by Chuck Rothman
I've been writing for over thirty years, but I still don't know how it works. What works for me may not work for you. And vice versa.
● The best writing guide I had was a course I never took called "Effective Writing." The rules were:
○ Write the entire draft, start to finish, without going back.
○ Edit it until it's good.
90% of what makes a story work is in the first draft. But a first draft rarely works unless it's edited or you're Isaac Asimov.
● I hate to outline. Once I know where a story is going, I'm not interested in writing it.
● Never trust anyone who dictates how to write. They're telling you how they write.
● No one ever was taught to write in a creative writing class. However, a writing class can teach you what pitfalls to avoid, saving you from having to figure it out yourself.
● Every rule of writing can be broken. But you need to know the rules so you can know when to break them.
● Remember the three C's: Character, conflict, and change. You create a character that has a conflict, which causes change.
● There is no cliche that can't be given new life, and no original concept that can be made dull.
● My writing motto is "If it doesn't flow, it doesn't go." I have no idea what that means, but at least it rhymes.
● Note to new writers: no one's going to steal your work. You'd be surprised how many times I've come across people worrying about this.
● Someone once said the difference between a good writer and a bad writer is that a good writer only sees what's bad in his work, and a bad writer only sees what's good. If you can't see what's bad, you can never improve it.
● There's a smorgasbord of writing advice. Pick and choose what you like.
● Someone who will tell you why your story is crap is worth their weight in gold-pressed latinum.
● Forget the three C's. Plenty of stories do.
● Algis Budrys wrote about the "seven parts of a story" -- a great concise analysis of what makes a good story. When he edited Tomorrow, someone went through the stories he published for several months. None had all seven parts.
● Feel free to ignore my advice. I often do.
Chuck Rothman has been writing biographical blurbs for his stories for over 30 years, to accompany stories in places like Asimov's, F&SF, Realms of Fantasy, Daily Science Fiction, Space and Time, and many others publications. He also writes reviews for Tangent Online. He lives in Schenectady. Read more from Chuck on his blog.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Neon yellow plastic bracelet DIY
I'm sure you believe that I'm a terrible chef since you have seen me boil only plastic or bake body butter. Today the menu is not different we'll boil plastic again. After my strange cooking lessons you'll still be hungry but you'll eventually have a new bracelet. I found these neon yellow clear spoons at the supermarket and I though they would make nice neon bracelets. Make them is just as easy as it seems. I boiled the water and then I dipped the spoon into it. It became flexible and I bent it with the help of a pincer. I took it out of the water and in no time the spoon was stiff again. I made the first one thinking of a snake. The second one is made of 2 spoons. I curled the concave part of the spoon tightly to make a spiral. Do you like them?
Penserete che io sia una pessima cuoca visto che mi avete visto bollire solo plastica e burro per il corpo. Vi avverto, oggi il menù non cambia, bolliremo di nuovo la plastica. Certo queste strane lezioni di cucina non vi faranno venir fame ma alla fine avrete un nuovo bracciale. Ho trovato questi cucchiai in plastica traparente e li ho trasformati in braccialetti neon. Realizzarli è facile come sembra. Ho immerso il cucchiaio nell'acqua bollente e l'ho poi piegato con l'aiuto di una pinza. Una volta fuori dall'acqua il bracciale tornerà subito rigido. Ho realizzato il primo bracciale pensando alla forma di un serpente mentre il secondo è composto da due cucchiai. Di ognuno ho arricciato l'estremità concava in modo da formare una voluta.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Embracing a Multitasking Lifestyle
By Anaea Lay
Between smart phones and Twitter, we're in an age where people love to lament our short attention spans and our inability to focus on any one thing. It seems like writers are particularly prone to this, complaining about flash games and social networking eating away at their fleeting opportunities to commit acts of fiction. They practically create fetishes for unplugging, disconnecting, going on retreat and just focusing on their precious prose. I'm the last person to sneer at anything that leads to more fabulous fiction in the world, but when it comes to the multitasking lifestyle taking over the modern age I can summon only one response: Bring it!
My personal advocacy for multitasking while writing goes back to the day I discovered that I work better with music in the background. Music was the gate-way distraction. At this point I'm so addicted that my response to business trips is excitement over all the writing I'll get done while I'm in meetings. When those stories sell, it's like getting paid twice.
Writing while distracted isn't for everybody, but I'd argue that quality craft demands multitasking. This is something that becomes clear very quickly if you try your hand at writing scripts: the best story craft multitasks like a fiend. A minimally competent line of dialog makes sense and is believable coming from the character who uttered it. A good one will also tell you something about the character. A brilliant one does all those things, moves the scene forward, and changes the stakes.
Writing scripts is a good way to learn the importance of multifunction prose, but you can see it everywhere. For example, take one of my favorite first lines in fiction, the opening to Robert. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. “Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith.” In twelve words you learn several things about the book you've picked up, among them:
1) The fairy tale opening words indicate it probably intends to teach you something
2) Mentioning a Martian tells you it's speculative, specifically involving humans having access to Mars or vice versa
3) Opening the sentence with a phrase that essentially means, “Long ago,” and ends with indications that it takes place in the future warns you this isn't an entirely serious book.
