Chavant Clay

[madpencil]

I'd like to get your opinion on chavant clay. I'm considering switching from super sculpey to chavant. I'm aware that different clays may be better depending the project, But what do you guys think? I'm thinking of making chavant my primary choice.

[juicy_fruit]

give me a link so chavant and ill do some research from there and il help u out

p.s. orange is easy on the eyes :D

Juicy

[AnarchyAo2]

lol wow it really is

[juicy_fruit]

yeah i know i found that out like a month ago!! its amazing.. the worst is probably.. more like definately RED.. may be a cool color but its horrible against the backround

[Epoch]

hmmm.... easily amused :)

[doppelganger]

I use Chavant heavily, I actually use it more than sculpey or Roma.
Chavant gained popularity as an industrial designer's clay and is used a lot to prototype car bodies because the frmer grades of Chavant can actually be polished with a chamois cloth to a perfectly smooth machined surface. It has no sulphur (most versions dont at least, they are marked as Chavant - NSP)
Chavant has a smoother and more plastic texture because of this and it does not seem to smear into your fingerprint ridges like Roma, in short it is less sticky.
The main benefit of Chavant is that since it contains no sulphur you can take a sillicone mold off it without spending time sealing the surface of the clay. Roma has sulphur and this if left untreated will cause the sillicone not to "set up" against the surface of the sculpture and just stay gooey.
Keep in mind if you do switch you will have to mold and cast your sculpture to make it "permenant." Chavant being an oil based clay, cannot be baked like sculpey and never becomes truly "hard".

One more thing is that Chavant comes in grades MUCH harder than Roma or Sculpey. This is great for sculpting and holding fine details and form. If you heat the clay in an oven on LOW temp it becomes workable in the hands and cools quickly. Check my Zombie and Demon thread for a sculpt done in Chavant. The demon was Chavant NSP 4 (hard).

A bit long : ) but I hope this helps,

Scott

[lex76]

Sorry if I ask, but I would like to strat modelling some of my drawings... Want to become a more complete artist :D
The Chavant clay has many different products...
What's the one I would need to make a creature like the models they made in the Lord of the rings, at Weta workshops?
:confused:

[doppelganger]

Probbably the easiest to start with is NSP Soft. It is a soft clay with a nice texture.
You can also try ROMA Plastilina it too comes in soft medium and hard.

If you want your sculptures to harden though without having to mold and cast them you may want to look at sculpey as it can be baked in a home oven to make it hard.

Scott

[madpencil]

Check this out Scott.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17682