#I have like 9 pieces left to restore the dye on

[francisplaysffxiv]

Hi ffxiv gang I've decided to do sketches in exchange for jet black dyes, so if you've got any laying around you dont need, and are able to travel to NA data centers, and would be interested in handing them to me, I will draw your blorbo(s) for you...... quality is probably scrungled on this, sorry but yayeet

[samwpmarleau]

1) It doesn’t fit with GRRM’s track record to introduce something as monumental as this, let alone so late in the game, and have it be what it says on the tin. For Aegon to actually be Elia and Rhaegar’s son who miraculously appears at the 11th hour to save the day doesn’t fit at all. Also, unfortunately, GRRM’s presentation of his characters of color is absolutely abysmal. While he debunked the theory of Dany blowing up the Water Gardens (THANK GOD), that doesn’t mean he’s going to magically treat Dorne how it deserves to be treated. A lot of the “evidence” I’ve seen about Aegon being real hinges on GRRM actually doing right by his characters of color and their associated storylines, which is … not likely.

2) The Golden Company was founded by Bittersteel, the #1 Blackfyre supporter who kept trying to make the Blackfyre cause succeed even long after Daemon was dead. The GC has been faithfully pro-Blackfyre ever since, and was even led by a Blackfyre, Maelys, in the Fifth Rebellion as well, which was not all that long ago.

3) The GC has never broken a contract before — in fact, their words have been “as good as gold” since the very beginning when Bittersteel founded it — so why would they now? They would only break a contract for blood (“some contracts are writ in ink, and some in blood”), for a Blackfyre. They broke the contract so they can help put Aegon on the throne and finally complete what Daemon and Bittersteel began.

4) The GC met with Viserys and Dany and laughed them out of the room. Why would they then be all gung-ho for a different Targaryen? Viserys wasn’t even a madman or pathetic when he met with them (Dany was still “a little girl”), Robert had only recently gotten the throne and therefore it was at its most vulnerable, and Viserys was well-known in Westeros as the Targaryen heir. If they were going to support a Targaryen, it would have been Viserys. Or Daenerys. Yet they didn’t. So why support Viserys’s alleged nephew instead? They would only do so because the Targaryen was only nominally one, in reality a Blackfyre.

5) Illyrio specifically says the Blackfyres are extinct in the male line, meaning they are still around, only through the female line, such as Illyrio’s late wife Serra. Aegon being Illyrio and Serra’s son would explain Illyrio’s fondness for the boy, why he’s so sad to see him go, and why he’s so invested in putting a “Targaryen” on the throne. Additionally, he found Serra as a sex slave in a Lysene brothel — quite a long ways down from the favored son of a Targaryen king. It would make sense for Illyrio, who loved her deeply, to in her memory restore what was “stolen” from her family.

6) Illyrio has a trunk full of children’s clothes, despite the fact that he’s supposed to be childless. Good clothes, too. (Those clothes are also blue, the color Aegon dyes his hair. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not.)

7) JonCon notes that Rhaegar’s eyes were “a deep purple, darker than this boy’s,” implying to us the reader that Aegon is not Rhaegar’s. It’s also a hint that JonCon has suspicions that Aegon is not the real deal but is in denial, because if Aegon isn’t real, then that means Rhaegar really is lost to him forever and he can do nothing to avenge him.

8) I’ve seen the argument for “sun’s son” being Aegon but it doesn’t make sense. Asha is called the kraken’s daughter, for one, despite being a Greyjoy in her own right, so yes, it tracks that Quentyn can be called the “sun’s son” despite being a “sun” himself (and it just has better rhythm). Plus, if he weren’t the “sun’s son,” how would he instead be the “mummer’s dragon”? He’s not a dragon, he’s not a fake, nor is he being controlled by a mummer, whereas that fits for Aegon. And in Dany’s HOTU vision, there’s a cloth dragon swaying on poles above a cheering crowd — how would Quentyn fit that either (especially since he’s dead)? But Aegon would. This is also in the same passage as “slayer of lies,” mind you. Aegon is the lie to be slain. The other people in the prophecy are pretty clear as to their identities, so why would “sun’s sun” and “mummer’s dragon” be riddles?

9) The Blackfyres and their rebellions have been developed more and more through the years, including an entire Dunk and Egg book about the second one. Would be a bit odd to completely drop that thread, no? The Third Rebellion didn’t even happen until late in Aerys I’s reign, so it’s not like the Blackfyres will play a central role any time soon in D&E. In the main series, however, they would. Plus, GRRM wrote the D&E book about the Second Rebellion while he was also writing ADWD, and it’s in ADWD that history lessons about the Blackfyres are repeatedly brought up.

10) The parallel between Aegon and Jon. Jon is a real secret Targaryen raised without knowing his true identity, whereas Aegon is a fake secret Targaryen raised without knowing his true identity.

11) There’s plenty of the “human heart in conflict with itself” that GRRM loves with him being fake. Dany gets another family member, the son of her beloved brother Rhaegar — only to find out Aegon’s a fake. JonCon raises a child for over a decade, the son of his beloved Rhaegar, redemption for losing at Stoney Sept — only to find out Aegon’s a fake. Dorne (Doran specifically) gets a piece of their beloved Elia back — only to find out Aegon’s a fake. Aegon himself has believed his whole life that he’s Elia and Rhaegar’s son, the heir to the throne, has gone through many hardships to get where he is — only to find out he’s been lied to since day one. Those are all very real, very poignant beats.

12a) The supposition that Elia would save her son but not her daughter — Dornish Elia, who would value her daughter just as much as her son — is nonsensical to me. I CANNOT get behind that one bit. Maybe I can justify Elia being willing to sacrifice someone else’s innocent baby if it meant saving her own (though that’s a horrible and heartless thing to do), but I CANNOT see a justification for her saving Aegon yet not Rhaenys. 

Moreover, if the baby weren’t Aegon, why would Elia be so willing to die for it? If it weren’t hers, if she had been pragmatic/cold enough to trade her baby for someone else’s, why on EARTH would she not have left that baby in the nursery and gone with Rhaenys, her actual child? The men Tywin sent had a reputation even back then and had scaled the walls of Maegor’s Holdfast. Elia would be dumb as a bag of bricks to think they would spare “her” son and Rhaenys, or possibly even herself. If they were to magically spare “Aegon,” great! Everyone’s happy (except Tywin). But why would Elia take that risk? No. She would only tell Rhaenys to run away yet stay with Aegon because he was her child and she had no other choice.

12b) If Elia switched the babies, then why don’t the Martells know anything about it? They were involved in a Targaryen restoration, Oberyn even went to Essos to sign the betrothal pact between Arianne and Viserys. Yet none of them know that their nephew is alive? If Elia really did take the pains to switch the babies for her son’s safety, why would she not have involved her family? At the very least, by having whoever she sent Aegon with even just hint to her family that he’s alive? But they know nothing. Zilch. They put their eggs in Viserys’s basket, then Dany’s, who are at best Elia-adjacent.

12c) Who would even be able to do such a thing as switch out the babies without a soul being the wiser? Varys, probably, but there is no way in hell Elia would entrust her son to him. Far beyond simply being a shady person in general who is out for himself and himself alone, he was the one who purposefully whispered in Aerys’s ear about invented conspiracies and betrayals. He made Aerys more paranoid, more dangerous. To the detriment of Rhaegar, Elia, their children, and the realm at large. Varys is the entire reason Aerys went to the Tourney at Harrenhal in the first place, because he convinced him that Rhaegar convened the tourney to meet with a bunch of lords in order to depose Aerys. Varys directly and gleefully contributed to Aerys’s further descent into tyranny.

Elia wouldn’t have trusted Varys as far as she could throw him, certainly not with something as precious as her child, not even if she were desperate. Even if she did trust him for some insane reason, how is Varys so powerful as to find a lookalike for Aegon but not for Rhaenys? Surely it’s easier to find a black-haired, brown-eyed toddler than a silver-haired, purple-eyed baby, no? Or why couldn’t he direct Elia to one of the many secret passageways so she could escape with the kids rather than this convoluted baby swap? Or any number of other things? At every turn, Aegon (but not Rhaenys!) being spirited away by anyone, most especially Varys, doesn’t hold up. Hell, why would Varys help Elia? What does he have to gain by not only helping her but egregiously undermining Aerys? Aerys whose ear he’s been meticulously whispering into, Aerys who’s the only reason Varys is at court and has power at all? Agreeing to and orchestrating the baby swap runs counter to everything we know about him.

13) Aegon being real means Elia and Dorne are essentially dealt two blows. We and they spend all this time believing her son was brutally murdered in King’s Landing. But then, psych! He’s actually alive! They get their hopes up, the wound is opened all over again, only for him to … be brutally murdered in King’s Landing. (Or possibly elsewhere, but likely KL.) Why is that better? What would be the point of Aegon being Elia and Rhaegar’s son if he’s just going to die like his “cover story” says he did? Actually, they’d be dealt three blows, really, given that Quentyn died as well in the pursuit of Targaryen restoration. Things are going to be painful enough without having Aegon be the real Aegon.

14) JonCon didn’t come to be Aegon’s caretaker until Aegon was 5. In other words, he wouldn’t recognize whether or not this Aegon is the one he saw as a baby. But because he’s so personally invested in Aegon being the real deal, he doesn’t question it too much. The result is that JonCon, who is well-known to have been close to Rhaegar and thus Elia (proximally, not emotionally of course, what with him hating her and all), him caring for the boy lends viability to the story. Which we see in action by Doran believing, or at least being willing to listen to, JonCon’s letter.

15) The Toynes have a very negative history with the Targaryens (and Barristan) but a positive one with the Blackfyres. Would it not make more sense for Myles Toyne to align himself with a Blackfyre rather than a Targaryen? Myles, who was the one who put his seal to the secret pact?

16a) It’s been 84 years. Even R+L=J, which is as much of a sure thing as you can possibly get, is disputed by some in the fandom. Some people believe Ashara Dayne is alive, and a subset of those go so far as to say she’s Jyana Reed. Some people have some theory about the Boltons being vampires. Like. It has been so long since the last book that things that would have been surprises or interesting twists have been examined to death, so by now they seem “too obvious.” Ten years ago, Aegon being real would undoubtedly have been a much more believed thing, because we’d have just recently been told it. But now? There’s been ample time to parse everything out and to determine that no, he likely isn’t real. Same for R+L=J. Ten years ago, or longer, Jon being revealed to be the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna would have been a bombshell. But now? It’s obvious as fuck. So to circle back around to “Yep, Aegon is real!” ignores the fact that it’s supposed to be a smokescreen and a twist.

16b) Related to this is GRRM’s own words. There’s an SSM where he’s asked whether Rhaenys and Aegon are really dead. He affirms that Rhaenys is but hedges for Aegon. Why? Not because he’s saying Aegon is real, but because he’s introducing the Young Griff arc. If he were to say, “Aegon’s definitely dead, too,” or “Aegon’s definitely alive,” that would completely spoil the tension and truth/untruth of the storyline.

Do I know that Aegon’s a fake? Obviously not, since we don’t have the books. But the evidence points to it being extremely unlikely that he’s the real deal. Like I also said, however, I’m not sure it really matters whether he is or not. So far as he knows, he’s truly Elia and Rhaegar’s son. His name is Aegon, he was raised to be a king, he seems to be quite a decent young man (people who cite him tipping over the cyvasse board can suck it), he will probably ride a dragon at some point, and so on. At the end of the day, who he’s biologically related to doesn’t seem super relevant.

[pikapeppa]

Sten/f!Mahariel: Fall Into The Tide, Chapter 9

The second-last chapter of Sten x Yara Mahariel is up. Angst warning: the babes talk about what happens when they arrive in Par Vollen.

~5700 words. Read on AO3 instead.

***************************

Sten turned the page and continued to read in an endearingly flat voice. “‘If you think I will be leaving you in this state, you are sadly mistaken.’ Lyonne fluttered her scarves. ‘And what state is that, my good chevalier?’ Garren stood, and Lady Lyonne gasped: his manly sword was rising more quickly than the morning sun. ‘A state of such modest dress, of course,’ Garren said, and he ripped off his shirt. ‘Now come, ma chérie, and let us end the day like only two beautiful citizens of Val Royeaux can do.’”

Yara smiled and nestled more securely into his chest. “Is it terrible that I’m imagining Garren to look and sound like Bann Teagan?” she asked. 

Sten glanced at her. “Why do you imagine that?”

“The awful flirting,” Yara said. “Orlesians aren’t the only ones who use terrible lines.”

Sten frowned, and Yara smiled more widely. “Don’t you remember? When we were in Redcliffe, I asked Teagan if he had any family, and he immediately assumed that I was asking if he was single.” 

Sten’s frown deepened. “I have no memory of this.” 

Yara chuckled. “He said I was lovely. I was covered in undead blood at the time. It was very odd. I can’t believe you don’t…” She suddenly stopped, then laughed again. “Oh Creators, I know why you don’t remember. You weren’t with me at the time. You were in the village terrorizing the children.”

