A new material in my art life

This year 2025 has been a year where I have worked heavily with Euclay.

I have tried it in different ways to expand its uses in the arts and crafts field.

Euclay lets me create from the most simple flat surface that I decorate with textures with a variety of tools or using textured rolls, stamps etc to more intricate carvings in solid pieces of clay using scalpels, cardboard knives, as well as other tools to burnish the rough surfaces and tweezers to remove small areas with accuracy.

I have created busts (heads) from carved styrofoam prefabricated heads or from blocks using cardboard knives and an electric tool made for styrofoam cutting.

The basic form is carved in styrofoam giving me a base where i can build up my desired artwork by adding a lump of clay and carving it or creating forms by adding layers where I want details that are sensitive and demanding of great accuracy.

I have done sculptural works in Original clay which is the clay that sets hard, and sculpted with Flexi clay that remains softish to a certain extent after being exposed to the air for a space of time that would assure a good degree of setting.

Both clays require different skills for sculpting.

Original clay, you carve on hard clay by removing material with a scalpel, knife or drill.

The Flexi clay requires scalpel, knife, scissors and tweezers as it is rubbery.

When sculpting on a ball of set Euclay it is possible to add more Euclay by brushing the area to join with PVA glue of a "matte set" in small amounts.

This is one of the most outstanding features of Euclay.

The join ed edges can be worked so well that the joining edges cannot be seen.

This small sculpture was created by adding layers of clay to achieve the desired shape.

I added clay over a few days because I had no chance to hold it firmly with my hands because I would damage the additional layer I had just placed, so, waited for next day so I could handle it without disturbing what I had sculpted or added the day before.

It was a slow process because I started from a ball of Euclay instead of making a centre of other material like paper, alfoil etc. Very early days of working with Euclay.

Just this afternoon I finished a set of small sculptures made with a ball of Flexi Euclay.

Most of the sculpting required removal of material, so I used sharp tools and only once I needed to add some fresh clay.

I pieced the ball of clay with stiff flat metal piece from the bottom so I could handle it.

But because the clay was set I really did not need to use the metal stick because the clay would not deform when I held it from the carved area.