Two More Days…

Two days ago, I officially ran out of my last lengths of wire making a Viking knit length long enough to make a bracelet.  This would be saddening news, if not for the fact that I made the length of Viking knit…to stretch through the draw plate I ordered that will be coming on Friday!  😀

 

I’m beyond excited, have been so anxious all week because I did a major, 150 dollar shopping spree for a ton of beads, wire, and loose cabochon gemstones to play with.  Two of the packages have already been delivered, and I’m just waiting on the third one (ironically, the one with my ring mandrel and draw plate in it, along with all my beads lol).  On Saturday, I’m going to pick up all of my stuff, and then let the jewelry making shenanigan’s recommence!  I have so many ideas for so many projects, some design  experiments I’ve been jotting down to try, and finally, I get to make my own rings!  I have been wanting to be able to make some for months, and now with a ring mandrel I will be able to get on the ball with that 😀 I feel like I should probably start selling these things, because otherwise I’m just going to be swimming in a sea of beads and cabochons haha.  I got some really pretty dagger beads, some seed beads in different colors, and some dragon scale beads, as well as some rainbow moonstone, blue lace agate, termalated quartz, and Lorimar stones. I’m especially excited about the larimar:  I have been wanting to work with some for ages!  And I found some great suppliers I am definitely going to be reusing in the future, so happy with their customer service!  I tried to diversify my color spectrum a bit, but in the end I wound up with a lot of greens, blues, pinks and silvers haha.  But not a biggy, because those are all my favorite colors, and I already have some darker colored gemstone beads I can tinker with.

 

I have so many projects in store, and like I said before really can’t wait to get going again!  I was so tempted to get a chasing hammer this time, but opted to get some smaller, less expensive  tools and get more beads and the like for this stash upgrade.  I’ll get a chasing hammer and bench block for sure, but I think I’m going to wind up buying some more cabochons and beads before I do that regardless XD

 

So yeah, I’m so so so excited!  Saturday can’t come soon enough.  In the meantime,  I’ll be organizing things, and also in the meantime:  here’s a picture of a sword pendant and necklace I made a while back to celebrate my supply run!

Copyright on the Internet

We live in a very strange world now, where anyone can just slap a copyright claim on any YouTube video, no questions asked.  If someone likes a picture someone drew, they can take it, and claim it as there’s.  It’s sad, and a reality that I’ve had to come to grips with as a creator, but in the age of the internet, it’s up to the creator to protect themselves.  With art and music, it’s pretty easy to distinguish copyright:  If you’ve created the piece of art, or wrote and arranged the song, it’s yours.  With covers, if you’ve arranged a version of the song, you can post it and sell it, but it still belongs to the original creator of the track.  Using pre-existing backtracks, the backtrack belongs to whoever made it, your vocals belong to you, and you can’t make any profit off of the work.  Art is even simpler:  You draw it, you own it.  Sculptures:  You mold it, it’s yours.  But what about when it comes to jewelry making?

 

I saw on one of my jewelry groups, someone talking about copyright.  They said they asked an artist if they could replicate a weave, the artist said no.  They then went to the group and started to go “Shame on you, you’re all using the weave and they said no!” to the group, because they had seen the weave being used.  But like, seriously?  I think when it comes to weaves, you can’t really claim a copyright on one.  If you created it sure, but wire weaving is hundreds of years old:  In my opinion, at least, you can’t copyright a weave, or technique.  The end result which is the design,, sure, but not the actual weave.  The person was accusing people of stealing the persons work, but I’m sure all it was, was people using the weave they saw in their own way for a design, and the person not knowing the difference.
In this sense, I feel like copyright with jewelry making, and jewelry designs, goes along the same lines as with music.  There are so many tutorials of people sharing their designs, that have terms at the end of them about whether or not you can use them, or sell them, and then there are just plain old techniques, then no, I don’t think there’s any such thing as copyright.  Imagine if everyone ran around saying “Viking knit is mine!” How crazy that would be?  It’s a technique that is widely known, and how you use it is when copyright comes in.

 

What about you:  how do you feel about copyright on the internet?  What do you do to protect your works when you post them?  Would love to read in the comments!

