OOAK Artist Doll Sculptures by Amanda DeVirgilio

New Blog

2011-04-08T03:04:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that my new blog is "Days of an Artist" - http://days-of-an-artist.blogspot.com/

I created this new blog as this blog is outdated and I am trying to venture away from the ties I have with the name "Twinessence". Doll Maker's Dream is more accurate to the vision I want for my works and tutorials, not to mention that it's more search engine friendly.

So my new blog will be keeping tabs on what I'm up to most days, as people tell me I often drop off the face of the planet lol. Truth be told it's because most of the places I post stuff on the internet I only really want to post completely relevent information. So this new blog will allow me to post all the stuff in between, even if it's just sketches and other stuff :)

Of course, I will still discuss my doll stuff on the new blog too, but it just won't be quite as limiting :)

Cheers everyone!

Amanda

New Website: Doll Makers Dream

2010-12-01T18:11:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Amanda DeVirgilio here! Yes that's right, I'm now Mrs Amanda DeVirgilio. The wedding was on 7th August 2010 and it was a perfect day. We went straight to the honeymoon which was in a gorgeous 5 Star Hotel called the Mariotte. From our honeymoon we drove down to our new home in Victoria- two states away from where we were.

I love the weather here, it's so much cooler than Queensland. I've been a busy bee getting our lives in order. Go figure, it's actually really complicated changing my name and moving state at the same time, lol. I'm starting to get organised though.

I've been working on a new website called Doll Makers Dream.

It's going to be dedicated to beginner sculptors around the world, people learning how to make OOAK Art Dolls for the first time. All of the beginner polymer clay tutorials are posted there FOR FREE.

It's still under-construction- a lot more tutorials will be added. I have a page called "What's New" and that will list all of the pages I've written or worked on lately. So that's a good first place stop if you want to see if there's any new polymer clay tutorials.

I highly suggest subscribing to the RSS Feed of my website, that way you'll be able to see new pages straight away in your Feed Reader.

Any comments and suggestions are more than welcome. Just contact me through the contact form of my new website:

http://www.dollmakersdream.com

Hope you like it!

Cheers!
Mrs DeVirgilio (he he)

Scam Artist in the OOAK World

2010-05-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of people who are up in arms about an Artist who has scammed a lot of people out of their money. Due to Australian laws I will not be stating their name or gender in this post and will instead replace their name and gender with “Doll” and “it”. Here is the situation:

Doll creates one-of-a-kind artist doll sculptures and has done so for many years. It has become pretty good at making them and no one denies that it has talent.

Doll opened an artist forum to which became extremely popular, and developed into a close knit community. More and more artists were joining as members, however Doll started to drift out of online activity with the forum. After a while, Doll announced that it needed more time for itself and the family and was going to sell the forum on ebay, (price specifics will not be posted but it was a relatively large sum of money).

Not long after the forum was sold, Doll opened a new forum, directed to the exact same audience. This came as a shock to many, however it seemed to be overlooked after a period of time, although those involved still have a bad after taste in their mouths.

It decided to make this forum into a “paying members only” guild, so you could not see its content unless you paid a regular member fee. The draw to this guild is that Doll promised to post content such as tutorials and personal coaching that no one outside of the guild would be able to see. A lot of new sculptors wanted to be able to make sculptures like Doll, so in flooded the memberships. However as time would pass, Doll’s “promises” weren’t met. The tutorials it did post were vague, incomplete or already pre-existing in tutorials sales available to the public. Doll promised to keep posting amazing tutorials however it still neglected to show.

Frustrated members started requesting refunds and sending Doll messages about the situation. These requests were ignored and/or deleted. Doll continued to advertise the forum for new members to join without resolving- or even faking interest- in the pre-existing member’s plight.

These members are currently seeking legal action and are searching for ways to get Doll jailed. For the moment Doll seems to be slipping through legal cracks however this cannot last forever.

Here is what you can do for yourself: before handing your money over for ANYTHING online, think about the following:

Does this person have a CONTRACT? Look for something that states in writing EXACTLY what services you will be getting by paying this money. With most legitimate websites, they will post a Terms and Conditions page that you have to read before handing over the money. The contract should always be long-winded. If it is at all vague in what it promises to provide, you will most likely not get your money back in the event of a problem, nor will the person get into legal trouble. In Doll’s case, it should have had a contract that stated in it “New extensive tutorials will be posted every month on how to re-create my art-form from past or present. All tutorials will be based on working methods of creating the art-form and will be a complete tutoring in each stage of creation.”

Does this person provide a REFUND POLICY? They need to provide details as to how they deal with the situation in the case of a complaint. Do they offer money back? Do they offer credits to be used for other services? Is there a time after a certain period that the refund policy becomes void? Does this person offer other avenues to chase up a refund such as paypal disputes in the case that they cannot refund the money due to personal circumstances? If they do not have a solid refund policy, DO NOT HAND OVER YOUR MONEY.

Unless both of these things are met, you should not be handing over your hard earned cash. It does not matter how nice, famous or accomplished someone seems to be, if you are not covered by a good contract and refund policy, there is very little that the law can do for you in the case of a problem.

Artists are generally very kind-hearted and trusting, however we all need to realize that there are predators online in all shapes and sizes. We need to take our cash in our own hands and be extremely cautious. Ideally, we shouldn’t have to worry, but these people are out there and their will be more.

This achieves two things, you won’t need to stress over losing your money forever…. And….

… The mongrels can go to jail if they go against their contract….

I realize that some people will know who I am talking about and I ask that you do not identify this person or their gender on this site. Australian law is tough on identifying things like this especially since I am a related business. Please understand that attempts to identify them on this site will be removed. All other comments are extremely welcome and encouraged!

I ask that this post can be linked to or quoted in as many places as possible so that Dolls’ potential victims will think twice before paying for its services.

Sincerely,

Amanda

P.S. Please note that the above mentioned are not the only things It has done in bad business.

Stormthecastle's Sculpting Miniatures Video Tutorial

2009-11-04T05:54:00.000-08:00

I found this series of videos very interesting. It's made by www.stormthecastle.com
He has made a series of tutorials teaching how to sculpt in polymer clay, and putty to make a large sculpture and miniature sculptures. He goes through every training step a beginner should follow. Definitely worth a look!

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Part Four:

Part Five:

Part Six:

Part Seven:

Part Eight:

Part Nine:

Part Ten:

Part Eleven:

Part Twelve:

Part Thirteen:

Part Fourteen:

Part Fifteen:

My Thoughts on Selling Sculptures

2009-10-22T17:45:00.000-07:00

Lollipop Lolita, OOAK polymer clay sculpture by Nicole West
Sold for $1056.44 AUD on eBay

Today I beg the question, what makes a polymer clay sculpture sell at a high price? I know a lot of people wonder this question all the time. It's so hard to predict how much a sculpture will sell for. Polymer clay sculptures are, quite honestly, a relatively new medium. You look at paintings, bronze sculptures and stone artworks, they've all been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. Paintings from professional artists can sell anywhere from $200 - $55,000, give or take. Who decided this price? How did they decide this price?
From a business perspective, you can look at it like this:
Decided hourly rate x hours spent, + cost of materials and selling fees = Artwork price.

But I fear this equation doesn't really work. Why not? I see artists out there who work on a piece for over a month and get $70 for their auctioned sculpture. If they decided they don't want fate to predict their price, they put a reserve, or a higher asking price. But often, these works do not sell. What do you do? I find most artists are practically giving away their works at prices cheaper than it cost to make them for the purpose of getting exposure. Is this harmful?

It's rumoured that customers are stubborn creatures. While you're starting out, they may be buying your works for $50 a pop. However, with time, you hone your skills and your sculptures start to resemble the sculptures of the masters. Now you should be able to get thousands for your works! You eagerly watch your item in ebay waiting for that elusive final selling price. $350?? What? Why did it sell so cheap? Weeks of meticulous work has gone for a price cheaper than if you were walking dogs for a living. Many people think that if you've got the reputation of selling cheap, it actually devalues your work. So how do you sell when you're first starting out?

