Dragon Version of Patrick Stewart

To sharpen their skills and push their creativity, many artists try to do a sketch a day but seeing as I sculpt instead of draw, I am pushing myself to start and finish a sculpture a week.

Why dragons? Because I like 'em. If I start creating some really successful pieces, I will try molding them, (with photos) and selling the casts.

The resemblance to Patrick Stewart was unintentional. I originally started tried designing a fierce looking dragon but noticed he had a more wise, friendly expression and decided to follow where the clay lead.

Here are the sculpting stages:

How to Sell at a Convention

Conventions are an excellent way to get feedback, quick money, and most importantly of all, a fanbase but the whole experience can be a bit overwhelming. After about 6 conventions I gathered a few tips that might help you out if you yourself want to start selling at conventions:

1.) Start Small: Most new conventions offer lower prices and more lee way in what you plan to sell. Yes, only 500 people may show up at the convention but $100 tables are hard to argue with. Big note for sculptures/craftsman!! Larger conventions often demand you buy the more expensive vendor booth if you sell your 3-d projects even if they are all handmade but small conventions usually still let you buy the cheaper tables in Artists' Alley.

2) Start Local:  Never forget to take travel expenses into your profit margin! You might make 500 dollars a day but how much did your travel and hotel room cost each night? Until you have a firm idea of your sales, stay local unless you can crash at a friend or family member's house.

3) How Good are You?: Every artist is always improving and you are no exception, but you need to take an honest look at what you make. Can you make it cleaner, can you make it sturdier, can you make it closer to your original idea? These questions will help you decide if you are ready to start selling at conventions and more importantly, how much you can charge!

4.) What do you like? What do you like to watch or read? Can you make fan art for it? Would you like to? Can you enjoy making 100 hundred of them? Unless you can sell it for a huge profit, stick to subjects and materials you like; it will encourage you to innovate, you will make better quality work, and you won't get tired of it or at least as quickly. 

5.)Fan Art! If you love a show, book, anime, cartoon, art style, whatever, show it! Odds are some one else does too. I'm not recommending you dump all of your original work or be nothing but a slave to fads but fan art can and does bring in the crowds. Personally, I have several prominent pieces of fan art on my table that I put next to my original works because the fan stuff catches the eye but brings them in to look at your own creations. "Come for the fan art, stay for the original art" is my motto.

6.) Bring Change!: I can not emphasize this enough, bring lots and lots of $1's $5's, and $10's. In preparation for cons, lots of people hit up their atms or banks and so only have $20's and you don't want to lose a sale because you couldn't make change from them.

7.) Keep a Record: Keep a record of what you brought, what you want to sell it for, and what you actually sell it for.

8.) Prices: How much to charge is a big sticking point for me. I have to look at what a pendant costs me in materials plus the time it takes to finish the whole product and how much I think my buyers can afford. I also look at competitors to get an average idea for what your art work can go for and it is best to try to match or under cut them. 

9.) Ask for Feedback: You are meeting people your customers!! Ask them what they love, they hate, they really, really want! If I find a friendly patron, I ask them about all sorts of ideas and I even write them down. How friendly you are can make or break you and your shop in people's memories. Multiple people remember me from other cons and often bring their friends over to my table or recommend more conventions for me to attend.

10.) Get a Buddy but it Doens't have to be an Artist: Pretty self explanatory, with an artist you have some one else to share the booth fee, chat with the customers, or watch your stuff if you need a break or wish to attend an event. If you don't have another artist to team up with, just bring a friend (most cons include two passes with purchase of table space) to help you set up, deal with sales, and pass the time.

11.) MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL

DON'T

GET 

DISCOURAGED

First event I ever did (an art show) I made -$50 dollars, had one sale to an old family friend, spent the whole time freezing, and due to wind had a Christmas reef repeatedly kamikaze straight into the middle of my artwork. At first, you will not succeed unless you are lucky and amazing (if you are, why are you wasting your time here?? go make art!) at the first convention you attend but the more feed back you get and the more you refine your art, you will do better. I consider any convention I make over my costs a success because I am still learning but I learn, and make, a little more each time.

