Creating a Balancing Sculpture Armature

Since I've been making a trend of precarious poses for my sculptures lately I thought I'd share how I do it. I work in polymer clay but it will work just as well with any other clay that requires wire armature such as plasticine or air dry clay (kiln fired clay cannot use wire armatures so do not try this with those clays). This is a slightly advanced technique, you should be comfortable making and sculpting over plain wire armatures before attempting this.

Materials Needed
1/8" steel or brass rod
Drill or Dremel tool
1/8" drill bit
Bench vise or heavy duty clamp
Wire armature
Wooden base at least 1/2" thick
2-part epoxy glue

Step 1: The Plan

This isn't the type of sculpture where you can easily wing it. Bending the brass or steel rods is not something that can easily be done with only your hands so you must plan it out ahead of time. The way I go about this is to first make a rough sketch of my sculpture and then bend my soft wire armature into the pose I want.

Step 2: Preparing the Armature

After you have the pose you want in the soft wire armature, decide at what point you want the sculpture to be touching the base. This is usually a limb so the rod will need to be bent into the shape of the limb. You will need at least 1/2" of rod left below the balance point, this will be what is inserted into the base, the rod should extend as far into the sculpture body as possible.

To bend the rod into the proper shape use a bench vise or heavy duty clamp to secure the rod and use your bodyweight or a hammer to bend the rod into the proper shape.

Match the bent rod against the sculpture limb you are using and wire them together using floral wire. Once they are wired together mix up some 2-part epoxy glue and give the area a good coating. Once set you do not want the wire and rod to possibly move away from each other.

Step 3: Attaching to the Base.

Mark the spot on your base where you want your sculpture to touch. Drill a hole in the base using a 1/8" bit. Fill the hole with 2-part epoxy and insert the bottom of the rod into the hole. Epoxy usually set within 5 minutes but you should give it at least 12 hours before sculpting.

You now has a balanced armature ready to have clay added to it. Good luck!

Tips:
1: Use either a wide base or one with sufficient weight that the sculpt will not tip over. It's very easy to create a top heavy sculpture who's center of mass will make it tip over if the base isn't heavy or large enough.
2: Sculpting epoxy like Aves Apoxie or MagicSculpt will further strengthen your armature.
3: If you are using polymer clay for your sculpture you cannot under bake the clay, because of the stresses such a sculpture has it will crack if the clay is not fully cured.