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This year's Advent calendar was made by Semja for me, and it's AWESOME! Chess all the way! :D

( Just look at this lovely modelling! )

I always admire when people are good at working with clay and/or modelling paste - it's one of the techniques I've tried, more than once, to no avail. Lucky for me that Semja has this skill!

Just what the title says: I made my own gum arabic solution. I want to make my own watercolor binder (yes, I'm trying to save money XD what else?), which needs some more additives (glycerine and clove oil, neither of which I have at home - yet), but... This was pretty straightforward, and I thought I'd share some pictures of the process.

(Crossposted over at prototypediablerie, a community for DIY things.)

( Pictures and description behind the cut. )

I'm very happy this worked so well. :3

... for me. XD As in, I'm likely the only one ever to use this.



My usual "shadow color" is PV23, which is - unless we count some extremely rare and extremely expensive alternative - pretty much the only blue-violet available on the watercolor market, but lately I've been wishing for an even more blue-ish tone and a bit of granulation in my shadow zones, so... This is PV23 together with ultramarine blue (PB29) and ultramarine violet (PV15). I'm very happy with the result, though I'm aware this is a product for a target group of one. XD

This... is PB71, a pigment that's typically not used in watercolor - and now I know why. XD



I mean, after a lot of hard work on finding a binder composition from which the pigment doesn't immediately unmix before drying, I somehow managed to produce something that passes as watercolor, but also, this thing granulates a lot, to the point it's essentially useless unless you enjoy painting snowy landscapes or obscure meteorological phenomena. (Which I don't. But, hey, this has to be the best paint for snowy watercolor landscapes... It's very lightfast, too.) Whatever. It sure was an interesting experience.

...or: more fun with chemistry. I have to do something useful with my skills after all! XD So, here's my newest color, "Living Tree".



This time, it's supposed to look like leaves - with a bit of granulation to make botanical painting more convenient. I can already predict I'm going to use this color quite often. Maybe the next project is going to be a sky blue - then I have an (almost) complete landscape set!

First things first: no, this is not a comprehensive list of knife tip geometries! There are so many of them - and most of them so highly specialized - that, if you need one of them, you know... XD So, in order to give a "beginner-friendly" overview, I've narrowed it down to four types that are common enough you may actually encounter them in real life without having to look for them in a specialized store.



Let's look at these in some detail! (With the caveat that, of course, tip geometry is not the only thing that determines a knife's overall function. Material matters. Blade thickness matters. Grind matters. Handle design matters. Size matters. XD And so on. Really, this can only serve as a rule-of-thumb - but we have to start somewhere when trying to determine what a knife is for, right?)

( Explanations of these four knife tips. )

Anyway... This (grossly over-simplified, I know) entry will hopefully help you identify what kind of blade you are dealing with, what its strengths and weaknesses are, and what tasks people will likely use it for. (None of this is intended as legal or professional advice; don't sue me, yadda, yadda. If you do dangerous shit with sharp objects, I'm not responsible.)

... or: interesting exotic food I simply had to try. XD



Lemon bars are not something I'm used to, but a friend mentioned they made them, and I was curious. So, I found a recipe on the internet and made my own. I'm not sure whether they are supposed to be crumbly like that or whether I messed something up, but anyway, they're very edible. Like... very gooey lemon cake. An interesting experience, to be sure. XD

Spell Bottle (530 words) by EllerWrites
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Characters
Additional Tags: Chess, Fantasy, Magic, Dark Magic, Curses, Humor
Summary:

Oh, the things that can happen at chess tournaments... But no worries. Thilo has help from Henrik.

Very loosely based on a writing prompt from yhlee - thank you!!!

Shadow Introductions (759 words) by EllerWrites
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary:

Vinn is sent to a chess club. Fennar, everyone's favorite shadow theater performer, handles the introductions. Everyone is being their charming selves.

A shorter and funnier scene today. :)

Remember how I was threatening to send poor Vinn to a chess club? Well. I did. XD For a simple "introduce the characters" scene, this was surprisingly hard: I first tried this from Vinn's point of view, but FAILED BADLY because Vinn doesn't have enough understanding of social dynamics to offer any kind of insight beyond basic physical descriptions. Which would be boring. So, uh, Fennar gets the honor. I almost wrote "no violence today", but that would be a lie. Anyway. No physical violence today. XD

I am not going to offer any further commentary, except, if you ever encounter this personality type in real life, I hope you know to RUN in the opposite direction, unless you know for sure he's a friend. He's fun to write, though. LOL

The last time I posted easter eggs here, I had no idea this stuff would ever become political - yet here we are. Anyway. I don't celebrate, except I really enjoy painting eggs. (I do not think I would enjoy painting potatoes. I mean, I'd have to try before I judge, but...) Happy Easter if you celebrate. :3