Epoxy: Glue, Clay and Resin.
Epoxies are a co-polymer, that is they come in 2 parts a resin and a hardener.
I use them in my studio for various things, as a glue, as a top coat (they add a wet shiny glossy mess to just about anything), and as a sculpting compound.
 |
Epoxy Glue: You can get epoxy glue/adhesive at any hardware store. It usually comes in a syringe type device. You squeeze it out and mix it together and then apply it to your project. I keep a large stack of index cards in my studio that I use as paint pallets and mixing cards for adhesive. I also have a big box of tongue depressors that I mix everything with. For most purposes I use clear 5 minute epoxy. This makes a very good thick glossy effect for eyes, and drool for props and art pieces, as well as a strong adhesive for most things. I used to use fingernail polish for making eyes glossy but using multiple layers just didn’t give me the effect I wanted. |
 |
Epoxy Clay: Epoxy clay is a very cool product, I use it for certain things in my studio where no other thing will do. I make fangs for my vampire skulls from it. I make transitional pieces between unlike materials out of it. It is also a 2 part product, a resin and a hardener. I have only used http://www.magicsculp.com/ you mix the 2 parts together and knead them together for several minutes and then apply them to the object. You can then work it almost like clay. It tends to crumble a bit. To avoid this behavior you can wet it slightly but the water will speed the hardening process. It has about a 2 hour working window. Once it sets up it is almost ceramic hard. Very cool stuff. The picture to the left shows a piece I made using a piece of aluminum and Magic Sculp. The transition from the flat of the shovel to the handle and the rivets are all epoxy clay from Magic Sculp. |
 |
Epoxy Resin: Two part epoxy resin is generally used for hollow cast objects in my experience. What I have done is rotocast a mold manually with it and once it sets up I back fill the mold with 2 part polyurethane foam. I have only done this to make hands such as when I made The Carver |
