To sculpt your character maquette, you’ll need some clay, materials for an armature, and some tools. Most supplies can be found locally — Super Sculpey works well for basic moquettes and may be baked for durability when finished. About 1 or 2 of the 1-lb boxes should work for a small maquette. This, other clays, and armature wire, as well as small pieces of wood (that would work well for a base) are sold at A.C. Moore and Michael’s as well as other places. Plant and hardware sections often have wire that can work to make the armature to hold the clay’s main character shape. (Other options such as coat-hanger wire or other around-the-house items may work, too). Usually a thicker wire works well for the main body frame, and smaller wire may be used to wrap sections which can also be filled-out using aluminum foil. (Don’t use anything in your armature that could burn when baked). Two-part epoxy in clay form can be used to strengthen joints of the maquette. Another, perhaps nicer, clay that may be difficult to find locally is NSP (Non Sulphurate Plasteline) by Chavant. American Fine Arts Supplies carries these and other materials. They have NSP blocks for a decent price, but it tends to be sold in bulk — you may consider getting a few people together to order if desired. Aside from the armature and clay, you may find a small set of sculpting tools useful, but you can probably make due without this using small utensils, silverware, etc. from around the house. We’ll discuss this more in class, but in the meantime, you may find these links useful: Demon Sculpt Maquette with two-part tutorial, Building Armatures for Polymer Clay, and Sculpting Tutorials.