Happy Sales!

Rambling: Why Are All My Ideas So Half-Baked?!

As an artist I constantly have a hundreds ideas floating around in my head, I write down maybe half of them, and I create a forth of those at best. In my mind are all the possibilities, but my hands can only fabricate a limited amount of my ideas into existence. I imagine all creative people, whether it’s musicians, writers, chefs, or architects, have this same problem. Actually, everyone has this problem. Some people struggle with it their whole lives. So, why do only one-eighth (1/2th times ¼th =1/8th) of my ideas come into fruition when I have all this free time with only being employed part time? Examining my creation process in a flow chart might help.

With how many conditions that need to be met to create a simple image, most of the time I’d just rather watch Grey’s Anatomy and that is my problem. TV is just so damned entertaining.

My Quest for the Perfect Cold Porcelain Recipe Part 2

Hello all! It's been awhile but my life has finally settled down (I changed jobs, bought a house, and got a new puppy!). It’s past time for my very belated, promised cold porcelain recipe review.

I had a few comments on my last post (My Quest for the Perfect Cold Porcelain Recipe Part 1) and they led me to the third recipe (Thanks Rosebug and Julie!). It's based on the video of Sangeeta Shah and unlike the first two recipes this one uses the microwave instead of the stove top.

On-hand Ingredients

Ingredients:
1 cup cornstarch
1 cup Tacky Glue
2 tablespoons baby oil
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon tempera paint
1 tablespoon Nivea Creme

This recipe includes tempera paint and white vinegar, which were not in my previous recipes. I did not have tempera paint (for color?) so I skipped it. She specifically says Tacky Glue and Nivea Crème, but I wanted to make it with what I had (Elmer's Glue & Ponds). I also decided to half the recipe because I'm running low on glue and cornstarch.

Mix, mix, mix!

Lucca and Chloe

This recipe is slightly more involved than the first two, but I had two helpers with me. The black dog is from my post: My Pets Aren't Fat, They Have Big Bones and I'm happy to report that she lost 20 pounds! :) The blonde one is our new puppy and I will have plenty of silly antidotes about that "little" ball of trouble later.

Stir, stir, stir!

Micro power!

One of the biggest differences between the microwave and the stove top is the time it takes to "cook".

This looks familiar...

Blend, blend, blend!

The total "cook" time is 1 minute 30 seconds in 30 second intervals with a pause
between each interval to mix the "paste". I accidentally set my microwave to 1 minute for the first interval but it did not seem to hurt it too much. There was some slightly discoloration in what I'm assuming was the glue. It all came together in the end. (Taking one handed photos and demonstrating is difficult!)

At the end, I kneaded the paste into the cold creme I had spread out onto a cutting board (as depicted in the video). I taped a piece of cling wrap around the cutting board to protect it. I would have rather used wax paper or parchment paper but it worked out rather well though. (You can see the blue painter's tape I used through the board ^_^ )

At first, the dough was separating and becoming more lumpy but I soldiered on kneading it. It came together about halfway through. I kneaded the dough for a good five minutes until the clay began to become sticky again. It has a pleasant rubbery texture.

The video instructs you to store the clay in an airtight bag you've covered with more cold creme for at least 24 hours. After a day, you're supposed to take it out and put it in a fresh bag with creme but it does not say if you should wait longer or if you can begin working with the clay. It ends by saying that "the paste is almost ready to begin working with your projects..."

...Your guess is as good as mine. Use your best judgement.

No cracking! I couldn't wait so I started sculpting before a full 24 hours had gone by and I think that caused more shrinkage than is normal. The second unicorn I made did not shrink as much. Some of the bits fell off but they can easily glued back on. Overall, this is my favorite recipe by far but I might try to find another variation.