I know I've been hit with this problem. When I first started out I sold some sculptures to a lady for well under what it was costing me in time and materiels to make. I explained to her when I first sold them that the prices would go up when my sculptures become more popular and I'm better known. The prices that she was getting was promotional only. She agreed to these terms and bought the sculptures from me. A couple years down the track, my sculptures were in much higher demand and I started creeping up my prices closer to what I needed to be getting for them to cover costs. This lady had been reselling my sculptures at double what she paid me for them, which is what I recommended when I first started. However, when my prices went up, hers went up... still at double. It got to the point where she said that people wouldn't buy it at such a high price and told me I had to lower my prices. There was a problem with her logic...
If I sold her a sculpture for $350, then she would try to sell it at $700. If she lowered her prices and sold it at $500 instead, she would still be making $150 profit for every sculpture and they would keep selling weekly. This was the same profit that she was making when I started. If she had've lowered her prices, I would be getting what I needed and she would be getting the same profit and the sculptures would be selling just as fast as they used to. However she wanted me to lower my prices so she would get a larger profit.

I could have backed off, lowered my prices and continued to sell at charity prices. But shouldn't you reason like this... if she's that concerned about making such a huge profit, how long does she think I would be able to sell sculptures at those prices? She was so concerned about her own temporary profits that she wasn't looking after the artists' wellfare, who could possibly bring her regular profits for many years to come. If she wasn't going to help me keep my business running at a mutual benefit, I wasn't interested in lining her pockets. I stopped selling to her.
It wasn't long until I realised she was forgetting to hand out my certificates of authenticity, not mentioning my name at all and she had even changed the name of one of my sculptures. She even repeatedly broke my sculptures and got me to fix them free of charge. To continue selling with her would be detrimental to my career as an artist. I am thankful I didn't drop my prices for her.

Take a look at the wonderful work by Nicole West at the beginning of this post. She sold this recently for the price of $1056.44 AUD. Now that's nothing to be coughed at. However, how many hours did she spend making this piece? Goodness knows this amazing sculpture is worth closer to $2000. Look at the detail!

Nicole West has this amazing ability to make the eyes look very ethereal. The eyelashes are meticulously placed and you can even see her little teeth poking out from her luscious lips. Her hair is Tibetan Lamb Wool and goodness knows the paint job is amazing. Nicole also told me once that she sculpts the whole doll, and doesn't series bake. This is a huge feat as many cannot do this. Clearly there is great talent here, but how was the price decided? The auction started at $200; what made people decide to keep and stop bidding?

I wonder if the price is determined by the pure fact that Nicole West has a number of avid collectors. Or maybe it was determined by the level of detail that she puts into her sculptures. What about realism? Maybe the fact that her sculptures look very believable is a determining factor?

If these all decide whether or not a sculpture gets a high price, would that mean that any sculpture that follows those sorts of rules should expect to get the same price?

Take a look at this next sculpture...

The sculpture above is a one-of-a-kind polymer clay sculpture by Julie Mansergh, or as she's better known, "Fairies In The Attic" (FITA). It is a very different sculpture, but still has all of these supposed "deciding factors" of a high selling sculpture. Julie is well known, puts a huge amount of effort into getting incredible details (and she makes a point of photo-cataloguing all of the details) and is definitely known for the realism of her works. Some, if not all of her sculptures are practically perfect in anatomy and tend to look more like a photograph, instead of a small polymer clay sculpture. Her work really is outstanding.

However, here is the cruncher... this particular sculpture sold for only $769.31 AUD. Admittedly a lot of her sculptures do drag in very good prices, but why the difference between the two I'm comparing? The amount of talent needed to create such a stunning piece is surely worth more than the sales price? At least, would it not be closely comparable to the talent of Nicole? Why has one artist done better than the other when they both have extraordinary talent?

This leads into my next thought. The market. Both of these sculptures were sold in a period of time fairly close to each other. Is it possible that during this period of time, more people were looking for something cute, bouncing with character, yet still keeping sexy undertones? Perhaps the market wasn't there for a sculpture, more real to life, but somewhat more serious and sultry.

So what happens there? How do you know what people are willing to pay big dollars for?

What style of sculpture is the audience looking for?

A lot of it must be hit and miss. Julie, no doubt, has sold sculptures just amazing as this one, and received double or more for it. A lot of it depends on your sculpture being seen by the right eyes. Not matter what the economy is doing, there's always someone out there who wants to buy your work. But putting in the effort to market your work to the most amount of people can be tricky. If you're looking at making a living of your sculptures, it would be easier to try and make a sculpture that would appeal to the largest market.

Recent trends show that customers of polymer clay sculptures are looking for sculptures of fantasy creatures, especially mermaids and fairies, pin-up females and occasionally babies. By looking at how sales are going, I find that anything that deters from these subjects tends to be a lot more difficult to sell at high prices.

The polymer clay niche is relatively small in the arts world and hitting the market right is a difficult move. I find it easier selling sculptures when people can see the sculpture face to face before buying. I attribute this to the fact I've never been very talented with taking clear photos of my sculptures. Online, I have more difficulty, but when people see my work they seem like they can't get enough of my work.

It seems like there's a lot of little things that can improve your chances of being a successful OOAK art doll sculptor. However, there isn't really a winning formula. With everything I've observed, I can think of a few tips:

Hit the market correctly, if fairies, babies and pretty women are selling, make that, but do it in a unique way. Think of something original, without being too risky and you find yourself a winner.
Study anatomy. Even if your work is stylised, there are still anatomy principles to follow. Focus on making your sculptures believable. People can tell if your style is on purpose or because of a lack of knowledge. This will probably be your hardest challenge, but it is worth it. I still have a long way to go, but I found that the amount of improvement I've made so far with my sculpting has already made a huge difference to the sales prices.

Learn how to get anatomy right: http://www.dollmakersdream.com/anatomically-correct-dolls.html

Look after your customers. If someone has just paid you for your sculpture, be professional in how you carry out the transaction. People buying from you appreciate art; they are special and need to be treated that way. The world needs more art collectors.
Don't short-change yourself, it's really hard to break the ceiling price of your artworks after you've started. If your sculpture refuses to sell, maybe it needs some more work, or more than likely it's simply the market hasn't found your work yet. Invest in a nice glass cabinet and keep your works until they get the price you need. If you decide you don't want to hang onto it anymore and want to give it away, give it to someone special in your life. Letting it go to the public for next to nothing will only devalue your work, and they probably won't appreciate it as much as someone who knows and loves you will.
Attention to detail. People LOVE detailed work. When someone can discover something new every time they look at your work, you know you have an outstanding product. I find even people who still haven't mastered anatomy will still get a higher price than people who's work is very simple. Detailing is candy for the eyes.
Get known. Join forums, write a blog, write to magazines and talk to the community. I was having a chat once to a librarian about what I do and wound up giving her my business card. Not long after, I got a phone call from her asking me to do a large display in the front of the town library to which I agreed. That's a lot of exposure to my local market right there. She also told me that I would have an audience of at least 30 people if I did a seminar in the business room of the library about what I do. That's possible 100's of word-of-mouth exposure. All that from having a chat to a librarian.
Research!! Keep watching the market and DON'T STOP. It gives you new ideas and lets you know which ideas aren't popular.

Obviously I don't have the last word on selling sculptures, but hopefully these thoughts my help you hone in your business skills.

What has been your experience on selling sculptures? Please leave a comment.

If you would like to read more about selling dolls, visit my business section on my website:

http://www.dollmakersdream.com/selling-polymer-clay-dolls.html

Just a note: I'm currently attempting to re-install my computer as its very sick. It's running terribly slowly which is making it difficult to backup. Sorry for any delays in communication, especially with emails as my outlook barely wants to open at the moment. Hopefully I can overhaul my poor laptop soon.