Heinlein probably didn't check his twitter feed while writing (I am careful about assumptions when science fiction writers are involved), but he definitely understood putting his prose to multitasking work.
Flash fiction, at its best, indulges in this this kind of heavy-lifting with an expertise worthy of respect, even for people who aren't fans of the form. Take, for example, a story by Robert Smartwood published in Pank magazine, “Seven Items In Jason Reynolds’ Jacket Pocket, Two Days After His Suicide, As Found By His Eight-Year-Old Brother, Grady.” It's a fabulous story, consisting of nothing more than the descriptions of the seven items. The title gives the reader all the frame they need to figure out what's going on, and then appreciate the subtle horror of the interplay between the reader's understanding of what happened and Grady's inability to parse it.
I could go on with dozens of other examples, but I won't. My RSS reader is getting full.
Anaea Lay is not an evil alien bent on sowing chaos and ending the world. Nor is she a mad scientist prone to creating monsters in her basement. She does live in Madison, Wisconsin where she makes up weird things for fun and profit. She is also a featured writer in the June issue of Apex Magazine.
Learn More about Anaea on her website.
Between smart phones and Twitter, we're in an age where people love to lament our short attention spans and our inability to focus on any one thing. It seems like writers are particularly prone to this, complaining about flash games and social networking eating away at their fleeting opportunities to commit acts of fiction. They practically create fetishes for unplugging, disconnecting, going on retreat and just focusing on their precious prose. I'm the last person to sneer at anything that leads to more fabulous fiction in the world, but when it comes to the multitasking lifestyle taking over the modern age I can summon only one response: Bring it!
My personal advocacy for multitasking while writing goes back to the day I discovered that I work better with music in the background. Music was the gate-way distraction. At this point I'm so addicted that my response to business trips is excitement over all the writing I'll get done while I'm in meetings. When those stories sell, it's like getting paid twice.
Writing while distracted isn't for everybody, but I'd argue that quality craft demands multitasking. This is something that becomes clear very quickly if you try your hand at writing scripts: the best story craft multitasks like a fiend. A minimally competent line of dialog makes sense and is believable coming from the character who uttered it. A good one will also tell you something about the character. A brilliant one does all those things, moves the scene forward, and changes the stakes.
Writing scripts is a good way to learn the importance of multifunction prose, but you can see it everywhere. For example, take one of my favorite first lines in fiction, the opening to Robert. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. “Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith.” In twelve words you learn several things about the book you've picked up, among them:
1) The fairy tale opening words indicate it probably intends to teach you something
2) Mentioning a Martian tells you it's speculative, specifically involving humans having access to Mars or vice versa
3) Opening the sentence with a phrase that essentially means, “Long ago,” and ends with indications that it takes place in the future warns you this isn't an entirely serious book.
Heinlein probably didn't check his twitter feed while writing (I am careful about assumptions when science fiction writers are involved), but he definitely understood putting his prose to multitasking work.
Flash fiction, at its best, indulges in this this kind of heavy-lifting with an expertise worthy of respect, even for people who aren't fans of the form. Take, for example, a story by Robert Smartwood published in Pank magazine, “Seven Items In Jason Reynolds’ Jacket Pocket, Two Days After His Suicide, As Found By His Eight-Year-Old Brother, Grady.” It's a fabulous story, consisting of nothing more than the descriptions of the seven items. The title gives the reader all the frame they need to figure out what's going on, and then appreciate the subtle horror of the interplay between the reader's understanding of what happened and Grady's inability to parse it.
I could go on with dozens of other examples, but I won't. My RSS reader is getting full.
Anaea Lay is not an evil alien bent on sowing chaos and ending the world. Nor is she a mad scientist prone to creating monsters in her basement. She does live in Madison, Wisconsin where she makes up weird things for fun and profit. She is also a featured writer in the June issue of Apex Magazine.
Learn More about Anaea on her website.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Flower necklace DIY
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| flower necklace DIY |
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| shoes Elio Fiorucci for OVS industry |
Today I made a flower necklace inspired to my new pair of shoes. If you've been reading this page for a while you may recognize the fabric from the flapper dress DIY. This is again a quick project you can make with little fabric scraps so you can have no waste and more diy fun! Here's how I made it.
Oggi ho realizzato una collana ispirandomi al paio di scarpe che ho appena acquistato. Ecco un altro veloce fai da te che potrete realizzare utilizzando piccoli pezzetti di stoffa che avete in casa valorizzando al massimo le rimanenze.
You need: fabric scraps (this is georgette fabric) - a piece of rope - scissors - needle and thread
Avrete bisogno di: stoffa (questa è georgette) - un cordone - forbici - ago e filo
Fold the fabric in half, fold it again in the opposite direction, measure 3 cms on both sides, cut it
Piegate a metà la stoffa - Piegatela ancora nella direzione opposta - Misurate 3 cm ambo i lati e tagliate un arco di circonferenza
Piegate a metà la stoffa - Piegatela ancora nella direzione opposta - Misurate 3 cm ambo i lati e tagliate un arco di circonferenza
You've cut a circle - Keep it folded and block it with a stich or two and then sew it onto the rope - Keep adding petals.
