaced it with a smaller same size as the other model with the holes on opposite ends, thinking it will be the same thicker plaster. Well I was wrong and its the same thinner plaster as the longer size. It seems to be studier since it is smaller. 

Up to painting now. Again, I am using the Gemini heat set paints, starting with the skin first. 

more painting pictures. 

Almost finished 

Painting the tail 

Back to the larger size mermaid. These will not be ornaments,  and instead each one has a white shell as a base. 

I just didn't like the hand fins on this one, so mid painting, I went back to sanding the hands. still went with the fin look but I think it's an improve from the far-left picture. This Gemini paint is really great though, because it really stayed on the clay even after sanding and getting wet, once it was heat set, it stayed. 

Here it is complete. 

Video is coming soon!

Available for sale on my etsy shop: https://blueorandasculpts.etsy.com/listing/4424904354/ooak-mermaid-sculpture-handmade

Here is this one. 

Video coming soon!

Avaulable for sale on my etsy shop: https://blueorandasculpts.etsy.com/listing/4424910162/ooak-mermaid-sculpture-handmade

Prosculpt Polymer Clay Mermaid with Mohair Hair.

 

This post will cover how I created this mermaid using polymer clay, mohair, and Gemini heat set paints. 

This is the "Ava" mermaid press mold from Patricia Rose. Sadly it seems that many of these press molds are not available anymore, though they come up on ebay from time to time. These plaster molds can only use polymer clay, other types of clay will get stuck in the mold and being a rigid type one, the clay will be very difficult to remove. So just best to stick with polymer clay. I am using prosculpt polymer clay. 

Cleaning the mold seamlines. It's better to have excess clay to trim then to have to add more clay later on, as the two halves will not stick together then. I am leaving the hook in to keep it as an ornament. 

Here I am making the wire frame for the mermaid tail. 

The clay tailfin is blended into the rest of the tail. 

Here is another angle. 

I made a mistake here. I used cotton balls as a soft bed for the mermaids to be laying on, but actually it is not a good material to do this with. The cotton balls are not at all the same as polyfil, which is what I should have been using. The oven smells a bit stronger after this baking. My oven was quite old at this point so I thought it was breaking not realizing it was because of the cotton balls. Also the backside of the clay did not heatup correctly either. 

here I am using a sanding box that I got from temu. This version has the hand cut out holes on either side. It was not comfortable to me. I know this is a more popular style and other more expensive models follow the same design, but I much prefer the style where the hand cut outs are both on the same side. Sanding paper I use 100, 240, 400, 600 grit, usually starting with the 240. 

The smaller mermaid pictured is from using the minnow press mold. I was working on these two at the same time.

Sanding the smaller mermaid was fine inside the box but the larger one was difficult to get good angles. There exists different size boxes, I got the smaller, about 7in x 12in one. 

So I ended up taking the larger mermaid out of the box to sand, defeating its purpose.  

Here they are all finished sanded right before painting.

I started painting the smaller mermaid first. This was the first time I used these Gemini heat set paints. I has previously used the well-known Genesis heat set paints but they are no longer made. The feel of using them is basically the same. I start with a thinner and then paint in the shadows. 

I paint the full mermaid with the Gemini heat set paint so I moved on to the tail now. It is nice to just heat them in the oven and know that the paint is all set and permanent. 

Here I'm painting the larger mermaid. 

I thinned the paint and did a light blue. 

Finally, I am gluing the wig on. I only did a few mohair wigs in the past but I dont remember having as much difficulty with it as I did for these two. I think the problem was that I had the wire still in the head and so there wasn't as much room for the hair to go and adhere too. 

It's not as great as could be but they look ok, the bigger one looks better I think. 

Here is the smaller one finished. You can see a video on my process here: https://youtube.com/shorts/1fmgp62jyhk?feature=share

It is available for sale in my etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4406069289/ooak-polymer-clay-mermaid-ornament-hand

Here is a longer video on my work progress: https://youtu.be/DsOB2qC8Wo4?si=OIw7OquLx_cTMFJx

And she is also available in my etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4406204139/ooak-75-polymer-clay-unique-ocean

Up Next is my next set of polymer clay mermaids