How to make a Fantasy Mushroom

2009-10-06T00:19:00.000-07:00

Here's something I've been working on for a while. I was only going to post this tutorial when the sculpture was entirely finished but I may as well put it up. Most of the stages are done and dusted ^_^ I think this little project would be good for those who aren't yet good at sculpting "pretty". Most beginners need something a little absurd looking to begin with and this definitely fits the bill. The fantasy mushroom I'll be making is designed to have something sitting on top.

Let's get started...
First, make loop with fairly strong galvanized wire. This will become the base of the fantasy mushroom. Keep in mind this wire can leave a black residue on your hands, so be careful what you touch.

You will need to have yourself a base for the fantasy mushroom to be anchored to. Bend the loop over so the wire is sticking straight up. This will form the stem of the mushroom. Make sure you have plenty of excess wire at the top. Bend the wire off at the height you want the mushroom to be but do not cut the wire.

With the excess wire you had, curl it around at the top making a large loop. This will be the top of the fantasy mushroom.

Get a good amount of Magic Sculpt and mix it together. Make sure the two parts are even. I coat my fingers with flour to protect my hands. The putty can be very sticky otherwise and actually makes my fingertips burn if I leave it on there too long. The flour eases this greatly. Always wash your hands with warm soapy water after using Magic Sculpt. Magic Sculpt is an epoxy resin/putty. It's an air drying putty that sets as hard as a rock. We will be using this to give the mushroom strength.

When the Magic Sculpt has been mixed thoroughly, start using it to secure the bottom of the fantasy mushroom to the base. Blob it all around armature and blend it into the base.

Work up some more Magic Sculpt up the stem of the armature for added strength.

Start working a smaller gauge wire around the outside rim, leading to the middle like spokes of a bike wheel. Note that I have left some wire protruding out the top. This will go into the bottom of the figure sitting on top, to stop it from toppling off.

Secure all the "spokes" in the center with more Magic Sculpt. Check if it's a sturdy armature, if anything is sliding around or moving, secure it with more Magic Sculpt.

Bulk up the sculpture by wrapping the Armature completely with aluminium foil paper. Squeeze onto the sculpture tightly, making sure the armature is still strong.

Polymer clay won't stick to the foil paper, so wrap up the whole sculpture with masking tape. Make sure it's a good quality masking tape or it won't stick to the foil very well either. We want this to be a very solid foundation for our clay.

Start adding small sheets of polymer clay to the sculpture. Make sure the clay is about 5mm thick evenly, ALL OVER to ensure you cannot see any masking tape through the clay. Really focus on trying to get an even thickness over the whole sculpture.

Cover the sculpture completely and smooth off. Now we're ready to start adding details.

Add small flaps on the sides of the mushroom top to imitate how mushrooms peel. Blend it in.

Continue this step all the way around the top.

Using the pointed spoon dental tool, press in grooves on the underside of the fantasy mushroom top. Make them uneven to make it look more organic.

Ad some peeling flaps down the stem. Try not to make the polymer clay sheets any thinner than shown above or else they can be brittle.

Follow this down the stem and blend in with a tool or your thumb. Try to get it as smooth as possible. Curve the ends of the flaps into a wavy form.

With your pre-made eyes (watch out for upcoming tutorial "How to make eyes in polymer clay") insert them into the clay by pressing firmly.

I've inserted my eyes crooked as I'm going for a "mad" look. Once they're both in, layer a "top eyelid" over top of both the eyes. Keep the clay fairly thick as we'll be carving detail into it.

Do the same for the bottom.

Start pressing in detail work with your thumb or a round tool. Embossing tools work well. We are adding bags and creases around the eyes. Add a long blob for the nose and trail it between his eyes. Blend it in and shape it to how you want most of the nose to look. We're leaving the nostrils until later. Add some polymer clay which is going to form his top lip. Blend in under the nose and around the sides, but do not blend in the bottom part yet. We'll need that to start defining the top lip.

Add some cheeks....

I want the mouth to be fairly wide, so using my pointed spoon tool I'm pulling the corners of the mouth up into the cheek. Don't go overboard with this step though, you could wind up cutting the cheeks in half.

To define the top lip, drag the spoon tool up and across where you want the lip to be. This slightly flattens the area and makes it look like a lip. Don't press too hard though, or you'll wind up with a big recess where the lip was supposed to be.

Form a banana shaped piece of polymer clay and place it just under the top lip. This will form the bottom lip. Only add this piece after you're fairly happy with the top lip as it is harder to get to now you have the bottem lip on. Note that the bottem lip is shorter in width than the top one. People make the mistake all the time with the lips thinking the bottem and top lip are the same size. In reality the bottem lip is shorter and slightly tucks under the top lip.

Smooth and blend the lips until it looks how you want it to. Here I've added some small blobs of polymer clay to start forming the teeth.

Now we're forming the jaw. Add some strips of polymer clay to form the "joules" and and round piece for the chin. Blend it in.

Place two balls of polymer clay where the nostrils should be. Blend them in.

Using a rubber tipped tool (I use a Gum Stimulator) poke some holes into the clay for the nostrils. Remember, nostrils are fairly thin so make a good sized hole. If you want smaller nostrils, start with a smaller ball of clay.

Let's add the brow. Use two thick sausages of polymer clay and line it up where you want the brow to be. Depending how you place these pieces it will determine what expression your character will be pulling.

I decided that the character didn't look "cooky" enough, so I pryed open his mouth with a pointed flat sculpting tool. Blend everything in . Now you're ready to bake. I baked this sculpture for 40 minutes at 130 degrees celsius. Baking times may vary depending what clay you are using. Check the packet for instructions.

Leave the sculpture to cool in the oven. After it's cool, paint the whole sculpture in one solid colour. I want my fantasy mushroom to look a bit dirty, rustic and dark, so I've used a browny-purple colour as the base colour.

Start adding highlights. This part is up to you really, make the paint work as rough or smooth as you want, according to what style you want the finished sculpture to have.

And there you have it! One whacky looking Fantasy Mushroom Sculpture! I hope you enjoyed the tutorial! Please leave a comment if you have any questions or if you gave the tutorial a try :D

Congratulations Tammy Saulnier!!

2009-09-30T18:59:00.000-07:00

Baby picture borrowed from http://internetpaul.com/2008/08/

A big congratulations to Tammy Saulnier from B.C. Canada! You have won the August/September competition to win a miniature polymer clay baby fairy! You're sculpture will be on it's way after I collect your details.
This has been my first comp and boy was it a hard one to judge. I've had such amazing entries and it's a shame I can't hand out sculptures to everyone. I feel Tammy's entry was touching, and believable! While reading it, I found myself sinking into "Samantha's" life. I had entries of all sizes, and even though Tammy's story was the longest, I really felt it deserved to win. You all can read it on my website at http://www.twinessence.com/TAMMYcompwinner.htm

I might take this time to add that this is only a temporary page. I'm currently getting my website rebuilt to house a more visually appealing art gallery, my tutorials and I'm incorporating my blog into my website also. It's a huge job but I'm really looking forward to the results. I'm hoping to have a place in my site dedicated to competition winners and Tammy's entry will be relocated there.

I hope you all enjoy her story everyone, and a BIG thank you to all those who entered. Keep watching for more ways to win one of my artworks! It has been a lot of fun :D

Making the Armature

2009-09-29T05:10:00.000-07:00

This morning I got an email from one of my video viewers (my YouTube videos) and he said this:

"I have a set of 7 tools 4 of them are made in wood and 3 are in metal. I also have armature wire, but don't know what it is used for. Could you explain to me how to use the tools, wire, and clay.
And also show me how to create the human body out of clay?"

Wow. The first thing I thought was 'boy I could have fun answering this question'. I LOVE making tutorials (I only wish time allowed me to pump one out every day). The problem is, this question doesn't have a simple answer. I thought I'd do a quick write up about it though because I think it's a question a lot of beginners are wondering.

First of all, I have to make a note about the tools. I do like to use stainless steel tools and rubber tools more than wooden. I find that wooden tools tend to absorb the moisture of the clay and the clay sticks to the tool a bit. Vanished wooden tools tend to fix that problem, but the varnish tends to make the clay dirty. With all the tools I use, I definitely have two favourites. A stainless steel dental tool, and a gum stimulator.

