So here's the first project. I'm working on a dragon. He's going to be a combination hand puppet/cable puppet, and I'm experimenting with making mechanisms. It took me a while to figure out how to make the eyes. I should have photographed them earlier. Right now they're encased in plastic bags and oil clay so here's some early failures.

Initially I tried Sculpey, with a flattened front. Then I painted the eye design on the flat part. Last, I tried to build up a lens on the flat part using clear two-part epoxy. My mom has this weird old stuff called Decopour. I have no idea if they even make it still. I like that it's so glossy, but it does have a yellowish tint. That works out all right for yellowish eyes for now though.



The yellow eyes I tried painting white highlights on, which was a fail. It was totally unnecessary and not very effective. I gave them to my five year old daughter to play with. lol


The paint job on these was a little better. Eventually they'll go into a red dragon head. I was trying to build up a lens with layers of epoxy, which was taking forever and not really working.


Here's the head right now. I built up a form using oil clay, then covered it with saran wrap. Next I "paper mache'd" it with strips of cloth dipped in wood glue. I'm going to keep layering it until it's super strong. You can sort of see the newest eye. I really like how it came out and wish I'd taken pictures. Oh well, I'll get some in a few days when it comes off the form. 

Interesting!  I won't have much of value to add, but I love the look of the eyes.

Love them, very cool. I didn't try it myself (yet), but browsing around on YT to see what people do with polymer clays I found that FIMO has something liquid, it is supposed to be clear (but catching bubbles very easy!), so that might be something for eyes that will not work with a yellow tint. I also read (I never saw Sculpey over here) that Sculpey is quite hard (to work and baked) while Fimo one of the most flexible clays. Some like to mix both clays, for "texture" and colour...
Coming along nicely!

Looking good so far! Thanks for sharing.

Nice work on the eyes. Yes if you are putting a high gloss coat on eyes you really don't need the whit highlight since it is created naturally. I use clear fingernail polish and still highlight which works since it is not quite as reflective but still give a bit of a "wet" look to the eye. Also one thing you might not have liked about your highlights is that they where not in the same location. Notice one is in upper left and the other the lower left. I you look at the natural highlights they are pretty much matched.

Thanks for the tip Rikka! I never knew you could mix the two clays. I'll have to experiment with that. I've seen tutorials about the clear Fimo stuff, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere.

I did get some new two part epoxy from Michael's called EasyCast. It worked really well and wasn't yellowish, but it has a matte finish so seems kind of cloudy until you put shiny stuff on it. That's what I used to make the lens for the finished big yellow eyes. I just used a thin layer of of the Decopour as glue to attach the lens to the painted eye, then poured a little bit on top of the lens to coat it and make it shiny. In the long run I'll need to come up with a different method since my supply of Decopour is limited, but for now it works.

Originally the small yellow eyes were going to be on opposite sides of the head which is why the highlights are mismatched. The whole thing wasn't very well thought out at that point. Ha ha.

Sculpey has a large selection of different types of polyclay for many applications. I prefer the Sculpey range (Sculpey, Sculpey III, Premo, and all the others) to the more limited line that Fimo, Cernit or other manufacturers offer. The Sculpey line has flexible polyclays as well that can be used to make press molds for duplication of pieces. Sculpey also makes a liquid polyclay that can be used to "draw" lines and scales on existing polyclay sculptures as well as being used as a bake-able adhesive to repair or add to existing sculpts.
I used to use clear nail polish as well for gloss, but have switched to Delta Ceramcoat's Polyurethane varnish. It's less toxic, adheres better, and is a little easier to use than nail polish, in my experience. It's also designed for interior/exterior use.
Good luck with this puppet; you're off to a good start and I look forward to where you take it!
Chris

Welcome back, Chris. Well, I guess here it is the other way around: I've never seen Sculpey at all, I think I had a glimpse at Cernit only once.

Hi Rikka! Just getting settled in the new house and still a bit crazy. I was hoping to get back to puppets soon, but it looks like I start a new movie project this week that will keep me busy for a few months.
FIMO is really good for beads and very hard stuff. I don't like FIMO SOFT, it's too weak. The Sculpey line is very extensive and is all inter-mixable, so you can pretty much make whatever kind of polyclay you need. Sorry you can't find it over there!
Chris

Maybe if I looked in Hamburg- bigger city, more options... FIMO's been THE thing here for a long time- since it's German. I use FIMO Puppen- zoooom suggested it once and I am not unhappy with going back (I hadn't used FIMO in about 20 years). (Thanks again, zooooom!)
Hope you're happy at the new place, Chris!