Avete così tagliato un cerchio - Mantenetelo piegato e bloccate la stoffa in posizione con un punto o due, Trovate il centro della corda e cucite il petalo - Continuate ad aggiungere petali
When you finish a row overlap another one or two. Add a clasp at the end and you've done!
Terminata una fila di petali sovrapponetene un'altra. Aggiungete un moschettone e la collana è pronta!
Terminata una fila di petali sovrapponetene un'altra. Aggiungete un moschettone e la collana è pronta!
Friday, May 25, 2012
Send to Military
Musa Publishing and Penumbra eMag wish to thank those serving in our military this Memorial Day Weekend.
If you are or know someone serving and would like to send them a free copy of our eMag in PDF format please fill out the form below.
We will make sure they know who it came from with a special note from you.
Penumbra is the speculative fiction eMag published monthly by Musa Publishing. At Penumbra, the Muses are clustered in the part of the psyche caught between the darkness and the light. Whether that results in hardcore science fiction or fantasy humor, psychological horror or a Steampunk poem with a twist is out of the Muses' control.
That control is in the hands of the author.
Penumbra publishes speculative fiction that always culminates in something unexpected - a flash of humor in the darkest tale or a fantasy piece that goes against the tropes - always something that hovers right on the periphery of the eclipse.
To Stay tuned of what is happening with Penumbra please follow our blog.
If you are or know someone serving and would like to send them a free copy of our eMag in PDF format please fill out the form below.
We will make sure they know who it came from with a special note from you.
What is Penumbra?
Penumbra is the speculative fiction eMag published monthly by Musa Publishing. At Penumbra, the Muses are clustered in the part of the psyche caught between the darkness and the light. Whether that results in hardcore science fiction or fantasy humor, psychological horror or a Steampunk poem with a twist is out of the Muses' control.
That control is in the hands of the author.
Penumbra publishes speculative fiction that always culminates in something unexpected - a flash of humor in the darkest tale or a fantasy piece that goes against the tropes - always something that hovers right on the periphery of the eclipse.
To Stay tuned of what is happening with Penumbra please follow our blog.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
See It Before You Write It, Then Get Busy Daydreaming
by Robert Lowell Russell
Every writer has his or her own way of starting a story, so with the caveat that what works for me isn't going to work for everyone, here's how I do it (fair warning, I'm a "pantser").
My stories usually start with a single visual scene in my head, and when I have the scene fixed in my mind, I add a second scene. My job then becomes making sense of the two scenes. It may seem easy to get characters to go from point A to point B, but I often have no idea who my characters are at this stage, and there may be no obvious connections between points A and B.
There are probably certain advantages to starting with characters, then building a world around them. But I like building my world first, then plunking the characters into it and letting them fend for themselves. I also think starting with visual scenes makes it easier to "show" rather than "tell."
With Path of Stones **spoiler alert**, I deconstructed Hansel and Gretel. I started by visualizing a trail of white stones running through a fairy tale forest, then added a scene of a man sitting in a bar, staring at one of the stones in his hand. The challenge was then explaining how the man fit into a story about a couple of kids, and how I got from a fairy tale world to a modern day setting. It was an interesting process. The story started at 1.6K words, ballooned to 6K, was pared to 4K, and was finally condensed to 3K. During the rewriting process, I lost the original bar scene, the Empire State Building, Charles Darwin, Annie Oakley, a sexy witch, and bunch of other stuff.
One advantage of the "plotter" style may be that a writer doesn't end up with as many unusable parts when he or she is finished with a story (Though I tend to recycle my best story fragments. Sexy witches = writing gold!). But I like getting messy, and I like getting weird. My two starting scenes usually serve as corner pieces of an elaborate jigsaw puzzle, and with those scenes in my head, I daydream about my story, twisting and turning the middle pieces, deciding what fits and what doesn't. This lets me "work" even when I'm not sitting with an outline in front of a computer, and I've learned to trust my instincts when I write.
However, if you're going to write this way, you need to be able to track a lot of things in your head simultaneously, and make sure you have solid critics reviewing what you write. Our brains work to fill in the gaps of what we perceive, so you need more than one set of eyes to spot the inevitable gaps.
Some final words of advice: bang it out, polish it, fire it off, then cross your fingers. And if you're not having fun, you're probably doing it wrong.
Robert Lowell Russell once aspired to become a history professor, but found working with the real world too constraining. His works in progress, a series of short stories and a novel, incorporate elements of his previous research in Native American history and culture.
For links to more of Rob's stories (or to see him dressed like a ninja) visit his blog.
Every writer has his or her own way of starting a story, so with the caveat that what works for me isn't going to work for everyone, here's how I do it (fair warning, I'm a "pantser").
