Monday, November 9, 2009

MY BLOG IS MOVING: new website


I have a new website everyone! The web address is still www.twinessence.com, however it has had a much needed overhaul. My website is now much easier to update, and hopefully will not have as many viewing errors as my previous site. There's still some more things to do, but it is mostly finished and functional.
The design is extremely different to what you're all used to but I'm hoping you will like it. I would just like to take the time to take you through a few of the new features...

On the homepage you can now see my NEW BLOG. That's right, I will be moving my blog from blogspot over to my website. I won't delete my entries here, but I won't be writing here anymore. All of my new entries will go directly onto my website. To keep track of when new entries are posted, you can subscribe to the blog RSS Feed, which is located by clicking the "FEED" tab just above the blog entries. Also, if you much rather a "follow" option, you can follow my twitter updates, where I will also be announcing all my new blog posts. See the diagram below to see where these buttons are located on my homepage.

Also, I have drop down menus from the main navigation bar, so if you roll your cursor over the buttons, some of them will drop down to more areas of the site. Make sure you explore this option as I will be adding many new features to my site.

ALL of my video tutorials can be viewed directly from my website, so now there is no need to leave my site to check anything. I'm keeping nearly everything contained so all you lovely ladies and gents don't need to go scooting all over the internet to find what you need. I even have a contact form now so you can email me without having to leave the site.

STILL TO COME: Currently I only have a few sculptures in my gallery. A lot of photos of my older sculptures were lost in my hard drive crash, but as I have been working on a lot of new sculptures, I'm hoping to have an impressive gallery up soon. There will be new categories and better, more professional photos taken.
Also, I'm looking forward to announcing the opening of my secure online store, which will have my sculptures for sale as well as some supplies.

As I have so many amazing followers, I really hope you like my new website as I would love to see your comments at my new blog. I look forward to seeing you there!

Farewell Blogspot, thank you for helping start my blogging adventure! Twinessence.com, here I come!!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Stormthecastle's Sculpting Miniatures Video Tutorial

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!



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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Work In Progress: Bronze Fairy

Here is something new I started working on. Goodness, I've started so many sculptures it's not funny, but I got in a zone today and just had to let this being out of my head.

Usually I make my sculptures out of polymer clay, but in this particular instance I'm using Chavant NSP Medium. Chavant is an oil based clay that doesn't cue. It hardens a little when at room temperature and goes really soft when heated. (Please see my Clay Review videos at www.youtube.com/user/Twinessence to hear some more about the clay).

I'm using this particular clay because I'm intending to get it cast in solid bronze. She is made to sit perfectly in a large manzanita wood burl I bought a while ago, so she is going to be a one-of-a-kind sculpture, as she won't sit properly on anything else but this particular piece of wood. I really want to make her wings out of glass, but I'm not sure if her back is big enough to support it. I'll let you know what I decide to do.

It's going to be interesting doing my first piece in bronze. I'm a little nervous as there isn't a great deal of information online about what problems can occur during the casting. I'm hoping that my sculpture isn't too intricate to get cast in bronze. Although, I have seen a lot of very detailed bronze sculptures out there so this raises my hopes as to what's possible in this medium. I really love working with Chavant, so if this sculpture is popular, you might see a whole lot more bronze works in the future.

If you want to see exactly how the foundary makes a Bronze Sculpture, take a look at this video, it's really handy :)