Sten harrumphed. “I do not terrorize children. I am not at fault for the foolish preconceptions of basra imekari.”

Yara grinned at him. “Sten, you stole cookies from one of them.”

He scowled. “Kadan, I told you before: I did not steal the cookies. I relieved him of the cookies for his own good.” 

She giggled and settled back into his chest. “All right, all right, the cookie thievery was very noble of you. Do you want to finish this chapter, and then we can go spar for a bit?”

Sten shook his head. “We should continue reading. I must finish this book in the next three days.” 

“Why?” she asked.

“Because we will land in Par Vollen in three days,” he replied.

“Ah,” she said. “I was wondering if you were trying to finish it before we got there.” She gave him a cheeky smile. “Why the rush? Are you going to report on it to the Arishok after all?”

He huffed. “Very funny, but no. I will not be permitted to keep this book when we arrive.”

She leaned away from him slightly. “You can’t keep it? Why not?”

“It will be confiscated and handed over to the priesthood,” Sten said. “They will study it for strategic value, and if there is no value to be found, it will be ground into mulch and made anew into paper for our own books.”

Yara sat up on one elbow. “Seriously? That seems extreme. It’s just a romance novel. I hardly think it needs to be destroyed.”

“It will not be destroyed; it will be repurposed, as I told you.” He sat up as well and turned to face her. “My people do not waste anything, be it books or people. Everything has value and purpose, even bas literature.”

A cold sort of tingle stole over the back of her neck, and she frowned. His expression was oddly serious.

She tapped The Rose of Orlais. “But you said this book was drivel.”

“It is drivel,” Sten agreed. “But that does not mean it is not dangerous. Reading is the surest way to spread ideas, whether those ideas are the true wisdom of the Qun or foreign notions such as… the ones that are inscribed here.”

A chill washed through her chest. She knew what he meant: foreign notions such as romantic love and sex. And the fact that Sten had avoided saying these words… His avoidance was somehow more ominous than if he'd just spoken bluntly like he usually did. 

She was getting a bad feeling about this. “But… but you’ve been reading this romance novel,” she said. “So you’ve got foreign ideas in your head now.”

“Reading this novel is the least of it,” Sten said. “I am steeped in bas ideas from travelling among you for over a year.”

Oh gods, she thought. If Sten thought he was full of foreign ideas just from travelling with her and her companions, then… 

Her pulse was starting to race. She took a deep breath to try and calm herself. “And… what about us?” she said faintly. “Our relationship? This… us being together is a product of foreign ideas.”

“Yes, kadan,” he said, very quietly.

The implication in his words, his talk about repurposing, the subtle softness in his stern expression… Fenedhis, she really didn’t like where this was going. It felt like something terrible was looming over her shoulder, like a demon that she didn’t know the shape of yet, but one that she’d known was there all along and had been trying to deny. 

Sten was looking at her still with his soft purple eyes. The topic she’d been trying so hard to avoid was upon them, and Yara had no choice but to face it.

She took a deep breath. “Sten… what’s going to happen with us when we get to Par Vollen?” 

“I will report to the Arishok, as my mission demands,” he said. “And then I will turn myself over to the Ben-Hassrath.”

“Turn yourself over?” she said blankly. “Why — what’s the Ben-Hassrath? Are they some sort of city guard?”

“They are a branch of the priesthood, governed by the Ariqun,” he said.

She gazed at him in rising confusion. “But you belong to the army, not the priesthood. Why are you reporting to a branch of the priesthood?”

Sten took her hand, and Yara froze. The affectionate gesture would usually please her, but combined with the look on his face, it only scared her more. 

“Do you recall the parable I told you?” he said. “Of the ashkaari and the laundress?”

“Yes,” she said tensely.

He nodded. “Tell me what you remember.”

She licked her dry lips. “You said that the ashkaari wanted to know why the laundress wasn’t soaking the clothes for longer to get all the stains out. The laundress told him that soaking the clothes for too long would make the dye bleed out, and… something like stained clothing still has value, and that if the stains are too obvious, then the clothes are…” She trailed off as her sense of something terrible ratcheted higher still. 

“They get re-dyed,” she said faintly.

“Yes,” he said. 

She stared at him pleadingly. “But… I don’t understand.” She tried to pull her hand away, but Sten squeezed her fingers.

“You do,” he said. “You do understand.”

She shook her head. “No, I… please, Sten, just tell me,” she begged.

He gazed calmly at her: a sharp contrast with the thrumming agitation in her gut. “My people are the cloth,” he said. “Yours are the water, and your ideas are the stains. The Ben-Hassrath perform the process of re-dyeing.”

She gazed at him in growing disbelief. “So you… you think you’re — what, that you’re stained from spending time with us? With me?”

“It is not a matter of what I think. It is a matter of what is,” he said. “I am not the soldier I was when I first arrived in your lands. The Ben-Hassrath will help me return to what I was before I left.”

Return to what he was? And what in the Void did that mean? “But – Sten, you’re not an object,” she argued. “You’re not just a piece of faded cloth that can be dyed a different colour. What does going to the Ben-Hassrath actually mean?”

“In truth, I do not know,” he said. “Only the Ben-Hassrath truly know what the process of re-education entails. But I know that it will restore my purpose and my enlightenment.”

Re-education? She really didn’t like the sound of that. “But you don’t need to be… re-educated or whatever,” she said tensely. “You’re still a good qunari. You’re still loyal to the Qun!”

“The fact that we are in bed together now is proof that I am not,” he said. 

She stared at him in growing horror. With every panicked beat of her heart, her feeling of everything crashing down was growing worse. 

She shuffled closer to him and squeezed his arm. “Sten, I don’t like this,” she said pleadingly. “I don’t think you should do this. Re-dyeing a person? You can’t just… you can’t re-dye people. You can’t just start over and force people to think a different way. People don’t work like that.”

“Evidently they do,” Sten said. “Re-education has been a mainstay of my people for many ages.”

“But… but isn’t the fact that re-education is necessary — isn’t that proof that people don’t work like that?” she said. “That they need to be able to change?”

Sten shook his head. “It is proof only that we have one choice: whether to struggle, or to accept. I choose to accept.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “This is what must happen, kadan. When we arrive in Par Vollen, I must report to the Ben-Hassrath for re-education.”

She pulled his hand away from her hair and clutched his fingers. “And what about me?” she demanded. “What will I… what am I supposed to do in Par Vollen while you’re doing that?”

“You cannot come to Par Vollen,” he said.

A jolt of shock coursed down her throat. “What?” 

“I have already paid the captain for your passage back to Denerim,” he said. “When we arrive, you will remain on the ship, and the captain will take you home.”

Yara gaped at him in silence, dumbstruck by this sudden turn of events. Sten was sending her back to Denerim? He was making her go back without him? In all her worried imaginings of what would happen, she hadn’t foreseen this. 

“I… I don’t understand,” she said finally. “I came all this way, and you’re just sending me straight back to Ferelden? Why?”

“You have a purpose in Ferelden,” Sten said. “It is a worthy one. You do not need another.”

She stared at him, stunned by the unfairness of this. Why was Sten the one who was suddenly in charge here? What made him think that he could just decide to send her away?  

“And what if I want a new purpose?” she said.

His eyebrows rose slightly. “What?”

She pulled her hands away from his. “What I do isn’t up to you,” she said. “I don’t have to go back to Denerim just because you said so. What if I want to convert to the Qun? What if I want to be re-educated, too?” It was a petulant bluff, and Yara knew it; she didn’t really want to convert to the Qun, especially not if it involved having her way of thinking be ‘re-dyed’, whatever that ominously meant. But the thought of Sten sending her away so suddenly, like she didn’t matter to him at all… 

“It is not about wanting,” he said. “It is the way of things. You have a purpose, and it is not here.”

His reply was calm and measured, and it made her chest hurt even more. She swallowed the lump that was rising in her throat. “B-but you said some people can visit in Par Vollen. Why won’t you even let me visit?”

“Some bas can visit if they are not deemed an immediate threat to the Qun,” he said.

She frowned. “And you think they’d consider me an immediate threat to the Qun?”

“It is a risk you should not be willing to take,” he replied.

Or what? she thought. But Sten’s response was foreboding enough that she didn’t want to ask. 

He was still gazing at her steadily, just gazing at her with those beautiful jewel-like eyes, and the lump of distress in her throat swelled again. “I don’t want to go back to Ferelden,” she said. “I want to stay with you.”

“You can’t,” he said. “You know this, kadan.”

His tone was especially gentle, and to Yara’s horror, a tear ran down her cheek. She hastily wiped it away as Sten continued to speak. “You have listened to what I have told you of the Qun. You know that the ties between us are forbidden. And when I have finished with the Ben-Hassrath, you will not want to stay with me.”

A fresh bolt of dismay curdled in her gut. “What? What do you mean? Why not?”

He inhaled slowly before replying. “I will go back to being the soldier I was before I left. I will not feel the same way about you as I do now.”

“Wha… what are you saying?” she said faintly. “They’re going to make you forget me?”

“I will not forget you,” he said. “But I will not want to be with you anymore.”

She stared at him breathlessly. It felt like he’d just kicked her in the ribs. Her chest was literally hurting from what he’d just said. 

She forced a painful inhale. “And you’re fine with that?” she rasped. “You’re fine with just… letting this get wiped away?”

He lifted his shoulders. “How I feel about it is of no consequence. It is to be.”

“No!” she blurted. “No, it’s not! It’s — you don’t have to do this!” She gripped his hands. “Let’s just turn around and go back to Ferelden together!”

For the first time since this conversation had begun, he dropped her gaze. “Kadan...”

“No, hear me out!” she begged. “We can just go back to Ferelden. You don’t have to let them take you.” She cradled his face in her trembling hands. “We can just go back to Ferelden and keep on living our lives!”

He met her gaze once more. “And what would we do with these lives?”

“I’m still a Warden,” she said eagerly. “I still have my purpose, just like you said. I still have Warden things to do. I need to root out any darkspawn leftovers and… and, um, I need to meet up with Alistair, and we’ll – we’ll recruit and all that in case there's another Blight.”

“And me?” Sten said. “What would I do?”

“You would come with me, of course,” she retorted. “We would travel together. Maybe you could even become a—!” She stopped short before suggesting that he become a Grey Warden too. What if he died during the process? That would be worse than letting the Ben-Hassrath take him. 

His eyes were steady and his face was calm, but this only made Yara feel more agitated. She floundered for a response. “You could… you… look, we can figure it out,” she said desperately. “But what matters is that you would still be yourself! You wouldn’t have to be re-dyed!” 

He shook his head slowly. “If I turned my back on my people, I would no longer be the man you know. I would be a Tal-Vashoth. I would be worse than dead.” He raised his eyebrows slightly. “Is that what you want for me? That I become irredeemable even to my own people?”

“No!” Yara said plaintively. “That’s not what I’m saying! I just…” Another tear escaped her eye, and she hastily wiped it away. “I love you,” she said. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“I am my purpose, kadan,” he said softly. “Without purpose, I would be lost to you anyway.”

She scoffed and tried to force back the tears that were pressing at the backs of her eyes. “Well, it looks like I’m going to lose you no matter what, then,” she retorted.

“Yes,” Sten said.

She looked up at him, hurt by his bluntness. She pulled her hand from his and pushed the sheets off of her legs. “You don’t love me,” she said tremulously. “Not really. If you did, you wouldn’t be so cold about this.” She got out of the bed and started pulling on her breeches.

Behind her, she heard him shuffling over to sit at the edge of the bed. “I do love you,” he said. “But love is not purpose for qunari.”

She spun around to face him. “Well, I’m not qunari, all right?” she snapped. “I’m — I’m a stupid emotional bas who thinks that love is important and who followed you like an idiot all the way here from…” She trailed off. Something horrible had just occurred to her.

She met his eyes. “How long have you known you were going to do this?” she demanded. “How long have you known you were going to leave me behind when we got to Par Vollen?”

He frowned slightly. “Why does it matter?”

“Because it tells me how much of a bastard you are,” she retorted. “Was it before or after we started having sex?”

“Before,” he said.

She paused, surprised by this. “You… you were going to make me stay behind even before we started having sex?” she asked. 

He nodded, and Yara frowned. “But we — our relationship wasn’t a problem for the Qun before that.”

Sten shook his head. “That is incorrect. It has been a problem since I allowed you to join me on this ship.”

She inhaled slowly to try and control her rising anger. “So you’re telling me that from the minute I set foot on this ship, you knew you weren’t going to let me come into Par Vollen with you?”

Sten sighed and rubbed his chin — the first sign of agitation he’d shown during this whole conversation. “No,” he said. “At first, I was uncertain of what you should do when we arrived in Par Vollen.”

“Then why did you even let me come with you?” she demanded.

“I don’t… know,” Sten said. “I was… not thinking at the time.”

