Encore - Meditation Cube

Hello all... here's an Encore post from me today (I can't be bothered to sweat it out with New Blogger in this heat!).  This was created almost exactly a year ago, and then shared on the PaperArtsy blog in September 2019.  I thought we needed some mindful meditation back then... and things in the world seem to have gone from bad to worse in the twelve months since.  There's an even greater need for this little Meditation Cube now...  so here's what I wrote back then.  (And if you don't know what I'm on about with this Encore business, you'll find the details at the end of the post.)

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Hi everyone, it's Alison from Words and Pictures here, and I've got a tiny Meditation Cube to share with you today.

I'm going to try to obey the instructions on the cube and keep the talking to a minimum, but there'll be lots of pretty pictures because when you've got a cube there are a lot of different angles and faces to capture!

When I saw the topic I thought, well, inchies and twinchies - best to choose some Mini stamps for that, so I've been playing with Seth Apter's Minis, some of the older ones and some from the latest release.

I had a jumbo tag left over from another project, already wrinkle-free distressed with some of my favourite Distress Inks and Oxides.  I found that with a little bit of coxing and boxing I could just get squeeze six 2 x 2 panels out of the tag, perfect to go on my 2 x 2 x 2 Twinchie box (MDF, from Calico Craft Parts).

There's Ground Espresso, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire and Pumice Stone involved, some of my favourite colours, so I find that very soothing.  Also my eye never tires of tracing the lines of the random splotches and blotches.

Some quick decisions about which Minis would go opposite/next to which, and then it was out with the Wow Vanilla White embossing powder.

The diagonal positioning was dictated by the size of the Twinchie - that was the best way to get as much of Seth's fabulous stamps onto the space as possible.

I really like how, as a result, each image leads the eye round to the one on the next panel, up to down and down to up.  It's quite hypnotic as you turn it.

But then each face gives your brain a different shape to process, so it means you don't fall into autopilot - it's an active trance state!

And it was the soothing effect it was having on me that made me think about adding some words from EAB03 Music & Silence.

In some places I only wanted partial quotes, or even individual words, and that's where some masking tape (or any kind of tape really) comes in handy.  It means you can ink up the area you want, and then quickly apply the tape in case any of the surrounding area has got inky, and then you stamp.

You can, of course, also wipe the ink away from where you don't want it, but I find that sometimes leaves pale traces if you don't do it carefully enough, whereas this way gets me just the word(s) I want and no more.

I stamped the words in Jet Black Archival and then embossed with Wow Primary Bark, a deep dark brown.

The embossing means that as you turn the cube, your fingertips become highly sensitive to the raised textures, which keeps you very focussed and in the moment.

The repetition of the phrases calmly suggests the possibility of silence and stillness, while the mind stays alert to the changing images, ready to listen.

A couple of metal cogs and wheels and bolts offer additional visual and tactile stimulus.

The positioning pretty much took care of itself, dictated by the stamped images.

Given which way up the words are, and that bolt on the top, there is definitely a top and bottom to this cube... this is the bottom!

It really was a meditative creative process, as well as being a very meditative object to turn in your hands.

And the way the blues and browns travel around the corners, and the contrasts between the light and dark embossing all make me very happy.

You may feel it's cheating slightly... an inchie or twinchie constricts the amount of space you have to work with, but by making a cube, I had six times the playing area... but then how could you possibly choose between all those fabulous Minis otherwise?!  And if I'd gone for flat twinchies, I'd almost certainly have made a set of them. This way, my set of Twinchies has become a lovely 3D object.  I hope you like it as much as I do.

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Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I'm grateful that so far the Czech Republic hasn't been quite as toasty as many other places, though we could do with some rain.  But if you're due to have the downpours forecast for when the weather breaks, I hope you don't get too much.  Stay safe, stay well and engage in some meditation, or some creativity!  Happy crafting all, and see you soon.

Touch your inner space, which is nothingness, as silent and empty as the sky; it is your inner sky. Once you settle down in your inner sky, you have come home, and a great maturity arises in your actions, in your behavior. Then whatever you do has grace in it. Then whatever you do is a poetry in itself. You live poetry; your walking becomes dancing, your silence becomes music.
Osho

I have lived with several Zen masters – all of them cats.
Eckhart Tolle

Encore Posts

Projects which made their first appearances elsewhere for Design Team duties or Guest Designer opportunities, but which only had a sneak peek here, are being gathered together in the pages of my virtual scrapbook while I'm busy.

As always, the Encore Posts are formatted differently from the regular ones, so that you can easily spot them.  For some of you they will be new, but if you've seen them before, please don't feel that you have to comment all over again!