Cultist Mask

Cultist Mask, a photo by blacksquiggles on Flickr.

Very little polymer clay here! Just the horns :) Leather, polymer clay, leather stain and paint! :)

How strange I get...

The polyclay strain! I love polymer clay, I love that I make my own pieces from nothing, but it's LABOR intensive. I have friends who design beautiful pieces from purchased beads, they're very successful and deserve to be so, but it makes me wonder, what am i doing wrong? I sell my pieces for the same prices as they do, and yes, they sell, but I may have put 3 hours into that piece. Each bead needed to be created from nothing, fired, sanded forever,and THEN i get to incorporate it into the piece. Other pieces, after that initial time and labor, require another 3 days for resin. Wouldnt it be easier to just buy the freaking things and then assemble? Perhaps what I see in my head, i just can't buy, or maybe I'm a stubborn jerk.

Ive got a show a month the next three months. I'm doign freaking comiccon in September and thats a huge weight on my shoulders, there WILL be not-polyclay pieces! there will be odd Steampunk respirators, goggles are a possibility, there will be simple brass accessories...but I can't leave it at that, i can't just put a brass charm on a finding, I have to patina each piece, alter it in some way... 'cause I'm a stubborn jerk.

I've set myself up to be a starving artist, unable or unwilling to admit defeat. As my house crumbles around me, as bills pile up, I find myself justifying why I do what I do, I just suck at it.