Yara stared at him. She’d never heard him sound so uncertain. 

A tiny bitter laugh escaped her lips. “You don’t know? You sound like me.”

He shot her a sharp look. “I am aware of that. All the more reason I must go to the Ben-Hassrath.”

She recoiled, hurt once again by his implication that being like her was so bad that it needed to be re-dyed or… or re-educated, or whatever he was going to do. She inhaled through the painful vice around her ribs. “You should have told me you were going to send me back,” she accused. “You should have told me when I got on the ship!”

“There was nothing to tell when we first got on the ship,” he said in a hard voice. “You did not know why you were here. I did not know why I had invited you to come.” He leaned forward slightly, and Yara noted with a pang that he was glaring at her now. “This may come as a shock to you, but I am not a soothsayer. I could not predict what would happen.”

“What do you mean, what would happen?” she snapped. “What sudden change could possibly have happened to make you realize that I couldn’t actually come into Par Vollen with you?”

“I realized that you were considering joining the Qun,” Sten said.

“So?” Yara yelled. “Why does that make a difference?”

Sten stood up and took a step toward her. “If you join the Qun, you will find wisdom, but you will change,” he said. “You will be given a new purpose, and I cannot predict what that purpose would be. If you joined the Qun, you would not be the same person you are now.”

She held up a hand. “So let me get this straight. You’re going back to the Qun to let them brainwash you, but you don’t want me to join the Qun and get brainwashed.”

“You — vashedan. You do not need the Qun,” Sten said angrily. “You have wisdom and purpose already, even when you are too emotional to see it. The Qun would change who you are now.” He took another step toward her. “I love you as you are now.”

“Good thing the Ben-Hassrath will be curing you of that, then,” Yara said bitterly.

His eyebrows rose, and a surge of remorse twisted in her gut. What she’d just said was terribly cruel, especially since she knew deep down that Sten never meant to be cruel to her. When he’d questioned her about her purpose, when he’d tried to keep her at a distance, and even now when he was trying to keep her out of Par Vollen: in the most logical corner of her mind, Yara knew that Sten was not trying to be cruel. 

But anger was still pulsing hotly at the backs of her eyes and in her ears, and she couldn’t force an apology past the rage. She folded her arms defensively and looked away from his brilliant purple eyes. 

A moment later, Sten stepped back and left the cabin, closing the door behind him and leaving her alone. 

Yara stood frozen in place, stunned by the sudden silence and the terrible echo of their argument in her head. She was still reeling from the fact that he was making her go back to Denerim, and truth be told, a small part of her wanted to debark in Par Vollen just to spite him. 

But Sten wouldn’t have told her to go back to Ferelden without a very good reason. No matter what he thought, he was a loyal qunari, and he wouldn’t have warned her off unless coming to Par Vollen would mean something she really wouldn’t like. 

But going back to Ferelden without him? Being alone again, after having found the kind of connection and love that she’d always hoped to find? 

The throbbing pain in her chest pulsed in her throat. She slowly sat at the edge of the bed and bowed her head, and tears she’d been holding back finally spilled over. 

She couldn’t believe this. She couldn’t believe Sten was leaving her like this. All the conversations they’d had, the sparring and the unexpected laughter and the incredible sex, all of that after having grown to know and love each other over the course of a long and difficult year of facing foes together: after all of that, Sten was willing to just throw it all away like it didn’t matter? He was willing to let the Ben-Hassrath brainwash him into thinking that she didn’t matter? 

If he was willing to drop her so easily, how much did she matter to him, really?

She choked out a sob and wiped her cheeks, and for a minute she allowed herself to sink into a painful morass of self-pity. But the self-pity did nothing to soothe her heartache, especially when part of that heartache was a horrible sense of guilt.

She knew Sten loved her. He might not be as demonstrative in his affections as Alistair or Leliana, but he was far more tender and open with his heart than she’d ever imagined he would be when they’d first set foot on this ship. He’d gone against his entire upbringing to be with her, and he was going against his upbringing by trying to protect her from it. 

And how did she repay him? By basically telling him she was glad he was going to get re-educated. 

She heaved a heavy sigh and dragged her fingers through her hair. “I’m an ass,” she muttered. She lifted her head and breathed carefully to quell her remaining tears, then rose from the bed and washed her face before leaving the cabin.

She stepped out onto the deck. It was early dusk, and the sailors were gambling and drinking while a couple of the more musically-inclined crewmembers played a fiddle and a drum. They greeted her casually as she stepped onto the deck, and she smiled awkwardly at them before looking up at the forecastle deck.

Sten was sitting on the bench alone. No, not alone: Fen’ain was sitting beside him, and Sten was scratching the mabari’s head — something Yara had never seen him do before. Sten would spar with Fen’ain or play fetch with him on the pretext of training, but Yara had never seen him pet the mabari in an affectionate manner.

A fresh pang in her chest made her eyes burn. She blinked carefully to quash the tears, then made her way quietly to the forecastle deck. 

She sat beside Sten. He glanced at her briefly before returning his gaze to Fen’ain. 

Undeterred by his neutrality, Yara took his hand in both of hers. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I’m so sorry, Sten. I was horrible to you before. I… I really don’t want the Ben-Hassrath to change you. Gods, that’s the… it’s the last thing I want. You — you know that, right? You know I didn’t mean it? I was just angry, and I — not that that makes it all right,” she stammered. “It’s not all right, and I shouldn’t have said it, and I — I’m… I’m so sorry.”

He nodded but didn’t meet her eye. But he didn’t take his hand from hers, either. 

Yara carefully laced her fingers with his. They sat silently on the bench together while Sten continued to scratch Fen’ain’s ears. 

A few long, melancholy minutes later, he spoke. “Misery is a choice,” he said.

Yara wilted. “Sten—”

“Stop talking,” he said. “Let me speak.”

She closed her mouth and raised her eyebrows, and Sten exhaled slowly. “Misery is a choice,” he said again. “It was my choice to keep this misery to myself. I did not want…” He trailed off and shook his head slightly, then finally looked her in the eye. “If you had known what was to come, you would have suffered. I did not want that for you.”

A bittersweet feeling squeezed her heart. “You didn’t tell me because you wanted me to be happy with the time we had,” she murmured.

He nodded, and Yara sighed and closed her eyes. Sten had kept this suffering to himself so she could be happy? It was… gods, so selfless. And sweet. And horribly painful. 

The lump of misery was swelling in her throat again, and she forced herself to breathe through it. Then Sten spoke again. “If I had told you, would it have changed anything?” he said. “Would you have acted differently? Chosen not to enter a sexual relationship with me?”

“No,” she said immediately. “I… no. It would have changed nothing. I would have still chosen to be with you.”

He nodded. “It is to be,” he said calmly. He looked her in the eye again. “You and I were meant to be, just as we were meant to end.”

His face was stern as always, but his gaze… he was looking at her in that piercing way, like he was seeing more than she’d ever deigned to show anyone else, but his eyes were soft and bright. 

Yara sobbed suddenly. Sten’s eyes were bright with tears, and she couldn't believe she’d thought for even a second that she didn’t matter to him.

He put his arm around her, and she curled into his bare chest and covered her face with her hands. Then Sten’s lips brushed the crown of her head. “I am glad you came,” he said quietly. “I did not want to spend these last days alone.”

Her chest throbbed, a horrible aching feeling like her heart truly was breaking in her chest, and she sobbed again. “Sten,” she whimpered, but she couldn’t say anything more; she was crying hard like she had that night when they’d discussed asala-ataar, like an eruption of half-quashed feelings were suddenly unfolding and spouting from her eyes and mouth.

Fen’ain whined and rested his chin on her knee, but she ignored him; she was too mortified and miserable to reassure him right now. She tucked her face against Sten’s chest and clamped her lips shut to try and stop the tears, but her whole body was shaking now with the efforts to stop herself from bawling, and it felt awful.

“Come,” Sten murmured. He eased himself away from her, then carefully picked her up.

She sobbed and hooked one arm around his neck, keeping her face hidden in her other hand. Sten carried her back to their cabin, and as soon as the door closed behind them, Yara burst into horrible noisy tears. 

Sten silently carried her to the bed and sat down. The second he was sitting, she shifted awkwardly until she was straddling one of his broad thighs, then wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against the side of his neck. 

He wrapped his arms tightly around her, and Yara sobbed. “I l-love you,” she cried. “I don’t… don’t want you to–” An uncontrolled hiccup burst from her throat and cut her off, and she struggled to finish her sentence. “I don’t want you to change,” she sobbed. “I love you as you are n-now, too.”

“I know, kadan,” he said softly. His big callused palm was smoothing slowly along the length of her back and stroking her hair, and it felt so good and so soothing that it hurt. 

She tightened her arms around him, and Sten held her close with one arm while stroking her back and her hair with the other, and Yara sank miserably into the bitterness of how good it felt to be in his arms. 

It wasn’t until their cabin was draped in the gloom of early night that Yara finally stopped crying. Heartsick and exhausted from her tears, she slumped silently in Sten’s embrace, her forehead still pressed to his neck and her arms draped loosely around his shoulders. 

He was still gently stroking her back. Yara finally sighed and lifted her face from his neck. “You can let me go now,” she said quietly. “I’m all right, I promise.”

He ran his fingers through her hair. “I would prefer to continue holding you.”

His voice was a little husky, and Yara pulled away slightly to look at him. He turned his head away from her, but in the dimness of their shared cabin, she could just make out a slight shine just beneath his eye. 

Her heart twisted painfully. “Sten…” 

He frowned and quickly wiped his face. “I am not crying,” he said sternly. “Sten of the beresaad do not cry.” 

Yara cupped his face in her hands and kissed his forehead, then pressed her lips to the tip of his pointed ear. “You’re not a sten of the beresaad right now, vhenan,” she whispered. “You’re my Sten. Until we get to Par Vollen, you can cry if you want. You can do anything you want.” 

His jaw tightened, and Yara watched tenderly as he tried to master himself. She stroked his cheek and pressed her lips to his forehead once more, and when she pulled away to look at him again, a tear ran down his cheek. 

He immediately brushed it away. “Vashedan,” he muttered. Then he pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. He tucked his face against her neck this time, and his embrace was tighter than before. 

Yara hugged him firmly in return, and when she felt a trickle of moisture on her neck, she simply hugged him harder. 

The night faded on, leaching the remaining hints of sunlight from their cabin and leaving only streaks of moonlight behind, and Yara and Sten continued to hold each other in silence. Eventually they lay down on the bed, shedding their clothes clumsily in order to feel the heat of each other’s skin, and when they began to kiss, the salt that Yara tasted on his lips was the most terrible proof of how much she mattered to him. 

They kissed and stroked each other’s bare skin, shifting slowly beneath the sheets until Sten was looming over her. They moved together in a slow celebration of skin-to-skin, Sten’s much-larger hands holding hers down to the bed as they breathed together in their shared bed, and still they were silent, and Yara was relieved.

The talking they had done today was more than enough. For the rest of the night, Yara didn’t want to talk. She didn’t want to think or cry or brood over what was going to happen in just a couple of too-short days. 

She wanted to… be. Clasped in the warmth and safety of Sten’s bare-armed embrace, Yara just wanted to be. 

[ukiyoe-reproduction]

The Making Method of Safflower Red Pigment.

Safflower red pigment is the red pigment that had been used in the original ukiyoe in the edo period.I have put effort to restore that since last year(2018).At the hiroshige reproduction this time, I changed the previous  method a little referring to the new  material book , "T.Takamatsu　｢On Japanese pigments」in 1878".Since the book doesn't describe the all matters,I had to experiment many times.However, I couldn't get to know the all. Here,I introduce the way seemed the best for the present.   1 Soak 50g safflower cakes in water over the one night.（I explain in 50g for convenience sake here ) The container needs to be wooden,stainless steel or plastic which has no worry iron comes to be dissolved.The safflower cake is called "hana-mochi "in Japanese, which is fermented and dried petal of safflower.From the long time ago,safflower has been sent as this state to fabricator of safflower products like dyeing , cosmetic or pigment,etc, from farmhouses . About 70g of safflower cakes are made from 1kg of petals. 

 2In the next morning, mix the cakes in water and wash in 4or5 times changing water in each time.Use  a sieve to catch the small fibers not to be wasted when throw water.   

3Wrap the fuzzy cakes in hemp cloth. Then  squeeze it  soaking  to a container with water . This squeezing work is done  over again around an hour.The color of extract is yellow at first but it turns more red little by little.This process is done until the extract becomes pale red. This process to get rid of the yellow color is very important.（The compressor by manpower is described in the reference book. )

4After the squeezed, the cakes are taken to a container from the cloth.Then the cakes is well agitated with alkali liquid consists of 50ml alkali lye  and 16ml water.The preparation of lye is started in the day before and the lye is collected in the next morning. 150g wood ash mixed with 400ml water makes about 130ml lye of alkali as supernatant of which pH is over 14.（The limit of measurements of my litmus paper was 14.) When the alkali is poured on the cakes, the cakes get brown color a little .If this color change can't be seen, the pH is too weak.Rubber glove is needed in the moment of agitation.