Yet Another Creative Writing Funk

I have so many projects that I want to start, and then I go to start them and all of my creativity fizzles out.  Like,  I am always saying I am going to write a one shot fan fiction, go to do so and midway through writing I’m just like “Ugh this sucks, I need to stop”.  Right now, I have about three stories in my head that I want to write, one of them being an original story, and 2 some novella sized Sailor Moon fanfics.  What I’ve been trying to work on just comes out as like four paragraphs, then I stop and it’s so frustrating!  I’m wondering if I’m just being too critical on myself and my writing though?  Like I literally have stopped mid sentence a few times because I think it’s so terrible.  I also am terrible at starting stories, so that may be why too hrmm.

 

I’m thinking of maybe starting to actually outline stories.  Like, I’ve written down character bios of characters, then a over-arching plot for the story as a whole, but no bullet points for how to get from point A to point B with a story.  I’ve done this with a radio play script, but then couldn’t (and still can’t) get the end of the story the way I like it.  I’ve gotten some ideas here and there on how to progress, but nothing concrete enough for me to just start where I left off and keep on writing.
I honestly think I am over thinking this entirely too much:  I may just head off, and start writing, and see what happens.  Maybe if I just have a ton of writing on a page, I can work with it and go from there.

 

Have any tips on how to get out of a semi-writers block/self doubt phase?  I’d love to hear in the comments!

2016 New Year’s Resolution Mid Year Review

I usually don’t do this, but I thought since I blogged about it at the beginning of this year, I’d do a new year’s resolution update.  I know I’ve already completed some of the things on the list, which I’m happy about:  But not sure how many things, and want to look and see if anything has changed throughout this first half of the year I have to adapt.  I think this will be a super fun exercise, and help keep all of my goals on track for the rest of the year!  I’ll put a ** next to the goals I have completed, add any notes to ones that have changed at all between left and right brackets, and stick a – next to ones that are currently still in progress, and use // for goals that simply aren’t on my list anymore.  After that, some closing thoughts.  So without further ado:

 

2016 New Year’s Goals and Resolutions June 2016 Update

 

— Get my first single track on Loudr and bandcamp by February [Didn’t happen, and got cold feet a bit but am hoping to still do this by the end of the year]

**  Finish recording the Mana Aeliria theme song by February, latest by March.

//  Learn at least 1 cord on the guitar XD but I want to shoot for 3! [I’m really not interested in learning how to play guitar anymore, because I have a bit more interest in percussion and woodwind instruments]

—  Buy an ocarina, and start learning how to play it. [I am going to save a decent chunk of money after I buy my jewelry haul and do an instrument haul, and this will be  a part of it so it’s still in progress]

—  Buy a keyboard, and start learning how to play it.

—  Start composing music with instruments, instead of just with acappella

**  Learn what it takes to make a fuller a cappella mix of a song

** Learn how to master tracks and try to with the ones I have atm. [I tried, and wasn’t that good at it.  May try again though]

—  Start releasing the tracks I’ve been writing, as singles.  Release a full album by the end of the year. [I’ve released a few original songs on my soundcloud, but have more so it’s still in progress]

**  Find an artist to do cover art for singles, albums, and other things I need (banner for YouTube, things like that)

//  Pay for some hosting space and make a new version of my crystaldennismusic website.  Preferably on bluehost with wordpress engine. [May still do this, but on a free engine]

**  Get a better camera so I can start filming youTube vids of me singing and vlogs.

—  Finish Terris Magic. [Episode 5 has been at a stand still and need to crack down as a producer]

—  Finish new story I started, and start producing it. [Legit need to get on the ball with writing ing general]

—  Get percussion instruments (jingle rings, bodhran or other type of drum for folk/Celtic/medieval sound

—  Join Bandcamp, post songs on Loudr.

—  Get a higher YouTube subscriber count [I have!  But want more lol]

—  Keep on posting on YouTube all year!

//  Start doing live gigs again, and street performing [Don’t think it’s really feasible just yet, but hopefully it will be soon!]

—  Keep on writing original songs

—  Finally make a track for my Terra Lyrics I have haha.

—  Buy a 2 channel preamp, and a microphone as well – ideally, get 2:  another condenser, and a dynamic

—  Keep on building my home studio with the stuff channels say to buy (keyboard, mics, computer, headphones)

**  Overall just keep on building my craft in music and my internet presence

** Don’t slack on the blog!

**  Start making jewelry again:  buy a chasing hammer, wire looping pliers, and a nylon jaw plier.

**  Get some 24 and 20 GA wire.

—  Sell jewelry!  Repurpose current pieces if need be to sell.

**  Start working on wire work jewelry and with crystal clay since those are the 2 things I am most interested in.  Also bead weaving and that metal engraving thing.

