Altoids Turtle Keepsake Sculpey Project
An Altoids Keepsake Box
I took an empty Altoids box and thought it would make a nice project for testing my sculpting skills. I wanted to make a Turtle Keepsake Box. The project went fairly well, some success and some places that need improvement. Below find a quick set of shot detailing my progress. Total build time about two and a half hours. Baking time about 25 minutes. It is not painted yet.
The Box
Just a normal Altoids tin. I did not prepare it special in any way.
The Medium: Super Sculpey
Super Scupley and some tools, mostly the rounding tool and the cutting tool for this project.
Forming (Conditioning) The Sculpey
Nothing fancy, just an acrylic roller. This
is small enough a project to not need a pasta machine.
Notice I have a
clear plastic cover on the table taped down with masking tape. Lets
me take my
"studio" anywhere I want to go.
Roughing Out The Base of the Turtle
After a few rolls I wanted to make sure I had
enough coverage. I had to add a bit more Sculpey
to the bottom
before I was happy with the progress. Sanity checks like this are a
habit I need
to get into much more often.
Roughing In Some Details for the Bottom of the Turtle
I added some heavy lines to try to give some
details to the bottom of the turtle. These will act
as guides
since during the rest of the project they will be
squished and mushed as I go along.
Adding the Legs
Some of the images of the leg construction were
just too washed out to be posted. But here is
a shot with all the
legs attached to the bottom of the turtle.
Balancing Act for the Legs
Just making sure the sculpture stands the way I
want it to. I would find eventually that the weight
of the clay
and box would push the bottom of the turtle down during baking.
Maybe some
armature was needed?
Another Sanity Check To Make Sure the Box Still Opens
Since the object of this project is to make a box
that opens I needed to make sure that it
did indeed open throughout
construction. If any parts of the clay were binding it was a
simple
matter of cutting the excess away.
Fabricating the Head
The same washed out images happened when I
chronicled the making of the head. But a
few did turn out well
after it was attached to the lower body.
The Upper Shell: Where the Troubles Began
In retrospect I should have used some foil or at
least some more clay to make sure the upper
shell kept the shape I
wanted. But I was getting concerned with baking time and cracking
and
the weight of the piece smooshing the legs down (which it did
anyway).
Here are a couple of shots of me trying to build up enough filler to keep the shell shape.
I went that far, I should have just filled it
in. I will remember to not make short cuts like this
in the
future.
Adding the Top Shell
Adding the shell went fine. Just when I had
to begin pressing and applying pressure to the piece
to get the form I
wanted is when all the voids in the shell begin giving me fits. I
suppose I could
have pulled the entire top shell away, but I wanted to
get through to the end, mistakes and all.
It Starts To Go Wrong
As you can see, all the handling of the piece
doesn't give it a nice ending. Looks too flattened
and too
unnatural. It baked well and I hope will paint over ok.
After Baking
Overall not a terrible project to work on.
This was my first piece that would actually have some
function (as a
keepsake box). I hope you enjoyed this little trip through my first
project!
By the way, it does open, but there is just a bit
too much clay to allow it to stay open on its own.
Better luck next
time!
Bye for now from the Clayman!