Floral wet foam as armature for plasticine clay figure?

[La Ada De Nieve]

Hi all,

Initially I posted this in the other forum, and as soon as I figure out to delete that one I will...I think this may fare better in this forum.

I experimented last night with a brick of floral wet foam as an armature for pastiline clay. This foam is extremely carvable, and my plan was to build up clay on it. The sculpture is a small bust, fairly simple as it's my first effort in oil-based clay.

So far so good. It was sort of "dusty" at first and difficult to get the clay to stick to it, but now that I've built a solid layer around successive layers are going on very easily.

My question is: if I later wanted to have this bust cast, would that be possible/advisable given its foam core? How thick should I build up around this core approximately?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

La Ada De Nieve

[Stevem]

Hi La Ada De Nueve,

I have used this floral foam before and it works great after you get it covered with a layer of clay. However; trying to reuse this clay after it gets the foam bits in it is not an easy task. It can be really frustrating. I have found if you wrap your foam in a plastic wrap before applying your first layer of clay it will keep from getting all the foam particles in it and you can use it agian easily. Having a foam center should not affect making a mold of the piece in anyway.

Good Luck,

[La Ada De Nieve]

Thanks so much for the idea of adding a layer of plastic wrap in case I want to re-use the clay. That helps a lot!

La Ada