**  Keep on writing stories, lyrics, start writing fanfiction again and just keep writing stuff.

** Stay creative!  Don’t let that creative bone die.

–  Spend at least one day a week off skype, and use that time to create stuff on the computer (or off lol) [Have done this somewhat but probably should try harder XD]

— Pay off credit card

—  Bake more because it’s super fun

 

 

So I have completed 10 goals on my list, that’s major progress, and a lot more than I expected to have completed by this time of the year!  I usually have about 5 done by the end of the year, so seeing this is really exciting, and makes me want to just keep doing what I’ve been doing, with improvements of course.  I find it super interesting that even though I haven’t looked at these, they have still been in my mind:  Like, I’m getting ready to buy a ton of jewelry stuff, and after that some instruments, and I haven’t even looked at this list until now.  I’ve been getting a lot more active in the video game music community also, and I’m currently in the progress of setting up so I can get over my camera shyness and start shooting videos.  I haven’t been very active on YouTube this month, but it’s because of that:  I’m determined to have my next video be me on camera!

 

Here’s hoping the rest of this year goes as well as the first half has, goal wise!

The Magically Healed Disability Trope – A Rant

A rant post is ahead.  You have been warned~

 

This has been bothering me like crazy, and has been popping up in the last few pieces of media I’ve been watching, and this last one I watched just royally pissed me off, so I needed to vent about it.  Granted, the most recent thing I have been watching is Jem and the Holograms, and that cartoon is from the 80s, so there is a bit of leeway there (not much, but I’ll give it some).  The others though?  2014, 2012, in years that this really shouldn’t be a thing in.  I mainly see this happen in anime, but it goes for any other piece of media that this has happened in, too.

 

Let me paint this picture for you:  You’re watching an anime, or cartoon, and a disabled character pops up.  They’re not portrayed as some weak, co-dependent  person.  Instead, they’re shown as being highly capable, really smart, super skilled in whatever they are talented at, and having a full personality of their own, not even close to being a stereo type.  They don’t let their disability keep them down:  the exact opposite, they use it to their advantage, and use it to kick butt.
As a disabled person you go “Yes, awesome!  They are finally showing that being blind, or in a wheelchair, isn’t a bad thing.  That I am just as much of a person as any fully able person.  That I can kick all the butts if I just put my mind to it, and that I’m not just a ster-what’s happening…did they…did they just heal their disability?  Are you freaking kidding me!?”

 

I can’t even begin to talk about how many bad messages this trope sends to anyone watching.  Not only is it insulting to any disabled person watching the show, but it just totally puts the “Disabilities are a problem that need to be fixed” thing into people’s heads.  The fact that they sometimes also have people, who have dealt with a disability their entire lives, then go get an operation to fix said disability because oh hey, yeah they were dealing with it, but really, they want to be able to see just like everyone else, fix me!  Is so bad too.  And yes, I’m sure there are people who feel that way, but more likely than not, they have been dealing with their disability for almost all of their lives, have adapted to the changes needed to live their lives as they see fit, and getting something done to be “normal” again, would be a detriment to their style of life.  And don’t get me started on the amount of rehabilitation the person would need, which shows just decide to streamline into about a month or less.

 

If this happened in only a few shows, I wouldn’t mind so much.  But literally, in the past three to four shows I’ve watched, they have had a disabled character be awesome all series, then magically be healed by series end.
Can we please stop this?  Can we just have someone stay disabled, and be alright with it?  When a person is disabled, and has been their entire lives, that is their normal.  Don’t make it out like it’s a problem, don’t make it out like they’re awesome in spite of their disability, and don’t discount they’re awesome capabilities, by magically healing them of all their “ills”.  Is that so much to ask?

 

It just strikes such a cord for me, because when you’ve been dealing with a disability all of, or most of your life, it’s not something you want to be portrayed in media as wrong.  When I see a blind person in a show that is stumbling around, and bumping into things all willy nilly, and being treated as the dunce character, it just makes me want to list everything wrong with the episode in question.  The flipside of that isn’t any better either:  Having a character be blind, and that not affecting them at all and it just being like oh hey they can see, no biggy… just can see with all ma other senses!  Isn’t any better.  It’s not showing a blind person as a realistic human being, and is still putting that “You need to see to be normal” mindset into people’s heads.  I love the Netflix show Daredevil, but that was the one major thing that erked me about it, and is something I wish they’d fix.  Like he literally throws his cane in a dumpster in one episode, no intelligent blind person would be doing that!

