If it wasn't for Project Sekai, my nails would have been too long for this.

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on a self-portrait sculpture using clay, and it has really begun to take shape over the hours I have worked on it. Going through the process, I have learned a lot about the sculpting process and gained a newfound love for working with clay. Generally, my hands aren't very good at regulating applied pressure, so I have found ways to work around that issue. One such way is using silicone brushes to help myself get into small crevices and apply small amounts of pressure. Another thing I noticed, and I was very thankful for, was how my nails being shorter than usual helped me while sculpting. Originally, I trimmed my nails short for this game I play called project sekai, which involves quickly and repeatedly jamming your fingertips into a tablet to the rhythm of a song. If I don't trim my nails, I feel immense pain from them slamming into the glass. However, this turned out to be very beneficial to the sculpting process, because it saved me from constantly maiming my sculpture with my nails. In addition, sculpting really feels like the embodiment of "make it exist first, then make it good," because you can't sculpt and work on something until it exists as a physical object. Overall, this project has taught me to trust the process and work around my weaknesses, which has made it very enjoyable over these past few weeks.

Below is a before and after that spans from November 19th to December 15th.