Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Testing, one, two, testing!

Many would have heard of this new online arts and crafts store called Skillsupplies by now. I had gone through their products at their place and was talking to the owner (Mr. Neeraj) about oil based clay.

He had some oil based clay that was made in Japan. This is normally used in automobile design. The principles seemed to be same as the Chavant oil based clays. He was nice enough to give me a sample to test.

For those who don't know about this kind of clay: Oil based clay is not one that will harden completely and is reusable. Most of us would like to have a finished piece of art that we can paint and display. This is mostly used by people who want to make multiple copies of their work by molding and casting. The clay can then be used to make some other piece of art.

There are soft oil based clays, medium hard and the hard clays (I use this...from Chavant). The clay that I got from Skillsupplies is medium hard NS60L and it comes in billets like this:

These clays (Oil based) respond to heat and melt/soften up. At this stage it is easy to sculpt and push around. A normal 40w filament type bulb can be used to heat it in a carton box that is lined up with aluminum foil to reflect the heat. (Note: you can punch in two holes to make sure the heat can escape and not build up beyond a limit.) For reheating up on a need to do basis an 800w hair dryer should do the job.

I wanted to show the capability of the clay... so enough talk :)


Just for reference here's a sample artwork that I made with Chavant's oil based clay:
Click to see the WIPs

For those who don't want to heat up the clay there's always modelling clay like the ones you find in schools (never was in my school). Skillsupplies has modelling clay from the same guys who make Super Sculpey. This is a wax based modelling clay called EZ shape. Even if you aren't a professional you can just keep modelling and making new things with this. Here we go:




Sorry about the crappy photography! And oh... the more you work on this clay the softer it gets as it absorbs your body heat. So if it gets too sticky then leave it alone or put it in the freezer for a while. The one drawback about this clay is that Polyform decided to add perfume to this clay...ugh... after a while it gives me a nasty headache... that's why I made the angry gorilla (atleast that was the intended form). Here's another modelling clay art sample that I have used in the past:


Well if you like it you can get it from their online shop
Oil based clay: http://skillsupplies.com/shop/CLAY/CLAY.html
EZ shape(last one on the list) : http://skillsupplies.com/shop/polymerclay/POLYMERCLAY.html

On the polymer clay page, you will be able to find a lot of clays called Premo. I used similar but low grade polymer clay for these:

Click to see WIPs

Super Sculpey (and Living doll) art samples:
Click to see how I made this

Click to see how Cupid was made


So there you have it. We have a lot of art and craft things available in India now... Let's make something :)