 

Is it so difficult to have proper representation of disabilities in media?  If they’re going through the lengths to include a disabled person in their show, then why not go the extra mile and actually depict them correctly?  And when they do that, is it so hard for them to keep them disabled, and not magically heal them so us disabled people can have someone we can identify with, and not feel cheated out of by the end of the show?  Is that seriously too much to ask?

 

If anyone has some good shows to recommend with well-presented disabled characters, I’d love to hear about them!

Time Just Flew by Today!

Time just flew by today, and I totally thought I had already posted something and went onto doing other things.  In the middle of writing down some design brainstorms, I realized I hadn’t posted anything, oops!  So here I am hopping in to write something after working on some jewelry design ideas.

 

I’ve ran out of wire, because I’ve been making things like crazy, and I won’t be able to get anymore until next month.  It’s been driving me nuts!  I’m getting all of these ideas for jewelry projects, wire sculpture projects, and my small amount of 28 gage wire that is left is just sitting there laughing at me.  Why, even my 24 gage wire that I hardly use is almost gone, and it bums me out so hardcore that I won’t be able to make things until next month!

 

The good news is:  I’m saving up a decent chunk of money, so I can buy some new tools, some new beads, and hopefully some new cabochons to work with, as well!  I plan to buy bigger chunks of wire, so I don’t run out as quickly.  I looked at the order form from my last wire order to see what lengths I had before, and realized my 20 gage wire only had 13 feet:  way too little for me to do anything substantial with!  I was like, no wonder why I ran out so fast haha.  This time, I plan to order from parawire, because I’ve heard so many things about them, and they have waaay bigger amounts of wire to buy.  Here’s hoping I don’t run out of that super quickly, too XD.

 

To keep myself in the making mindset, I used the 28 gage wire I had to practice Viking knit.  It worked well:  although, I think I like the 26 gage Viking knits look a little better.  28 gage, I notice, looks really nice as a flat knit bracelet though.  I’m really happy I started Viking knitting flat instead of tubular, because I would have never discovered how pretty a flat Viking knit looks as a bracelet otherwise!  And, I plan to use it in other designs that I’ve been planning, once I get my big order in.

 

Also what I’ve been doing to stay in the flow, is just watch tutorials.  I’ve gotten so many ideas for things to try, just by looking at videos.  Some of the tutorials I want to try, but others, I’m just watching so I can get the technique down, and then have fun doing whatever I want with it.  I think it’s time…for me to not look at tutorials though dun dun duuuun!  Well, we’ll see when I start making things again, but I’m going to try not looking at as many tutorials, and just coming up with my own ideas, and see how that goes.  Well, maybe not stop looking at them, because I love seeing what people make, but stop following them, and coming up with my own designs.  For now I’m going to keep watching to stay motivated, and keep my creative juices flowing though!

 

That got a little rambly XD but I just really can’t wait to get my jewelry stuff updated, and get back to making things again!  I’ll leave you with a picture of a piece I know I won’t have enough to talk about on its own post, a wire woven pendant, my first attempt at doing one!  I hope all of your crafting is  going well! 

 

I’ve Gotten Some New Drive

Whenever  I say I am going to start to do something, it takes me months or weeks to actually do so.  Case and point:  Recording myself on video for my YouTube channel.  I bought my camera in March, said I was going to start by the middle of March, and here we are at June and I still haven’t started recording yet.  All I’ve used my cam for is taking jewelry pictures, which is beneficial, don’t get me wrong, but it isn’t what I bought the webcam for.
There are a number of reasons as to why I haven’t started yet:  Need decent lighting, need to get a good camera setup, am not asking for help when I should, and lack of courage/having too many nerves about showing my face on camera.  But recently, I’ve gotten some new motivation and drive to just buckle down and start recording, no matter how funky I look, or how bad the video will be!

 

This is, once again, a video game cover artist Subreddit.  I found them a little while ago when I was trying to find a place to promote my videos, and ran across it.  Not gonna lie, it’s literally the only reason why I joined reddit XD I really was looking for a place with like-minded, encouraging people, who could help me grow as a YouTuber, and musician, and I think I’ve found it.  This probably isn’t the only driving force of my new found inspiration, but I know it’s certainly helped me a ton with all of my insecurities, and doubts about posting on YouTube.  I’ve also met a ton of great new acquaintance’s, that hopefully will become friends!  And I’ve gotten new drive to start up my instrument collection, and have been getting all of these ideas for the style of cover I want to start doing when I get a bit more experience under my belt.  All in all, being a part of this group has been a great experience, and I’m excited to grow and learn more while participating with them on projects.

