I want to make a sculpture of a dog on a leash, what material should i use to create the body?

Question

I want it to be hard and sturdy and be able to last for years. Clay wont work because i dont have a kiln to fire it in.

Answer 1

Papier-mache would be a possible candidate - it's durable, lightweight, and easy to work with. You will need to build a frame for the papier mache to be layered on top of - you can use wire, wood, cardboard, or even wadded-up newspaper to support your sculpture while it dries.

Answer 2

I have used glass fiber matting and resin over an armature of wood,builders wire and chicken wire in the past, also modroc (plaster impregnated hessian strips) over a wood and chicken wire armature and extra plaster for textures.

Both of these work well for larger sculptures

These sites may be useful.

http://www.essortment.com/all/sculptingt...

Ignore the adverts and scroll down for some useful info.

http://www.accessart.org.uk/modroc.php

Alternatively you could cast the body in stone-cast or resin (cheap), or metal (not cheap).

For stone cast (its a type of very hard plaster), or resin (which can be coloured with metal powders to look like bronze, you will need to make a positive model, clay is good, then produce a mould of it in several parts (depending on the complexity of the shape), then fill the mould with your casting material.

I use latex for my moulds re-enforced with mod roc.

http://www.castcraft.com/vidset.htm

For metal casting I use something called 'lost wax', I make the initial model from hard sculptors wax, cover it in plaster and take it to the local foundry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost-wax_ca...

This is where I get my sculpture stuff from, they're very good, cheap(ish) and helpful.

http://www.tiranti.co.uk/

Have fun and good luck.

Answer 3

Depending on how big it's going to be, you could look into polymer clay (cures in standard kitchen oven), paperclay (lightweight and air dries), or paper mache.  Whatever method you go with, you'll probably need some kind of armature to build on.  Foil works fine for smaller sculpture, bigger ones can be made of chicken wire, wood, and newspaper all taped together.