Woman sculpted tin first, to be honest (2,5)
I believe the answer is:
in truth
'to be honest' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'woman sculpted tin first' is the wordplay.
'woman' becomes 'ruth' ().
'sculpted' indicates an anagram (I've seen this in other clues).
'first' says to put letters next to each other.
'tin' anagrammed gives 'int'.
'ruth' put after 'int' is 'IN TRUTH'.
(Other definitions for in truth that I've seen before include "Really" , "To be honest" , "Honestly" , "Actually" , "As a matter of fact" .)