I find that the majority of my sculpting is done with these two tools. I'm getting my website rebuilt to have a completely secure online store, and I will have those two tools available to buy should anyone want them.

As to how to use them, I'm afraid I'll have to make a video on that, as it would be impossible to describe it in writing. Unfortunately I'm quite busy at the moment so my tutorials are sitting there half-made at the moment. I will work on answering that question though so keep an eye on my YouTube videos! If you want to be updated as soon as they're up, subscribe to my email updates. Just fill out the small form on my home page at www.twinessence.com.

WIRE! Armature wire is used to create a skeleton for your sculpture. This wire is essentially what stops your sculpture from shattering to a million pieces if dropped, and if it's built strong enough it could make your sculpture virtually invincible. It would probably be more beneficial for me to make a video on how to make an armature too, but I may as well touch on it here. First of all you need some sort of reference model. I printed out a picture of a model in the position I'm going to be sculpting. I do recommend you using a model who is standing front on and straight if you're a beginner. That way you get the proportions right. For the time being I'm using the following picture.

Firstly, I made sure I printed out the picture to be the size I want the sculpture to be. This is because I lined up the armature and measured it to my reference.

I then construct the rest of the armature by twisting the wire around itself in the thicker areas of the body. In the thinner areas of the body I use a thinner gauge wire. This coiled wire gives the clay something to grip to, otherwise the clay will spin around the wire as you're sculpting, causing air pockets which makes it weaker.

For this particular sculpture, because of the size I have even armatured the hands. Usually I won't do this for a small sculpture as it's nearly impossible to get wire fine enough to conceal with clay. Also, if the wire was much finer it wouldn't make much difference to the strength of the fingers. To make sure the clay grips to the wire I've done something a little special to it. Instead of using wire to coil around it, I've used cotton thread. Once I've wrapped the wire with cotton, I put a thin layer of super glue over it to secure it. This provides a rough surface for the clay to cling to. Use a skin coloured thread if possible, this makes it easier to conceal as the polymer clay is semi-translucent.

After I have my full body armature with hands attached (or without hands if the sculpture is smaller) I start sculpting. I sculpt the hands first along with a blob around the torso and a blob on the head. This will give my sculpture something extra to hang on to. I put this in the oven, bake it according to the directions on the packet, and start sculpting the face.

After I have the face sculpted, I focus on the torso and arms. I knead the clay until soft and bulk it up around my sculpture. Squeeze it firmly onto the armature and make sure there are no air bubbles or pockets. Blend it all seamlessly to get it ready for the details.

Start adding the detail work and giving it a nice smooth finish. USE THE REFERENCE. I can't stress that enough, people make mistakes with anatomy even when they use the reference, so sculptures that were made without them genereally wind up being a disaster. It takes sculptors years before they can sculpt without a reference, and even then they usually still use one. At this point I will bake the sculpture again. I find it's a lot easier to sculpt the lower half when you have something to hang on to.

This is as far as I've got on this work in progress. I added wings before baking her to make the wings more secure. I will continue to work on her. I hope that this is enough to show you how an armature works in a sculpture. To show you HOW to use the tools and how to sculpt the body, I really need to make a video. I feel that you simply can't learn how to do it properly without a video. I'll work on it everyone. As I said, I'm quite busy at the moment, not to mention I came down with Acute Bronchitis this morning. The doctor ordered me not to leave my bed for the next few days so it's debatable how much I'll get done. Drat.

Hopefully I'll get the chance tomorrow to announce the winner of the Competition! Keep an eye out guys and gals :)

NOTE: I got a great tip from a friend at the Artist Doll Sculpture Group. Here is what she said about the wooden tools:
"With my wooden tools,i cover with oil, i like to use lemon, let it sit for a few minutes and then i wipe the tool down, getting the oil that is not absorbed into the tool off, that protects the tool and prevents it from absorbing from clay, do that every so often on all wooden tools to preserve and keep them in shape for sculpting. I learned that tip from Walter at http://www.perfect-touch.com/"

Katherine Dewey's Animal Book

2009-09-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

I discovered a very useful book everybody! Have you ever heard of Katherine Dewey? What a brilliant artist. Lately I've been fumbling over my sculptures. Artist block is bad thing when I'm trying to make a sculpture display by November. So instead of sitting around doing nothing, I decided to try something different. I stumbled across Katherine Dewey's book on Amazon.com, Creating Life-like Animals in Polymer Clay. After I got her book, I started sculpting again. What a beautiful sculpting aid. I'd never sculpted animals before, but using her book I found myself sculpting something I was quite happy with.
The first sculpture I did was a toad, which was so much fun to make. I started to feel really good about myself that after so long messing up sculptures I was making I actually started to piece together a sculpture that looked alright. I then started to work on a rat in a jack-o-lantern. I aimed at making it look a little more cartoon-like, and I think even that turned out alright. Finally I was sculpting again!

Looking through her book, I realised that this wasn't just good material to help something going through artist block. This book was designed for complete beginners with polymer clay. In her chapters she talks about different kinds of clays and which ones are the best to use for sculpting animals. She even goes into how to make your own tools! The ideas she has for making tools are great for those who want quality tools without having to spend big money. Katherine explains how to condition, leach, model, measure and knead clay. She goes into great detail on how to make all the little shapes required to add to the overall form of a piece and even how to blend and texture the clay. All of these instructions are accompanied by clear pictures of her performing the task. She goes into armature making and baking techniques, even explaining the idea of series baking. Here's one that was even a bit beyond me- how to paint an animal realistically.

After explaining all of these must-know procedures, she then goes step by step on how to sculpt and paint 10 different animals- The Deer Mouse, The Young Cottontail, The Harp Seal, The Black Bear, The White-Tailed Fawn, The Red Fox, The Bull Frog, The Fledgling Bluebird and The Siamese Kitten.
In her final chapter she takes it a step further. She explains how to change the size, pose, setting or finish of all the animals you just sculpted. Very handy when you want to sculpt it different to how it was instructed.

All of that costs $15.63 on Amazon. I don't know about you but I think that's worth it.
If you can't find it, I have a link to it to the right in the red box.

Keep Going With Your Art

2009-09-13T19:08:00.000-07:00

Hermit baby I sculpted while waiting for another sculpture to bake

The sculpting dream tends to tug and pull at you. Sometimes you sculpt something you're happy with and sometimes you wish you could do better. I know there's a lot of beginners out there who get frustrated when they sculpt something and it doesn't appear how they imagined it. All I can say is I know how you feel.

I still view myself as somewhat of a beginner compared to other sculptors who make art seem effortless. I see artists who started sculpting around the same time as me are soring ahead of me. The likes of Renata Jansen who used to get me to critique her work is now among the masters. But what is success in the art world? Is it how fast you grow compared to others? Is it how much money you make? I personally think it's neither. I think when you can get to the point where one day you can look at something you've created and feel proud, that's success. Only you know how much work went into a piece and how far you've come from your first work. Why let others define how good of an artist you are?

There is a reason behind this ramble of mine. Yesterday I was walking through the tourist walk on one of the mountains here in Australia with my darling boyfriend. He laughed when I kept leading him into all the handmade gift stores. He said to me "It's funny, you walking into a store like this must be like when I walk into an electronics store". I suppose it is! LOL. Not that I really go in there with the purpose of buying something, but I still find it interesting looking at what other people are making. We also decided to wander into a Fine Art Gallery. They had many sculptures there and it was amazing to see what people have made and what prices they were putting on it.

