CUTTING LETTERING WITH CLAY!

I’m sculpting away on the Clobber Monkey and will have new updates this week. In the mean time I was thinking of what other past projects did I have to show and tell some sculpting techniques. The Frank Kozik Ho Chi Minh figure had a couple tricky bits.
I took an actual plaster bust that Frank got in Vietnam, added his logo and enhanced some of the facial features. The lettering on the plaques were done by a lettering company with lasers and plexy. The “Kozik” logo on the back of the figure I wanted to sculpt.



I used “Hard” Sulpher Free Chavant clay. Warmed up in the microwave, then rolled into a thin sheet with my handy pasta maker (A tool every sculptor should have) the logo was printed out at the size for the sculpture. I literally traced the outline with a pencil right onto the clay.



Now with the outline in place the clay has to be very firm for cutting such a tiny piece. Circuit Freeze spray is great for instantly freezing the clay, it can be bought at most electronic stores. Freeze the clay, and use the tiny X-acto blades for cutting.



You may need to re-freeze the clay as you work. The freeze spray is also great when you are trying to sculpt tiny details, or sharp edges on any sculpt.