Floral wet foam as armature for pastiline clay?

[La Ada De Nieve]

Hi all,

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

[racine]

hi La, it dosnt matter too much what core although as oil clay is heavy [if u mean plasticene] and the green foam is light, this sounnds awkward to work with, not surprised it was powdery. strikes me that ur trying to make things easy on yourself, often thats the best way to make it harder in the long run.
casting should be fine, i presume u r making a suitable plaster or rubber mould? then take it on from there...?

[zazie]

Hello there -

Plastilene bust needs no armature - the medium is hard (or quite hard) at room temperature with no risk of falling over.

Flower foam is flimsy and compressible, and seems to be a poor choice to support a harder medium.

If you wish to make an armature for daring shapes (e.g., an etheral dancer) then metal armature is a better choice I think.

[racine]

it seems Zazie had an excellent answer on her thread just under this 'paper clay something' by Weimingkei. this floral stuff looks a bit soft and limited to low blocks, looks like playing safe. dont be put off going for it, express yourself and see what can happen, is there anything to lose?

[chris 71]

I,ve tried that blue construction styrofoam it can be laminated together and carved to the basic shape you want its pretty strong too just a thought Chris.