Recently I have been seriously considering breaking into the fine art market. I want to make a sculpture and get it cast in bronze. The lady of the gallery was very friendly so I decided to ask her a few questions. I asked her what was involved in getting into a fine art gallery with bronze work. She asked if I was the proposed artist, and when I confirmed she instantly transformed into a snob. She looked down the bridge of her nose at me and stated that I would need to prove that I wasn't a mediocre artist. That I had to bring her at least 6 bronze sculptures of a very high standard or I will be discarded. Talk about ouch. I know what she said was probably true but man, she wreaked of snobbery. It felt like nonsense to me as I knew I could do better than most of the bronze works in there. There was a bronze lady, sitting on stone, her head was too big, her feet were WAY too small... she was riddled in anatomical errors. This piece was selling for $3500! I thought to myself that I could do better than that if I tried and her snobbery was misguided. All she saw was a little girl dressed in pink who probably only made stuff her parents were proud of. I felt like running home and grabbing a portfolio and showing her how much I've been making from my dolls already. Oh yes I was getting myself worked up.

Then I suddenly stopped feeling so selfish and thought.... I wonder how many other starting artists were slammed down by one snobbish art keeper? I wonder how many lost faith and kept doing little crafts for next to no money because they felt they couldn't be up there with the masters. Don't lose faith. Use instances like that to prove them wrong. Who knows, maybe one day you'll be on TV or on advertising posters and that snobby art keeper will look and say... daaaammmnnn. That's what I'm going to do. I don't care if people think I'm good enough. I'm going to save up some money, get a bronze sculpture collection and take them to an art show. I'm not going to be sitting there wondering if I measure up. I'm just going to aim for something I can look at and feel proud of. If I earn a lot of money that's always a bonus lol. Yep, that's what I'm going to do.

Competition Deadline Extended

2009-08-31T23:57:00.000-07:00

Good news everyone! Due to popular demand, I have extended the competition deadline to win a miniature fairy baby. It would seem I chose a bad time to do the competition as there was a lot of people wanting to participate, but not all of them could sit down and write an entry. Thank you to everyone who has already participated. YOUR ENTRIES WILL STILL BE CONSIDERED. If you wish to change your entry, please email me your new entry and ask for the old one to be omitted.

So here's your chance! Here are the terms and conditions (again) and the new deadline. Note that some things have been changed and/or added:

Terms and conditions:

1. Write me a short story about how you got interested in making or collecting polymer clay sculptures. This story DOES NOT HAVE TO BE TRUE. Get creative, think of something funny or absurd... your imagination is the limit. How "short" it will be can be left to your own discretion, just please don't write a novel.

2. The winner will be announced on Tuesday 1st October (Australia time), entry deadline is 29th September Australia time.

3. Send your entry to my email address : amanda@twinessence.com before the 29th September Australia time. Please put "Competition Entry" in the subject bar. In the email, state your full name and any blogs or website you may have, along with the country you reside in.

4. The winner will be asked to send a postal address to my email, and it will be kept confidential.

5. The winner will receive a miniature baby fairy and free postage. Winner will also have their story published on my website along with name, country and associated web pages. Please note that your identity may remain anonymous if you wish, even if your story is published.

6. PLEASE NOTE: If the winner has a website that is deemed inappropriate for the wide public (you get my drift), only name and country will accompany the story on my website.

7. If your entry contains material strictly unsuitable for people under 18 (you should get my drift again), your entry will be disqualified.

8. Please check your work for errors. Please note that if there are any spelling or grammatical errors, I will have it corrected before publishing it onto my site. I won't state that I've edited your work UNLESS you ask me to. Please say if you want me to state I have had your work edited in the case of errors. I will be getting your work edited by a professional writer. Your storyline WILL NOT be compromised in this process. Please email me and let me know if you want your work to be preserved even if it has errors.

Have fun everyone!

Student Sculpture, Tutorial and FISH

2009-08-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

Greetings everybody!!
To start off with, I would like to thank everybody who entered this months Miniature Baby competition. I didn't receive as many entries as I'd hoped to, but there were still some fun stories I got to read. There is still one day left of the competition, so be sure to get your entry in!

The handsome little fellow pictured above is a wonderful creation from one of my students, Christine Lane. He was sculpted out of Prosculpt Polymer Clay and had his clothes made from scratch. Absolutely amazing. I have to say, I nearly fell over backwards when I saw Christine's piece. This was her FIRST attempt at sculpting with polymer clay... ever!! I'm so proud of her for what she has created here, and the clothing is so far beyond anything I think I could do. Christine generally works with fabric, teaching classes in quilt-making. A very talented lady indeed. Good work Christine! If anyone would like to contact her regarding her work, let me know and I will pass on her email address.

As for me, I've been working on a tutorial for beginners on how to create a fantasy mushroom from scratch. Here's a little sneak peak. He's not yet completed, but I'm hoping to get to him as soon as possible. The mushroom has been sculpted out of polymer clay with an extremely sturdy armature on a wooden base. According to the emails I receive from people watching my work, most seem to want to learn to sculpt with something that isn't too complex. Well this mushroom has no arms or legs, can look as crazy as you want and you can go nuts with the final colour and design. This piece really allows you to let loose and play with your imagination, without being stunted by your experience with sculpting. I hope this can help a lot of people jump into the sculpting grounds soon.

WOOPSIES! Seems I have put all my work aside and put in some leisure time for myself. My bad hehe. Hey, I need to refuel every once in a while right? My lovely man and I went on a deep sea fishing trip the other day and boy was it fun. Adrian was the first one on the boat to catch a fish which he was pretty happy about. I followed suit and caught one after another of all these amazing fish. Most of them were about 1cm too small to take home, so they were used as bait. However, I did walk home... quite proudly I might add... with 2 big snappers, 3 reef Flatheads and a massive Cobia! (pictured to the left). I was so happy. That night I fed the whole family on the Flatheads I caught and froze the Cobia. I gave my father the honour of cutting up the Cobia into steaks. Would you believe that last night I fed my whole family again on one section of it?! Geez, that was one heavy fish. I know I'm not the strongest pipsqueak in the world but wow! Big Fish. Of course everyone on the boat wanted a picture of the little girl in a pink hat holding the slimy sucker. My arms felt ready to fall off after that. I haven't been able to sculpt ever since because my wrists are so sore. Luckily the pain is starting to subside. Maybe just in time to go out again? haha. Yeah it was fun.

Okies people, I'm off for the time being. Remember competition entries! Email me guys! :D

amanda@twinessence.com

Twinessence OOAK Competition!!

2009-08-10T05:55:00.000-07:00

Yes that's right. I'm giving everyone a chance to win a miniature baby fairy, made by myself, with no molds... completely one of a kind. Here's a little bit of fun, and a chance for me to give back to everyone who send me such lovely compliments all the time and keep spurring me on. It really is an inspiration when you feel like you're doing some good in the world. So here is my thank you, and I'm hoping to do more of it.

Terms and conditions:

1. Write me a short story about how you got interested in making or collecting polymer clay sculptures. This story DOES NOT HAVE TO BE TRUE. Get creative, think of something funny or obsurd... your imagination is the limit. How "short" it will be can be left to your own discretion, just please don't write a novel.

2. The winner will be announced on Tuesday 1st September (Australia time), entry deadline is 30th August Australia time.

3. Send your entry to my email address : amanda@twinessence.com before the 30th August Australia time. Please put "Competition Entry" in the subject bar. In the email, state your full name and any blogs or website you may have, along with the country you reside in.

4. The winner will be asked to send a postal address to my email, and it will be kept confidential.

5. The winner will recieve a miniature baby fairy and free postage. Winner will also have their story published on my website along with name, country and associated webpages.

6. PLEASE NOTE: If the winner has a website that is deemed inappropriate for the wide public (you get my drift), only name and country will accompany the story on my website.

7. If your entry contains material strictly unsuitable for people under 18 (you should get my drift again), your entry will be disqualified.

All in all, keep it clean and have fun!! Hope to hear from everyone soon :D

A Baby Popped Out Of My Oven ^_^

2009-08-08T05:16:00.000-07:00

She's a little bit of sunshine,
She's a smile to light your days,
She will steal your heart and
keep it with her warm endearing ways,
She's your precious little fairy,
With a sweetness from above
Who will fill your years with laughter
and your lives with lots of love

My miniature baby fairy. Her name is Faith and she was named by her lovely new owner! I love making these little sculptures. I've made at least a dozen of these through my sculpting career. They're really fun to make while other sculptures are tourmenting me from the oven as they take an hour to bake. You would think that putting a fairy in the oven they would want to get outta there as quickly as possible. Nooooo, the little sods make themselves comfortable. I can picture it now, sitting against the glass of the oven, little towel wrapped around them, treating it like a flippen sauna.
Anyway.. I can't possibly do nothing while waiting for my sculptures to finish curing so these little creations are born. I'm really considering doing a video for them, but I keep changing my technique, so I'll have to be consistant in that area before teaching others how to make them.