My stories usually start with a single visual scene in my head, and when I have the scene fixed in my mind, I add a second scene. My job then becomes making sense of the two scenes. It may seem easy to get characters to go from point A to point B, but I often have no idea who my characters are at this stage, and there may be no obvious connections between points A and B.
There are probably certain advantages to starting with characters, then building a world around them. But I like building my world first, then plunking the characters into it and letting them fend for themselves. I also think starting with visual scenes makes it easier to "show" rather than "tell."
With Path of Stones **spoiler alert**, I deconstructed Hansel and Gretel. I started by visualizing a trail of white stones running through a fairy tale forest, then added a scene of a man sitting in a bar, staring at one of the stones in his hand. The challenge was then explaining how the man fit into a story about a couple of kids, and how I got from a fairy tale world to a modern day setting. It was an interesting process. The story started at 1.6K words, ballooned to 6K, was pared to 4K, and was finally condensed to 3K. During the rewriting process, I lost the original bar scene, the Empire State Building, Charles Darwin, Annie Oakley, a sexy witch, and bunch of other stuff.
One advantage of the "plotter" style may be that a writer doesn't end up with as many unusable parts when he or she is finished with a story (Though I tend to recycle my best story fragments. Sexy witches = writing gold!). But I like getting messy, and I like getting weird. My two starting scenes usually serve as corner pieces of an elaborate jigsaw puzzle, and with those scenes in my head, I daydream about my story, twisting and turning the middle pieces, deciding what fits and what doesn't. This lets me "work" even when I'm not sitting with an outline in front of a computer, and I've learned to trust my instincts when I write.
However, if you're going to write this way, you need to be able to track a lot of things in your head simultaneously, and make sure you have solid critics reviewing what you write. Our brains work to fill in the gaps of what we perceive, so you need more than one set of eyes to spot the inevitable gaps.
Some final words of advice: bang it out, polish it, fire it off, then cross your fingers. And if you're not having fun, you're probably doing it wrong.
Robert Lowell Russell once aspired to become a history professor, but found working with the real world too constraining. His works in progress, a series of short stories and a novel, incorporate elements of his previous research in Native American history and culture.
For links to more of Rob's stories (or to see him dressed like a ninja) visit his blog.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
What's new and cool: 4 new shoe designers you need to know
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| Max Kibardin |
Max Kibardin started his carreer as a model but his passion for fashion was so strong that he gave up his studies in architecture to become a shoe designer. His inspiration comes from italians 60's movies and his ambition is to create shoes of a timeless elegance.
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| Gianvito Rossi |
Shoes are in his genes. Gianvito Rossi is the son of the famous Sergio Rossi. He started his own line in 2007. His shoes are modern, feminine, innovative but with a classic elegance.
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| Alejandro Ingelmo |
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| Jerome Rousseau |
Make some room in your heart for your new favorite shoe designer. These are some of the most talked about shoe designers of the moment. They're young with a strong sense of style. Their shoes are innovative but don't forget the importance of the classical style. Get excited about their creations (as I am) and start collecting them: they are the new must haves.
Giovani e pieni di talento, sono una nuova generazione di stilisti della calzatura destinata a fare breccia nel nostro cuore. Le loro creazioni, innovative e molto eleganti, sono già da tempo diventate le preferite di vip e collezionisti delle calzature.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
A Kiss in the Dark
by Michele Lang
I adore short stories, love to both read them and write them. I believe we are in the middle of a short story renaissance, and as a reader I’m a happy beneficiary of the times.
However, writing the short story has mystified as well as bewitched me. As a novelist, for the longest time my short stories turned into partials when I wrote them. When I did manage to finish them, I struggled to bring them in under 10,000 words.
There’s a time-bending element to short stories, a magic about them. How do short story writers manage to compress a world of unforgettable characters, and a profound change in that world, in 5,000 or even 2,000 words?
I wanted to learn that magic for myself. For a solid year, I wrote shorts that read like chopped off first chapters of novels. While I loved the characters and their worlds, I didn’t have the skill to grant them a resolution, the chance of a life after the story. My poor characters just kind of dangled, waiting for what happened next, off-stage, after the end.
I knew I needed to learn more. But I couldn’t grasp the essential difference between a short story and a novel.
They aren’t miniature novels, so what are they?
Last year, at an anthology workshop on the Oregon Coast, I got some advice from Denise Little, a brilliant editor, and she clarified the mystery for me. She told me to think in terms of musical composition:
A short story is like an instrumental solo;
A novella is like a duet between two instruments, say a viola and a flute;
And a novel is a fully orchestrated concerto, with a tripartite structure, complex harmonies, and a contained aesthetic.
A short story won’t tell you all about its world – it can’t. It can’t tie up all the loose ends, it can’t tell you the backstory of all the major characters. The major characters don’t overcome and transform essential flaws in their natures. There’s no room for all of that.
What a short story will do, in fact does do better than a novel, is portray a window into a moment. It captures the essential truth in the music of a single life. It’s a song sung without backup instruments, it’s a hymn, or a lullaby. And a short story can linger in your memory as long and as vividly as any novel.