（Tea strainer with cotton cloth is useful when the lye is collected.)

5After the cakes are well agitated,they are wrapped again by the hemp cloth and squeezed tightly.The red color is extracted by the power of alkali.This extract is kept in a container.

6 In the same way, the cakes are taken from the hemp and poured the alkali liquid again. This liquid consists of 80ml lye left and 80ml water.The extract with squeezed is collected to the same container as before.   The extract process which the book describes is the all until here. However, it was clear for me that  the cakes could be extracted much more.So I tested over again to get to know the best amount of alkali liquid and extract.For the  present, the best way seems to be as below. After the lye of 130ml is collected as above, then add 4.5l of water to the wood ash container.The lye taken by that is poured on the cakes little by little in each time of squeezing.The pH at this time is 13～14.（The wood ash itself absorbs water a bit well so water is always needed to add more amount than the lye needed.) The total amount  of extract collected by the all process is 4l  in final. Since I got to know the standard of amount of alkali by the tests this time, I have an idea of  crumpling the hemp in that totally amount of alkali from the first, for the next time.Added water,the wood ash takes time a little long to precipitate, so since the lye can't be collected quickly ,the processes of collecting the 130ml lye and adding the next 4.5l water must be done until the process 2 as above.The more times the cakes are squeezed, the more its squeeze liquid  becomes yellow from red little by little .Only the pure red color is used as "hon-beni 本紅)"for cosmetic ,while the red with more yellow  is used for the pigment.So since my purpose is the pigment, I squeezed many times until the red color didn't come out anymore to neutralize the former red extract.The cakes which can come to be extracted only the yellow color is thrown away.  

7 The collected extract is filtered by cotton cloth.Used a sieve,It can be more easily done.

（The extract after filtering.The former one is on the left side and the latter on the right.Note that there is no need to separate containers .)

8Now the acid of smoked plum called "ubai（鳥梅)" is added to the extract and mixed well. The alkali is neutralized by the acid  and the red color is gradually crystallized within 5 minutes.If the amount of acid is too small, although the color of extract becomes more red, but isn't crystalized, so the pigment can't be obtained.（Smoked plum has been traditionally used for the neutralization of alkali of the safflower extract from the long time ago. The reference book  doesn't describes the use of smoked plum but roasted plum called " yakiume（焼き梅)". But since I have the stock of the smoked one , I chose to use it for this time.)The acid is started to prepare in the day before.Just soaking the plum in water. About 70ml of acid of which pH is 2～3 is made of 65g smoked plum and 100ml of water . The dried smoked plum absorbs water a little much. But, the suitable amount of acid that I calculated according to the book was 16ml for 50g of the cakes. I actually tested that amount at first but it didn't go well. In the final of the all experiments, I tested 70ml as above, however even it wasn't enough.I added rice vinegar for the shortage as the way before.Just used the vinegar, 14ml per 1l of extract is no problem.I have questioned why the extract couldn't be crystalized well by the plum, though each pH of the plum and vinegar is almost same in pH 2～3. I come to rethink of the plum in the point of  its quality or kind itself.     

9  After crystalizing , the extract is left until the crystal is precipitated well.And after it done, the supernatant is taken away as possible as can. It's done again to  add water and take away the supernatant to wash itself more. According to this  book, the red powder settled after that process is "shomi-beni（正味紅)"which is ready to be used for dyeing. For the use of pigment, it is drained on silk cloth and a little starch is added as below.Made for hon-beni（本紅), the settled red is dissolved by the alkali and crystalized again by the acid.This re- crystalized process is the different way from what described in other books . Hon-beni had been often used in the original Suzuki Harunobu（鈴木春信) prints or other some selected prints in the edo period, so I'll come to make this pigment in the future.  

10 Once the supernatant is taken away, it is poured on the silk on a sieve and drained. Fine silk must be selected unless the yielding percentage is to be bad. The speed of drainage is quite slow so it is good to do squeezing pretty softly.

11 Finished the drainage, the silk is spreaded flatly and the mud of safflower is collected.Once that collecting is finished , the silk is washed in a water container and that wash liquid is filtered as the same way before on that silk. By repeating this process, the safflower red can be collected in much less waste.

12 A little starch made from arrowroot powder,"kuzu-ko（葛粉)" is added and mixed with the mud on a dish. Dry and Finish. Since it gets mold easily , it must be dried in the state rolled out into thin pieces. It's also weak to the light so the whole process should be done in the shade.

（The state after dried .)

Note :At the drainage process, I had used cotton cloth in the way before, but I think silk is better since it looks to be able to absorb more the extra yellow. The different of colors between cotton and silk after used to drain can be compared as the below photo.The left side is the silk and it's more yellow.  

According to this book,the total amount of pigment thus obtained varies from 7～10% according to the different qualities of cakes.However, the mine was always below 5%, and  there might be  possibility of the shortage of starch.About 70g of cakes are made of 1kg of the petals, and 5～7g of the pigment is made of them.It's said that the pigment had been taken like for money  in printers in the past.Just thinking of the relation of amount between the petals and the  pigment , realizing that is easy.

Comparing the way with the previous, it's shortened particularly  in the points that extracting is done as soon as the alkali is added and the supernatant is taken away after crystalized.The drainage of extract is very slow and sometime it got mold before drained well in the previous way. This improvement is very nice.

But unfortunately,I couldn't make the good color also this time. It's with black and is far from the first state of original color. It  must have been more bright and vivid in the edo period.I took the experiments 7times and the color of each time was varied. I used the better ones for the hiroshige reproduction this time.The making method  I introduce here is what was concluded as the best for the present.This reproduction is the picture that the red color has the sense of existence , so also in this point , the unsuccessful of making red is the most matter of regret at this reproduction. On the making of that, I felt it was my capability and limit for the present.I'm sure to keep putting effort.

In the final of the 7times experiments, I tested that I dried the wood ash and used for the next.The power of ash becomes weak in reuseing so I did the test caring  its pH thinking of that. In that result , the color became worst in the all tests.By that test , now I 'm thinking that there would have been the fundamental problem on the the kind or quality of ash I had used before the way.（The ash I had used is the mix of oak and quercus acutissima .) I'll do the test on the other kind for the next.      

[tipsycad147]

Candle magic

Careful what you ask for....

  A Spell of Protection

Sit or stand before an open fire or tall white candle.

Look into the flame and relax, let yourself feel the warm safe glow. Visualize that these flames are bathing you with a glowing, soft warm and protective light.

The fire creates a flaming, shimmering sphere of protection all around you.

ADORATION CANDLE MAGICK On your altar, place two red candles at either end. Before doing this, rub the two candles with rose essential oil. Again, on Friday, the day of the week devoted to the Goddess Aphrodite, perform this task to attract your beloved. Write your name on one candle, and your beloved's on the other. If you do not know his or her name, simply write "my beloved" or "my true love". Again try to use language that will ensure positive magic. If you simply write "handsome" you may well end up with someone gorgeous, but who is harmful for you in some other way. Each evening at seven, light the candles and move them slightly closer together. Carve into your candle a word of special significance to you, perhaps taken from your insights when you performed the wishful thinking task. Perhaps the word "devoted" should be carved into your beloved's candle. On your own, write the same. Meditate on this quality for several minutes, then snuff out the candles. Repeat this for seven nights, using a different quality each time, until on the seventh, the following Friday, both candles are finally standing as close together as possible. Light them and let them burn down and out. If any wax remains, scatter it before you as you walk through a beautiful place, wishing it to bring good fortune to others hoping for love.

When you are ready say the following :

Craft the spell in the fire; Craft it well; Weave it higher. Weave it now of shining flame; None shall come to hurt or maim. None shall pass this fiery wall; None shall pass No, none at all.

Simple candle spell

1.  One of the simplest of magical arts which comes under the heading of natural magic is candle burning. It is simple because it employs little ritual and few ceremonial artifacts. The theatrical props of candle magic can be purchased at any department store and its rituals can be practiced in any sitting room or bedroom.

2.  Most of us have performed our first act of candle magic by the time we are two years old. Blowing out the tiny candles on our first birthday cake and making a wish is pure magic. This childhood custom is based on the three magical principals of concentration, will power and visualization. In simple terms, the child who wants his wish to come true has to concentrate (blow out the candles), visualize the end result (make a wish) and hope that it will come true (will power).

3.  The size and shape of the candles you use is unimportant, although highly decorative, extra large, or unusually shaped candles will not be suitable as these may create distractions when the magician wants to concentrate on the important work in hand. Most magicians prefer to use candles of standard or uniform size if possible. Those which are sold in different colors for domestic use are ideal.

4.  The candles you use for any type of magical use should be virgin, that is unused. Under no circumstances use a candle which has already adorned a dinner table or been used as a bedroom candle or night-light. There is a very good occult reason for not using anything but virgin materials in magic. Vibrations picked up by secondhand materials or equipment may disturb your workings and negate their effectiveness.

5.  Some magicians who are artistically inclined prefer to make their own candles for ritual and magical use. This is a very practical exercise because not only does it impregnate the candle with your own personal vibrations, but the mere act of making your own candle is magically potent. Specialist shops sell candle wax and molds together with wicks, perfumes, and other equipment.

6.  The hot wax is heated until liquid and then poured into the mould through which a suitably sized wick has already been threaded. The wax is then left to cool and once is this has occurred the mould is removed , leaving a perfectly formed candle. Special oil-soluble dyes and perfumes can be added to the wax before the cooling process is complete to provide suitable colors and scents for a particular magical ritual. Craft shops which sell candlemaking supplies can also provide do-it-yourself books explaining the technicalities of the art to the beginner.

7.  Once you have purchased or made your ritual candle it has to be oiled or 'dressed' before burning. The purpose of dressing the candle is to establish a psychic link between it and the magician through a primal sensory experience. By physically touching the candle during the dressing procedure, you are charging it with our own personal vibrations and also concentrating the desire of your magical act into the wax. The candle is becoming an extension of the magician's mental power and life energy.

8.  When you dress a candle for magical use, imagine that it is a psychic magnet with a North and a South pole. Rub the oil into the candle beginning at the top or North end and work downwards to the half-way point. Always brush in the same direction downwards. This process is then repeated by beginning at the bottom or south end and working up to the middle.

9.  The best type of oils to use for dressing candles are natural ones which can be obtained quite easily. Some occult suppliers will provide candle magic oils with exotic names. If the magician does not want to use these, he can select suitable oils or perfumes from his own sources. The oils soluble perfumes sold by craft shops for inclusion in candles can be recommended.

10.  The candles you use can be colored in accordance with the following magical uses: White- spirituality and peace. Red- health,energy,strength,courage, sexual potency. Pink- love affection and romance. Yellow- intellectualism, imagination, memory and creativity Green- fertility, abundance, good luck and harmony Blue-inspiration, occult wisdom, protection and devotion Purple- material wealth, higher psychic ability, spiritual power and idealism Silver- clairvoyance, inspiration, astral energy and intuition Orange- ambition. career matters and the law.

11.  If you wanted to use candle magic for healing, you would select a red candle to burn. To pass an exam, burn a yellow candle, to gain esoteric knowledge burn a blue candle or for material gain, burn a purple one. It is obvious these colors relate to the signs of the zodiac and the planetary forces.

12.  The simplest form of candle magic is to write down the objective of your ritual on a virgin piece of paper. You can use color paper which matches the candle. Write your petition on the paper using a magical alphabet, such as theban, enochian, malachain,etc. As you write down what you want to accomplish through candle magic-- a new job, healing for a friend, a change of residence, a new love affair, etc.-- visualize your dream coming true. Visualize the circumstances under which you might be offered a new job, imagine your employer telling you that your salary has been increased or conjure up a vision of your perfect love partner.

13.  When you have completed writing down your petition, carefully fold up the paper in a deliberately slow fashion. Place the end of the folded paper in the candle flame and set light to it. As you do this concentrate once more on what you want from life.

14.  When you have completed your ritual, allow the candle to have completely burned away. You do not need to stay with the candle after the ritual, but make sure that is safe and that red-hot wax will not cause damage or fire. Never re-use a candle which has been lit in any magical ritual. It should only be used in that ritual and then allowed to burn away or be disposed of afterwards.

15.  If you are conducting a magical ritual which involves two people (e.g. an absent healing for a person some distance away) then the second person can be symbolically represented during the ritual by another candle. All you need to do is find out the subject's birth date and burn the appropriate candle for that zodiacal sign.

These are as follows-

ARIES                 red TAURUS            green GEMINI               yellow CANCER           silver LEO                    orange VIRGO                yellow LIBRA                pink SCORPIO          red SAGITARIUS    purple CAPRICORN    (black) AQUARIUS       (all colors) PISCES             mauve

Candle bright Burning fire Keep within you Our/my desire. Listen to the words I/we speak And clear a path To what I/we seek. Let our/my wishes All come true As they burn This night with you. Blessed Be!

