Sculpting with Pal Tiya Premium

Perfect Sculpting

So you’ve planned your sculpture - using our detailed planning page and product calculators.

You’ve made your armature using our comprehensive armatures page with crushed tinfoil or something else covered in crushed tinfoil and you’ve mixed up a batch of Pal Tiya Premium and are ready to apply it to your form.

Temperature
The optimal working temperature for our product is 61-70 Degrees F. (16-21 degrees C). Much hotter than that, and the material will cure faster. Using cold iced water will slow down the cure time if you live or work in a particularly hot environment.

Here’s everything you’ll need to start sculpting:

Gloves
Mask (not pictured)
Towel to cover bowl whilst mixing (not pictured)
Fork
Square & Trowel sculpting tool
Small dental tool
Chip brush
Tinfoil
Spray bottle for water
Bowl

About Curing and Strengthening.

Planning how you are going to sculpt involves understanding the best way to cure your sculpture.
Below are how to sculpt and cure both one day simple pieces and multi day pieces.
This in invaluable for thinking about your creative workflow - how you will mix, apply, sculpt and cure your sculpture.
This information and a more detailed explaination is available on the curing page.

Click here to download a summary of in a PDF.

Single Day Pieces.

If your plan is to make a small piece - that you can finish in one day then you can mix, sculpt and begin the curing/strengthening on the same day.

Day One:

Pal Tiya Premium contains cement, which has crystals that grows thicker in the presence of water. Curing grips and fills in all the spaces within the clay.

Sculpt your perfectly mixed Pal Tiya Premium.

Wrap in plastic so the water does not evaporate away.

Day Two (Next Day):

Open the plastic (the Pal Tiya Premium will be the consistency of balsa wood.

Wrap your sculpture in wet towels, rags or anything to act a reservoir of moisture.

Re-wrap your sculpture in plastic. Keeping it wrapped up to 28 days to get the full strength. Make sure to re wet the towels to keep them moist.

On Day Two of curing/strengthening: Pal Tiya Premium will be the consistency of BALSA, which can be cut and carved.
On Day Four: Pal Tiya Premium will be the consistency of OAK, which can be carved with effort.
From Day Five onwards: Pal Tiya Premium will be the consistency of STONE and you will need power tools if you wish to carve into this.

Alternatively
If on day 1 you know you have finished your sculpture then wrap just in plastic and the next day (day 2) you can simply submerge fully in cold water. Leave it there for 5 days +, then once dried to a light grey color, it can be painted/go outdoors.

Multi-Day Pieces

If you plan a larger piece or a piece of any size that you will be taking days or weeks to work on - you should use the following curing and strengthening method.

Day One:

Apply PTP to foil base. Use an old fork to create the SCRATCH COAT. Make sure edges are forked too, so new batches can be added easily.

Wrap in plastic so the water does not evaporate away.

Day Two:

Apply some of the detail coat, sculpt what you can. Wrap previous days work in moist towels now - NOT todays work as it is too soft.

Re-wrap in plastic.

On Day Two of curing/strengthening: Pal Tiya Premium will be the consistency of BALSA which can be cut and carved.

Day Three onwards:

Unwrap your piece from its plastic.

Mix, apply and sculpt the areas you want to work on that day.

Wrap the sculpted areas from the days before in moist towels.

Do not wrap the sculpted work from this day as it is too soft and new crystals can dissolve in too much water.

Re-wrap in plastic and repeat until you have finished your sculpture and then leave wrapped until you have reached you desired strength of cure.

On Day Four: Pal Tiya Premium will be the consistency of OAK, which can be carved with effort.
From Day Five onwards: Pal Tiya Premium will be the consistency of STONE and you will need power tools if you wish to carve into this.

Check out the curing/strengthening page for cure times.

A Reminder On The Importance Of Scratch Coats.

We cover this in the planning page - but here it is again in case you missed it.

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.

THE CONVENIENCE OF SCRATCH COATS
The beauty of working with Pal Tiya Premium is that you can be working on several sculptures at once. As long as you have covered your armature in a scratch coat and start to cure it using the methods on our curing page then you can come back at any time in the future, mix up a fresh batch, lightly mist the scratch coat and then start sculpting. The fresh batch will laminate perfectly to the scratch coated surface.
So need to leave your sculpture in a hurry? Going on vacation? No problem!

