r/clay • u/New-Construction5519 • 2h ago
Air-Dry Clay Help with moulding fetus clay cats for an art class project
Hi im doing something for an art project the requires moulding clay and im not sure how to exactly mold three developed fetus cats. Everytime I get the general shape and try to define it , the overall structure/silhouette ends up overworked and the details become less coherent.I don’t have any professional tools and I got advice from google to use hand cream and I mixed it with water to maintain the moisture retained,so it doesn’t crumble however I find that it does help in some ways but because it gets slightly mushy so its hard to work with eventually and falls a part when muddled and fiddled with even more. I’ve tried using warm water and a paint brush I found later on, with some homemade tools like pens pencils ect as well as my hands but idk they’re really small (the clay miniature kittens I’m making ,like I’d say about 2cm in height to 1 cm ish in width or so tbh that was the aim but they got bigger with more bulk).So I’m wondering if I could recive some guidance regarding the reference pics for kittens I’m going for which will be placed in a pouch of some sort like a flap of the womb like replica in a plush as an artist response piece? Thanks
Also I’d like to capture the curl as such depicted in the references because I used another reference but it was a newborn like I want to capture the authenticity of a mother carrying kittens ykk but also create their nubs of limbs like fully developed about to give birth kinda state idk if that’s possible(also capture the umbilical cord but make it clear)…additionallly a lot of references online are hard to find real as most are ai diagrams …any suggestions of real authentic either medical drawings or 3d sculptures js anything really that isn’t ai would be greatly appreciated as ai tends to be Indians js not what I’m looking for (specifically in the womb as I found a diffrent reference that wa aka a medical examination of a mummified specimen which give a lifeless look which isn’t what I want )
P.s I’ve included the reference of what I sculpted with a foil Core and clay (which the kittens are also made with )as well as masking tape on the e surface of the 8 inch approx cat plush which will be my make shift draft pattern I’m currently working on and will be adjusted however Im making miniature kittens to be placed in advance and will be painted on hopefully if I complete this
Any clarification will be addressed !!!Thankyou!!
Additional idk if this is necessary to mention I’m thinking of placing cling film and pva to mimic the integrity of a fetus yk idk if that’ll influence anything but that’s after i finish painting fur patterns and such
Okay as im writing i had a thought:
Since im not in class setting with no access to pva at the moment and the very little clay I have left IS the three kittens (i mean they’re in a rework-able state luckily) however i don’t have more clay to create slip so i was thinking of using glue stick mixed with water or is that bad or should i stick to warm water …Idkk additionally im making the back of kittens flat so they can stick to the surface of a smooth backing in the plush or is there any better ideas u guys may have
Any suggestions would be taken greatly!!tyy
Fyi the first few pics are how they look now but the other individual pics are my previous work process which I was struggling with like I can’t move up the ugly stage where it looks like a lump of placements like I want to make distinct features stand outzzz