Imitation Bronze Effect for Clay

This method was first introduced to me by my junior high school art teacher. Since then, I have used it several times with fantastic results. Not only is it much cheaper than sculpting with metal, it is also easy enough for younger artists to do without much difficulty.

Step 1 Make Your Clay Figurine

The first step is to make the figure you want to look bronze out of clay. Since this was a birthday present for my brother, I decided to make a figurine based off of the statue of the Army mascot, Hannibal the mule. I used white Sculpey brand clay, which needs to bake to harden. I used an armature of tin foil and wire clothes hanger parts so that I used a little less clay and gained structural support. Before the next step, be sure to bake your figurine according to the product's instructions, and allow time to cool completely.

Comments

[Rob K]

Very nice. Guess you could also use a metallic copper paint and patina it. Not the acrylic ones, but the high metal content paints.

[mg0930mg]

I don;t know which ones you mean. :R

[thepelton]

There is a synthetic clay that is metal based and will give you a metallic look, like it is cast of solid gold, silver or copper, but it is over 10 bucks an ounce. I would probably make something out of standard sculpey to get all the kinks out before I went to this stuff.

[mg0930mg]

Cool, thanks for the tips...

[transplendent]

You're welcome. :D