Tools & Supplies

For A Basic Sculpture

Wooden Tools

These tools I use the most because they're so versatile and can be used to manipulate the clay in nearly any way you need, especially when you're starting out.

Rubber-Tipped Tools

These tools work like a pencil on paper. They're fantastic for getting those finer more subtle details in your sculpture, the kind of details you'd find when sculpting a face or other intricate area.

These tools allow you to get into those small areas that the wooden tools may not work so well on.

Armature Wire

To buy different gauge wire refer to this page below and refer to STEP 4 on that page.

Buy Wire

Polymer Clay

Can't sculpt without your clay 🤪

527 or Fabri-Tac Glue

This is to glue your hair on the sculpture's head. Most artists use Fabri-Tac glue and I did too when I first started so it's a great glue to get acquainted with.

After I got the feel of things I switched to 527 glue because it dried faster and was a stronger bond.

Mohair vs. Tibetan Lamb

Tibetan is a lot cheaper to practice on. It's shorter too. Tibetan is sold on the hide, so the animal is sacrificed for this. They are a source of food (Lamb) in foreign countries so they are raised for this, like beef cattle are here. Tibetan is about 5" long at the longest length. Tibetan is softer. Tibetan works great for small sculptures because it is so soft.

Mohair starts at about 5" and can be up to 12" long! It comes from goats. The older the goat, the longer and silkier the mohair so they are prized for the mohair they grow. Mohair is sheared off the goat, in other words, the mohair is cut off, so the goat grows more mohair again. Mohair tends to be more coarse to work with.

Mohair

Tibetan Lamb

Genesis Heat-Set Paints or Karat® 2430 Soft pastel chalk

Many artists love painting with Genesis heat-set paints. These are used on the sculpture after it has been cured/baked in the oven.

You'd thin out the paints with the thinning medium, apply them to the sculpture and you can wipe off the paint if you don't like it. The way to make them permanent is to also cure/bake them on with heat using a heat gun for only approx. 5mins.

Soft chalk pastels I fell in LOVE with because I'm not good at painting so it was easier to create a seamless coat of color on the face and the body. These are used by gently applying a light amount of chalk onto the sculpture before it is cured/baked that way when you do cure/bake it the color bakes into the clay. It's the only way I blush faces and bodies!