The problem with horns is....

Unicorn horns.  At one point in time more valuable then gold or saffron.  To possess one was to possess immortality. Great depictions of hunts and gatherings all in the quest of obtaining such a rare and valuable commodity are depicted repeatedly throughout movies and literature. For awhile there was even advertisements of medicines and tonics claiming to be made from them.

Of course common sentiment is that unicorns aren't real and so therefor, neither are their horns.  However we have plenty of toys and images of them so it should be no problem at all for me to sculpt one out of apoxie right? I just have to look and copy what I see. I just have to follow the directions, right?

NO!!!

I just spent two hours trying to make a horn and failing miserably. I almost wasted a whole glob of apoxie. I noticed it starting to get to that "unworkable" stage and gave up on the horn and sculpted some feathers for the other wing instead.  good thing too. I was barely able to get 3 usable preening feathers out of it before the rest dried in a small, sad, little clump.

The problem with a unicorn horn is that they are based off of the Narwhal tusk, which has a long slender spiral tusk that looks exactly like what we think of today as an alicorn or "unicorn horn".  But the narwhal tusk is actually two teeth that have grown together in a spiral formation, giving it that distinctive look. So in order to sculpt one, you have to do the same thing. I was told in the tutorial I read, that you make a "snake" out of apoxie that tapers at the ends and then fold it in half and twist. Try as I might I could not get the base  the right thickness for the darned thing to stand up. and then it wanted to droop at the end.

I think next time I'm going to have to try using super sculpy III instead. It doesn't harden until you bake it and at the very least I should be able to practice with it without having to worry about it getting ruined. But this pony needs a horn and I refuse to give up on that horn.  Especially now that I've committed so much time into it that my back is killing me!

~Nichi Moondancer.