CANDLE CHANT  

When you are ready to light the candle, chant something like:

Candle of power, candle of might, Create my desires here on this night. Power, stream from this candle's fire. Bring to me my heart's desire. My words have strength, the victory's won. So say I, this spell is done.

Candle Chant (author unknown)

Element of fire, Spirit of light, Essence of life, Awaken the night. Fire of the soul, Flame of life, As light reveals truth, Burn golden bright.

Candle rituals 1) At sunrise light a light-blue candle, do every morning for 7 days, this protects against evil influences, promotes harmony in a love relationship and is an antidote to quarreling. 2) For good luck and to restore good fortune, burn 1 yellow and 1 brown candle. 3) To attract great financial luck, burn 3 candles, 1 brown 1 yellow, 1 orange. 4) For luck in love, burn a red candle. 5) To start a favorable week, burn 1 orange and 1 blue candle, the combination is a powerful one. 6) To avoid scandal and malicious gossip, burn a silver candle. 7) To break up a love affair, burn 1 green and 1 black candle, this negative combination is powerful. 8) For good fortune to come to you, burn 1 orange and 1 blue candle on a Monday. 9) To attract success, fame, honor and power, burn an orange candle each morning on waking. 10) During the night, burn a turquoise candle if a decision concerning the future is about to be made. This will ensure peace and optimism. 11) To keep financial problems from your door, burn 3 pale orange candles, missing one day, will invite a bad day. 12) To prevent rape/violence, burn one yellow and one violet candle before sleep. 13) To prevent robbery and assault, burn a green candle at sunset every day. 14) Maximum protection against violent crime, burn a lime green candle at sunset every night. 15) To help prevent financial loss and disaster, burn a green and red/gold candle, it also helps prevent disloyalty in a love relationship. 16) To restore harmony and stability if domestic turmoil erupts, burn one green and one purple candle. 17) To deprive an enemy of strength, burn one orange and one black candle. 18) Financial disaster to your rivals, burn one orange and one green candle.

Candle's flame: Strong Flame

The power that you are calling forth is moving into our desires for manifestation. This strong flame shows strength in the user or object of the spell.

Weak Flame

On a figure candle, this could mean that the subject is loosing the battle. This can also show that you are facing strong opposition and your magic may have to be repeated to be achieved.

Jumping Flame

This can indicate explosions or bursts of energy being transmitted. Raw emotions or chaotic energies could be at work. An argument could be taking place or a heated discussion.

Rainbow Flame

If your flame is composed of various colors, the elemental is communicating with respect to the color codes. Meaning that the energies are so strong that the corresponding color on the spectrum is manifesting in the Salamander (the flame).

Candle's smoke:

Northern Movement

Something physical is manifesting. You will have to work for what you wish to achieve.

Eastern Movement

Something mental is manifesting. Think things threw and have patience in situations.

Southern Movement

Something intense and short lived is manifesting. Success comes rapidly and with intensity.

Western Movement

The manifestation of strong Magic intervention. The issue is too emotional. You are too involved - step away for a time. Clear your thoughts.

Candle's sounds:

Infrequent noise, soft

Pure thoughts. Intimate conversation.

Frequent noise, mild

An Authority figure giving orders or directions.

Frequent chatter, strong

Candle Wishes

by Lady of the Shadows

Oh, blue fire,

help with health.

I need not power

or great wealth.

Burn brown candle,

help me see

the nature spirits

and fairies.

Light of gold,

your burning bright.

Can you change

my luck tonight?

Burn magenta,

make this quick

before the fire

burns your wick.

Oh, indigo,

see what is brung

by made up lies.

Please watch the tongue.

Candle pink

attract pure love

as warm and bright

as sun above.

Fire orange,

as you burn,

I hope that you

will help me learn.

I need to balance,

candle green,

a situation

that I've seen.

Oh, purple light,

Do not return

the curse upon me

with you burns.

Candle red,

I need will power

to overcome

my vice this hour.

Burn gray light,

I meditate.

Help me see more

in this state.

Fire white,

I seek what's true

so I will know

what I should do.

Oh, yellow candle,

burning there,

I seek more knowledge

I can share.

Certain colors,

remember this,

burn together

to make a wish.

Oh, candle fire,

candle bright,

may this wish

come true tonight.

CANDLES FOR A PASSIONATE LOVE SPELL To draw a passionate love your way, during a waxing Moon gather two taper candles, one pink and one red, and some red thread and jasmine oil. Anoint the candles with jasmine oil using your fingertips, then light them while visualizing the flames of passion growing between yourself and new, but yet unknown, love. Link the candles together by making a figure eight between them with the thread while repeating: "Flames of passion and seeds of romance grow; I open my heart to love. Now the one who seeks me shall come." For best results, enact the spell on three consecutive nights.

CAST A WITCH'S LUCKY CANDLE SPELL take an orange candle anointed with cinnamon oil, clove, or lotus oil. Light the candle and say 3 times: "brimstone, moon, and witch's fire, candlelights bright spell, good luck shall I now acquire, work thy magic well. Midnight twelve, the witching hour, bring the luck I seek. By wax and wick now work thy power as these words I speak. Harming none, this spell is done. By law of three, so mote it be!" Do this spell at midnight.

DRESSING A CANDLE FOR RITUAL

1. Chose type and color of candle appropriate for ritual.

2. Cleanse the candle of prior energies: you may use water, salt, pure soap, or baby oil (all previously blessed and consecrated.)

3. Bless and consecrate oil to be used, appropriate to ritual.

4. State and engrave (if you wish) what the candle is to represent.

5. Anoint the candle with oil and focus on desire (purpose of ritual.)

a. For ritual of achievement: anoint oil from the top of the candle to the middle in a downward motion, then from the bottom of the candle to the middle in an upward motion.

b. For ritual of banishment: anoint oil from the middle of the candle to the top in an upward motion, then middle to bottom of the candle in a downward motion.

6. Bless and consecrate the candle.

7. Meditate on desired outcome.

Some people do not use matches to light candles, the sulfur is considered unclean.

If you feel this way, use an incense starter or stick to light your candles.

To extinguish a candle, snuff it out or wave your hand over it hard enough to make a breeze to put it out.

Do not blow or pinch it out. Blowing a candle out blows desires away, and pinching a flame pinches out desires.

Medieval candle spell reversal ritual

Do this 5 nights in a row, at dusk - as the sun dies and darkness descends.

Light 2 Black candles and as they burn, speak this invocation: |

In the name of the Gods and all ye spirits, In the name of Kernunnos, and the light and the dark and the Gods of the Netherworld, Remove thy curse and sting from my heart and mine. And whosoever shall be casting a curse against me, Let he or she suffer their own curse. Let these candles be their candles, This burning be their burning, This curse be their curse. Let the pain they have caused me and mine Fall upon themselves.

The two candles are completely burned each night.

REVERSING A CANDLE SPELL Do this 5 nights in a row, at dusk - as the sun dies and darkness descends. Light 2 Black candles and as they burn, speak this invocation: In the name of the Gods and all ye spirits, In the name of Kernunnos, and the light and the dark and the Gods of the Netherworld, Remove thy curse and sting from my heart and mine. And whosoever shall be casting a curse against me, Let he or she suffer their own curse. Let these candles be their candles, This burning be their burning, This curse be their curse. Let the pain they have caused me and mine Fall upon themselves. The two candles are completely burned each

Riding Self of Unwanted Energy

Take a black candle which has been ritually cleansed and some anointing oil which has also been ritually blessed. Do not use anything for this which has not been cleansed or blesed already.

Depending on the desired result, you should choose an oil which corresponds to this end. At the time of the new moon, or when it first begins to wane, cast a circle or use your 9' cord to create a sacred space.

Place the black candle (preferable a taper) on the altar with the oil.

Have no unblessed/uncleansed tools in this ritual.

Cast the circle.

Call the Goddess and her consort.

Use a burin to engrave the candle with the spell you wish to cast.

Now, anoint the candle using the oil. While you anoint the candle with the oil, speak these words out loud or silently "Tonight no moon, tomorrow the first one. Let this be eroded til my will be done. Candle burn down to remove all ill. Let this spell be cast by the power of my will."

And once you have anointed the candle, place it in a safe place to burn down completely.

Rolled Candles Supplies: scissors wicking sheets of pliable honeycomb-textured wax, available in natural pale colors and in bright dyed hues utility knife ruler butter knife Step 1: To make the wax easier to work with, heat it on a radiator or with a hair dryer until it's pliable (a minute or two). Cut a piece of wicking; it should be l inch longer than the length of the candle. Place the wicking along one long edge of the wax; fold the wax over the wicking and press tightly to seal it in. Step 2: Carefully roll up the wax sheet with the wicking inside. Make sure the top and bottom edges remain even and that the wicking stays securely in place. Step 3: When the candle is the diameter you want, cut off the excess wax with a sharp utility knife. Use a ruler as a straight edge to make sure that you get a neat, clean edge. Step 4: Smooth the cut end by pressing a warmed butter knife (hold it under running hot water and dry it, or warm it with a hair dryer) along the seam. Don't press too hard; beeswax is delicate and you can easily crush the candle. To prime the end of the wick, press a tiny bit of wax around it just before lighting it. Variations: Vary the height of your candles by cutting the beeswax into strips of different heights before rolling. Create candles of different widths by varying the number of layers of beeswax in which you roll each piece of wicking. You can group candles of varying widths and heights for an elegant display. To make a tapered candle, cut a right triangle from a sheet of beeswax. Roll from one of the equal sides. Make beehive-shape, candles by rolling a tapered candle, then adding layers of sheet wax, each layer slightly shorter than the last. For square candles, gently press the candle against a hard, smooth surface after each quarter turn.

THE RUNE CANDLE Select a colored candle that corresponds with the desired outcome. Cast a circle then Magnetize the candle with suitable oil. While you are dressing the candle say "Upon this candle I will write What I require of thee tonight May the runes of magick flow. By mind and spell And flame aglow. I trust that You will grant this boon Oh Lovely Goddess of the Moon" Now take up your blade and carve a rune or symbol that represents the goal of the spell. Place The candle on the center of the alter and light it while proclaiming; "As my will, so mode it be!" Now allow the candle to burn itself out with out being disturbed.

To Change the Color of Flame:

For Candles: add the chemicals to the wax, or soak the wicks in a solution of  the chemicals using the "recipes" below

To Add to a Fire: Put three level spoons of the chemical into a paper cup; fill 1/2 full with water and stir. Soak several small chips of wood in this solution overnight. The next day, remove the chips with tweezers and lay on newspaper to dry. They can now be added to the lames to produce bright colors.

Green flame: Borax or Boric acid, copper nitrates or barium nitrates, alum (thallium)

Orange flame: calcium chloride

Red flame: stronium nitrate, some sources site Boric acid as well

Reddish/Orange-calcium choloride

Yellow flame: Table salt, Sodium Chlorate or Potassium Nitrate

Yellow/Green-borax (sodium tetraborate)

Purple flame: Lithium Chlorate, (potassium nitrate)

White: psom Salts (magnesium sulfate)

Another  special effect can be achieved by sprinkling powdered iron into a flame. If this is done slowly enough, a number of yellow, sparkling "stars' can be seen clearly.

