When the going gets tough…
Have you ever felt that life is extremely hard and that there is no hope for you? Hi, my name is Barney Joseph and I am part of a large crowd of misplaced engineers, a growing trend in India. Today, I run my own sculpting studio, but I started sculpting entirely by chance.
Way back in 2009, I was being treated for Repetitive Stress Injury related issues in both of my arms. I’d had these issues since 2006. With various treatments showing no progress I was forced to find a new career without computers! Even physiotherapy hurt my hands!
GETTING OUT OF THE LOW POINT
During a physiotherapy session, a suggestion was offered that I keep squeezing putty as a low impact exercise. The putty always dried up quickly and I began to notice the shapes that it could form along with details of my fingerprints in it. That’s when I up took sculpting as a hobby!
I started experimenting with different sculpting materials. I frequented online sculpting forums like “Statue Forum” and “The Club House”. I learnt a lot from the helpful people and professional sculptors there. Their feedback greatly shaped up my craft. I also started watching a lot of YouTube videos and asked the creators questions regarding build form, anatomy, tools, etc.
Initial attempts at squishing clay
I tried out different sculpting mediums and different styles. My first human sculpture took me 1 year and 2 months to complete. I kept correcting it with the feedback that I received from different people in an effort to get better at this new craft! I guess this is what perseverance is all about!
I had no idea that I could have a career out of sculpting – at first, I was giving away my sculptures away for free. I was just waiting to get well so that I could get back to my old career modes. But that all changed. My friends were my greatest supporters and my initial clients. With this progress, I decided to start teaching children at different apartments, schools and special needs schools.
GOING PRO
Around this time I used to frequently visit Claystation because I didn’t know much about natural clays like terracotta. Mr. Ganesh, the founder of Claystation, and all the staff were very supportive in teaching me the basics of clay and helped me to experiment. Later on, Claystation offered me the opportunity to teach the basics of making sculpture at their studio!
Teaching at Claystation exposed me to a variety of opportunities and meeting people from all walks of life bustling with ideas and information. Claystation would also, from time to time, refer clients to me who needed sculptures or needed some research in refining a marketable product. I’ve worked with customers who just wanted fridge magnets to making a figurine of someone to making some elements of a company’s visual merchandising display!
With all of this going on I decided to partner along with Claystation to set up my own business venture, Sculpt Monkey Design Studio, which would help me to make my own products and offer my sculpting services whenever I can. I am grateful to the wonderful team at “Claystation” for believing and supporting me for those wonderful 2 years!
PERSEVERE
Way back in 2009 I had to struggle with helplessness and refocus all my energies on learning something else. When I opened up my own studio I had to learn new things like accounting, marketing myself, taking out advertisements on Facebook and Instagram along with other trade related skills. There is always something new that we can learn. It may not be clear when or how it will be useful in life. The best suggestion that I can give is to persevere, develop yourself and don’t give up.
Looking back now, I do believe that the hand of God has been leading me to this particular phase in my life: from being “unemployable” to having a studio of my own! I am looking forward to creating a lot of sculptures and challenging my craft.
Do check some of my old practices and works at my blogs Realm of Dreams and my personal gallery. There are a few tips that might be useful for beginners at sculpting.
“Never give up!”
If you would like to learn to sculpt or have a custom sculpture made for you, then please do reach out to me! Please do share this with others or on social media. It might help someone!
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