Sordes's amazing nautiloid models!

[Sordes]

Such polymer clay is like plastic when baked, it has nothing to do with real clay. It should normally work if you keep it in water. But keep in mind that this stuff is not very cheap, so I would not make big things with it.

 

[monty]

I'd be more worried that sculpey might leach dangerous chemicals into the water. When I tried fimo and sculpey a few years ago, I was told that the better one was also sort of toxic when soft. Google leads to some claims that both are non-toxic but at least one claim that when baking, or if baked at too high a temp, it releases toxic fumes...

These guys don't seem to know either: http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?=&p=1155730

I'm just worried about Roy's reports that using soda bottles to take octos on airplanes turned out to have some lethal water-quality problems... but of course people have put random plastic toys into octo tanks a lot without problems...

 

[JimmyTheKid]

Nice!!!

I've had a few goes with sculpey models and casting...It's a lot of fun!
Your work looks GREAT!!!

 

[DWhatley]

Monty, Thanks for the aspect but I want to make an octopus for a fountain, not put it in a TANK (I have enough live ones at the moment thank you). A friend made a ceramic bowl base that I bought but just could not make an octo for the center fountain part. I have looked for something to drill out but thought I might try my hand a making one myself so that the water could come out of the siphon It might be a total flop but the sculpty sounded like something that might work since it ends up like plastic and they have several with a little texture and color.

As an asside, one of the discussers on the polymer in a tank forum from your direction mentions that somethings are not marked aquarium safe for over precaution. In the dialog he mentions silicone. I KNOW THERE IS A DIFFERENCE in silicone that is marked aquarium safe (it is vinegar based) and most of those not marked that way (ammonia based). The difference killed an experiment I was doing with feeding polyps (the tank divided with the non-aquarium safe silicone killed its inhabitants). Cure time may nullify the effects but I will never buy silicone that is not marked as vinegar based (or aquarium safe) again so that it is not even in the house for accidental use.


Sordes,
How big is big? I was thinking about something softball sized but not solid (hollow in the middle for the pump - one of my main problems with finding something ready made).

 

[Sordes]

What is big? I would say softball-sized is very big, because this is a whole lot of material, but it is still in a comparably economic range. Okay, you can spare material by using tin-foil or other stuff as I made it for my giant nautiloid. If I wanted to make a really big and water-resistent scultpure I would use real clay and burn it, but for softball-size sculpey should work. For the more volulous parts just take tin-foil and you can safe about 20-40% material.
BTW, yesterday I made the first tin cast of one of my models. There were some problems and it is not as professional as a buyed model, but it looks still very fine. If I make a smaller nautiloid sculpture with which I am happy I can cast it too. At the moment I´m working on a small dragon for a necklet.

JimmyTheKid what medium did you use for your casts?

 

[kirkmcguire]

In my humble opinion.. I wouldnt chance anything foreign in my tank! And the 'real' octopus should be enough of a amazement! lol

JMHO

Kirk

 

[simple]

well i was so motivated by your sculptures that i decided to try to make one myself. I wanted to do something easy so i attempted to make a Beluga whale. I did as much as i could but it still looks like a mix between a duck and a dolphin, haha. Anyways i'll show you what it looks like when i'm done. I'm not expecting it to look much like a Beluga at all since its my first try at working with clay but at least its fun..

 

[DWhatley]

kirk,
I think you missed my post! The questions about keeping the material in water are for a living room fountain, not an aquarium!

 

[modelnut]

WOW!

Sordes, I just posted a new thread asking for advice about just what you have sculpted. And I posted a picture of your finished nautiloid that I found online yesterday.

Very nice! I hope mine turns out as well.

-Leelan

 

[DWhatley]

Modelnut, I THOUGHT that was one of Sordes when I saw the post ;>)

 

[Sordes]

If I find time I will again sculpt a new nautiloid, but with another look, most probably witout any hood, and probably withouit a structured skin, and also without nautilus eyes. I am still not really happy with my models, and I am still trying to make one, which would be good enough to make casts of it (this seems to be impossible for the Cameroceras I sculpted). Yesterday I finished a miniature of a critter which looks a bit like a mix between the swamp slug of Dagobah and one of the Tremors-monsters. But sculpting a C´thulhu-bust or a moon-beast would be very cool too...damn, too much ideas and much too less time.

 

[Sordes]

Here are some photos of little sculptures I made. All my cephalopods, a "clash of the titans" between Mesonychoteuthis and Cameroceras, some whales (Mesoplodon densirostris, Janjucetus hunderi, Prozeuglodon, Odobenocetops and a hypothetical double-tusked narwhale-ancestor) and some little critters, including the famous tasmanian globster, which was only a rotten piece of sperm whale tissue and the little slug-monster I sculpted yesterday:

 

[modelnut]

IMPRESSIVE!

I have a long way to go to catch up with you, my friend.

I have only taken three sculptures to completion. I have too many ideas and not enough room . . .

-Leelan

 

[Sordes]

Your models are really fantastic, especially the whale-squid. If there would be casts of them for sale, I suppose I would buy them (or try to copy them myself...). There is really not much more you could do better. I would love it if I could made myselft to finally sculpt finally again something like the giant orthcone, and not only things which are not bigger than my fingers. I especially like that you paint your models. I was always to lazy and have painted only a handfull of my models, and I have to say in a very ugly way.

 

[Sordes]

I just sculpted a new nautiloid model which I finished today. It was again a lot of work especially because it is very small and it was really not easy to work at this scale, especially at the tentacles. You can its size if you take the half cork which I used as provisoric base as comparison. I also made a photo which shows the model next to a real Orthoceras fossil. We will probably never know if this animals looked really so at life, but perhaps it gives at least an idea.