SCULPTING Crab legs

Step 1 ( things I need) (pic1)

 1- Modeling putty (green stuff)
 2- Water
 3- Hobby knife (cutter)
 4- Pin vice
 5- Clay shaper brush
 6- Sculpting tool
 7- Paper clips
 8- Toothpick
 9- Flat surface

Step 2 (structure) (pic2)

 - For starting with a strong internal structure I opened a paper clip and bended it to the desired shape. (pic2a)

 - Mixed a bit of green stuff and apply it directly on to the wire, with no precautions concerning smooth or clean green stuff surface, since it is just a skeleton sketch of the final crab leg. (pic2b)

Step 3 (smooth shapes)

 - After green stuff is cured its time to start building the final shape, so I mix a bit of the paste and apply it to the structure. It’s better to work on one side of the structure and let it dry before going for the other half, so we start with the left side of the crab leg. (pic3)

 - Use the clay shaper brush dipped in water and start smoothing the edges of the green stuff, take your time here and use always lots of water. (pic4)

 - So, when left side is sculpted and smoothed let it dry and only then, go for the right side of the crab leg. You can sculpt the shape you wish just avoid it to be to uniform since it’s a crab leg irregular shapes work best. You should now have something like this. (pic5)

Step 4 (spikes and final contour) (pic6)

 - And the fun begins, while the stress of waiting for curing times is growing on you we can use one of those endless curing breaks to sculpt some little spikes for our crab legs, do some random sizes and shapes. And for those that say crabs don’t have spikes on legs I say… who cares it looks great. ;) (pic6a)

 - I hope everyone knows how to sculpt spikes but for the more hesitant sculptors here is how I do them. Do one little ball of green stuff and put it on a flat surface, then dip fingers on water and start pressing green stuff against surface with vertical movements, just let it dry. Piece of cake. (pic6b)