First, you need to have some patience working with this material. It's not like Sculpey or other clays and if you go into a project thinking it is, you will be frustrated.
Secondly, wear nitrile gloves. Yes, really. Latex and vinyl gloves supposedly break down and whilst you'll see many, many YouTube videos of people using this without gloves (and even licking their fingers to wet them), it's not a great idea. The more you use it, the more likely you'll get numbness, tingling and possibly more permanent nerve damage. You have to find the nitrile gloves that fit as tightly as possible because Magic Sculpt is a bit on the sticky side. If the gloves are loose, you'll have it sticking to the gloves and getting very little sculpting done.
Those are truly the only cons. Gloves and sticky.
The benefits are immense. Low odor, particularly compared to baking polymer clays like Sculpey or Fimo. No cooking. This stuff cures in a chemical reaction and will eventually even cure if submerged in water. (I tested this.) When it's cured? It's a frigging rock. I set one cured test-sculpture on a table and knocked it down to the tile floor. Not even a crack. Nothing broke off. If I'd done that with a polymer clay piece, it would have shattered.
Best way to work with it is to create an armature first. Wood, wire, hard foams, whatever. Mix up the Magic Sculpt in a 1 to 1 ratio (resin and hardener). Mix small amounts if you mix a bigger amount, the chemical reaction heats up a bit and you'll have less working time for more clay. Use silicon tools, just clean them with water as soon as you're done. You can also use water to smooth Magic Sculpt as you're working. You can sand it, drill it or carve it with knives after it's cured. Primer it with Rustoleum sandable primer before painting. I use acrylics to paint works great.
Sculpting tiny details is difficult because of the stickiness, so you might want to sculpt larger than you normally would.
All in all, I'm never going back to polymer clay expect perhaps for small details.
0 comments:
Post a Comment