Steve Trickett has been working with Milliput for many years. He was one of the first sculptors to use our new Black Milliput. Here's his article about using Milliput:

"This was commissioned as an altar ornament. Normally the finished piece would be cast in metal or resin but in this case I felt that self coloured Milliput would give exactly the right effect to the finished image. There are also many esoteric reasons why one should avoid the manufacturing process in work of this type but they need not concern us here.

Everything is Milliput apart from the obvious bling which has been painted with extremely expensive gold paint; the jewellery was further enhanced by filling in low relief panels with good quality glass paint. I’m a firm believer in using the finest materials available.

I love Egyptian images and was very excited when I got this commission. Height was to be around a metre which gave me lots of room to play. I use Milliput for most work from 50mm to 1500mm. Below 50mm (fantasy/historical miniatures) I use green stuff and above 1500mm I use whatever I can find but even then I just love that funky 'put and I almost always use it somewhere.

Jane at the Milliput Company sent me some Black Milliput to play with a year or so ago and since Set is sometimes portrayed in Black in Egyptian art it was the perfect medium. It polishes up beautifully and takes a lovely deep shine if you finish it off with beeswax polish. However, it does need very careful finishing as the slightest mark shows up when it’s shiny (I use progressively finer grades of glasspaper). For Milliput sanding in general, Woolworths sell a great little set of sanding blocks which are 3 grades of abrasive attached to little blocks of foam rubbery stuff. They are really useful as they bend round the work and can be washed and re-used a number of times. Black Milliput can be used with the normal sculpting tools. I use hardwood tools from Tiranti (wood is cool because you can rub off any set Milliput with a bit of sandpaper when you’ve forgotten to clean your tools off!) and the ubiquitous dental tools for fine detail. Black works well with all the usual lubricants. I use vaseline, talc and water depending on what effect I want.

I have also used ‘aged ivory’ Milliput on the kilt and also on the base. This looks very effective. To obtain this ‘aged ivory’ colour I have mixed the Yellow resin stick from a Standard pack of Milliput with the White hardener stick from a pack of Superfine White. When the work is cured a fine coat of Burnt Sienna oil paint, greatly thinned, is brushed on and when it has dried it is polished off again, giving an interesting brown stain.

I’ve been fiddling about with Milliput for the last 30 years at least and still occasionally find new things to do with it; it’s either extraordinarily versatile or I’m a really slow learner! Anyway, if anybody has any question about how to use it I’d be happy to help."

Steve Trickett - stevethesculptor@btinternet.com

This sculpture of Set is on display at White Witch, 1 Church Street, Waltham Abbey, Essex, EN6 1DX.

We would like to thank Set's owner, Debbie Harding for allowing us to feature him on our website.

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