 

This has given me some new drive.  I’ve decided, that I’m not going to try and stay on a YouTube schedule as rigidly as I have been, because that leads to a quality of video that I don’t really like.  I’m currently working on mixing a new cover, and I decided that it isn’t going up on YouTube until I have a fully recorded video to go with it.  May not have any fancy editing tricks, or snazzy quality, but it will be a step in the right direction for my channel.  Not only that, but I’ve decided to not stop myself from recording because I don’t want to ask for help:  With some gentle nudging from my family, I might add haha.  I know it’s going to be hard to do, and it’s always an issue I’m going to have to deal with.  But, if I need help shooting a video, I’ll just ask for it.  After all, what’s more important:  Swallowing pride and getting help, or getting a good quality video up?  Of course the video!

 

I’m going to force this new drive to stick with all of my projects.  I realized today, that I really enjoy doing all of the things I do, and I need to stop sabotaging myself with stupid things like not asking for help, or belittling my work by saying “Oh, it’s a cappella, it’s not really a nice arrangement because it’s all just my voice” “Oh, anyone can twist wire around a stone, my designs aren’t even original” “See!  I don’t have a lot of views because I suck (probably more because I just post static images, of course)”.

 

No more!  If I get these stupid thoughts in my head, I’m going to shove them aside and just keep going.  If I keep on working at all the things I do, and keep putting myself out there, only good things can happen, I know it!

Jewelry Hacks: Makeup Mandrels

Being blind, the average way someone does something, or is told to do something, isn’t always the easiest way.  I’ve found this especially true with designing and making jewelry, as I’ve stated in past posts.  In my quest to find things that work for me, I’ve found some work arounds, alternative ways, and what I’d like to call “jewelry Hacks” for doing certain techniques.  Not all of these are hacks for doing techniques, per see, but also may be alternative versions of tools, handling wire, and things like that.  For my first jewelry hack:  Makeup mandrels!

 

Let me explain a bit more.  As I’ve said before on this blog, I’ve been practicing and perfecting the Viking knit technique.  With this technique, it says to have a pencil, dowel, or rounded object in the middle to weave around to form it’s tube shape.  I don’t really have a lot of pencils laying around the house, and didn’t want to have to ask my Mom to hunt one down, but you know what I did have and know exactly where they were?  Eyeliner pencils!

 

I’ve been weaving around one eyeliner pencil I got in an Ulta sample set I got from a friend a while back.  It works just as well as weaving around a normal, number 2 pencil, and has made working Viking knit properly a breeze.  The one issue I had, was the fact that the cap to the pencil was a bit more raised than the rest, like a pen, and I wanted a more flat shape.  So, off to my Ipsy bag!

 

I remembered in an Ipsy bag I got about a year ago, there was another eye liner pencil in there.  It looks like it’s going to be perfect for Viking knitting, because not only does it have no raised areas, and a completely flat surface, but it has curves like a number 2 pencil does!  I can already tell, it’s going to be great for weaving around and keeping my loops arranged nicely (which is something I’ve been struggling with just a bit).  Now to see if my idea for starting the foundation stitches pans out, and I’ll be in business!

 

I realized something when I was looking at the pencils, too:  They would be perfect for using as mandrels for wrapping coils, and making bails with.  So, I just went ahead and moved them both over to my jewelry making supplies, because I know that I will be using them a lot more there!  I don’t know why I didn’t think of using these, before:  I always use my lip gloss tubes for mandrels when I’m making a bigger shape, so I’m a bit annoyed with myself that I didn’t just thing I could use eye liner pencils for that too.  At least I know now though, so live and learn.

 

Do you have any household objects that may seem rather odd to use for wire looping mandrels around your house?  I’d love to hear in the comments!

In Circles Cover, The Old and the New!

Something song related after a long span of jewelry stuff, yay!  I got super motivated to record this because it’s been in my head, so did it a few days ago.  Messed around with some delay effects in the chorus, may not be perfect, but it was fun nevertheless haha.
I wanted to do something I thought would be super fun, with this though:  I did this song 2 years ago also, around when I had just started voice coaching sessions with my vocal coach.  I listened to the old version, then to this one, and I was super surprised to see the difference, in both my vocals, and my mixing!  I won’t say what I notice that’s different:  I’ll let you guys be the judge of that, but if you do notice something different, let me know in the comments.  Would love to see if you notice the new things that I do!
The New version of In Circles:

 

Old version: