Sculpey Problem

CreganTur

CreganTur

Member
I'm sculpting all of the wooden dock pieces for my Pirate Goblin diorama with Sculpey and I completely finished and baked the first set of parts. I followed the directions for temperature and did an initial bake of 15 minutes. The parts were still maleable- they held their shape, but I could bend them pretty severely, so I baked them for another 5 minutes. They're better, but still bendy.

The Sculpey is at least a year and a half old. When I first opened the package (hadn't opened it until today) it was brittle but some kneading made it nice and easy to work with.

Should I keep baking it until it hardens or is this a problem that will require me to buy a new package of the stuff?
 
QuietiManes

QuietiManes

New member
Being 18 months old and unopened wouldn't increase the bake time, I don't think. You know you have to let things cool down after baking, right?

How thick is the sculpey you're baking? Did you preheat the oven before putting the items in? Did you mix up the F and C? Is your oven temperature accurate?
 
CreganTur

CreganTur

Member
The thickest pieces are about 6mm thick and they actually bend less than the really thin wooden planks. I tested them after letting them cool for 30 min. I did preheat and did not mix up the different measurement scales (good question though). The oven is accurate, but I think I'm going to bump it up a little and bake it again.
 
QuietiManes

QuietiManes

New member
That's odd. Sculpey has some clay made to be flexible and another to make erasers but I assume you aren't using those. I've recently used some super sculpey III and sculpey firm that was several years old and very brittle/crumbly and if anything, it only reduced the bake time and made the end result more stiff and less flexible. Usually I can bend an elbow or what not ever so slightly and the wire armature will hold the form but this stuff cracked right away, no flex whatsoever.

You can reduce the temperature by a few degrees and bake it for a lot longer. I've read about some special effects monster guys who create several inch thick animals/masks/etc and bake it for several hours at 110 C/240 F. Apparently the shrinkage creates cracks at this size but I don't believe that'd be an issue with small items...maybe try 120 C for 40 minutes? Just keep an eye on it, you should be able to smell when it is starting to "over cook" before any damage or real darkening is done. I think that might work better than raising the temp as the inside might not finish cooking and you won't know until a week later when the inner plasticisers (sp?) soak through and soften up the outer shell.

I don't know what'll work...it's just weird that the thick part is cured and the thin isn't...

Best of luck!
 
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