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Comment by jurgenwerk | Hacker News Reader

I have a side hustle where I produce niche desk ornament sculptures and busts made from concrete. Etsy link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/jurgenstudio

This brings me around 500 euros per month. Recently the sales of Marcus Aurelius took off nicely, so I'm seriously thinking about expanding this business by making busts of more famous philosophers and leaders. I'm in the process of adding mini concrete busts of Alan Turing, Steve Jobs, Slavoj Žižek, Nikola Tesla, Plato, Aristotle, Jordan Peterson and more.

If anyone is interested in how I these are made (3d printing, molding, concrete pouring), please check here: https://twitter.com/matixmatix/status/1243116129289146368

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It's hilarious how there's so many sellers for that same damn Venus bust on Etsy.

How did you do the digital sculpting? Any tutorials?

I outsource that. I find 3D design sculptors on Upwork and CGTrader and tell them what I need. When I'm satisfied with the result, I send it to my 3D print guy who makes a print for me.

I make and sell (used to sell) art toys on Instagram, and I make my digital sculptures in Blender since it's Free and Open Source. CGCookie.com just came out with an up-to-date course in sculpting with the newest version of Blender (2.8x). I highly recommend it. It's mostly up to par with zBrush, and you get the benefits of the FLOSS community. https://cgcookie.com/course/fundamentals-of-digital-sculptin...

Cool to see your process making the busts!

How do you put the two halves together when they come out of the molds?

The two halves of the mold are put back together and the concrete is poured into the bottom. Once it's set, the mold is removed and the result is once piece. Here's a good video from Tested on the process (not with concrete) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEVi0mEaJJQ

Any advice for running a business on Etsy?

I'm also running a website where I ask people exactly that! :) https://myhandmadestory.com/ (success stories from independent makers who sell handmade stuff online)

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