Making Gemstone Pendants

So for a few months now I've been practicing making gemstone pendants. I started off going to the bead store and asking them if they had any advice for me. Without any holes drilled in the stones they were mostly at a loss, but they were able to give me the information I needed. Since then I've been making some really fun stone cabochons like these:





I'll be teaching a class on making cabs at the Grey School 2010 Illinois Conclave. I can't wait! There's sure to be a blog post about the events next month.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with you. Maybe I'll post a tutorial one of these days.

My Favorite Thing

Just these.

Started Karate Today...

So I started Shotokan Karate today (which I always have to focus not to mispronounce "shotakon..." embarassing...).

I'm not really sure if I like it yet. I know it's all about discipline and everything--I actually started when I was around ten and gave up for health reasons--so I feel like I have to stick it out for a while before I decide what I really think of it.

It's good for my health and everything, which I like. And I like the whole philosophy behind it. But I can't pretend to enjoy it. I'm not going to be performing my best if I'm constantly watching the clock for the end of class.

I'd considered taking up Jeet Kune Do for a while as well. I'll have to explore the principles of martial arts in general before I do that, though, so maybe Karate is just a stepping stone for me.

I always did feel like Karate was kind of the little brother of martial arts. (No offense intended, Karate lovers... or older siblings)

Well anyway, I have private lessons again on Monday. Only one day to rest, whaaaat! D: I'm too used to being lazy!

May Updates and Mahjong

So I've gotten into Reach Mahjong lately. I'm still not entirely familiar with the set of rules (because dang, that set of rules is big), but I'm good enough to win a hand every once in a while. It's been a long time since I last declared Reach--I should practice!

I'm aware that there are a lot of online sites and applications dedicated to playing Mahjong online. Feel free to go check those out yourself--I'm too lazy to check them out for you. I'm currently using Touhou Unreal Mahjong, because semi-crossover boardgames are fun.

Keep in mind that different rule sets, and indeed different sources, use different terms. (Pungs, chows, pon, chi)

But it's an interesting sport. It seems too complex to be a simple common board game, although I suppose Scrabble would seem overly complex to a foreigner as well.

Reach Mahjong also goes by the romanization Riichi Majon. If you're interested in playing, go look it up. It's good fun!

Sideways Drawing

Quick note: Sorry for the text wall! Publishing seems to finish it off a little weird right now.

Today I was thinking kind of sideways, so I decided to draw sideways. Here's how it turned out:

Same character drawn right-side-up: (sorry if it's hard to see, the brushstrokes are light)
It's amazing how a perfectly normal and self-professed "artist" can turn into a near-child with an attempt like this. It's a scary phase for artists to go through--realizing that something simple could potentially cripple their talent.

But it's really a lesson in basic drawing.

We all grow up perceiving things as symbols, as pictures in our mind instead of lines, shapes and forms. You look at a face, judge that you are looking at a nose, and draw the presumed shape of a nose. You don't usually think to draw the strange way the nose curves and even if you draw nostrils, they're not always placed accurately. And if asked to do the same thing upside-down, you will likely have to think on it before getting to work.

It's all a matter of training your mind to work in different dimensions. You can see the effect of close-minded visual thinking in my first drawing--the eyes are at different heights, the breasts are lopsided. They're reduced to childlike visions of two eyes placed on a head, two breasts on the body, and one simply fails cognitively to see "the big picture."

What this means is that even the most seemingly well-trained artists can be far from masters of their trade if they cannot draw upside-down or sideways. That's because they're used to drawing symbols, not creating lines. There is no memory imprint for "upside-down eye" in their brain. And that's good! Because once you do draw an upside-down eye, you are training your brain to think in a different way.

And that's good.

The truth is, anyone can be an artist. Anyone with the manual dexterity to write with any legibility can do it. It's just that drawing is a skill fast-abandoned in schools, and many children get frustrated by it while they move onto subjects such as math where they grow to excel. Few find the golden nugget of artistic opportunity and hone their skills, and even then they can learn from a change of perspective.

Try taking a complex picture and drawing it upside-down, from every detail and line. See what you come up with. You may be surprised to have an artist in the house. It may look a little wobbly here or there, but chances are you'll get a lot farther than a potential perception of it right-side-up (a stick man, for example).

Artists, I challenge you to draw sideways or upside-down for a day and see how it changes your work and the way you see it. Non-artists, I challenge you to do the same!

Always be aware of the limits you're placing on yourself based on your point of view.

Lose the Propaganda

So you might know I've been into lifehacking and self-development for a while now, but it hasn't been all that long until I recently discovered a blog called Illuminated Mind.

Illuminated Mind is run by Jonathan Mead, a life coach and martial artist who admits he's always been a bit of a non-conformist. He quit his day job in 2009 to take up writing as a profession. He calls it "getting paid to exist."

I quickly became a huge fan of Jonathan's unique philosophy and the way he filtered out the "fluff" from the run-of-the-mill motivational/productivity content. He gives you things straight, sometimetimes painfully so, but that's what makes him stand out. If you're willing to take the risk of facing up to life's unfortunate truths and making the best of yourself, his content is incomparable.

Jonathan has written several e-books, writes a newsletter for subscribers, and posts on a frequent basis to the main blog.

If you're looking for some straight-faced advice on reaching your dreams, check out Illuminated Mind's page for subscribers-to-be.

PS: Why did I make this post? Because I'm absolutely enthusiastic about the content Jonathan has waiting for you that we can all apply to our lives. I don't have subscribers to promote anything to, this is my way of showing what I've gotten out of the hours of internet soul-searching I've been going through lately.

New Camera!

So my mom's camera part (which the dog previously chewed up in her puppy days) finally came in the mail and I can start uploading pictures.

Only problem is you're going to have to wait a little while until I actually post pictures because I don't know how to work it!

For now I'm just ailing over the fact that my dog dug a hole in the backyard. We just seeded that lawn! Augh! I don't mind putting up with the destruction, though, given that she's such a sweetheart.

(See now, I stole this picture from my sister who has a fancy camera.)