WITCH'S HEALING CANDLE SPELL To help speed a recovery from illness, write the sick person's name upon a white human-shaped candle of the appropriate gender. As you anoint it with three drops of myrrh or mint oil, visualize healing energy in the form of white light flowing from your hands into the candle and say: In the divine name of the Goddess Who breathes life into us all I consecrate and charge this candle As a magical tool for healing. Place the candle on top of a photograph of the sick person and then light the wick. As the candle burns down, concentrate upon the person in the photograph, willing him or her to be well again, and chant the following incantation: Magick mend and candle burn, Sickness end; good health return

https://crimsonwolfe.tripod.com/id9.html

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1500 word write up:

Globally there are more honey bees than any other types of bee and pollinating insects, making honeybees the world’s most critical pollinator of food crops. It is predicted that one third of the food that we as humans consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees. It is proven that if honey bees were to go extinct there would only be four years left of human existence. This fact is unknown to a lot of people, and it is a problem of our society right now as we do not understand the risks at hand. Bees are responsible for the majority of the fruits, vegetables and other things like almonds, coffee and chocolate. Oilseeds like sunflower, coconut and oil palm, will run out eliminating more than half of the world’s diet of fat and oil. It’s not only cottonseed that’s important, without cotton we would be stripped of countless clothing and household items, including blue jeans, shoe laces, towels, mattresses and high-quality paper products. Honey bees are also known to pollinate clover and alfalfa, without honey bees alfalfa fields will perish which are fed to cattle. Because of this there is the dairy and meat industry will die out, also a massive range of food products that are manufactured are made from these ingredients. Another significant role that honey bees play in is the pollination of other crops such like cotton and flax, along side these there are a number of important non-food products created by the honey bee, such as beeswax used in beauty and cleaning products products. By keeping the cycle of life turning, bees boost the colour and beauty of our countryside. As the years go on bees become in trouble even more and it is not becoming a public and political concern all over the world. It is important that people become aware of the importance bees have on our lives and on nature. Years ago it was known for miners to carry a canary in a cage through the mines to act as a basic air quality test. Canaries are much more delicate to the air quality than humans are, so when miners saw a bird in trouble, they knew something bad was about to happen and knew to get out quickly. Bees are todays society’s “canary in the mine” by simply doing the same thing, warning us of the environmental and health issues of the path we are currently on. The various factors of this are things like, a poor diet, stress, pollution, infection, pesticides, climate change, and many more. It has created conditions that have dramatically decreased the number of hives. Some threats to bees consist off specific diseases. Bees can become too weak to fly or be unable to reproduce, or lead to death. Various mites and pests, a specific mite known as Parasitic tracheal mites causes a threat, these mites can take over bees respiratory system as they are so small, and as they grow they make it nearly impossible for bees to breather as they completely cut off their air supply. Along side these, climate change is a threat to bees. With all of these different weather events it can effect the timing of when flowers bloom, were flowers mean less food for bees and they will starve. Its important to help protect bees and their declining number, growing your own garden that produces food for bees will attract them to collect nectar from your plants. Some of the best flowers for bees to collect decor from are blue and yellow flowering plants. Mass plants are highly effective so bees can spend most of their time in one area foraging instead of looking elsewhere. The life cycle of the bee consists of each bee to have a specific job best suited to each bee, these jobs have been divided into three castes which is dependent on their age. The first caste is the workers, this is the most popular caste. The workers make up 85% of the colony, the worker bees are known to be the most hard working as it includes forage to collect pollen and nectar. Usually when the bee turns 20 days old they are able to leave the colony and forge. The second caste is the queen, the queen gives birth to every single bee in the colony. With her pheromones it influences the mood within the colony. The final caste of the colony are the drones, this is made up of the male bees, typically there are only a fee hundred male bees in a colony. The male bees don’t have forging tools or stings, they have larger eyes which are used to locate the queen on mating flights. In order for the colony to communicate it lies on the queen bee. The queen gives a signal which encourages workers, without the queen to give directions the colony would fall apart. The main movement bees make while foraging is often called the waggle dance, the waggle dance is how bees communicate if they’ve found a amazing nectar supply. As bees forage resources up to 8km away from their hive bees use the round dance. When the nectar is more more than 40 meters away from the hive the bees perform the waggle dance. This dance allows bees to share information on direction and distance. It is important to inspire environmental education by offering new ways of thinking about existing problems and working to protect the environment. Ecological art is something created by artists that are concerned with the state of our environment. “Artists interpret nature and create artworks to inform us about nature and its processes or about environmental problems we face”. (Green Museum 2003, 4). “Others define ecological art as a movement that uses art that is restorative too promote awareness, engagement and activism around major environmental issues”. (Blandy etal, 1998; Cembalest 1991). When a designer has a extensive understanding idea of a design problem, they get a valuable insight that informs the importance of the experience. An experience is a type of event to personally engage individuals to implant a impression or leave a memory. A experience is a different way of practice that creates opportunity for change, it gives the narrative a chance to engage and create their own experience that they will remember. Experiences give individuals the chance to visualise new solutions and understand the problem and issues at hand, this is a way to create a new comprehensive and dynamic path to innovation. Experiences are responsible for services, products and the environment. A great experience is a imaginative combination of al these things, it creates a single narrative for everyone. Joseph Pine & James Gilmore states that “Passion to serve our users, make meaningful work in this world, and of course, to provide a personal experience to them. This curiosity and openness to what design could do have led us into the fields of research”(The Experience Economy, 1999, pg. 9-15). To truely experience the essence of a design is to strip it back so its raw and you can see it for what it really is. The hive is made up of three major materials, wax, honey and propolis. Wax is the main material, it basically makes the hive. The structure of a hive which is majority comb is completely bee made. A series of hexagonal cells are made of wax which interlock the hive, bees store honey and pollen within these cells. The goal for a bee is to make honey. Propolis is the glue for a bee hive, propolis is 50% tree resin which makes it very sticky which is why bees use it to insulate and patch holes in their hive. The Hive, designed by Woolfgang Buttress, is a exclusive structure themed around the lifecycle of a bee inspired by valid research into the health of bees. The Hive shows an detailed metal honeycomb with an illuminated dome at its centre. This is made from thousands of pieces of aluminium which create a lattice effect which is fitted with hundreds of LED lights that fade and glow as a particular soundtrack hums and buzzes around you. These multi-sensory elements of the Hive are acknowledging to the real-time activity and movement of bees in a beehive. As the energy levels in the real life beehive surge, the light and sound within the instillation changes, allowing visitors to experience an insight to life inside a bee colony. 1000 LED luminaries line the interior of a beehive, vibration sensors are used to read the activity from the bee colony. A rotational twist in the structure proposes movement, symbolic of a swarm. “I’m not an architect, I’m an artist, so I was more interested in the experience and in how you could convey an idea and a feeling through an experience rather than an object or a building,” Buttress. The Hive is an abstracted analogue of a honeycomb, which speaks for the underlying and important relationship between bee and human, sound, science and landscape through an immersive and multi-sensory experience. “The Hive creates a powerful, immersive space for us to explore the urgent issues we face in relation to pollinators, their intimate relationships with plants and their vital role in helping us feed a rapidly growing population,” added Richard Deverell, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens. 

[mirascrafts]

How to choose the right size for your Living room carpet?

To be classified as a true oriental rug a carpet must be hand knotted and come from any of the traditional carpet producing countries of the world. This includes Persians, Indians, Kashmiris and a host of other styles.

Oriental rugs****  are different from all others in that their pile (usually wool) is tied to their foundations. That is why they are referred to as hand-knotted rugs, and that, more than anything, accounts for why they last so long — often 50–80 years in use. This also accounts for their expense. Carpet making has also historically evolved as an Art form and as with other art form the value and beauty remains subjective.

Here are some of major Questions Asked By Our Customers

Antique’ — Original pieces from Our Private collection of antique rugs. This collection is acknowledged to be the single largest Private collection

in the world after the Sultan of Brunei’s. We have a part of this private collection available for sale at the Miras Carpet Industries. Geographically

this collection spans the entire carpet-making world and comprises individually selected pieces from Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India etc.

The famous Bukhara carpets Like Kaishan, Hamadan, Qum, Jewel Of Kashmir, Star**** Of India,Doors Of Paradise, Khatirus, Tree Of Life,

Kirman rugs, Isfahans, Samarkands and many more find representation here.

‘Silk Carpets’

— The famous ‘Indian silk carpets’ are manufactured by us in Kashmir; these are new carpets and can be

made entirely of Silk or Silk on Silk with a cotton foundation. These “Kashmiris” Weavers often take inspiration from theclassical

Persian designs. Silk is the ultimate luxury fiber and these carpets are prized for their ornate design and opulent finish.

‘Antique Reproductions’ — We at Miras Carpet Industries recreate classical Persian and Mughal carpets using the same dyeing and weaving

techniques of yore. Do peruse our stylish ‘Silk and Wool Collection’ for our Persian reproductions and the ‘Mughal Jail Collection’ for our

imitations of the erstwhile Jail Carpets. All these carpets are manufactured using clothing grade merino wool and are also available with silk accents.

‘Kilims’– a large selection of the flat weaves from Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey.

These “tribal rugs” are in bold geometric designs and oft- vibrant colors. Made for self-use rather than sale, each piece then becomes unique and

the handiwork remarkable.

‘Montage’ — Modern carpets in sleek lines and contemporary colors.

What Indian carpets do you keep?

Old Indian rugs are represented in our Old & Antique selection; we stock original pieces from the 19th and 20th century. Some have been privately

acquired from the royal families of India while others are new rugs manufactured by us today.

For antiques see — Carpets & Rugs

For new carpets in wool and Woolen Carpets– For 100% Silk Carpets, Please Check with Silk On Silk Carpet Section.

We keep Obsession, Transitional, Persian, Traditional, Modern and Old vintage carpets in stock.

We are award winners in customizing carpets and rugs.

What dyes do you use?

We recreate age-old carpet making techniques. In keeping with that we use natural dyes i.e.vegetable dyes.

What is an Abrash?

A change in color in the field or border of a rug is called and ‘Abrash’. The color change extends across the rug, left to right, following a weft yarn and

this is due to differences in wool or dye batches used in the weaving of the rug. Rather than being seen as a flaw an Abrash is appreciated by carpet

lovers as a testament of handwork.

I am on a budget, could I still afford an Oriental rug?

It is a misnomer that all oriental rugs are unreasonably expensive. If you are on a budget you could still buy a great carpet. Consider selecting pieces

that are newer and factor in raw material and labour costs. Silk yarn is more expensive than wool, and silk carpets also require more time and skill to

weave because of the more intricate patterns.

How much time does it take to make a Carpet?

Manufacture time would depend on carpet size and intricacy. A small 3’ x 5 ’ rug could take a person several months to make, while a medium-sized

rug (5’ x 8’) could take a person or persons a year. Some of the museum quality Antique pieces or the very intricate silk masterpieces could take Several years.

Do you customize Carpets?

We do customize carpets and have done so previously for official state buildings, consulates and hotels.Please do be cognizant that customizing a carpet

is both labour and resource intensive and will also take some time and collaboration at all stages of the process -From design to making a naksha, dyeing

the yarn and weaving rug allow for a minimum time of 6–12 months from commissioning.

Should I buy a rug if I have pets or small children?

The Miras Carpet Oriental rugs is quality. Apart from their beauty it is their durability that makes them so highly sought after.Pets and children should

not deter you from buying fine rugs. Hand-knotted carpets are made to weather; they’re made to endure high traffic and wear and tear that is why they

last for decades. A high traffic area would demand a rug of high quality i.e. a hand-knotted one. Hand-knotted rugs are also easy to clean and maintain.

I have allergies should I buy an oriental rug?

All our carpets are manufactured using natural dyes (insect and vegetable) and natural fibres (wool, silk and cotton); they should not cause or aggravate

allergies. If you’re sensitive to dust, the regular vacuuming or brushing of carpets should allay those concerns.

I was gifted a damaged carpet, can it be restored?

Yes, the Miras Carpet Industries has restoration professionals on hand to evaluate and restore your piece.

What items can I place on top of my carpets?

Most items commonly found in a household or business ( i.e. tables, chairs, couches) can be placed on carpets. Items should be periodically moved forward and back over the course of a year to prevent any uneven crushing of the carpet’s pile.Plants should never be placed on top of the carpet, even with a water basin beneath the pot. Any leakage can damage the carpet.

Certification:

We provide certification of all our Miras Carpets. A certificate of authenticity will be provided to you given carpet genealogy, approximate age and relevant

information on symbols and motifs.

What are the Standard Carpet Sizes?

The sizes for old and antique carpets are based on the above standard but as nomads and tribals usually weave them, they can vary in their dimensions

by a few feet or inches.

The standard sizes in New wool carpets are-:

2×3 Feets

4×2.5 feet

5×3 feet

6×4 feet

7×5 feet

8×5 feet

9×6 feet

10×8 feet

12×9 feet

14×10 feet

15×12 feet

18×12 feet

The standard sizes in New Silk carpets are -:

2×3 feet

4×2.5 feet

5×3 feet

6×4 feet

7×5 feet

9×6 feet

10×8 feet

12×9 feet

14×10 feet

18×12 feet

Do write to us at Email enquiry@mirascrafts.come if you have any other queries or concerns.

Personal Details

Miras Carpet Industries

Location: No. 7, Suryodai Complex

Old Airport Road,

Kodihalli, Bangalore, India- 560008

Contact Mails: info@mirascrafts.com / mirnawaz@mirascrafts.com

Website: https://www.mirascrafts.com

Phone:+91 8041571894

Owner: Mir Nawaz

Founded:1983

[tipsntravel4u]

Batu Ferringhi Guide – Things to do in Batu Ferringhi

Batu Ferringhi, another primary area of Penang other than Georgetown, is filled with tons of attractions and activities. Brought to fame thanks to its strategic location, the beach, means a lot of activities are going to be adrenaline pumping and water involved. Truth be told, not every activity has got to be this tiring. That’s why in this post, we’re going to share with you the ultimate things to do in Batu Ferringhi and other attractions that are not all about beaches. So foodies, are you guys ready?

Credit: Hotels.com

Things to do in Batu Ferringhi:

Batu Ferringhi Guide Part 1: Start Off with Something Light

Penang Batik Factory

Credit: Gokayu

Ever seen those vibrant fabrics printed with bold prints such as leaves and flowers that could be found in almost every corner of Penang? That’s batik, a traditional technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to whole cloth. Set in Teluk Bahang, Penang Batik Factory is one of the pioneers of batik manufacturing on the island offering a wide variety of quality batik, from block prints batiks to hand-drawn pieces. Take a tour here and see how batiks are made and tour around the art gallery. Interested in making one on your own? The factory also offers workshop so you can get hands on experience as well as bringing home your personalised batik.

Credit: Penang Batik Factory

Cr: Gokayu

Address: 669m, Mk. 2, Teluk Bahang 11050 Penang, Malaysia. Operating Hour: 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Tropical Fruit Farm

cr: @neopenang / Instagram

Tropical Fruit Farm is a 25-acre organic orchard in Penang with more than 250 types of tropical and subtropical fruit trees. This garden aims to conserve rare and exotic fruit trees, which of course includes our icon, the durian tree. The road to here might be a little bumpy and long, but trust me you won’t regret it. The garden conducts daily guided two-hour tours, where you could learn more about the fruits and a chance to sample local produce. At weekends and on public holidays the orchard lays out a spread of light snacks, juices and a barbecue for visitors. So guys, is this worth adding into your things to do in Batu Ferringhi list ?

Credit: @hussainbakar76 / Instagram

Cr: @aussitrack / Instagram

Address: Jalan Teluk Bahang, 11000 Pulau Pinang. Operating Hour: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (Daily) Contact: +604-8665168

Batu Ferringhi Night Market

This might be the only night market that offers more goods than food, but hey it’s the best place to spend your night in Batu Ferringhi if you’re tired of staying in the hotel. Local traders will not offer you the best price and sometimes might be a little cut-throat, you have to be good at bargaining. Nevertheless, this is a really good place to polish bargaining skills so that’s why it is one of the must things to do in Batu Ferringhi (xD).

Credit: Smart-i

Cr: Penang

Cr: @balcarekk_ / Instagram

Address: Jalan Pantai Batu, Taman Pantai Batu, 11200 Tanjong Bungah, Pulau Pinang. Operating Hour: 7 p.m.-12 a.m. (Daily)

See also: 7 Best Night Market in Penang

Batu Ferringhi Gude Part 2: Time to Sweat Out and Have Some Fun

Penang National Park

Credit: @dylansoutar / Instagram

Being the world’s smallest national park, it is a pleasant enough place with a waterfall and a pool for a pleasant swim. There are a lot of activities that could be done such as jungle walks, canopy walk, fishing and sunbathing on quiet, golden-sand beaches. Bear in mind that this place is like a maze, with each path bringing you to different beautiful destinations such as the Monkey Beach, Pantai Kerachut, Muka Head and more. So be sure to check out for the map to avoid getting lost.

Cr: @lisajane_van / Instagram

cr: @dreampliflyer

Address: Pejabat Taman Negara P. Pinang, Jalan Hassan Abbas, Balik Pulau, Pulau Pinang, 11050 Pulau Pinang. Operating Hour: 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. (Daily)

Beach Activities: Water Sports

Credit: Majlis Sukan Negeri Pulau Pinang

Penang Water Sport Recreation Centre (Pusat Kegiatan Sukan Air (PKSA)) is the place for those who wants to go for kayaking. Located just beyond the Tanjung Bungah Floating Mosque, kayaks can be rented by groups of up to ten people on walk-in and must be booked beforehand by groups of ten or more. With the price of just RM 15 per person per hour, this is definitely a steal !

Credit: @georgetowntoday

Address: Jalan Batu Ferringhi, 11200, Tanjung Bungah, Pulau Pinang. Operating Hour: (Mon-Fri) 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m.–6 p.m. (Sat&Sun) 9 a.m.–12:30 p.m., 2 p.m.–6 p.m. Contact: +604-890-9373

Credit: Seedunia

For other more touristy water sports such as banana boat and speedboat ride, jet skis and parasailing, just walk along the beach of Tanjong Bungah and Batu Ferringhi. It is easy to recognize a small shack advertising all these activities.To be honest,these activities are quiet pricey but can’t be had anywhere else and they’re still far below the average prices for beach water sports around the world. Most importantly is to have fun isn’t it?

Cr: Get My Boat

Credit: The Star

Beach Activities: On the Sandy Beach

Credit: @george_dillon / Instagram

Yaasss we just have to include this because where else can you get a horse ride in Penang? Not to even mention it’s on a beach. Get a horse ride at the Batu Ferringhi Beach, if you don’t know where, just head over to Starbucks Batu Ferringhi, get in there and you’ll find yourself at the beach. What’s more? They even have camel and donkey ride !!

Credit: Eddy Furlong Photography

Batu Ferringhi Guide Part 3: Unwind and Chill

Penang Sky Tour

Okay, this is very exciting, a new addition to the attractions in Penang, something super special! Helicopter tour around Penang? Impossible and sounds crazy right? We’re glad to announce that this is not a dream now thanks to Penang Sky Tour. Located just beside Bayview Beach Hotel on an empty ground, you can now have a bird’s eye view of Penang on a helicopter ride. The view up there is so spectacular, overlooking Penang Bridge, Komtar Tower, Kek Lok Si Temple and more depending on the route you choose. Get a ride before sunset for the best view, we tried it out and the experience left us speechless, it’s like once in a lifetime opportunity.

Address: 365, Seksyen 1, Batu Ferringhi, Penang, Malaysia. Operating Hour: 10 a.m.- 6:30 p.m. (Daily)

Moonlight Bay

Credit: @farid_muhamad_ / Instagram

Another “beach” in Batu Ferringhi, it’s a hidden gem. Unlike other beaches where the sands are fine and soft to the feet, Moonlight Bay is covered with pebbles, a bit spiky to the feet, but still bearable. Away from the crowd, this place is quiet, clean and relaxing. The water is definitely a lot clearer and blue compared to the Batu Ferringhi Beach. This place is perfect for couples and as a picnic spot.

Cr: @jacpicphotography / Instagram

Credit: @damberak

Address: Jalan Moonlight Bay, 11100 Batu Ferringhi, Pulau Pinang.

Batu Ferringhi Guide Part 4: The Last Resort

Credit: Penang

This is the very last part of our guide, after having so much fun, it’s time to settle down and have a good rest. Here, we’ll recommend you five best hotels with different pricing.

fLone Pine Hotel

Lone Pine Hotel Penang

One of our favourite hotels in Batu Ferringhi, Lone Pine is Batu Ferringhi’s only luxury boutique hotel in Penang. Renewed and rejuvenated after a lovingly undertaken restoration, Penang’s favorite beach side boutique resort reopened its doors refreshed in design and facilities, but still infused with the same colonial spirit and idyllic charm with a touch of English style and surrounded by garden and beach. Lone Pine offers something for everyone, from cozy rooms to spacious suites opening out onto seafront terraces, balconies or private courtyards.

Address: 97 Batu Ferringghi, Batu Feringgi, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.

Roomies Suites

Roomies Suites Penang

Located in Eden Parade, the building might look old, creepy and unappealing. Believe us, don’t be fooled by its exterior. Roomies Suites is a contemporary boutique hotel with style and comfort at a great value. Complimentary breakfast and super fast wifi is available for each room, plus the beach is only within walking distance.

Credit: @roomiespenang

Address: 76C -4 Jalan Batu Feringghi, 11100 Batu Feringghi, Penang.

Double Tree Resort by Hilton Penang

Credit: Rebecca Saw

Set in the dynamic northern beach area of Penang away from the center of Batu Ferringhi, Double Tree is a new hotel that takes up the previous Hydro Hotel. The four star hotel offers 316 rooms and suites, many features feature a private furnished balcony and partial or full sea views. The hotel is not built on the beach, but don’t worry, there’s a bridge that’s linked to the bridge.

Cr: @ainun_mborkhan / Instagram

Credit: Booking.com

Address: 56, Jalan Low Yat Batu Ferringhi, Penang,11100, Malaysia.

Lost Paradise Resort

Credit: @christin3saystravel / Instagram

For those who wish to fully experience an island life, Lost Paradise Resort is the place to stay. A hidden gem, shrouded and nestled in the verdant green filled with exotic local botany. Interiors are inspired from all around the globe, with heavy arts of India. Here, you can enjoy peace and serenity, as it is tucked away from the hustle and bustle. 

Cr: @hazwanhairy / Instagram

Credit: @hazwanhairy / Instagram

Address: 262, Jalan Batu Ferringhi, 11100 Tanjung Bungah, Pulau Pinang.

Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa

Set on Batu Feringgi Beach on 12 hectares of tropical gardens, this upscale beach resort is one of the most expensive hotels you can find in the island. Sophisticated rooms feature balconies with water, pool or garden views, while posh suites add living rooms and dining areas; some offer marble bathrooms. This hotel is the exact definition of luxury, a place for Gred A service and comfort.

Credit: @_debonaire_ / Instagram

Credit: Booking.com

Address: Batu Feringgi Main Road, Jalan Batu Feringgi, 11100 Batu Feringgi, Pulau Pinang.

Related: Top 10 Beach Hotels in Penang with Beautiful Seaview

Feeling A Bit Wiser Now?

There are so many more things that you could do and enjoy in Batu Ferringhi, not just beaches and hotels. Of course, the beach does play an important role and it’s fun. Now that you foodies know so much more about Batu Ferringhi, get yourself here to experience yourself the excitement we’re sharing with you. Don’t forget to add all these attractions and activities into your things to do in Batu Ferringhi list.

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[restorationdfw]

Duo-Care Cleaning& Restoration – carpet, upholstery, tile ,& marble – MI

A single mommy who expends thousands of pounds on extravagant attires, fake tan and makeup for her seven-year-old daughter, says that she does so to fulfill the child’s dream of becoming famous.

Layla Thompson, who goes by the stage name of Layla Belle, dyes her hair, wears fake eyelashes and saunters around in high heels, despite being so young. Her mom, Jenna Eastland, 31, says that she expends hundreds of pounds a month on spraying tans, extensions and cosmetics for her daughter. IMG 1 TTJenna claims that Layla, who regularly vies in beauty pageantries and dance rivalries, prefers to use and experiment with beauty products rather than play with dolls, like typical seven-year-olds do. She also says that her daughter would rather go out for a meal at Nando’s than play in the park and likes a birthday meal on a barge compared to a regular children’s party.” She’s always wore makeup and dressed up from the age of one. If I left make up she would cover herself in bronzer” tells Jenna.” By the time she was two she was putting on her own mascara. She has always been ripen for her age and loved to pose.” It was apparent from a young age, I’d get my camera out and she would just instantly pose without any inspire. ” She simply wants to be famous and has the mindset of an adult. For her birthday she told me she wanted a barge ride with dinner on the barge. She’s not a normal seven-year-old. She would be a great reality Tv starring .” Unlike most children her age, Layla won’t leave the house without applying makeup and styling her hair. She’s even get her own Instagram, Twitter and Star Now Account- which is a website for dancers, performers and models who are up and coming in industry. Layla couldn’t be anything less like her mommy, who wears little makeup or fake tans and is heavily tattooed IMG 2 TT” Layla simply loves all attention being on her. She loves fake tan, make up, false eyelashes, hair pieces and bling.” She would much instead get clothes or makeup than playthings. It expenditures me a fortune.Dance costumes alone cost thousands.” She only eats the white of eggs because “shes seen” on YouTube its better for you and she likes yoga and ice tea. ” Laylas got a six pack so she loves wearing belly tops and shorts .” However , not everyone agrees with the style Layla seems, and Jenna admits that she does receive quite a bit of abuse from other people who think that she is sexualizing her child. IMG 3 TT” I guess people might think its too young but it’s merely Layla. ” I get abuse all the time telling I’m sexualizing her, but I think that if people think that then there’s something sadly incorrect with them even thinking that about a kid .” Layla is currently being home schooled and has been dancing since the age of five. She was recently selected to represent Durham in Miss British Empire at the end of August and has been offered the chance to represent the UK in two international beauty pageantries in Autumn. IMG 4 TTHer mom believes that Layla was ” born to be something special” and that” she’s bored of real life “. However, there’s no doubt that it is a bit strange to insure a seven-year-old don high heels and makeup. It may be reflective of an age where everything that a young person views is online, so they feel like they have to aspire to the likes of the Kardashians, Jenners and the rest of those social media stars. Still, when I was seven I didn’t even know what a phone was and spent most of my period running around in circles … how periods change, huh? Read more: http :// www.viralthread.com/ mom-spends-thousands-pounds-7-year-old-daughter-desperate-become-famous/? all http :// duocarecc.com Telephone: 586 -2 63 -9 930 Duo Care Cleaning and Restoration has been household owned since 1980, and has built a reputation based on …

Read more: www.youtube.com

[marklipinski]

 If you missed our last Facebook LIVE live video, here it is!  Please feel free to leave a question or comment.  All are answered.  xoxom

Here are the links to the subjects we spoke about in this episode:

Not Kid(ney)-ing Around

As my search for a life-saving kidney continues, I find that I am now .2 points from having to start dialysis.  In my research, I have most likely decided on hooking myself up, through the stomach, each day and trying to maintain some kind of life from home.  Those who have been in end stage kidney failure tell me that I may actually feel better than I have been (and it’s been pretty grim on some days) and a friend who shall remain nameless [Marie Bostwick] pointed out that I am the biggest homebody in the universe . . . and it’s not like I ever go anywhere anyway. LOL

So I’m still on steroids so sporting a coffin neck is one thing, but now my chipmunk cheeks eclipse my coffin neck!  Shroud cheeks?    So, while I may look like this:

I feel like this:

MR. ELECTRIC CONTINUES ON HIS BOOK TOUR

Mr. Electric’s book, Who Broke the Vase? finally launched and is available in bookstores (local and big box, like Barnes and Noble, etc.)  and other booksellers (even Wal-Mart, etc) around the country!  If you would like an autographed copy of his book (personalized to you or yours) order yours here:  http://bit.ly/2nI6Rj6

       Who Broke the Vase? Quilt

The Who Broke the Vase? quilt is finally finished and beautifully quilted by my buddy Janice Jamison. The kit will be available for pre-orders by the end of this week (I’m just waiting for a final [brand new] back ordered fabric to be shipped)!  I’ll post here and on Facebook as soon as the quilt is listed in the Pickle Road Studios online store.  Because I’m not a brick and mortar shop, I’m  limiting the number of kit sales, so first come first served.

