This is not so much an article on how to sculpt but a few hints on how to get the best out of using Kneadatite blue-yellow(green stuff). Sculpting in my own humble opinion is the ability to take a shapeless lump of clay and produce something from it. Fortunately clay is relatively easy to shape! Unfortunately 'Green Stuff' is not. It has the consistency of sticky chewing gum.

However like most brands of two part epoxy putties on the market they have characteristics which can be utilised to get the best results.

Firstly the mix....More blue makes for a dark green harder finished product but still retaining a degree of flexibility. More yellow, a stickier mix to start with and finishing as a more flexible result. I should add here that Green stuff, for all its faults, is the industry standard because it dries tough enough to withstand the pressures exerted by the vulcanising presses when the moulds are made. The fairly standard mix to use is 50/50 of each colour, although most artists have a favourite proportion, Bobby Jackson for instance favours a higher proportion of yellow.

Secondly how do you take this mixture and produce a miniature masterpiece with it..well you obviously use tools of some description, now my selection would fill two jam jars and to be frank most of them never get used. The one I use most is a wax carving tool obtained from Alec Tirantis over 20 years ago and although I have tried everything else , this is the one that I keep coming back to. It is stamped type 47 and had a pointed burnisher one end and a flat spatula at the other. It does 90% of my work but is not very good at creases. I find for these that some sort of thick pointed needle seems to do the job best, however I also recently bought one of the famous 'Wax 5' tools (these are virtually an industry standard). The blunt end is very good at putting in creases. It should be, they are expensive but really nicely made. If you can find them there is a set of silicone ended tools called 'clay shapers' these are excellent for smoothing 'Green stuff' as the material seldom sticks to them.(Royal Sovereign are the makers.) A combination of lip balm or other lubricants and 'clay shapers' result in a very smooth finish, much easier than repeated burnishing.

This leads in nicely to the next point, you will quickly realise that your tools stick and stick well to the mixture that you are using...Now this is one of the facets of GS that can be utilised to an advantage..the material can be dragged into shape! Beautiful swirling edges on cloaks to name but one example. However this is not always the effect that is required and it will be obvious that some kind of lubrication is required to keep the tool moving smoothly or indeed to smooth the surface of the sculpt.

One of the biggest points of contention amongst amateur sculptors is how to smooth successfully and what to do it with. Materials to use...petroleum jelly...vaseline..olive oil..vegetable oil ear oil, nose oil, forehead oil, old engine oil(no just joking), lip balm etc. etc. The fact that the list contains a number of body excretions just shows the lengths people go to for a result.

Any query addressed to a well known sculptor will get back the same answer..WATER or Saliva(spit). Particularly when the GS is fresh. Polymerics the makers of GS suggest lip balm, Vaseline or water. I personally find that saliva or water work best with a higher yellow proportion when mixing the GS(60 to 40)

I mention here when the material is fresh, the next great asset of these epoxy materials is that as they set they become less sticky and some really fine detail can be poked and prodded into them and smooth surfaces can be given a final burnishing.

Another frequent query is the adding of material, I find it helps to have a fresh mixture and to be prepared to feather it well down at the edges otherwise unsightly ridges will result. Turn the figure to catch the light at different angles as you are doing this. It is surprising how many imperfections can be seen and the rectified. If the mixture is set a sharp craft knife can be used to gently scrape them away. It is of the utmost importance to bear in mind that a sharp craft knife on a tiny figure is a sure recipe for finger cuts and even worse.

If a harder mix is required that sands easily as for weapons etc. I would suggest the following 50% brown +50% yellow mixed with the hardener(white) that comes in the 'brown' kneadatite package to normal hardener proportions. This would be (brown+yellow) + (hardener(white). This produces a khaki shade material that when cured is hard and tough but will stand up to scraping a lot easier than GS. I like the Brown but it it is cures to a very dark colour and I have to admit that I prefer working with lighter coloured stuff as you can see the detail better. I also find this new mix is a bit more resilient on small parts than the brown.

Lastly for the moment, a good source of illumination is important and ideally a second lamp to throw some heat on the figure as you work, the quicker the mix starts to lose its stickiness the easier it is to work the material. That is the fine detail can be pushed and prodded into place.

 Finally some more useful info. can be gleaned from my 'sculpt in progress' page where I am endeavouring to give an idea of starting a figure and the tools involved.