Larry Is Confused

2009-08-05T03:40:00.000-07:00

Feeling confused? I am. But goodness knows no one is as confused as Larry. He looks at a descision in his life, and his mind boggles!! Gah!! "Do I buy the sushi or the strudle??" What to dooo... what to doooooo??

This guy is fairly random. You see, there's this deep, dark place in my mind where oddities and carnival folk roam... and I only access that area during moments of complete inner reflection... or a boring meeting.

Sketched by Amanda Day with Photoshop CS

2009-07-31T04:09:00.000-07:00

"Harold!! Did you leave the toilet seat up again?!?"
"Um... no dear... I don't think I did"
"Harold! You need to close the lid! The dunny fairy has made a mess of the bathroom again! AHH.. your turn to clean it up"

This is what I accomplished after having a good day. A dunny fairy? ... well my friends are always saying I have an obsession with "poooooo" ... only because my boyfriend thinks its funny when I say it though haha.

hmmm...

1:12 dollhouse scale... which means she's very smalllllll

World Keeps Spinning Round

2009-07-28T19:40:00.000-07:00

"Time is Free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it, you can never get it back"

Drat. I was kinda hoping I could get some time back lol. Unfortunately, this almost 22 year old girl is starting to feel her lack of organisation. When my grandmother passed away in January, my ability to be able to arrange, sort and organise my life seemed to go out the window. I've been living each day on the spur of the moment... without planning. I've been looking at my diary recently and I have no reminders in it whatsoever. Alas, it is all catching up with me now.

I had emails that I hadn't responded to for months, a newsletter that I only sent out once, the galleries are wondering when Im going to submit a new sculpture, my students are wondering when I'm going to hold another class, my friends are wondering when I'm going to spend time with them again, my fans are wondering when I'm going to release a sculpting DVD, my sister is wondering if Im going to be able to film her wedding and make a movie, I have a blog that needs updating, I've been assigned to a display of my sculptures in November, I have bills coming in that need to be paid, sculptures that need to be finished and illnesses that need to be medicated. ACK!!!

You know, once you get behind, it is really hard to get on top of it again, and because it's hard... it gets very overwhelming.

Battling a case of depression I'm scratching to find motivation to do everything. So I'm going slowly. "Just do one thing at a time Amanda" I keep saying to myself. Unfortunately, doing things slowly means more people are wondering where on earth I've disappeared to. I'm hoping that by this blog, people will understand, Im trying my hardest to get to everything.

I have a lot of plans for expansion however I need to master what I've already got on my plate. I've been trying to do some things in between to calm my nerves and this is what I've been up to...

First of all I wanted to let you all know about a sculpture I've been working on, which is at the beginning of my blog. It's been a lot of fun doing something a bit different. He's going to be a dragon, with a beautiful little fairy sitting on his arm. The story behind the sculpture will be posted when I've finished. At the moment I've been asking around for advice on making the wings so that they dont break. I'll let you all know if figured out a good technique.

About a week ago I was going nearly crazy. Spending so much time cooped up in my house trying to get things done that I think I may have got a bit sunlight deprived. I know what cabin fever is all about now. I called up a friend of mine, a widow, who is always ready for a last minute day out. We wound up going to the beach together. We walked a few kilometres up and down the beach and man it felt good. I can't believe how amazing you feel when you fill your lungs with good clean air that has blown over the water. Really incredible. I even had the fortunate timing to see an old fisherman feeding a flock of pelicans. There were so many!! He must feed them often because they all seemed to know to go there.

When I realised I simply don't spend enough time outside, I decided to be a little productive. My boyfriend is moving to Queensland next month and I decided it was a good time to grow some vegetables and herbs. I know I'm going to be cooking for him and he deserves fresh produce :)
LOOK AT MY LITTLE SPROUTS! I am so proud, I've never tried to grow anything from a seed before and I must say it is quite challenging. They really are fussy. But here you go! As the good book says "I planted, Apollos watered, but God kept making it grow". Woohoo!!

Something else I decided to do on a nice sunny day. I managed to get my hands on a nice old wooden table. It was in fairly good condition, just a lot of scratches in the wood stain and varnish. I decided that my boyfriend will need some furniture when he moves here, as he's only moving up with what fits in his car pretty much, so I decided to restore the table. I've been sanding it back and I'm going to stain it with a really dark walnut colour. It should look very nice... and expensive!! I'll let you all know my progress when I finally get it done and looking good.

I also have to make a note... with everything that's been buzzing around my head... this boy has been comforting me, settling me despite all the trials in his own life. Once again, thank you Adrian. You are amazing.

Well, this is me, signing off for now. I hope you all have a little more insight into the whacky mind of Amanda Day... the currently procrastinating artist.

An Artist Without A Muse

2009-07-05T06:41:00.000-07:00

Grasping for a muse is something that all of us artists do. What happens when you can't find one? Worse- What happens when you know what your muse is but you don't have access to it?

I've fallen for a man and it's come so suddenly. In amongst months of turmoil, sickeness, death and drama... I came to contact with something amazing...

Yes, this is Amanda Day saying that romance has struck her life like a lightening bolt... and go figure... nothing is getting done haha.
You see, it's a long distance relationship that I've been holding on to. When he's here, suddenly I get completely fullfilled... all my sorrows and worries disappear and creativity and emotion spill out into art. When he's gone.... my goodness....
What do you do when you don't have access to your muse? Does life slow down? Does the world stop spinning? It's so absurd... yet it seems to keep happening. Oh Im such a softy aren't I? How could I not be... this guy has been holding me up, acting like a tower for me emotionally, physically, spiritually.... I owe him so much.

So this is my note for him... for all to see... thank you for everything you've been doing for me... and Im looking forward to when you come back to Queensland. I have to get my sculptures done at some point right? haha. Just kidding sweety :)

Unforeseen Occurrences Befall Us All

2009-04-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I wrote.... so much has happened...

On the 20^th January 2009 my beloved Grandmother passed away. This dear old lady I was very close to, and even lived with for a time.

The events that day were terrible. My mother was visiting my grandmother when she started complaining of slight chest pains and exhaustion. My mother decided to take her to the hospital as she was getting on in age and didn’t want to take any chances.

“She appears to have a leak in the aorta. We’ll get her prepped for surgery and stitch her up, everything will be fine”. This is what the doctors kept saying.

A few of my family members were there just before they put her to sleep, ready for the scans and operation. My Grandmother was alert, asking my uncle how his roommate was doing. I decided to stay at home, I’ve been extremely sick in the past and had too many experiences with death and sickness recently, I didn’t think I could handle another hospital visit. They said she would be fine to go home the next day so I figured I would wait. I was at home with my friend Natalie when I got a phone call from my family. “How is she?” I asked. My heart sank when I heard the words “Amanda… she’s not good…she’s not good Amanda”. I hung up the phone and collapsed to the floor in a wailing cry. I new my family doesn’t ever say bad new over the phone, so those words were all it took for me to realize she wasn’t going to make it. Natalie ran over to me and held me. She offered to drive me to the hospital straight away. So she did.

I arrived in her hospital room and she was sound asleep. But everyone was crying. “What’s happening??” I said fearful of the response. They explained to me that her aorta didn’t have a leak, it had completely worn away. There was nothing to stitch back together. They had put her to sleep before realizing the seriousness of the situation and decided it was best to keep her asleep, so she was more comfortable.

“I suggest you try to get all your family over here, as she’s only got a few hours left” the Doctor said solemnly.

