72 karma · joined April 6, 2022
Personal sculpting website and shop, also has a blog covering everything from starting sculpting, to forming an LLC, and growing from there: https://shapeshiftersculpting.com
I have a friend who made me 3D printed keychains for swag at events. He embedded NFC chips in the keychain and this links to a linktree on my website. Coming up with cool swag like this could be something to explore. People found them really cool and it was a relatively simple thing to do. I'm sure there are some wild things 3D printing could be applied to for things like this.
Yes, I have shared my pieces! On social media of course (instagram/facebook/youtube), personal website, and at events. One part of this journey was a kind of audacious idea - I decided one day, after about a year and half into this, to make an LLC. I figured I could try and get this hobby to pay for itself as it isn't exactly cheap when you start getting into molding and casting the pieces. That and I was getting great responses from people. A part of me just went with a feeling ("I bet I could do that") and this whole thing has taken on a life of its own. I've just started going to local events recently (a punk flea market, a comic-con, and a Krampus Con) and I've sold some of my work, have connected with new people, and made some good connections. It's a wonderful feeling and the response from people has been nothing but soul fuel.
For me, I'd often have these ideas of things I wanted to try, or do, or challenge myself with, and then for some inexplicable reason I'd never do them. In this instance, I told myself to get off my ass and just give it a try. It may have helped that I was in therapy at the time and making efforts to address a lifetime of issues. It has lent a certain proactiveness to my being. For me, addressing my mental health is a driving factor in having made any of this possible.
Finding a seed of interest: if you mean directly with making a costume, I don't know. If you're not interested in costumes, I don't think it is something you can force. Overall though I think anything that causes that itch, that pull, maybe even a sense of yearning "to do" is enough to get you going on a path. I had a feeling when watching the video that reminded me of what I felt when I was a kid and I would see something and I'd get excited to do the same.
I don't know that any of this would have come together for me had I not been on a journey to improve my mental health, and making efforts to find something that connected with me. Something outside of a screen. But in the end, what I connected with was surprising. It looks like it makes sense in hindsight, but at that time, it felt like it came out of left field.
Hopefully there are some tips somewhere in this mess of words. If not, my apologies for wasting your time.
So, I started small, and then built from there. I only bought materials and tools when my journey necessitated them so I could refrain from getting ahead of myself. I think this is valuable, as it is easy for me to get carried away in the beginning of anything new, and go whole-hog only to find later that my interest lay elsewhere. I wanted to prove to myself that my purchases were for a reason and meaningful to where I was at, at that moment.
I have kept a blog of my learning experiences, trying to give back as I can. I don't want to break the forum rules, but if you want I can send you links to my site. It has my work and the blog has outlines of what I have done, steps, resources, etc. I hope it is helpful to someone out there going along this path.
While making stuff is only a side thing, it makes the grind during the week tolerable. I feel like I have something meaningful in my life (outside of my family) and it has given me purpose. I'm grateful for it. And it is so damn fun!
This changed everything. I found I was pretty good at it. It felt good because it was tangible, and it required me to learn and probe and practice. I kept at it. This grew in ways I couldn't imagine.
Now, I make collectible resin maquettes and busts and I even started making latex halloween masks. It's been a crazy journey to where I am now, with so much more ahead. I've met people and interact with people in ways I didn't just a short time ago. It's changed my life. It's thick. All of it.
Personal portfolio site - mostly hand spun late last year (HTML, CSS, a sprinkle of PHP) as a way to get my portfolio off of WordPress and to have some fun. Used a plugin for the scroll animations and a plugin for the form.
The blog is a self-hosted WordPress site on a sub-domain. It's a work in progress and has a terrible load time. Been thinking of scrapping it in favor of something more simple and rudimentary.