Stephen King once said (and I’m paraphrasing) that a novel is like a marriage while a short story is a kiss in the dark from a stranger. And yet, there are kisses that reach across memory and transcend time, to change you forever.
And that is why I love short stories.
Michele Lang writes supernatural tales: the stories of witches, lawyers, goddesses, bankers, demons, and other magical creatures hidden in plain sight. She is the author of the LADY LAZARUS historical fantasy trilogy (Tor).
Learn more about Michele on her website.
I adore short stories, love to both read them and write them. I believe we are in the middle of a short story renaissance, and as a reader I’m a happy beneficiary of the times.
However, writing the short story has mystified as well as bewitched me. As a novelist, for the longest time my short stories turned into partials when I wrote them. When I did manage to finish them, I struggled to bring them in under 10,000 words.
There’s a time-bending element to short stories, a magic about them. How do short story writers manage to compress a world of unforgettable characters, and a profound change in that world, in 5,000 or even 2,000 words?
I wanted to learn that magic for myself. For a solid year, I wrote shorts that read like chopped off first chapters of novels. While I loved the characters and their worlds, I didn’t have the skill to grant them a resolution, the chance of a life after the story. My poor characters just kind of dangled, waiting for what happened next, off-stage, after the end.
I knew I needed to learn more. But I couldn’t grasp the essential difference between a short story and a novel.
They aren’t miniature novels, so what are they?
Last year, at an anthology workshop on the Oregon Coast, I got some advice from Denise Little, a brilliant editor, and she clarified the mystery for me. She told me to think in terms of musical composition:
A short story is like an instrumental solo;
A novella is like a duet between two instruments, say a viola and a flute;
And a novel is a fully orchestrated concerto, with a tripartite structure, complex harmonies, and a contained aesthetic.
A short story won’t tell you all about its world – it can’t. It can’t tie up all the loose ends, it can’t tell you the backstory of all the major characters. The major characters don’t overcome and transform essential flaws in their natures. There’s no room for all of that.
What a short story will do, in fact does do better than a novel, is portray a window into a moment. It captures the essential truth in the music of a single life. It’s a song sung without backup instruments, it’s a hymn, or a lullaby. And a short story can linger in your memory as long and as vividly as any novel.
Stephen King once said (and I’m paraphrasing) that a novel is like a marriage while a short story is a kiss in the dark from a stranger. And yet, there are kisses that reach across memory and transcend time, to change you forever.
And that is why I love short stories.
Michele Lang writes supernatural tales: the stories of witches, lawyers, goddesses, bankers, demons, and other magical creatures hidden in plain sight. She is the author of the LADY LAZARUS historical fantasy trilogy (Tor).
Learn more about Michele on her website.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Old Hollywood glamour
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| Kate Spade gold shoes - Gucci Green shoes - Accessorize clutch -Topshop maxi dress - Swarovski necklace |
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| Expensive - Sapphire bracelet (I used as a "carpet") Birks - Affordable crystal bridal cuff on the right Etsy |
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| Affordable On the right vintage emerald necklace Etsy - Expensive necklace on the right Chopard |
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‘The Luxor’ – Johanna Johnson’s decadent 2012 wedding Collection |
From minis to mid-lenght, we'll wear skirts of any kind. Only one will remain the most difficult to wear: the full lenght skirt in the form of an elegant maxi dress because nowadays there are fewer and fewer occasions to wear it! In days where jeans are often worn even in formal events, elegant gowns are only seen on red carpets. Right from Cannes red carpet we've seen celebrities wear beutiful yet very expensive outfits. Is it possible to create a look inspired to old hollywood glamour with a limited budget? We can start with a Topshop silk maxi dress and then add an Accessorize clutch and when it comes to jewellery we can search for it on Etsy. Prom or the next marriage you're invited will be the perfect occasion to show your elegance.
Dalla mini alla longette, ci capiterà di indossare gonne di tutte le lunghezze. Forse però la più difficile da indossare rimarrà quella che sfiora il pavimento magari sottoforma di abito elegantissimo poichè in tempi in cui si indossa il jeans anche in eventi formali per esso non esiste più nessuna occasione d'uso se non il red carpet (e il proprio matrimonio). Proprio dal red carpet di Cannes in questi giorni ci arrivano le immagini di attrici e modelle fasciate in abiti di alta moda di grande eleganza ed esclusività. Ma è possibile costruire un look che si ispiri all'eleganza hollywoodiana con un budget contenuto?
Si può partendo da un maxi dress di Topshop e una borsetta Accessorize da abbinare a della bigiotteria vistosa trovata su Etsy. Dove sfoggiare la mise? Il mese di Maggio inaugura la stagione dei matrimoni e sono sicura che un'amica o una cugina vi offriranno l'occasione giusta per mostrare la vostra eleganza.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
10 DIY ideas to customize your sunglasses
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| Mercura NYC pearl sunglasses - A Morir flower sunglasses |
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| Mercura sunglasses |
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| Chanel masquerade ball sunglasses - Mercura sunglasses |
Want to start now? Have a look at the step by step tutorials below!
