Perfect Planning For Your Pal Tiya Premium Sculpture

Perfect Planning

Make sure you have read the 'Before you Begin' page.

Considerations for your sculpture.
The following areas are needed to be taken into consideration when planning your Pal Tiya Premium sculptures:
1) Size – how large is my piece going to be?
2) Shape – how complicated is the structure?
3) Usage – will the sculpture be knocked/handled/climbed upon?
4) Construction- how long will I take to sculpt it, will it need a strengthened armature, will it need a scratch coat? How will it be transported?

How Shape And Reinforcement Makes Pieces Strong

Self supporting shapes like these (above) are strong by themselves. So they do not need any additional support. (You can click the image to enlarge)

Shapes like these (above) with EXTENDED and THIN areas will always need some kind of additional support.

Reinforcement (above) can be a combination of Mesh, Wire, Rebar and/or Steel.

Consider if people are likely to climb or hang on any parts of the piece.

The shell of Pal Tiya Premium MUST connect DIRECTLY to the wire, rebar and steel.
Any mesh must be fully embedded/encapsulated in the scratchcoat.
Mesh must be used to support all large, smooth broad surfaces that are far from the armature.
Pal Tiya Premium fibers must penetrate fully through the holes of the mesh, from one side to the other.

In Earthquake zones: Mesh must cover the entire figure if it is suspended above height to prevent movement and disassembly

The types of reinforcement that can be used include:

Why A Scratch Coat Important.

What is a scratch coat?
A scratch coat is a thin, furrowed layer of Pal Tiya Premium that adds strength and lets you build sculptures over days, weeks, or even months. It’s essential for larger or longer projects, helping new material bond securely to older layers—so unless you're making a small, one-day piece, you’ll likely need one. The best way to achieve the perfect scratch coat is to use an old fork utensil.

Make sure the furrows are square and straight (use a fork) to ensure later applications of PTP adhere well.

How Complex Is Your Piece?

Click on the images below or download the PDF to work out how much additional support your piece will need to be as strong as possible.

Click image above to see it larger.

Summary PDF is available here: Download PDF

Estimating How Much Pal Tiya Premium You Will Need

Pal Tiya Premium only requires a relatively thin coat of product (even for larger pieces) You just need to discover the surface area of your sculpture and determine the thickness it needs to be. These measurements help calculate how much you will be using.

Here is the two-step process:

Work out the estimated surface area of your piece using one of the two methods below; towels or math
Calculate the Pal Tiya Premium needed by choosing the correct Light, Medium or Heavy ‘Thickness Chart’ below and/or the estimator calculator further down the page.

1. Surface Area Estimation

First Method: Calculating Surface Area (Our go-to approach)

1. Make a mock-up of the piece actual size, or complete the foil armature. Mock ups can be made of stacked books, pieces of wood, pillows, whatever!
2. Drape non-overlapping towels onto this sculpture, covering all the surfaces.

3. Measure all the towels and add up the square footage they represent
4. Next go to step two and consult the ‘Thickness Chart’ further down the page, to determine your approximate Pal Tiya Premium dry weight.

(Alternatively you can build your armature and then work out the surface area.)

Second Method: Calculating Surface Area (Less Making - More Math)

If you are unable or unwilling to build a mock up or to finish a foil armature, you can work out the surface area of the final sculpture by roughly breaking the sculpture design into basic geometric shapes, and using third party (not affiliated with us) online apps or a calculator like:
https://www.calculator.net/surface-area-calculator.html
or
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/area-perimeter-volume-and-surface-calculator/id1226352729
Once you have the rough surface area you can add 10% or so for errors, spillage and changes, and move to step Two.

2. The ‘Thickness Charts’

Click on the images below or download the PDF to work out how thick you need to apply Pal Tiya Premium to make your piece will need to be as strong as possible.

Click image above to see it larger.

Summary PDF is available here: Download PDF

Calculator

For a metric version - click here

Read On For More Detailed Info like:

A Working Example: How we planned this sculpture of a ruined Gothic Archway.

Step 1 – We determined how big it was going to be and decided that it would likely be climbed on.
Step 2 – We built a mockup in cardboard and used towels to know its surface area - It was 25.5 inches tall and had a 8.5 square foot surface.
Step 3 - As there were no thin or extended areas - mesh/metal reinforcement wasn’t needed.
Step 4 - Since this was to be climbed on, we used the 'Heavy Thickness Chart' to determine the thickness: ½ inch thick. Also a scratch coat is necessary because the sculpture must be robust to be climbed on and will take several days to make.
Step 5 - We used the 'Heavy Thickness Chart' above and worked our the following:
8.5 sq ft x 4.5 lbs per sq ft = 38.25 lbs of dry Pal Tiya Premium.
So one standard 40 lb bag will make this - with a bit left over for changes or spillage.
Alternate Step 5 - We could have used the estimator above.
(We would have chosen: 'Heavy Usage', 'Medium Size', 'No Additional Margin' and entered the 8.5 in the surface area field.)

If you want to see ruined archway sculpture created step-by-step click here:
Full Ruined Gothic Archway Project

A note on BIG pieces designed for climbing/sitting on:

Pal Tiya Premium is an excellent sculpting material for large scale pieces and can easily be combined with internal armatures to create amazing pieces.

PTP is primarily used as a hollow shell material. On larger sculptures, an internal supporting structure is needed. This can be either steel or internal cross sections built of PTP.

With this armature, deep grooves can be cut in and filled with mixed PTP to give additional strength.

PTP cross sections: These need to be 3/4 inch thick and be positioned to transfer any additional weight applied to the shell to the ground. Often a series of interlocked internal cross sections. Mostly for simple, ground based and non-suspended pieces.

With our Grandpa Dragon for Wellington Zoo, we knew upwards of 2-400 people a day would climb on him, so he was built with these cross sections of PTP.

A reminder about armatures

Internal steel armatures for large or delicate pieces must be connected directly to the Pal Tiya Premium in several places. As a picture paints a thousand words, we have included a drawing which will be useful. When applying Pal Tiya Premium, make sure to fully embed the steel in critical load-bearing areas. This ensures the material and armature work together to transfer weight efficiently.

A useful document for public comissions

Durability of Pal Tiya Premium for large outdoor Public Sculptures

We have been using Pal Tiya Premium for public sculptures for many years now.
Click on the document pictured or here to understand all about working with our medium for your next public art commission.

A note on transportation consideration during planning

Transportation
You may need a forklift to carry a very large sculpture. If you have used foam as your armature the underside may be crushed by the tines. This will cause the sculpture to tip and make transporting it troublesome and possibly dire - The last thing anyone wants is crushed dragon toes...

There are several ways to prevent this:

1) Carve two channels across the underside for the tines to slide into, and coat with Pal Tiya Premium. This makes the base into essentially a permanent pallet. It also allows for lifting straps to be placed underneath.

2) Add more PTP around the bottom edge till solid 2 inches thick minimum and 4 inches high. This makes a stiff and extra resistant rim so, if lifted by straps, it doesn't crush the thin shell.

3) Do both. This is how we've constructed all of our large pieces and makes them as strong as possible, easy to carry and simplifies the installation by providing an in-built foundation. This is a great selling point for a sculpture. In-built foundations save a lot of installation costs for the client.

4) On very large surfaces to be climbed on, reinforce any suspicious areas with a thickened channel cut deeper into the foam. This will become an internal supporting rib once filled with Pal Tiya Premium.