“Are they going to wake her?? I need to talk to her!” I cried. But they refused. They said at this point it would be too painful for her to be awake.

My grandmother believed that after death, she would be resurrected to a paradise on Earth. I remember her saying to me that she would have a nice house with a beautiful big garden with lots of flowers and trees. She said she wanted her own pet Wombat and a baby Elephant. Watching her sleeping I got down close to her ear and whispered, “You’re going to get your wombat Nonna”. She mumbled back, and smiled for a moment.

My Grandmother passed away in her sleep that night. I’ll never forget her, and I hope to see her again some day, somehow.

I love you Nonna, sleep tight.

Rose Veneziano

10^th Feb 1934 – 20^th Jan 2009

Lions and Tigers and Bears, OH MY!

2009-01-03T20:03:00.000-08:00

There I was, trudging through steaming hot sand, with nothing but a drink bottle in one hand and a blanket in the other. I was wondering how I was going to survive..... So I went back to the car and got the rest of my stuff.

Went camping over these holidays and boy was it an experience. Some friends and I all thought we'd be a bit risky and try camping on the beach. The most I'd ever roughed it was a Hotel in Noosa so this was definitely a wild thing for me to do. My friend Diana and I had just finished driving 3 1/2 hours away from home to a very secluded camping spot. The only civilisation around was a very small "tourist" town about 20 minutes away from the campsite. I look back on the trip now and wonder if perhaps we should've camped closer to a hospital LOL.

We arrived there and most of our group were already there with their tents up. Thank goodness, because we needed help pitching our tent. I never thought it would be so difficult to put up a 2 man tent, but there you go. I put that to my lack of experience and not stupidity :P

So Diana and I are looking at this tiny little tent, wondering how we were going to live in it for so long. We decided to leave most of the stuff in the car. Speaking of which, we had to park about 600 metres away as the sand got way too deep. We managed to bog our car in the first 5 minutes of arriving. Lovely start to the holiday.

It wasn't until after we had set up that we realised there were no facilities there. No toilet, shower, drinking water... heck, there weren't even any taps with water that we could boil. We were literally in the middle of no where. So me and Diana did some friendship bonding when we were having our baths together out of a bucket in an old shower cubicle closer to town. Yeah go figure, there used to be a shower there but it had been blocked off. Convenient.

After a very humid night sleeping in the tent, I woke up to the noise of Cicadas at about 4:00am. So I got up, put on some make up (hey, I wanted to feel half civilised) and walked out onto the beach. It was beautiful. The sunrise over the water with pinky coloured clouds is an image I don't think I've ever seen. I don't even think I've ever been awake for the sunrise! haha. I whipped out my video camera so I could capture this beauty.... and partly so I could prove to my family I actually did get up at sunrise.

Eating toasted marshmallows cooked over a fire, gas stove meals, board games and the like made for a very lovely holiday. We all grew a little closer. But the holiday did have its catches...

Exploring the area, one of my friends bumped into a dingo. It was on it's own and wasn't agressive, but man, this just enforced the idea that despite the heat, I was zipping up my tent. Not too long we were introduced to the mangrove's mosquito's and sand flies. The bugs attracted the Goannas which had to be at least a metre long. We thought that was all intimidating enough until we stumbled across a Crocodile warning sign. Damn, we were really out in the wildnerness! But we stayed positive. Although when we recieved a nearby hailstorm warning we got a bit nervous.

All in all, it was a very educational trip, I got a wicked sun tan, the scenary was beautiful and I came to a realisation that even though I might be a bit spoilt with all the mod-cons at home... I can still look after myself where everything is lacking.

Commonly Asked Questions

2008-11-30T03:49:00.000-08:00

Since I am without a lot of my multimedia programs after my big computer fatality, I don't have much to show you at the moment. So instead I thought I grace you with the answers to some of questions I've been getting.

Q: How do I stop dirt and debris from getting stuck in my clay while I work?

A: Pain in the butt isn't it? First of all your work surface needs to be spotless. I use a desk with a hard top. I do have a desk with a "leather-look" vinyl on it, but I don't use it to sculpt. I find it just doesn't wipe as clean as a hard top desk does. If you don’t have a surface like that to work on and don't want to buy a desk, I suggest getting your hands on a plane of glass. Put masking tape around the edges and put that on top of any surface you have available.
Also you need to keep your hands REALLY clean. Trust me, it's important, and my personal hygiene has never been better :P Continually wipe your hands with cleansing baby wipes or something similar. If you touch your cat, food, drink, hair, face, supplies drawer... whatever... wipe your hands again before touching your sculpt. I know your hands may look visibly clean, but trust me, if you're not obsessive with it you will get grey smudges building up on the clay.
Wearing pale clothes helps too. That way if any fibres and fluff come off your clothes and onto your sculpture, it's not as noticeable. Try to wear cotton and fabrics that don't shed.. wool is a major no no. I don't care if its in the minus degrees, you want a nice looking sculpt you buy a heater.

Q. What clay should I use?

A. I get this one too often. Check out the videos I made:
Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryOvvJy4zFo
Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByJujoTL0z4&feature=related
Part Three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS-P-HJiFjw
And if for some reason your computer survived the extinction of the dinosaurs and cannot play youtube movies, the short answer is use a polymer clay called PROSCULPT. It's not the most durable clay out there, but its easy on hands (especially if you're not used to using clay) and has the least amount of troubles with blending and baking. However, if you are a little more experienced I suggest trying out some other kinds of clays. Experiment.

Q. Where can I buy the clay?

A. If your local hobby stores or art and craft stores don't stock Polymer clay, then eBay is a good place. I get most of my clay from there. I know on www.eBay.com (the American eBay) has a lot of my main ones for cheap. Prosculpt, Puppen Fimo and Cernit are all at reasonable prices.

Q. Can I use Styrofoam to bulk out my figure before adding clay?

A. Nope. Not if you intend on baking it. It's fine for air dry clay, but with polymer clay it doesn't bode well for your sculpture when you put it in the oven..... all sorts of funky stuff starts happening....
Magic Sculpt, an epoxy resin, is a good product to bulk your sculpture out. It also sets rock hard which will make your sculpture sooooo much stronger. It's the way I go now. However, it can be a bit pricey, so if you're sculpting on a budget just bulk out with aluminum foil. I've heard some people say not to use it. Pfft. I've never had a problem with it. The only thing I ever noticed was the clay does not stick to the foil very well, but this can be remedied by wrapping the foil in florist tape or heavy duty masking tape before adding the clay.

Q. How to I post my sculpture without it breaking?

A. Errrm... lots and lots of bubble wrap? Seriously, go far out. Wrap delicate features with cotton wool (not too tightly), lightly cover the rest in tissue, then wrap the whole thing in bubble wrap. Place in a box surrounded with foam pellets and be sure not to put anything else that is fairly heavy in the box with it. You want to be sure the box doesn’t get crushed on it's travels, grab the box with the sculpture in it and put it in a larger box with foam pellets in it. You can't go wrong! I've shipped all over the world with Australia Post, which I might had has no system for Fragile mail. That's right, everything pretty much gets kicked from here to where it needs to go. So if you've packed it like this and your customer says its arrived in a million pieces, ask for a photo of the damage, because chances are they just told a porker.

I'll write some more when I can think of it. Getting past my bedtime here. Hope this helped ;)

I Lost it ALL

2008-11-25T17:50:00.000-08:00

Well everyone, my latest update is not a happy one. I was going about my business the other day when all of a sudden my harddrive died. Guess who didn't have back ups? I used to make backups quite often but since I started my business, I've been so busy it completely slipped my mind. Well, I hope you all enjoy the images I have on my website, because that's pretty much all the evidence of my sculptures I have.

My emails are lost too so if anyone sent me an email I have not yet replied to, please send it again!

Unfortunately these things happen, but because it had never happened before, I never thought to do backups. I got into the "it won't happen to me" rutt. Well there you go. I advise if ANYONE reading this has anything vital on your computer, BACK IT UP. I got no warning that this was going to happen, everything was running perfectly fine, it just carked it very suddenly.

