Food Processor for Mixing Polymer Clay

Mini Food Processor - AKA My New Toy

I love sculpting in polymer clay, however the process of mixing clay can be VERY tedious. This is especially true when mixing clay for a sculpture for a number of reasons. Using a pasta machine (my old method) for mixing clay takes FOREVER with a somewhat extensive preparation process. Light and fresh clay has a tendency to pick up lint, dust, dirt, anything and everything that happens to be around at the time.
Thus the longer the mixing process, the long the clay is exposed, and the more 'dirty' the clay turns out. The final sculpture looks less 'professional' if it is studded with lint.
And my newer issue with the pasta machine, is the difficulty in adding liquid polymer clay. I've discovered that conditioning some liquid clay into the mix makes it softer and more malleable, however, this was disasterous in my pasta machine meaning I had to do it by hand.
This is especially difficult with my injured hand/thumb (from military deployment)

The old Mixing Process

Preparing the Clay to be mixed (I chose random scraps for this demo)

Each 'blob' of clay has to be slightly conditioned and shaped to fit into the pasta machine

Each blob of clay is run through the pasta machine a few times for a somewhat uniform sheet

The colors to be mixed are stacked, and run through the pasta machine again, and again

and again

Until a uniform color blend is achieved

This process isn't too bad for a smaller sculpture or color combination, but this can take the better part of an hour for something as large as a 3 Inch Bunny

Old vs New

Enter the Food Processor

I've read about artists using food processors for mixing clay, and finally decided to treat myself (Under $20 on amazon) I purchased the Proctor Silex 1-1/2-Cup Food Chopperideal for a small to medium magical sculpture

Does it measure up?

I decided to do my first mixing trial with camera at hand
Preparing a mix of clay to be blended: Sculpey Living Doll and Premo Translucent. I will then add some TLS (Translucent Liquid Sculpey)

I roughly shredded the clay and dropped them into the food processor

Power ON, and WOW!!

I then added a generous few drops of TLS

Total Preparation + Mixing Time: TWO MINUTES,
Level of pain to my injured hand: ZERO

Foreseeable Benefits:

The first and most obvious is TIME. I have essentially cut an hour out of the sculpting process.
On a personal level, this takes the stress of mixing off my hands, ideal for people with hand injuries
I can 'store' the unused clay in the processor. I typically mix up more clay than required. I'd rather mix too much of a clay color, than to run out mid-sculpture and have to try copying the color combination and consistency
The clay keeps CLEAN!! the processor is so tiny, I don't see the need to remove the clay, I will simply store the entire unit on my craft-cart and take out bits of clay as needed. And if a few days pass in between uses I will simply power it up for a few seconds and recondition (re-soften) the clay.
I am in love with my new toy!!
Edited 11 July 2012Thanks to the comments below regarding the danger of storing clay in the food processor I will only keep the clay in during sculpting and then store in another container so as not to destroy my new toy

Sock Monkey Dollhouse Miniatures

Introducing: Item of the week

As a private educator, my day job at Leah4sci revolves around the schedule of my students. While this means a slow tutoring season in the summer, it also means a busy sculpting season for MagicByLeah
I have set a personal goal to increase my shop inventory to 300 items by September first in preparation for the upcoming holiday season and look forward to sculpting up a storm.
I also plan to sculpt a few more magical creatures in the process for all you fantasy lovers out there

So join me on this magical journey as I introduce at least one new item in my newest weekly blog feature:

MagicByLeah - Item of the week

And what better way to start an 'item of the week' feature, then my introducing yet another version of my favorite sculpted creature, the sock monkey. I just love this little guy and hope that you love him too.

My first item of the week set is the Rainbow Chunky Monkeys. These little guys are slightly larger than the sock monkey miniatures previously offered in my shop. They are chunkier, and sit approximately 1 inch tall.
(click on the monkey set to view it in my shop)

What's special about these monkeys, is that they not only resemble the beloved sock monkey doll; Their 'skin' even has a sock-like appearance. Peer closely and you will see the tiny embedded fibers in the granitex clay.
Actually, there was an ulterior motive behind sculpting these rainbow monkeys (other than the fact that I love sculpting monkeys) Most of the monkeys offered in my shop are made to order upon request. Yet 'describing' the color is not enough as we are a visual generation and prefer to see things with our own eyes
And so I sculpted a set of monkeys in the 7 Granitex colors offered, allowing you to visualize, not only the color, but how it looks on a monkey.
(click on the rainbow set to purchase individual monkey miniatures in the color of your choice)

A chunky sock monkey will look great on your computer, desk, or in your dollhouse. And they also make a lovely gift for any sock monkey lover and collector.

