What guage should the armature wire should I use for a sculpture 14 inches tall?

Question

Rephrase that question: What guage armature wire should I use on a 14 inch sculpture?

The sculpture is going to be made out of sculpey, and I know I'm goiong to have to block in some aluminum foil beneath the clay.

Answer 1

It also depends on what medium you are going use to make a sculpture.
Terra cotta clay? Sculpy or Fimo? paper mache? In general, lighter weight mediums require less support.

If you have some wire in your studio area, make a quick practice armature. sculpt some medium around it in any old shape. Wait an hour or so. If it fell over or is sagging you need stronger wire.

HTH - Badass Art Girl

Then if you are using Sculpy, it will depend on how thick you make the clay on the piece. It's been awhile since I used Sculpy, but doesn't it say it has to be a certain thickness? I think 1/4" - 1/2" otherwise it doesn't bake well.

Anyway, just warm up your Sculpy in your hands, then pat or roll it out to the thickness you'll use.Then wrap some around a practice armature w/ foil on it. Wait about an hour come back & see how it looks. Sculpy bakes very hard, so I would believe that you need a medium weight wire. A weight that holds it's shape, not as heavy as coat hanger wire. Check the Scupley website they have tips there.

You really just have to experiment, trust me, I have a M.F.A. w/ a minor in sculpture...you just have to experiment a little! :-)

Answer 2

Depends on how much detail is involved. Probably 18 will give you some flexibility and easy to work with.