Problems with air dry clay cracking around armature

[wpidave]

For a class assignment I have to use air dry clay for a figure that I'm sculpting. As he has a winding body and wide reaching arms, I decided to use armature wire. However, after drying (even though I misted it with water frequently!) the clay has cracked in multiple places. I've been reading online about different things people suggest, but none sound definitive or all that great. Many say to avoid armature wire, but that doesn't seem like a great option.

Any advice/tips/etc. would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Dave

[Darkwulf's Talon]

Hi Dave,

Why air-dry clay? The reason I ask is that you could use Super Sculpey that has no real shrinkage and therefore would not have issues with an armature.

Otherwsie after a quick check Crayola (don't laugh :-)) Air Dry Clay supposedly has no or minimal shrinkage.

Another thought, just popped into me head, is can you take time to do layers? This way any cracks from one layer can be repaired by another one. This would however take a lot of time.

Hope some of this is helpful,
Adrian

[Brightdreamer]

Probably not the person to give advice here, being decidedly amateur in the art category, but I've used air-dry clay (namely Paperclay) for holiday projects for several years. I use Paperclay because it's relatively cheap and fairly durable, plus it sands nicely and takes a good coat of paint. And, yes, I use armatures.

The first coat can crack on me; my solution is to dampen it down good again with a spray bottle (as Paperclay can take redampening), then just patch the cracks with fresh clay; it helps to use extra-damp bits of clay, nearly liquid, to smear into the cracks and get a nice seal. After the initial patch job, I usually don't get cracks again on subsequent layers, unless I have structural integrity issues.

Hope that helps...

[Akeyla]

back when I was still using pottery clay I had similar problems. I solved it either by making an armature that allows clay movement (smooth wire, not bent, kind of one stick up the spine) or by forming it and then coaxing it into form while it dries, supporting it throughout the drying process with objects (books, cups, etc). Nerve wrecking but pays.
I agree on the wetting up and adding clay, but be sure its really wet and soft. Something else that I do and works great if you dont want the clay's surface original color (color it or varnish it) is to add very liqiud plaster with a brush. Plaster has close to no shrinkage. If you have many haircracks and you want to color it, then using silk paper (wrapping tissue) with white glue works too. Brush on and simply create a new skin above the cracks.
And yes, if you can, I highly recommend moving to polymer, you'll love it. Pricewise, if you use a good armature and some foil cores, it can get rather close in price to paperclay. And it never dries :)

[VulgarDragon]

Wrap some newspaper loosely around the wire armature and tape with masking tape where needed. The clay will shrink but will have room to compress without cracking.

[The Dark Power]

I remember using polyfilla to fill in cracks in past air-drying clay sculptures if that's any use.