gah!!! fingerprints everywhere!!

[katherla]

how do you guys keep fingerprints off your models? wear gloves? keep smoothing them out? i don't really want to wear gloves because i think they'd make my hands clumsey.

[riderV3]

Originally Posted by katherla

how do you guys keep fingerprints off your models? wear gloves? keep smoothing them out? i don't really want to wear gloves because i think they'd make my hands clumsey.

I'm no pro and am facing the same problem.

What I do is I'd just let them fingerprints stay on my sculpt till I'm pretty much done with it,
then I'll let the sculpt sit for a night, the sculpey usually turn harder after you let it sit then I'll start smoothing the sculpt with fingers,
hold it gently and let fingers run through the whole sculpt and that should eliminate significant amount of fingerprints.

If there're still fingerprints that won't go away, I just go ahead and bake it, then sand it with tiny amount of water and 000 sand paper.

OR, your sculpey might be too soft, I mix my regular Super Sculpey with Super Sculpey firm, easier to handle without leaving lots of fingerprints.

Again, not a pro here so see if other real sculptors can offer some useful tips.

[SiMo]

Originally Posted by riderV3

I'm no pro and I'm facing the same problem.

What I do is I'd just let them fingerprints stay on my sculpt till I'm pretty much done with it,
then I'll let the sculpt sit for a night, the sculpey usually turn harder after you let it sit then I'll start smoothing the sculpt with fingers,
hold it gently and let fingers run through the whole sculpt and that should eliminate significant amount of fingerprints.

If there're still fingerprints that won't go away, I just go ahead and bake it, then sand it with tiny amount of water and 000 sand paper.

OR, your sculpey might be too soft, I mix my regular Super Sculpey with Super Sculpey firm, easier to handle without leaving lots of fingerprints.

Again, not a pro here so see if other real sculptors can offer some useful tips.

Your way is a good beginning. You can leave away the step of sanding if you smooth the scuplpt before baking. I always use q-tips with nailpolish-remover. Very effective. There are some cotton swabs with are shaped more acutied - you will get better results at parts qou cannot reach with the round q-tips. You can get them in cosmetica stores.

[riderV3]

Originally Posted by SiMo

Your way is a good beginning. You can leave away the step of sanding if you smooth the scuplpt before baking. I always use q-tips with nailpolish-remover. Very effective. There are some cotton swabs with are shaped more acutied - you will get better results at parts qou cannot reach with the round q-tips. You can get them in cosmetica stores.

Great tips, man!

Gotta try it next time.

[katherla]

My sculpy might be too soft. I'm using just super sculpy with not additives...the pink stuff. Every time I touch it, even lightly, I leave a fingerprint. Makes it a pain to work on the chest when I keep having to touch the shoulders to get leverage to keep the whole thing from bouncing around.

How do you do nice smooth hands and fingers? I'm guessing carefully and slowly. Those pointy q-tips might be a good idea to get for places like the insides of elbows, between fingers, and cleavage.

[riderV3]

Originally Posted by katherla

My sculpy might be too soft. I'm using just super sculpy with not additives...the pink stuff. Every time I touch it, even lightly, I leave a fingerprint. Makes it a pain to work on the chest when I keep having to touch the shoulders to get leverage to keep the whole thing from bouncing around.

How do you do nice smooth hands and fingers? I'm guessing carefully and slowly. Those pointy q-tips might be a good idea to get for places like the insides of elbows, between fingers, and cleavage.

I used just Super Sculpey on my first few sculpts and figured that wasn't very practical.
Hard to pose, esaily deformed even with armature wires and hard to see the flaws and details due to that semi-translucent ham color...

Go grab some Super Sculpey Firm and mix them together till you get a nice solid grey color and hardness, it'll help and lot.

And try making the armature strong and stand-able by itself, will make life much easier.

[ManthingVT]

The real trick to avoid fingerprints is to not touch your clay sculpt near the final finishing. Your armature should be mounted firmly on a sculpting stand so that only your tools/brushes etc are in contact with the clay surface. After baking, sure, you can sand too to remove those pesky "missed" imperfections.

Waxes are different of course, and are fine to hand hold.

MVT

[Andreww]

It does sound like your Sculpey is way too soft. You can firm this up yourself very easily. I also recommend mixing in some black & white Premo in with the pink Sculpey to make it gray.
To firm up Sculpey roll it through a pasta machine or use a roller, into thin sheets. Lay it onto some brown craft or shipping paper. roll the sheets up in the paper and let it sit for a day or two. after a while you will see stains on the paper, like if you put greasy french fries in a paper bag. The liquids are being leached out of the sculpey. The longer you leach the firmer it gets. This will help with the fingerprints and will also let you sculpt better details.
Multiple bakings will also help. That way your'e not always holding fresh clay in your hands. I'm always picking up my sculpt and turning it around while I'm working on it. Multiple bakings is the only way I can do this. I hardly ever have to deal with fingerprints.

Andrew

[dynabol69]

My first sculpt had many finger prints on it but I have learned to smooth, sand and take more time with the original since then. I ahve been enjoying sculpy firm lately. The pink stuff is to soft.

[Enik]

Great tips!
I felt inspired by the talent on this forum. I picked up some super sculpey (pink), 3 different gauge wire rolls, some basic scuplting tools and started working on a 4 inch tall figurine - I've had to start over several times after destroying the shoulders, 3 or 7 times
I've learned a lot from the experience but I knew that there had to be a way to make the super sculpey more firm - thanks a lot