Feeling crafty

[soc_puppet]

With significant progress made on my two trades, I've begun work on the Ship in a Bottle.

By which I mean I've melted exactly nine crayons in the base of the bottle. See, I'm using a bottle like this - I'd go so far as to say it's exactly that type of bottle except it's more than three-and-a-quarter inches tall - and I wanted to have a base in the bottom of it to raise the characters up a bit. Gives 'em a bit more room, see. And while the crayons initially looked like they'd be the perfect solution, well. Completely drying left something of a sinkhole in the middle of wax, which isn't exactly a solid place for two polymer clay characters to be standing, let alone in close proximity to one another.

My next plans are either MORE WAX or more polymer clay, but if anyone has a suggestion for how I can get the wax to not do that sinkhole thing instead I'd love to hear it.

Comments

Off the Latest Things page

[needled_ink_1975]

Hi

Been putting ships in bottles and building models from scratch (carved hulls) since I was 6 which means I have 21 years of experience to offer you. Here's my bona fides, aka, pictorial evidence (for scale, that little bark is in jigger bottle).

To the nitty gritty.

Sorry to tell you this, but wax is not a good idea, because it's temp sensitive; always sets with air bubbles, which will be the start of cracks when it gets cold. Clay is okay but has some of the same problems as wax, as well as the worst: it takes an age to dry. Remeber that any moisture in your bottle contents will end up condensing on the glass. That leads to mold and other nasty things, like wood warp– straight masts and spars become wonky ones.

The best sea/ground material is silicone sealant. Comes in tubes, usually with a nozzle. It can be sculpted before it dries (make mighty waves... with nothin' but a little stick *grin*). You can 'plant' items in it—ship's hull— before it dries, and they won't come unstuck. If you have to paint it for color preference, just get the type of silicone that will take paint. The really awesome thing about silicone is that you can toss a bit of sand in when it's wet, and now you have a sandy beach (which is what you might want if you do a 'scene' with a ship out for hull-scraping/repairs).

If you can tell me what you want to do, I may be of more help. PM me if you'd prefer that.

Best,

–Nici

[redsixwing]

The bog-standard material used to make bases for model horses is epoxy putty. I like Apoxie Sculpt, but Smooth-On apparently has a new one that is even better. I haven't tried it since I still have some Apoxie.

Molding a little ball of it, then using a stick to squoosh it into shape in the bottom of the bottle, would probably work just fine - the only problem is, it is epoxy, and once it's dry, it's really truly permanent. I can imagine it being a real pain to clean up if one got it on the walls of the bottle.

It can be carved, sanded, painted, and smoothed when it's wet with rubbing alcohol, but it's generally wise to handle such products with gloves on, they can be pretty nasty.