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| Aviator sunglasses DIY - Baroque sunglasses DIY - Bejewelled sunglasses DIY |
Nessun accessorio estivo avrà più visibilità del vostro paio di occhiali da sole. Li indosserete da mattina a sera e saranno il vostro biglietto da visita. Fate in modo allora che siano originali, lasciate che dicano qualcosa di voi e dei vostri gusti; in altre parole personalizzateli. Ecco qualche idea per rendere decisamente unici (e anche vistosi) i vostri occhiali. Incollateci dei cristalli per renderli eleganti e luminosi, oppure dei fiori per renderli primaverili e romantici (personalmente trovo irresistibili gli occhiali decorati con le margherite).
Cercate un tutorial step by step? Date un'occhiata a quelli qui in alto
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Build your arm party : How to make 5 bracelets in 10 minutes
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| Arm party |
Today I would like to show you 5 different techniques to make some nice and easy bracelets. I wanted new bracelets and a lot of them so I made these very quickly. The best thing about these bracelets is that if you're crafty you'll make them for free because they can be made with what you have in your stash:left-over pieces from other DIY projects, little pieces of ropes, some yarn and so on. These bracelets are quick to make and you can have fun making them in every color!
Let's start!
Yarn bracelet : I made a tiny loop with the rope, blocked with thread and needle and then I just wrapped the colored yarn around.
Crystal bracelet : I made a loop with the rope and blocked it with thread and needle then I put the crystal chain over the rope and I wrapped the yarn around both. The crystal chain will be blocked in place.
Ball chain bracelet: I made a loop with the rope and blocked it with thread and needle then I put the ball chain over the rope and I wrapped the yarn around both. The ball chain will be blocked in place.
Scarf and chain bracelet: I used a piece of scarf left from the D&G scarf dress, I cut a band of it and then I inserted alternatively in and out of the rope . I cut the band larger than the rope to get the scarf effect.
Braided bracelet : I cut several pieces of colored yarn; I knotted them together - I divided them in three parts then I braided it. I connected the braid to the rope always inserting the part on the left into the rope with the help of a crochet.
When you've done add a clasp to every bracelet and you're ready to go!
The Poetry in Fairy Tales
by Lea C. Deschenes
It’s unusual for a poet to be writing about speculative fiction, but not as odd as you’d first think. My love of both forms (or indeed, of all writing) comes from their ability to open worlds, both new and familiar; to stir from our settled patterns into a whirl of possibilities; to give curiosity free rein to ask what if?; and to take on ideas so large they span the universe.
Fairy tales were my first case of reader’s True Love. I had a tattered volume of Grimm’s old enough not to have been sanitized to “child-friendly” mush and from the day my toddler hands got a hold of it, I read it like a holy text. To this day, I will contend that Snow White’s queen must dance in red hot iron shoes until dead dead dead or it’s not the real story (however many “real” versions of the story there are, that one is mine). I will never see Disney’s The Little Mermaid because I can’t bear to think of the mermaid’s knife-walking, voiceless martyrdom ending transformed into an all-singing, all-dancing Happily Ever After!, even though the character’s complete self-sacrifice for her mostly oblivious prince bugs every feminist bone in my body.
Fairy tales are ruthless, red in tooth and claw. As a child it seemed to me that they said everything that my suburban hometown’s polite veneer wanted to deny: Underdogs often make good. It’s good to be clever and better to be kind. Most of all, Bad Things Happen. They will happen to you. You’d better keep your wits about you and learn how to deal with that…
To this day, I can’t pass up a good fairy tale reworking, whether it’s Russia’s Koschei the Deathless, Japan’s Kitsune or a whole bag full of Grimm’s-flavored goodies. And somewhere along the way, speculative fiction has created its own bastions of myth and fable to be told and retold to fit the context of the day: rogue adventurers, schools for wizards and witches, genius detectives, spacemen and their cold equations, aliens, shapeshifters, hackers…ad infinitum, ad astra.
There’s a common saying, “Good writers borrow. Great writers steal.” There’s poetry in that: the swiping, combining and recombining of tropes and life and bits of timeless metaphors to make something unique to an author’s voice, time and place. It’s poetry when their stories seem larger and wider than plot mechanics and words laid out in neat rows on a page. It’s poetry when an idea as old as human civilization connects itself to a reader and creates a spark.
There may be nothing new under the sun, but if Wallace Stevens can find thirteen ways to look at a blackbird, Neil Gaiman can find new ways of looking at The Jungle Book and African trickster stories, filing off the serial numbers so well that you’ll forget its connection to the original. If Anne Sexton could take on the Grimm Brothers, Ovid and patriarchy in Transformations, Octavia Butler could handle vampires and I can write a poem in which the dancer decides to take off her red shoes.
If Jack can kill his giant, so can you.
Lea C. Deschenes is a poet living in Worcester, MA. She once found a five-leaf clover during a solar eclipse. Her book, The Constant Velocity of Trains, is available from Write Bloody Publishing at Amazon.com, Powells.com and Writebloody.com.
To learn more about Lea and her work, please click on her website.