PLEASE BACK UP YOUR FILES!

This is going to hurt my business, don't let it hurt yours.
Thank goodness I do all my tax in hardcopy....... O_O

All The World's A Stage

2008-11-05T00:31:00.000-08:00

Made a mask today and had a blast. Yes, I'm the scruffy one in the photo :) It was an educational experience as I'd never made a mask before and haven't even seen any tutorials on how to make one. It's not showing up in the photo very well but it does have a proper gold effect with darker spots due to "age" or "tarnish". The white area is completely pearlized and changes colours slightly depending on the angle.
I made this piece by starting with a blank, plastic mask. I wrapped it in Glad-Wrap and started placing the paper mache over it. (I dipped the paper into a mix of water and flour). After I had several layers of paper mache in the form of the mask.. and it was dry... I took away the plastic mask for later use. I then went ahead and started covering the front in polymer clay. I epoxied steel loops to the sides of the mask so even after a lot of wear, the loops should not come off the mask. After creating all the different decorations on the mask, I baked it and painted it. Finally I covered the back of the mask with suede to reduce persperation while wearing the mask and it was done.

I hope you all like :) I'm thinking about making more if there's demand.

Kangaroos Loose in the Top Paddock

2008-11-03T17:51:00.000-08:00

Good ol' Aussie Slang! Geez we think up of some odd stuff in the land down under. For example, the saying in the title actually means 'intellectually inadequate' ("he's got kangaroos loose in the top paddock") . Well, me being a bit bizarre decided I want to play off some of my Aussie heritage and make some funny pieces. I whacked up a quick prototype, just to test out moulding and casting, and came up with the kangaroo pictured above.

I really want to make some limited edition pieces, and something that makes people remember I'm an Aussie artist. I think I'll come up with something.. fair dinkum!

I'll keep you updated ^_^

Oddities

2008-10-23T23:56:00.000-07:00

You start looking through an amazing gallery. Beautiful Fairies and Heroic Fantasy Men. Perhaps a gorgeous sea Siren lays gracefully upon a reef, peeking out of the water.

Yes, these are, I believe, the One Of A Kind Artist Doll sculptures that plague the female artist nation. Sure, I love sculpting a pretty lady, fairy or so, but what about the creatures everyone forgets? I recently returned to my roots when I sculpted "The Fairy and the Shroom" which really was in vain of the first sculpture I ever did. I LOVE sculpting the bizarre creatures of the fantasy world and I personally think not enough people do them. Where are the male pixies with a balding head and beer gut? What about the delicate fairies with saggy breasts and grass-sown briefs?

Cummon guys, get creative! ;)

The Airbrush from Hell

2008-10-10T23:31:00.000-07:00

"The starving Artist". My goodness do I hear that phrase a lot. It's been such a hurdle starting from nothing and getting to where I am now. Especially since most of the time I couldn't even work due to illness. My uncle has recently agreed to "sponser" my business, giving me some money to go towards getting supplies that will improve my business. So I instantly thought "mass production". Oh yeah, I want to make moulds of my sculptures and resell the resin kits. I was also going to sell them around in markets and such, and try to push Australian artwork. However, painting them up with the good ol' fashioned paint brush is getting to be a little.... ancient. Apparently everywhere people are going for the airbrush look which is starting to make my paint work look mediocre. Well, I set out in search of a paint brush.

My journey started with going to my local hobby store and asking the shop manager what would be best for me. I said that I had never used an airbrush before and needed help in deciding what to get. He took me over to the most expensive airbrushes- a double action airbrush kit with 6 effect nozzels, Gravity feed AND seringe feed paint containers, with an inner of stainless steel and many other quite fancy bits and pieces. How much? A whopping $250 and that was not including the desktop compressor which was another $260. Ouch. I was really hoping I wouldn't be $510 out of pocket on a concept I'd never even tried. So I asked him if they had anything cheaper.
He then showed me his cheaper option.. a single action airbrush, with aluminum insides, seringe feed container attached to an air can. $53. Well this seemed a wiser first option as I did not want to go out and spurge on something major first up. I had a think about it, realising I may need to upgrade eventually. I finally bought it and brought my new toy home. The second I walked through the door I was already putting it all together. I was sooooo excited. I put some water in the paint container so I could test it out without making a mess... and started spraying.

Wooohooo I was making all sorts of fancy lines and wide mist patterns. But then somthing happened. About 10-15 seconds after I started spraying, it started to splatter and choke. Then no water was coming out. I pushed the button down further and finally the water started spraying again... but it was spraying full blast and quite unevenly, splattering and pooling all over the place. What was wrong? I looked in the end of the airbrush... still a nice open head... still had plenty of water as I had just started. I grabbed the air can to make sure it hadn't disconnected. WOW. Man it was cold!! What was going on?? I read the can and in the warning label it stated "Continuous use may result in cold air and inconsistent pressure. Wait for can to return to normal temperature before continuing. DO NOT heat the can".
Damn. So I waited about a half hour or so till the can seemed to be back to normal. And started spraying again. About half a minute later I was getting the same problem. The can was cold again!! Grrrrrrrr, ok this was going to cause some troubles. I did some research on the internet to see if this was a common accurance. Sure enough I found this comment in a beginner tutorial:

"At this point I’m thinkin’ “this is kids stuff”, so I pick up the Robin model and decide to air brush the muscle detail on his suit. It is now that I realize what a critical mistake I have made……….to make a long story short (too late!) I ended up spraying a mess all over the kit. The damn gun just wouldn’t work right. It was splotching out spider like shapes in parts, at other times nothing would come out of the thing no matter how far back I pulled the trigger, than all of a sudden a torrent of paint would come shooting out, it was awful. The air pressure was all over the map, heavy then light, then nothing! The can itself was cold as all get out, like it was gonna freeze solid. I ended up attempting to do this paint job THREE times. Each time washing off the crappy job I did and feeling more and more like a hack loser. Thank God, I had the good sense to SEAL THE KIT before I began trying this...................Dejected, defeated and half-crazed, I threw up my hands and headed for the only place I knew I could get some support, The Clubhouse. It was there, getting the great advice of so many fine modeling dudes, and dudettes, that I came to the realization that an air compressor was the way to go."

Well there you go, I was not alone. Realising now that I was not going to get what I was looking for in a spray can, I went back to the store and asked for a swap over. They agreed in giving me my money back on the spray can airbrush under the condition I bought the large airbrush kit. Done and done. At least I won't need to upgrade next time around. So I get my new airbrush on Tuesday and hopefully I will have more luck with it.

If you want to see some excellent tutorials (along with the tutorial I quoted from in this blog) go to http://theclubhouse1.net/FAQ/painting.htm

My Cousin's Boyfriend is also quite talented in airbrushing, you should see the things he paints on cars and bikes! Wowzer's! His website at http://luckycaleb.com/

The Weregoldfish

2008-10-10T05:40:00.000-07:00

For those who don't know me, I'm a sensible graphic artist/ sculptor/ businesswoman of a ripe young age of 21. For those who do know me, yes I’m still as crazy as I was yesterday ^_^
Many years I’ve been bumbling around as a geeky teenager, gaining qualifications in what ever I fancied at the time... but wasn’t really heading towards any general direction. Apparently becoming superwoman was a goal too high to reach… pfft. ;)

Anyhoo… recently I’ve been sculpting a lot, selling dolls through galleries and such. Slowly building up my business but it’s been hard. Got everything registered, doing the tax, blech.

This little marine creature of evilness is my Weregoldfish (Werewolf-Weregoldfish... you know). I'm making him for a sculpting Jam on the renowned sculptors forums on www.theclubhouse1.com. Amazing place that is... and I've been trying to keep up with their talent.

The fish has been sculpting from Chavant NSP Hard clay. This particular clay never goes completely hard, or bakes or cures. So I will have to make a cast of this one. Looking forward to experimenting with casting. Something I haven't done in great lengths yet.

Anyway, hope you all like the little guy so far... don't you just want to kiss him? I mean jab him with a blunt fork of course...