Each of the tiles on the heart are made from epoxy clay. I’m using Apoxie Sculpt, but it also goes by Magic Sculpt, FixIt Sculpt, Epoxy Sculpt, and other names.
The clay is delivered as a 2-part mixture that gets blended and stays pliable for molding and sculpting for about 3 hours. Once that time is up, it starts to cure and becomes too stiff to work with easily. Within 24 hours, it’s like concrete.
From what I’m told, this clay is a lot like the Bondo that is used to repair and reshape cars. Once in place, it’s not coming off the heart. In fact, it seems like the primer will chip off with it before the clay itself fails. So wild.
We’ve been ordering 4lbs of clay at a time. From what we’ve used so far, I’m expecting the whole heart will need about 28 lbs of clay by the time we’re done. That ultimately means that we’re doing a lot of mixing.
Even directly out of the tub, this stuff is pretty tacky and stiff. As you blend the two parts, it gets a little softer (maybe the heat from your hands helps?). Once it’s blended, it’s a pretty great consistency for working onto the heart. But we have to move fast.
Since I’ve been experimenting with how to shape the tiles and textures, I’m usually working too slowly to mix too much clay all at once. For awhile, I was going back to the tub over and over to blend small batches. That was rough. My hands and arms were so exhausted from constantly pressing the clay.
Thankfully, my husband joined in to help blend clay as needed. We’ve been testing rolling pins, wax paper, and even a pasta roller for getting the clay to spread more thin. While all techniques are working ok, the pasta roller is our favorite. Naturally, though, it clogs up fast with the tacky clay and has to be washed frequently to avoid the clay setting up inside of it.