It’s unusual for a poet to be writing about speculative fiction, but not as odd as you’d first think. My love of both forms (or indeed, of all writing) comes from their ability to open worlds, both new and familiar; to stir from our settled patterns into a whirl of possibilities; to give curiosity free rein to ask what if?; and to take on ideas so large they span the universe.
Fairy tales were my first case of reader’s True Love. I had a tattered volume of Grimm’s old enough not to have been sanitized to “child-friendly” mush and from the day my toddler hands got a hold of it, I read it like a holy text. To this day, I will contend that Snow White’s queen must dance in red hot iron shoes until dead dead dead or it’s not the real story (however many “real” versions of the story there are, that one is mine). I will never see Disney’s The Little Mermaid because I can’t bear to think of the mermaid’s knife-walking, voiceless martyrdom ending transformed into an all-singing, all-dancing Happily Ever After!, even though the character’s complete self-sacrifice for her mostly oblivious prince bugs every feminist bone in my body.
Fairy tales are ruthless, red in tooth and claw. As a child it seemed to me that they said everything that my suburban hometown’s polite veneer wanted to deny: Underdogs often make good. It’s good to be clever and better to be kind. Most of all, Bad Things Happen. They will happen to you. You’d better keep your wits about you and learn how to deal with that…
To this day, I can’t pass up a good fairy tale reworking, whether it’s Russia’s Koschei the Deathless, Japan’s Kitsune or a whole bag full of Grimm’s-flavored goodies. And somewhere along the way, speculative fiction has created its own bastions of myth and fable to be told and retold to fit the context of the day: rogue adventurers, schools for wizards and witches, genius detectives, spacemen and their cold equations, aliens, shapeshifters, hackers…ad infinitum, ad astra.
There’s a common saying, “Good writers borrow. Great writers steal.” There’s poetry in that: the swiping, combining and recombining of tropes and life and bits of timeless metaphors to make something unique to an author’s voice, time and place. It’s poetry when their stories seem larger and wider than plot mechanics and words laid out in neat rows on a page. It’s poetry when an idea as old as human civilization connects itself to a reader and creates a spark.
There may be nothing new under the sun, but if Wallace Stevens can find thirteen ways to look at a blackbird, Neil Gaiman can find new ways of looking at The Jungle Book and African trickster stories, filing off the serial numbers so well that you’ll forget its connection to the original. If Anne Sexton could take on the Grimm Brothers, Ovid and patriarchy in Transformations, Octavia Butler could handle vampires and I can write a poem in which the dancer decides to take off her red shoes.
If Jack can kill his giant, so can you.
Lea C. Deschenes is a poet living in Worcester, MA. She once found a five-leaf clover during a solar eclipse. Her book, The Constant Velocity of Trains, is available from Write Bloody Publishing at Amazon.com, Powells.com and Writebloody.com.
To learn more about Lea and her work, please click on her website.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
10 popular ways to use studs in a DIY
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| BUY or DIY studded iphone case |
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| studded bra |
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| studded heels by Louise Goldin for Topshop |
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| hellraiser flats |
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| well studs are meant to stay with a motorcycle jacket - Burberry Prorsum spring 2011 |
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| studded jewelry DIY |
Studs are a diyer best friend. There are tons of things you can customize successfully with a few studs. They are easy to insert and the result you get is always an edgy accessory with a rock feeling.
How to insert studs:
- get the item you want to customize with studs
- use a pen to mark the spots where you will insert studs
- use scissors to pierce the material
- insert the studs
- block them in place (depending on the type of studs you're using either close their teeth or screw them)
you'll use
- flat back (tiny studs or glue on) to customize lightweighted cloths and everytime you cannot access to the back of the item you customize
- nailhead studs for medium weighted fabrics and leather
- screw back studs for thick leather
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| flat back - nail head - screw back studs |
Ogni capo acquista un nuovo appeal se viene decorato con le borchie. Dopo aver imparato cad inserirle potrete ottenere in pochi minuti un capo o un accessorio personalizzato e sempre alla moda destinato ad attirare l'attenzione di tutti.
Come si inseriscono le borchie:
- Con una penna segnate i punti dove andrete ad inserire le borchie
- utilizzate le forbici o un punteruolo per forare il capo che volete decorare
- inserite le borchie
- bloccate le borchie in posizione chiudendo le alette sul retro
Troverete sul mercato 3 tipi di borchie:
- piatte che possono essere incollate sul capo, le userete per stoffe leggere o ogni qual volta non potete avere accesso al retro dell'oggetto da personalizzare
- chiodate per tessuti e pellame di medio spessore
- a vite per il pellame più spesso.
Writing Short Speculative Fiction
by Pauline J. Alama
I was a bit daunted, at first, by the idea of blogging about the process of writing short speculative fiction. I avoid con panels about the writing process, because they tend toward heavy moralizing, loading a ton of “shoulds” (you should write every day, you should accept criticism gratefully, you should be relentless in editing your stories to perfection) onto a process that I believe should (oops!) be playful.
Let me circumvent that moralizing tendency by writing in praise of imperfection.