My Quest for the Perfect Cold Porcelain Recipe Part 1

I've been promising Christen to post a review about 2 different cold porcelain recipes I've tried. I FINALLY got the ingredients for the second one a week ago and FINALLY had time to try it out. Firstly, what is cold porcelain? "Cold porcelain is not real porcelain, it got its name because the finished product looks like porcelain. It is air dry clay that does not require firing or heating of any kind." It's basically: glue and cornstarch clay. It's a cheap alternative to polymer clay that you can make at home! (Or buy in the store but that defeats the point!) I've seen many beautiful and delicate sculptures made from it. (All images taken from deviantart and the sculptures belong to their respective artists: Veggies, Kirara, and Mew) All recipes for cold porcelain contain glue and cornstarch and have the same basic instructions: combine ingredients in a pot over medium heat and stir until the mixture pulls away from the sides. Cold porcelain dries semi translucent and you can add paint to tint it. Something to keep in mind: the color darkens as it dries and it shrinks (which can cause cracking it it's not kneaded enough). After a researched several sites, I settled on this one to try first because the ingredients were the simplest and easiest to find. I found the first cold porcelain recipe I tried from squidoo.com. Ingredients: 1 cup pva glue (white glue like Elmer's Glue All) 1 cup cornstarch 1 tablespoon mineral oil (baby oil) 1 tablespoon lemon juice, witch-hazel, or clove oil (I used lemon juice which is not pictured.) I did not like this recipe. The ingredients required a lot of stirring and took about 10 minutes to solidify. Afterward, the clay was really sticky so the cleanup of my pot and spoon required a lot of scrubbing. I had to add cornstarch to be able to use it and then when it became too dry I added more mineral oil to moisturize it again (like the instructions say) but the mineral oil didn't fully mix with the already-made clay. Pieces of clay didn't want to combine or stick to one another properly. Everything I made cracked no matter what I did and the clay itself was just difficult to work with. My second attempt went much better! The ingredients were a little harder to find because I didn't know where to get glycerin or what cold cream was! I used the recipe from craftstylish.com. Ingredients: 3/4 cup white glue 1/2 cup water (not pictured.) 1 teaspoon cold cream (such as Pond's) 1 teaspoon glycerin 1 cup cornstarch, plus additional for dusting your hands For those who are ignorant like me, cold cream is used to remove make-up so it is found with cosmetics. I found my glycerin in the pharmacy department of Wal-Mart near the bandages. It was on a bottom shelf. Glycerin is also used in baking (for icing, fondant, candy, etc.) so it should also be in the cake decorating section of your local craft store. This recipe was slightly different because it had me combine the wet ingredients first which didn't take much time. After I added the cornstarch, it took about a minute for the mixture to solidify and pull away from the walls of the pan. The clean up took far less time. At first, I put it on wax paper to cool but when I tried to knead it the paper tore. I don't know if this is because my wax paper is cheap or the "clay" was just too hot. I switched it out for parchment paper. The clay itself is far less sticky but more malleable than the other recipe. (It smells nice too because I didn't get the unscented cold cream.) I dyed it with acrylic paint and made a little monster. I'm sad to say this recipe is actually worse than the previous recipe. I can't get it to dry without cracking. TO BE CONTINUED...

Lighting is important!

ugly camera glare

proper lighting

after photoshop tweaking, so much better.

La Doll Review

I'm gonna do a quick clay review! just for funnsies.

La Doll Natural Stone Clay isn't really stone. It seems to be made of fibers of some sort but it handles like a clay that you fire. It air dries so even if you put an open package in a plastic bag (like I did) it will harden. You can soften it up by putting some water in the plastic bag with the clay (not a lot. 1-3 tablespoons depending upon the amount of clay) and the clay will soak up the water.

The clay itself is fun and easy to use. Not safe for making items to eat or drink out of or a vase to hold water (it's water soluble. der!) It does get all over your hands and will dry out your skin. I recommend putting lotion on your hands after cleaning up.

After it dries (which can take overnight to a couple days depending how large your sculpture is) it can be sanded and carved easily. You can also add to it without causing discoloration or weakening it.

The hand I made has a simple foil armature underneath. It doesn't support it at all but made it easier for me to form the fingers. It stands on it's own after I left it drying with a support. In certain areas, it did crack because the foil got in the way but I just covered it with another layer of clay:FIXED! XD