Sculpting Time: Creating A Schedule That Works For Your Home Based Business
Dylann had been polishing sculptures for more than fifteen years, but in all that time he’d lived in a residence where there was no room for sculpture equipment. He was frustrated. He’d read dozens of books on sculpting, starting with Tom Bearden’s The Real Thing. At about thirty five, Dylann began to sculpt full time, but his studio was his home office, where he spent most of his time surfing the web and occasionally answering e-mails.
One day, Dylann discovered that he could sculpt in his home office without the need to buy a separate space. His solution was to construct a sculpture studio within his home office.
Dylann started by buying the materials to build a long table that could seat three people in a small space. He used cutoffs of scrap lumber to section the table into six sections, each three feet wide and roughly thirty inches long. The sections were connected by braces. Dylann mounted three double arm lamps that his wife had here unused art materials. He then placed a large reading lamp, a few years old, onto the improvised table.
He also mounted a small table-top bust and positioned it on a shelf to the left of the lamps. On the right side of the table he installed a drafting board where he could lay out the paper patterns he would transfer to the sculpture.
To create a comfortable padded bench, Dylann purchased a couple of inexpensive elongated, foam-rubber pads, which he mounted to the left of his chair.
His sculpture started taking form. He used brass, copper and bronze sculpture materials. Since the window of his home office was in the middle of the wall, he had to make his sculptures in the dark of night, usually after he had turned out the lights and retired to his bed.
Dylann had one sculpture in progress for about a year. The project required a lot of work, but once he started creating the sculpture, he enjoyed sculpting.
He kept a tight schedule that included during daylight hours, a trip to work, a trip home and a meal with his family. Besides the night time sculpting, Dylann spent time creating paper mache sculptures and sometimes, after lunch, he would make a clay sculpture. His sculpture studio was an end-of-the-row office.
His activities were scheduled with much punctuality. He was rarely late and most importantly, he kept his routine without scheduling help. The concept helped him become more efficient, but it caused tension with his wife that they were not spending much time together.
One day, Dylann was home and decided to skip lunch to work on his sculpture. He was absorbed with his work, when he heard the front door open. A few moments later, he heard his wife asking him if he had any lunch. Dylann replied that he was working on his sculpture and that he would be soon leaving for work.
Dylann continued working on the final details of his sculpture and made several small sketches. He worked from noon till dusk. At about five he realized that he had worked just about as hard for the last three months as he had for the one year plus he had been creating the sculpture.
Dylann now had his sculpture almost completed. He managed to finish two other sculptural sets of two pieces. They were side to side and each piece was about six feet long. The sculptures were unique and very ornate. Overall, he had created four sculptures.
He did not have time to start any more sculptures until the next day, on payday. He placed middle of the sculptures on the long table and put them in the family room. Dylann tried to relax. He decided he would deal with the tension with his wife that he felt had accumulated over the past year.
The next morning, after breakfast, he took a shower and then phoned her. She sounded pleasant, so he knew she wasn’t angry. He told her that he had created a sculpture studio and that he was sorry they had not had time to go swimming or to visit amusement parks. Yet, he had created four sculptures, with more to go. He was not just trying to placate her. He was starting his day and he felt like he was on top of the world.
Dylann learned to work at the same time he worked. He didn’t give himself much time to just rest. The session with his wife went well. He wasn’t sure how she felt about his sculptures and his home studio, but he was sure that she noticed that he was happy.
Dylann kept making sculptures and kept his schedule tight. He was too busy to fish or go hunting. He also did not have enough time to radio-control model airplanes. He lived alone and didn’t meet other people. He did, however, like gardening. One day, he noticed that he had neglected his perennial flowers. He could not remember the last time that he had watered them. He pulled his old wheel-barrow out of storage, filled it with water and pulled his wheel-barrow to the flowers. He wheeled his wheel-barrow back to the house and placed the wheel-barrow where it normally was.
Conclusion:
Dylann found the answer, when he looked at the rational behavior on a small scale and focused on the immediate purpose he had been trying to accomplish. This is what led him to build a sculpture studio out of a table. He eagerly spent days and nights creating a new way of creating that he had read about in so many books. He also did not have time to fish or hunt.
The sculptor planned to have time for his hobbies and recreation.