I’m no good at drawing, having the manual dexterity of a cow, but I enjoy it anyway. Once upon a time, my son asked me to draw the Big Bad Wolf, and I wasn’t sure how to do it. I looked at a picture in The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales of the wolf in Grandma’s nightgown. That can be a terrifying image: the predator disguised as a nurturer. The first nightmare I can remember from childhood was finding in my Aunt Betty’s chair not a beloved curmudgeonly aunt, but KING KONG! The wolf in Grandma’s nightgown can evoke the same nightmarish sense of betrayal and insecurity.
But when I tried to draw him, the wolf didn’t look scary. He looked a bit embarrassed. Thence came the inspiration for my “fractured fairy tale.”
If I’d drawn the wolf perfectly, the subtle wind of inspiration would have lacked a chink to enter my soul. Very often, too, books I thought had stupid endings or infuriating plot holes inspired me to write my own stories. Creativity doesn’t flourish in the sterility of perfection: it needs to be nourished by the fertilizing manure of error.
Pauline J. Alama is the author of the fantasy novel The Eye of Night Bantam Spectra 2002) and stories published in Realms of Fantasy, Abyss and Apex, and various anthologies. A lifelong fairy tale fanatic, she published a fantasy based on three Grimm tales in Sword & Sorceress XVIII (DAW 2001), and encountered the Grimms’ scholarship during a
doctoral program in Old English. Although driven out of academia for her controversial theory of the Klingon origin of Beowulf, she lives happily ever after in New Jersey with her husband Paul, their firstborn child, and two royal cats.
To learn more about Pauline and her work, please click HERE.
I was a bit daunted, at first, by the idea of blogging about the process of writing short speculative fiction. I avoid con panels about the writing process, because they tend toward heavy moralizing, loading a ton of “shoulds” (you should write every day, you should accept criticism gratefully, you should be relentless in editing your stories to perfection) onto a process that I believe should (oops!) be playful.
Let me circumvent that moralizing tendency by writing in praise of imperfection.
I’m no good at drawing, having the manual dexterity of a cow, but I enjoy it anyway. Once upon a time, my son asked me to draw the Big Bad Wolf, and I wasn’t sure how to do it. I looked at a picture in The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales of the wolf in Grandma’s nightgown. That can be a terrifying image: the predator disguised as a nurturer. The first nightmare I can remember from childhood was finding in my Aunt Betty’s chair not a beloved curmudgeonly aunt, but KING KONG! The wolf in Grandma’s nightgown can evoke the same nightmarish sense of betrayal and insecurity.
But when I tried to draw him, the wolf didn’t look scary. He looked a bit embarrassed. Thence came the inspiration for my “fractured fairy tale.”
If I’d drawn the wolf perfectly, the subtle wind of inspiration would have lacked a chink to enter my soul. Very often, too, books I thought had stupid endings or infuriating plot holes inspired me to write my own stories. Creativity doesn’t flourish in the sterility of perfection: it needs to be nourished by the fertilizing manure of error.
Pauline J. Alama is the author of the fantasy novel The Eye of Night Bantam Spectra 2002) and stories published in Realms of Fantasy, Abyss and Apex, and various anthologies. A lifelong fairy tale fanatic, she published a fantasy based on three Grimm tales in Sword & Sorceress XVIII (DAW 2001), and encountered the Grimms’ scholarship during a
doctoral program in Old English. Although driven out of academia for her controversial theory of the Klingon origin of Beowulf, she lives happily ever after in New Jersey with her husband Paul, their firstborn child, and two royal cats.
To learn more about Pauline and her work, please click HERE.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Detachable Flower pins DIY
Flowers are everywhere this season. Today I'll show you how to update your wardrobe to the current trends with removable flower decorations. You can put them wherever you want and use it to decorate bags, belts, tops, hair, shoes. We'll make detachable flower pins with very commom materials. I'll also show you how to cut very quickly a flower shape.
E' primavera e i fiori sbocciano su capi e accessori. Oggi vi mostrerò come sintonizzare velocemente il vostro guardaroba sui trend di stagione creando delle decorazioni floreali removibili. Realizzeremo delle spillette che potrete appuntare su borse e scarpe, cinte, giacche ed abiti. Vi mostrerò inoltre come ritagliare velocemente una forma floreale.
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| Avrete bisogno di : spille da balia, ferma campione (li troverete in cartoleria), plastica bianca o pvc, colla a caldo |
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| Make a hole at the center with the help of scissors. - Con l'aiuto delle forbici fate un taglietto al centro del fiore |
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| Put a flower over another to get a 3d effect - Insert the paper fastener at the center then open its legs at the back. Inserite il ferma campione e bloccatelo sul retro. |
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| Add some glue at the back - Press the safety pin in place - Versate la colla sulla striscia metallica e fissateci la spilla da balia. |
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| Have fun making as many flower pins you want. - Divertitevi a realizzate quanti fiori volete |
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| Pin them everywhere you want and you'll get an istant, 3d, removable decoration! |
Utilizzate le spillette per decorare il vostro capo preferito ottenendo velocemente una decorazione trendy e removibile.
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