Applying, Sculpting & Stitching

Remember, once mixed (See Mixing Page) , Pal Tiya Premium will stay in what we call the “super plastic state” for approx 15 minutes. After that, Pal Tiya Premium will begin to gradually firm-up ready to begin sculpting your detail work. For fine detail and texture you will have another 2 hours to finish that section.

Press your dough firmly into the crushed tinfoil surface. What we like to do is cover the entire thing and pop on a scratch coat and then we take our time doing section by section on our piece. Of course you can simply complete your sculpture without a scratch coat especially if it is below 12 inches (1 ft).

Apply PTP to a foil core. Each piece of clay must be STITCHED ON. The fibers must blend across from one piece to another. Just placing a detail on won't secure it. The detail can "pop off" if not STITCHED ON thoroughly. Use a tool to drag or pull the fibres the across any joins/gaps in the product- this is STITCHING.

Unlimited Textures

The great bonus of using Pal Tiya Premium is that you can get almost any finish you can dream of.

Bone

Feathers

Dragon Skin

Stone

Tile, Wood, Stone, Wattle and Daub

Wood, Fish Scales

Reptile Skin

Polished Stone

Texture Videos

Some short videos showing how easy it is to achieve different textures in Pal Tiya Premium

Imprints & Impressions

Pal Tiya Premium can be cut - this means you could custom make clothes and collars etc for your sculpture. It can also be pressed into almost anything to get an impression. Here we show you it being pressed into burlap to achieve a cloth like finish.
It can be made into any shape like this little birdbath we draped over a bowl whilst curing to achieve this draped look

Finer Detailed Pieces

Pal Tiya Premium can be rolled on a slightly damp towel to make what we call "snakes". You can add these snakes together to make structures like the little gazebo and heart tree hanging. You can make these flat with no armature or over something you later remove.
It is important when adding details like this that you pull the fibers in our product across any gap. We call this technique "stitching" and this will ensure your product lasts in freeze/thaw.

More On Multi-Day Projects

Want to work on something over time?
No problem at all.
You can actually pre-make components like we did with this Zapotec inspired flower pot and two sided seahorse.
This way you can make them, leave them and as long as you leave a scratch coat on the two pieces you want to affix together later, come back and “glue” them together. Essentially you just need to mist them, mix up a fresh batch of PTP and then press it firmly into the grooves of your scratch coat and voila!

If your sculpture is fairly simple in nature and you finish it in one day you are now ready to cure your sculpture - visit our curing page for that.

Not finished on day 1? No problemo…

Securely wrap it in plastic on the first day of sculpting. We use plastic shopping bags or ziploc bags for smaller pieces and plastic sheeting for large works.

Sculpting with our product has been described as exhilarating. As it cures, it changes in consistency, giving you a wildly exciting sculpting experience!

SCULPTING ON DAY 2 OF CURING

When you take your sculpture out of the plastic on the second day, it will be the consistency of a soft wood and you may continue to sculpt or carve on your work if you decide to. This is when you might add to your prepared scratch coat surface to continue to add detail. Simply mist the whole thing with as little water, mix up a fresh batch and start sculpting away!

We have a little video here that shows you what to do when you are working on a piece for several days. The video shows you far better than we can tell you :)

SCULPTING ON DAY 3 OF CURING
On the third day, your sculpture will be the consistency of hard wood and can still be worked as such.

If you don’t like any fibers that might be sticking/fuzzing up, you can use a propane/chef's torch and waft the flame quickly over your sculpture to burn them off. You can also sand them. IMPORTANT: Do this in a well ventilated area.

SCULPTING ON DAY 4 OF CURING
On the 4th day it feels like stone and may still be 'just' carve-able but you’ll likely need power tools at this point.
IMPORTANT: If you ever want to add to a sculpture later on, please remember to pop on that scratch coat or else PTP won’t adhere to your sculpture as it will be too smooth!

A Note On Large Sculptures

When you’re sculpting a very large piece such as these and you’ve looked at our planning page remember to fill any internal ribs with pure Pal Tiya Premium. This will make your sculpture monolithically robust!

We also have more information about armatures for large pieces and encasing some Pal Tiya Premium to any wire or steel inside your armature so it is very strong and robust.

Please see this Planning section for Large pieces as you will need to consider transportation before you begin sculpting.

Begin Your Pal Tiya Premium Journey Today!