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Description
A few of the things I use often when I'm sculpting.
A: Sculpey Clay Softener. Great for reconditioning dry/hard/brittle clay and bringing it back to a level of workability. Just a few drops for a chunk of clay does the trick! Bought my bottle online, but I can't remember where.
B: Epoxy putty. I use this for attaching parts of the armature. It's stronger and sets up faster than apoxie clay. If you can find some that contains steel, it's even stronger than the stuff in this photo. I wear gloves when I work with this stuff. You can usually find this stuff at your local hardware store. It's sometimes called Plumber's Putty.
C: Aluminum armature wire. The stuff in this photo is smaller gauge, but I have various gauges I work with. I also use very small-gauge steel wire to wrap the heavier gauge wire, which makes the sculpey stick to the armature a bit better. I buy mine at The Compleat Sculptor.
D: 91% Isopropyl Alcohol. Perfect for smoothing a sculpt, getting rid of finger prints or crumbs of sculpey. Using a soft brush or a sponge (synthetic and/or natural) with this stuff works well. Evaporates quickly, and is relatively gentle as solvents go. You can find this at the grocery store, or at a pharmacy. The 91% is stronger than the 70%, but the 70% works well enough if that's all that you can find.
E: Apoxie Clay. Great for horns/antlers, claws, teeth, hair, and repairing cracks. Part A and B cure on their own when mixed together. Has a fairly long open time (about 1 hour, sometimes more) that can be slowed by chilling the clay or accelerated by heat. Smoothable with water or isopropyl alcohol, and sandable when it's fully cured (after 10-24 hours). Some people do entire sculpts in this stuff! I get mine online from Van Dyke's Taxidermy.
F: Natural sea sponge. These are really terriffic for adding a neat irregular texture to the surface of the sculpey when dipped in the isopropyl and dabbed onto the clay. Also great for more aggressive smoothing than a paintbrush dipped in alcohol can provide. Synthetic sponges also work well for this purpose, but the natural sea sponges are a bit more durable. Look for these in the water color section of your local art supply store, or online.
G: Super Glue. Great for the early stages of armature construction and also perfect for small cracks or repair work. You can find this stuff at office supply stores, hardware stores, and sometimes local grocery stores. Gorilla brand superglue is good, so is Krazy Glue. I prefer the gel variety, even though it takes a bit longer to dry.

Tools:
1: Home-made rake tool, constructed with a piece of brass tubing, a tiny sawblade, and plumber's putty. Great for aggressive raking to take down uneven places on large areas of a sculpture. Makes a pretty big mess, but it's my favorite rake tool. Found all the supplies to make this at my local hardware store. Probably less than $10 to make.

2: X-acto knife. Great for cutting clay, carving, shaving off pieces... Lots of uses, and definitely an indespensable tool.

3-6: Wolf's Precision Wax Carvers. Don't let the name fool you--these are great for polymer clay as well. I use these all the time for sculpting. There are 18 of these in total. I have 12 of them and will probably get the other 6 in the set at some point this year. They're not cheap, but are incredibly well made and very useful. Find out more about them here: [link] . They can be purchased online at Otto Frei.

7,8: Loop tools. One is just a thin wire, and the other is more of a rake than a loop. Incredibly useful for carving into the clay and removing volume as well as doing detail work. Both types are great. I got most of mine from The Compleat Sculptor.

9: Dental Tool. I have a ton of these, purchased from random places. They're excellent for detail work.

10: Home-made fur tool. It's basically just 3 straight pins in a glob of plumber's putty, arranged in a triangular fashion. This is the thing I use most often to make the fur texture on my sculptures.

Detail shots of the two home-made tools: [link]

Not pictured: sandpaper of various grits, sanding sponges, my cordless dremel, and my clay shapers (those are posted somewhere else in my scraps, I think).

Hope that all of this is helpful to someone!

Description
A few of the things I use often when I'm sculpting.
A: Sculpey Clay Softener. Great for reconditioning dry/hard/brittle clay and bringing it back to a level of workability. Just a few drops for a chunk of clay does the trick! Bought my bottle online, but I can't remember where.
B: Epoxy putty. I use this for attaching parts of the armature. It's stronger and sets up faster than apoxie clay. If you can find some that contains steel, it's even stronger than the stuff in this photo. I wear gloves when I work with this stuff. You can usually find this stuff at your local hardware store. It's sometimes called Plumber's Putty.
C: Aluminum armature wire. The stuff in this photo is smaller gauge, but I have various gauges I work with. I also use very small-gauge steel wire to wrap the heavier gauge wire, which makes the sculpey stick to the armature a bit better. I buy mine at The Compleat Sculptor.
D: 91% Isopropyl Alcohol. Perfect for smoothing a sculpt, getting rid of finger prints or crumbs of sculpey. Using a soft brush or a sponge (synthetic and/or natural) with this stuff works well. Evaporates quickly, and is relatively gentle as solvents go. You can find this at the grocery store, or at a pharmacy. The 91% is stronger than the 70%, but the 70% works well enough if that's all that you can find.
E: Apoxie Clay. Great for horns/antlers, claws, teeth, hair, and repairing cracks. Part A and B cure on their own when mixed together. Has a fairly long open time (about 1 hour, sometimes more) that can be slowed by chilling the clay or accelerated by heat. Smoothable with water or isopropyl alcohol, and sandable when it's fully cured (after 10-24 hours). Some people do entire sculpts in this stuff! I get mine online from Van Dyke's Taxidermy.
F: Natural sea sponge. These are really terriffic for adding a neat irregular texture to the surface of the sculpey when dipped in the isopropyl and dabbed onto the clay. Also great for more aggressive smoothing than a paintbrush dipped in alcohol can provide. Synthetic sponges also work well for this purpose, but the natural sea sponges are a bit more durable. Look for these in the water color section of your local art supply store, or online.
G: Super Glue. Great for the early stages of armature construction and also perfect for small cracks or repair work. You can find this stuff at office supply stores, hardware stores, and sometimes local grocery stores. Gorilla brand superglue is good, so is Krazy Glue. I prefer the gel variety, even though it takes a bit longer to dry.

Tools:
1: Home-made rake tool, constructed with a piece of brass tubing, a tiny sawblade, and plumber's putty. Great for aggressive raking to take down uneven places on large areas of a sculpture. Makes a pretty big mess, but it's my favorite rake tool. Found all the supplies to make this at my local hardware store. Probably less than $10 to make.

2: X-acto knife. Great for cutting clay, carving, shaving off pieces... Lots of uses, and definitely an indespensable tool.

3-6: Wolf's Precision Wax Carvers. Don't let the name fool you--these are great for polymer clay as well. I use these all the time for sculpting. There are 18 of these in total. I have 12 of them and will probably get the other 6 in the set at some point this year. They're not cheap, but are incredibly well made and very useful. Find out more about them here: [link] . They can be purchased online at Otto Frei.

7,8: Loop tools. One is just a thin wire, and the other is more of a rake than a loop. Incredibly useful for carving into the clay and removing volume as well as doing detail work. Both types are great. I got most of mine from The Compleat Sculptor.

9: Dental Tool. I have a ton of these, purchased from random places. They're excellent for detail work.

10: Home-made fur tool. It's basically just 3 straight pins in a glob of plumber's putty, arranged in a triangular fashion. This is the thing I use most often to make the fur texture on my sculptures.

Detail shots of the two home-made tools: [link]

Not pictured: sandpaper of various grits, sanding sponges, my cordless dremel, and my clay shapers (those are posted somewhere else in my scraps, I think).

Hope that all of this is helpful to someone!