Foam clay is a moldable clay that is used in making Cosplay costumes and other lightweight sculptures. It is soft and pliable but dries to a flexible foam.
Puppet makers can use foam clay to sculpt noses, facial brows, chins, animal snouts, ears and other detail pieces for their foam puppets.
I love using Foam-Mo foam clay for puppet features. Many puppets have carved features, such as cheeks, forehead brows and noses. Although regular cushion foam can be used, the sculpting with scissors and razors can take a while and is messy.
The same pieces can be sculpted with Foam-Mo quickly and precisely. The Foam-Mo will need to set for a few hours (more if the piece is large), so this is one disadvantage if you are in a hurry.
FOAM–MO can be stretched, sculpted, shaped, or pressed into molds.
It can be sanded, sculpted with a Dremel tool, and painted.
Foam-Mo is great for making noses. Carving a nose and nostrils out of EVA foam is a standard way to make a human puppet nose and great results can be had. But, I like how I can get a more exact shape and detail easier with the foam clay.
I have a detailed article and video HERE which goes into carving EVA noses, foam clay noses and other methods, too.
To make a nose or other feature with foam clay, roll it a little in your hands, this will soften it. Then shape with your fingers it as you would any modeling clay.
Once you sculpt your nose from Foam-Mo, it will take a couple hours to dry. Give it 48 hours to completely dry if you will be doing additional shaping with your Dremel.
It will dry into a flexible foam. Much like EVA but a little softer. Once it dries, you can paint it or cover it with fleece.
Difficult shapes like pig snouts and the noses of animals can be sculpted with Foam-Mo. Getting the exact shape working with puppet foam can be difficult, but the foam clay makes it easy.
You can also create your piece from the Foam clay, and then, using masking tape, create a pattern to make the piece out of regular foam. This would be handy for making multiple pieces.
To make the pattern, put little 1/2″ squares of masking tape on your sculpt, overlapping the pieces. Remove the pieces, and cut darts where needed to make your pattern lie flat. Place your masking tape pattern on card stock and cut out. This pattern can be used over and over to replicate animal snouts, etc.
Tips for working with foam clay
- Lay some cling wrap on your work surface or use a silicone mat to keep the clay from sticking to everything
- Store the foam clay in an airtight container and it should store for a year
- If your sculpt cracks while forming, dip your finger in water and smooth it out
- If your sculpt starts drying out while working on it, dip it in water and it should restore to its original consistency
- Foam-Mo dries to about 1/3 its original weight, so larger pieces like antlers can be made and will be very light-weight
- A sanding drum on a Dremel tool can be used to smooth rough spots and wrinkles after your piece dries.
- You can paint the dried foam with acrylics, but Rub ‘n Buff works great for painting your foam piece if you want a metallic look.