View my full line of sock monkey gifts and treasures in my:
Artfire Shop and in my Etsy Shop

An Elf is Born: Part 1

This Post Has MOVED!! Click HERE for updated post with full-color images

SPOILER ALERT! For those of you anxiously awaiting the 'grand reveal' in my Dec 1 newsletter, be warned, this post may give away some of the details. However, the final product will NOT be shown here till AFTER the newsletter is distributed. (subscribe HERE)

There are certain rules/formulas that a sculptor is expected to follow. I DON'T like to follow the rules, but I do take them into consideration. So if my methods appear a bit 'off'... rules are meant to be broken after all

In my Last Post I gave you a quick tour of my studio/tools. And while that was important for the set-up, we're still a long way from the actual sculpting

Sunday 20 November 2011 (Playing catch-up on the blog)

Certain rules should not be broken, and the important one is following a plan, sketch, or model for sculpting a larger magical creature. While I had a basic idea of the creature I intended to sculpt, I had to take 2 important things into consideration

1 - the size of my oven. I use a Deni Table-top convection oven which is dedicated to clay only. The oven is about 12 inches in diameter, but only gives me about 4 inches in usable height. This limites the height of my seated creatures (I can sculpt a standing creature and bake it lying down)

2 - the pose of the creature. The more 'complex' the stance of the creature, the more internal support will be required, and the more difficult it will be to complete. For this creature I wanted to go with something simple and thus 'faster' to complete (days instead of weeks)

Taking these into account, I have chosen a 1:10 'scale' creature, seated on a flat surface.

A scaled sculpture is one that has similar proportions to a life-size model, but on a smaller scale. Imagine looking at as 4x6 photo of a real life person. Proportions are the same, but everything is smaller (to fit your photo size)

A 1:10 scale creature will be one tenth the size of a real model. For every 10 inches of 'real' there will be just 1 inch of sculpture

But that is too 'strict' after all, this is a magical creature, and so I let the magic 'speak' to me. I will give this magical sculpture a larger head (than the 1:10 rules) and somewhat childish features to help capture her 'magical' essense.

The Pose

(photo blurred due to 'adult content' so as not to offend)
At times I will work from random 'models' or envision my own pose, however, since this is my first 'sculpt-n-blog' here I will keep it straight forward. Using my online Magical Modeling Agency I have chosen a pose that fits my basic idea.

Magic Sculpture has a great 3D program that allows me to view my model from every angle. While I will continuously refer to my 3-D rotating model on my computer screen, I still print some basic views so I can measure and compare at each step in the sculpting process. My print includes a Front view, Back View, Right Profile and Left Profile

The Skeleton

Clay is a very soft medium, and like the softness of human flesh, it requires an internal skeleton for structure and support. The internal skeleton for my sculptures, also called an 'armature' provides strength and support for my desired pose, but it also provides me with internal 'bulk' helping me reduce the overall thickness of the clay used. A thicker layer of clay will require alot more time to bake in the oven. A project that has too much internal clay may not bake properly, increasing the chance for the sculpture to break down or crumble in the future.

A standard armature is made with these 2 concepts in mind. I will first start with a thick gauge wire and follow the basic shape of the torso/head. This will provide strength. The next step is to create a foil core for any areas of the sculpture that are greater than 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Since the head and torso will be the thickest parts of my sculpture, I create a foil core for these areas.
This is achieved by crumbling and shaping standard aluminum foil over the wire, then molding to the desired shape.


The head will be egg-shaped, about an inch tall. So I start with a smaller egg shape on the wire. I like to sculpt the head unhindered so I prepare the body foil core but will only add it after the head is completed

Preparing the Clay

There are many different brands of polymer clay out there, and while each has its own advantages, every sculptor will gravitate towards 'their' brand. My favorite brand is Sculpey, specifically the Premo Sculpey. For sculpting flesh-tone creatures I will also use Original Sculpey and Sculpey Living Doll. Perhaps in future blog I will break down the differences in great detail.

Clay type - overview
Original sculpey: This is a soft and very easy to use clay. It is very forgiving (you can 'erase' mistakes) but this feature doesn't make it ideal for sculpting very fine details like a face or fingers. The flesh tone is also a bit on the darker side (See my Valentine's Day Troll )

Sculpey Living Doll: 'medium beige' is great for sculpting detail, but this in turn makes it very unforgiving and will show minor flaws. I also find the color to be a bit too light

Premo Sculpey: While Premo is my favorite brand, they come in very small (2 ounce) packages, and somehow is not ideal for sculptures by itself.

Left to Right: Living Doll, Premo, Living Doll, Original Sculpey




Soo... I mix them all together. And this is a perfect example of 'not following the rules'. I don't have a color recipe. I take a guestimate of how much clay I will need based on the creature to be sculpted. Then I randomly mix them together untill I am happy with the results. The Original Sculpey gives me softness and workability, the Living Doll gives me a paler color, decreases the 'softness making my 'mix' easier for sculpting finer details. Then I add some Premo Translucent (honestly, just for an excuse to mix in my favorite clay) while the premo translucent 'color' disappears, it gives my creature a bit of a 'doll' look and shined finish. (Premo bakes to a beautiful smooth shiney-looking finish)

I slice each clay thin enough to go through my pasta machine (used ONLY for clay) Notice how the Living Doll crumbles as it goes through (left), but the original sculpey is too soft, and easily yields to the pasta machine. (middle)
and then I mix, mix, Mix, Mix, MIX, MIX, and mix some more.



Polymer clay is a 'plastic' clay, and the components sometimes separate in the package. A properly conditioned (mixed) ball of clay will yield a stronger and more enduring project.


Guestimation for the amount of clay needed

AND NOW THE SCULPTING CAN BEGIN