Baking super sculpey in solar oven

[DonFerrando]

Hello,

Noob here with a question. I am working on a statue that is too tall to fit in my oven (22") and I'm sure cutting it would be a disaster. A search online revealed that it is theoretically possible to bake sculpey in a solar oven. The sculpture has an aluminum foil center and the sculpey is about 1" at its thickest, maybe a bit more. Has anyone here tried this before? What were your experiences?

Thank you,
Don

[jbabler]

I've also boiled my sculpey in a large kettle to harden it, takes a bit longer though.

http://blog.makezine.com/2008/06/12/...and-solar-coo/

[DonFerrando]

Originally Posted by jbabler

I've also boiled my sculpey in a large kettle to harden it, takes a bit longer though.

http://blog.makezine.com/2008/06/12/...and-solar-coo/

Interesting! I have a number of thin pieces of sculpey stick out from the torso, such as the end of a belt and wavy cloth bits that I sculpted, etc. Would I have to worry about these getting deformed by the water current created in the bowl when it's boiling? Also the sculpture sits on a so far untreated wooden base and the lower (exposed) part of the armature is wood also. Do you foresee any problems there? Thanks for your input!

Don

[Alaneye]

Originally Posted by DonFerrando

Interesting! I have a number of thin pieces of sculpey stick out from the torso, such as the end of a belt and wavy cloth bits that I sculpted, etc. Would I have to worry about these getting deformed by the water current created in the bowl when it's boiling? Also the sculpture sits on a so far untreated wooden base and the lower (exposed) part of the armature is wood also. Do you foresee any problems there? Thanks for your input!

Don

You could heat gun the whole of the outer surface to 'fix' it. You could probably do that with a hair drier.
Are you planning on keeping this as a one off and painting it?

[DonFerrando]

Originally Posted by Alaneye

You could heat gun the whole of the outer surface to 'fix' it. You could probably do that with a hair drier.
Are you planning on keeping this as a one off and painting it?

Heat gun is a great idea, sounds like something I may want to practice on a throwaway piece first. Yes, it will be a one-off marquette. I may paint it a uniform matte grey tone if I discover that different parts look darker than others, otherwise I'll leave it plain.

[Astounding]

I've heard you can cook an entire thanksgiving turkey in a solar oven made from a cardboard box, so I imagine Sculpey would be a small challenge for a solar oven.

[DonFerrando]

You guys, this is precious information for me, thank you very much. I purchased a heat gun yesterday for the small parts and I am going to look into both, boiling and solar oven as viable routes. Will report back.

[Alaneye]

Be careful when you are setting the sculpey with the heat gun. Keep the nozzle moving and not too close to the sculpture, you don't want to blister or burn the sculpey.

[Astounding]

And if your turkey sculpt is realistic,... be careful no one eats it.

[DonFerrando]

Will definitely keep that in mind and practice with the heat gun before I get serious.

Also, so far the turkey sculpt looks more like a sculpey turd (muhaha, corny), definitely have my work cut out for me.