[Snakebyte]

I must say, I REALLY dig Super sculpey!!!!! But there are a few things I have questions about. ( I did do a search to no avail)

1. How many times can a piece be baked? Say I create the head first and bake it THEN do the body bake it and do something else….

a. Will the head Crack?
b. What about small thin parts?

2. What is this Aluminum foil build up I heard about?

3. Will a rotary tool be too much for a reasonable sized baked piece?

4. How long is too long in the oven? I know 15min per �” but say I have an area 1" thick needing ~30min and there is an area that is only 1/8" that only needs 5min??

[Basement bound]

Snakebyte,
hhhmmmm some good questions, I don't know about them all.

Q1: Do all sections at the sametime in the oven, just the safe way of doing it. plus I don't think baked and soft sculpty stick well together simular to clay.

Q2: Once the basic form for the armature is done, I use tinfoil to create some bulk for areas that are larger. Mostly for saving sculpty(because it costs alot) secont create more surface area for the sculpty to adhere to.

Q3: What size are we talking about? I personally would use it for some very fine work, but not in areas in which one slip could cost the sculpture.

Q4: I think it is judgement call, if you have 1 inch areas use tinfoil to build up first to have a more even thickness. Other than that it is really hard to tell, perhaps put it in for alot longer at a lower temp.
JA

[Wormius]

Just a few of my rather limited experiences with sculpey...

I've noticed as well that raw super sculpey does not want to stick to baked super sculpey.

I did one piece in which I baked the bulk of the sculpture first and then went back to add details afterward, which proved to be a real nightmare. Also, the thinner parts of the baked sculpture tended to crack when I applied a little pressure to get the raw sculpey to stick. Eventually the whole piece turned out all right after two bakings, but I feel that it would have been much simpler all round if I'd just waited and done it all at once.

On the other hand, I know a lot of people pre-bake monster teeth for sculptures and insert them into the soft clay heads, so I would say that any fairly solid piece that can easily be affixed later to the whole piece is fair game for multiple bakings.

As for overcooking, I've only accidentaly overcooked regular sculpey (awful stuff that) back when I was first experimenting. I left a piece in the oven for 30 minutes when it should have come out at 15, and the thinner parts had turned a toasty brown and shrunken, warping the whole piece into ruin. Can't speak for super sculpey though, so be careful.

Hope this helps a little.