An Advanced Clay Sculpt Needs Prearation Both On and Off The Piece

Learn how to prepare a clay sculpt so that there's no tears at bedtime. Relax, have a mug of coco and have a good nights sleep.

With an advanced clay model which needs to be precise and clean, you can't just attack a lump of clay with a set of tools.

You need to know a few tricks of the trade. One of those is working up important details off the model.

Working with items off the piece:

When you are sculpting small or complex items, say like hands for example, I find cocktail sticks are great. NOT for modeling with (it's hair that cocktail sticks can do well) - but for something to hold onto).

I just stick the wrist end onto a cocktail stick and start working the rough hand shape. You start with softish clay from the bag, then as you are working, the clay is hardening off, gaining more resistance so you can start to cut and work the detail.

Depending on the hand, sometimes I will start from scratch and sometimes I start from a ‘template’ hand which I have taken a mold of and pressed clay into (press mold – a bit like a sprig mold). Small hands are hard to do and take a lot of grit & determination to complete, especially with pottery clay which wants to dry all the time. Stick with it though and you will get there.


If a hand takes you longer at first, so it is drying out too much on the cocktail stick, think about attaching it (with the cocktail stick for support) to a larger lump of clay as a base (the principle is, the larger the volume of clay, the longer it takes to displace its moisture). The smaller hand and wrist draws moisture from the larger clay base. Then you also have the option of putting that mini-sculpture on its own small damp plaster bat. You can then take this on and off the bat as required. Obviously, the cocktail stick comes out once you are ready to apply to the piece (at the very last stage).

Working with a face takes longer, so I would use the latter method above. With the additional option of putting a small nail up through the bat to keep the clay attached so you can lift up the bat and work the face at all angles without it drying out.

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