I swear there was a link to the gallery somewhere in this thread 
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Finished with painting the pieces and will need to just put it all together and will be ready to ship!
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I always put a link to the Gallery in the first post.
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I havenāt been using an actual palette because I kind of just grab whatever is nearest. So here is my teaser pic. Itās the lid of a candy box.
And this isnāt really a good representation of the colors because I tend to just dip my brush in the bottle directly a lot.
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I just packed up my item and scheduled for pick up tomorrow. Pretty happy how it turned out and excited for @EclecticDreamer to receive it!
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Now thats all i see.
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Haha me too!
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Fellow swappers.. gallery has been updated.. 
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Painting is now officially done and Iāve done the first layer of varnish. Oh boy, the painting was a journey. This sculpture went through 2 completely different looks before I landed on this one. And along the way I kept having to paint over portions that didnāt land like I wanted. Thankfully acrylic paint is fairly easy to just paint over once dry and I took full advantage of that.
If I had to use one word to describe the sculpture I created it would be maximalist. I think itās kind of fun to be honest and I hope @photojenn agrees.
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I did some painting today. I got a base coat down on all the ______. 
I think the painting has been the most relaxing. I was really out of my element for this project. The clay didnāt act like I thought it would so some pieces didnāt dry straight.
Hereās my teaser pic! My paint palette has a bunch other dried paint on it from other projects so it wouldnāt be a very good indication of my current project 
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@manders we had the exact opposite experience. The build was relaxing, the painting was so stressful. Heh.
My sculpture is officially done. Iām going to pack it up today and ship tomorrow.
Also warning @photojenn itās not a particularly small sculpture. I mean itās not huge but uhmā¦itās about the size of a small melon or butternut squash. I had a hard time finding a box for it. Everything was way too big or too narrow, but I discovered the box for the kidās small rice cooker is just about the perfect size.
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Iām excited to see it!!
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Lol if we combine our experiences than we either get a horrible experience or a great one
Excited to see what you made! Iāve been so excited to see what everyone made. 
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Air dry clay is not my medium 
or maybe itās the brand? Cold porcelain was not at all what i expected and while I kinda got used to itā¦ it dried weird/out of shape. The other air dry clay I tried I just hated the feel. Last night I totally scraped the idea of painting clay and switched to idea A-4-B (essentially same original idea but slightly tweaked twice.)
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What brand did you use?
Iāve tried 3 different brands
- Crayola - tried this a few years ago. Itās marketed for kids, super cheap but hard to work with (might have been my technique)
- Sculpd - a lot dries on your hands, seemed to work well, didnāt paint well using their gloss coat. This felt the most like ānormal clayā to me
- DAS - pretty clean to work with, has paper fibers in it, I think this is the most recommended brand Iāve seen. I got mine at Michaelās
Iāve got a bunch of Sculpd that I need to use up but will be sticking with DAS going forward.
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I almost went to get DAS but decided Iād hate to spend the $ and have it be more of the same. Plus it wouldnāt dry in time.
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Iāve only used Crayola air dry and like it, so far. Watched a few YouTube videos on tips and tricks so Iām not making my own mistakes to learn from, so to speak.
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My clay/sculpting experiences thus far:
Polymer Clay (sculpey is my prefered brand) - This is my go-to and I have a lot of it.
Positives: easy to find, inexpensive, tons of colors (including pearlescent, neon, and glow in the dark), tons of tutorials, super versatile, can be baked multiple times, comes in liquid variety for touch ups and special uses or to use like glue, accepts paint well, can get super detailed, can sand it but donāt have to
Drawbacks: conditioning it can be a pain in the butt, air pockets in sculptures are the stuff of nightmares, cracking when using a thin layer can be an issue, when fully baked small and delicate bits are brittle and easily broken, larger pieces can be a bit heavy, must be baked in an oven to cure it
Polymer clay example:
Air dry clay (have used DAS, air-dry sculpey, paper clay, and Crayola)
Positives: no baking time, depending on type itās easy to find, absorbs paint well, most are relatively light (especially Crayola)
Drawbacks: most need sanding, getting super detailed can be challenging, short working time (even when you drape a wet paper towel over your sculpt as you work), unused clay can dry out and become unusuable, cracking is common, small detailed areas are brittle and break even more easily than Polymer Clay, drying time can take days depending on the thickness of your clay.
I personally hate the Crayola clay because I need WAY more detail than it can give me. The texture once itās dry also bothers me.
Das example (just the cat, the elf is polymerclay) :
Air Dry Sculpey example:
Paper clay example (sealed with UV resin):
Paper mache (traditional flour mix with paper strips)
Positives: distinctive look, accepts paint well, can use painting grounds to do gouache or water color, relatively light, super sturdy when dry, versatile
Drawbacks: drying time can take days even when using an oven to speed things up, must be sanded before painting, visible lines from layered paper (which is part of the charm, but not if you want something super smooth), flour mixture can mold if you leave it out so itās better to mix fresh for each working session
Paper mache example:
Cosclay
Positives: easy to condition, soft (which is also a drawback, though it does come in other firmnesses Iāve only worked with basic cosclay so far), accepts paint well, can be sanded but doesnāt require it, a mash-up of rubber and polymer clay itās flexible after baking, super sturdy while maintaining flexibility even with fine details, can be baked multiple times, has a liquid form for touch-ups or to use as glue, can get super detailed
Drawbacks: hard to find and most likely must buy online, expensive compared to polymer clay, basic version is really soft, if you bake it and then bend it and then bake it again it will break (this is more a guideline on working with it), limited color pallette compared to polymer clay, similar weight to polymer clay so can be heavy for large sculpts, must be baked in an oven to cure it
Cosclay example:
Iāve also used traditinal clay that has to be kiln fired, but only once and there are so many awesome potters in our group, Iāll leave descriptions of that to them.
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This was such an informative read! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
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