Up next, patterns for lots of different Who Broke the Vase? projects . . .

and

Mr. Electric;s newest book (published in October 2017), Who Am I?

LEARNING

Book Binding

I took a bookbinding class with Linda Lum DeBono  at the Printmaking Center of NJ located in Branchburg, New Joisey.

  At the Printmaking Center of New Jersey with quilter/author/fabric designer, Linda Lum DeBono.

The printmaking design and class studio…

Bookbinding II class at the Printmaking Center of New Jersey

Samples of the books I produced in the class…

Our teacher, Dave DiMarchi of 9 in Hand Press.

Linda Lum DeBono binding her book

L

Printmaking

Quilters Jill Edwards, Brad Pitt, and Meg Cox in the Printmaking on Fabric class at the New Hope- Solebury Community School in wonderful New Hope, Pennsyltucky.   This class is also taught by 9 in Hand Press owner, Dave DiMarchi.

The New Hope Solebury High School where our classes take place.

Some of the supplies we use in class

Take Our Poll

Our first attempt at printing on paper

My Ugly Angel experiment on paper and baby wipes…

My planned layout of cardboard cutouts that I was to print onto fabric

I dropped the damned apple onto the orange, then the time for clean up began.  Still not finished, but you get the drift.

Jill Edwards and Meg Cox giving their projects the side-eye.

MONDO BAG

Cover of the Quiltsmart Mondo Bag pattern!

A sample of the Mondo Bag I bogarted from Liza Lucy’s studio…

An inside view (it’s super roomy)

Here, Quiltsmart owner, Maddie (whom I love love love), gives a tutorial on how to make your own Mondo Bag using her Quiltsmart pattern!

Visit the Glorious Color website to get your complete kit to make your own version of the Mondo Bag

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR COMPLETE KIT

eats

MARK’S OLIVE OIL COOKIE RECIPE

What you need . . .

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon lemon oil

1 teaspoon orange oil

1 teaspoon almond oil

1/2 cup half and half or whole milk

2 eggs

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon meringue powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon flavored oil such as orange, lemon, almond, or anise, etc. (optional)

colored jimmies, colored non-perils, or coarse sanding sugar (optional)

warm milk or water

Directions . . .

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

You can mix this by hand but I use my KitchenAid mixer using the dough attachment. In the mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar and mix it well.  Next, add olive oil, half and half, the flavored oils, and eggs. Turn on the mixer to a medium setting and mix the ingredients together until the dough forms into a ball and away from the sides of the mixing bowl.

Grab small pieces of dough and roll them into 1″ balls and place them on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet, about an inch apart. They’ll puff up just a tiny bit during baking. Before putting them into the oven flatten their tops a little by gently pressing the top of each ball with the bottom of a drinking glass – just a little. Bake for 9 -10 minutes.

To Make Icing: Blend vanilla, flavored oil (optional), meringue powder, and enough warm milk to the confectioner’s sugar to form a smooth icing.

Dip the cookies into the icing and dry the cookies on a wire cake rack or directly on waxed paper. While the icing is still wet sprinkle them with colored non-perils, jimmies, or coarse sanding sugar.

HOMEMAKERS COUNTRY QUILTERS

Website: www.homemakerscountryquilters.org

ON MY WAY HOME

My visit with Mother Therese of Jesus

This is the cloister.  It’s huge.  On the bottom left side of the photo, beyond the trees is the terra cotta roofed mausoleum where the nuns are buried.

Some of the Carmelites in the cloister ages ago. I am told that there are only 4 cloistered nuns in the compound, the youngest in her 70’s.

Guess who?  Kinda creepy to me, but many cultures take photos of their deceased loved ones.

The tomb

The Grille

The Turn

One of the most amazing windows inside the shrine.  Each piece was made in Germany and sent to the United States for this building.

The Walmart Fat Quarter and now 3rd degree relic

Kidney Mary and Bonnie on the day we visited the National Centre for Padre Pio in Barto, Pennsylvania, where I created a 3rd degree relic brown fat quarter.

This is the wildest book about “Incorruptibles”!  I bought it, read it, then gave it away at some point. Just adding it in case you’re interested or think I’m cra cra . . . or both.  You can also Google “Incorruptibles” fo,r more information

The Incorruptibles: A Study of the Incorruption of the Bodies of Various Catholic Saints and Beati

SPEAKING OF MIRACLES

Here’s a part of a note I received from North Carolina quilter, Jane Lemley, dated August 18, 2015:

‘. . . Also, wondering if you ended up with my wooden pen that you used to sign 3 issues of your magazine after the meeting.  My friend, Clare, borrowed my pen for you to use.  It wouldn’t matter except that it was my Mom’s and she has passed away.  If not, no worries…maybe it’s on it’s way back to her!

Thanks again for your wonderful program!  May Slow Stitching stay with us always.

Sincerely, Jane Lemley”

JANE!  I FOUND YOUR PEN in my PROJECTOR CASE!!!  

PLEASE CALL ME at (908)876-1208

IF YOU KNOW JANE, PLEASE LET HER KNOW! 

Look what else I found in that darn case!  LOL  No kidding…

I’m going to sew my SUPER FLY on (or else culturally appropriate Mrs. Roper)

CAPE MAY QUILT & FIBER ARTS SHOW

Historic Cold Spring Village Quilt and Fiber Arts Show

June 24th and 25th.

Historic Cold Spring Village; 720 Route 9; Cape May, NJ

I’ll be speaking there both days.  Mr. Electric will be at the Historic Cold Spring Village Country Store with copies of his book and book readings for the kiddies!

Visit the Historic Cold Spring Village website here: https://hcsv.org/

Both days will feature demonstrations and vendors of quilting, textiles, knitting, crocheting, basket weaving, broom making, wool dyeing, sheep shearing and more! On Saturday, visitors may vote for their favorite quilts in the Welcome Center at the Viewer’s Choice Quilt Show, and on Sunday continue to enjoy the display and see the winners.  A rare wedding quilt, c. 1714, handmade by Cape May Countian Sarah Spicer, will be on display in the Welcome Center for its annual appearance. The quilt was restored in 2012 through a grant from the Cape May County Culture and Heritage Commission. Regional vendors are attending with quilting and sewing fabrics, yarn, baskets, supplies, and equipment to help inspire the creation of an heirloom project.

NEW BOOKS

Zen Doodle Calm

It’s out in October!

SENT

Thanks for the laugh, Kathy.

I found out that The Jolly Taxpayer Hotel which was built in 1906 was taken down 7-8 years ago and is now the Jameson House, an office and condo tower that was built in 2011.

Before and after

Before

After

Oh, and it was never a gay bar LOL

CALL YOUR SHOP

Tell your local shopkeeper that the Auriful’s  BEST SELLING THREAD COLLECTION, THE BASICS COLLECTION, is on sale at Checker.  Have you shop order a few.  If you don’t have one, buy one.  You will not regret it.

Yes, I sell them in my online store, but I would love it if you supported (or at least tried to support) your local brick and mortar quilt shop!  xoxom

  CATALOGS & MAGAZINES

Uppercase Magazine

The newest Uppercase issue has arrived!  Get yours here 

Spoonflower Catalog

A catalog? Ask for one here 

Take Our Poll

Sew News

I love this magazine!  There is always something I’m interested in (and I don’t sew clothing nor do I consider myself a “sewist”).  Find out about Sew News here 

      SHOWS

Mary Schaefer

This is the Gwen Marston book I referenced this week.

`

Catch the show, The Mary Schafer Collection: A Legacy of Quilt History at the Mercer Museum

in Doylestown, Pennsylvania until August 13.

https://www.mercermuseum.org

SPEAK YOUR WORDS, OWN YOUR TRUTH

and PUSH BACK AGAINST INJUSTICE and BULLYING

FACEBOOK LIVE with Mark Lipinski and Mr. Electric, May 21, 2017  If you missed our last Facebook LIVE live video, here it is!  Please feel free to leave a question or comment.  

[junker-town]

How Jim Leavitt can try to fix Oregon’s defense, just like he did at Colorado

Colorado’s defense went from bad to elite under Leavitt. The Ducks are his next project.

There were red flags when Brady Hoke arrived as Oregon’s defensive coordinator before last season. One issue was that Oregon had enjoyed success with a 3-4 defense and had been recruiting big, tall defensive ends to play in it. But Hoke was installing a 4-3 system that asked different things of his line. Another issue: The playbook Hoke brought with him was compared to a Harry Potter book because of its size and scope.

There were also questions about what exactly Hoke’s defense would be, since he hadn’t been a defensive coordinator in many, many years. It turned out to be the 4-3 Under defense that the Wolverines employed in his time as head coach in Ann Arbor. In an Under front, a nose tackle shades toward the tight end side of the offense’s formation, as opposed to the open side of the line in an Over front.

Hoke’s Under system was successful at Michigan, but it was in need of tweaks towards the end to handle the growing prevalence of the spread offense in the Big Ten. In fact, Michigan converted to the 4-3 Over the year before Hoke was fired.

But Hoke brought the Under with him to Eugene, where spread offenses litter the schedule every year. What Hoke did at Oregon didn’t work. The Ducks went 4-8 and finished 119th in Defensive S&P+, giving up 42.6 points per game.

So newly acquired head coach Willie Taggart hired away Colorado defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt for more than $1 million a year. At Taggart’s introductory presser, UO’s president only gave him one piece of advice: to hire a great defensive coordinator.

Leavitt now has quite the job ahead of him in restoring Oregon’s defense to a level that can once again take advantage of the Ducks’ annually great offenses. (The Ducks offense should be good quickly under Taggart’s leadership.)

Oregon and Colorado have been a tale of two defenses.

Mike MacIntyre was well regarded when he arrived at Colorado in 2013 from San Jose State. But the pro-style offense and hard-nosed defense he intended to bring to Colorado were both scrapped in favor of a dynamic, up-tempo spread and a new, 3-4 defense. Colorado’s defense was bad when MacIntyre arrived, but within two years, new coordinator Leavitt fixed things up just fine.

Compare Colorado’s improvement post-Leavitt to Oregon’s collapse after Chip Kelly (and maybe more importantly, Nick Aliotti) departed the program.

The main goal, and perceived challenge, for Hoke was to get the Ducks playing tough, sound football once more. The 2015 unit was horrendous and regularly beaten due to assignment errors and unsound play. Hoke’s 2016 squad was often fairly disciplined and tough, but it wasn’t sound, often due to outdated schematics.

A fantastic example is Oregon’s play against Davis Webb and the Cal Bears’ air raid offense. Hoke rolled with his base 4-3 defense against the Bears’ spread formations, which meant freshman Sam linebacker and team sack leader Troy Dye (No. 35) was often playing out in space.

Here’s how that play looked drawn up on the chalkboard:

To overcome the issue of rolling with three linebackers against a four-receiver formation, the Ducks spread them the width of the field with safety help over the top. This often worked. Oregon held Webb to 325 yards on 61 passes: only 5.3 yards per attempt, a number that would normally suggest you’re demolishing an air raid team.

Not this game, because Cal’s two main backs, Tre Watson and Khalfani Muhammad, combined for 302 more yards on 51 carries, good for 5.9 yards a pop. Flooding the field with big defenders and then asking them to navigate space left Oregon vulnerable at the point of attack in the run game.

On the play here, Oregon has shaded free safety Brenden Schooler (No. 43) and middle linebacker A.J. Hotchkins (No. 55) over to the trips-receivers side, leaving weak-side linebacker De’Quan McDowell (No. 54) alone in the box.

There’s so much that’s unsound about this approach, it’s frankly quite shocking. Is McDowell supposed to defend both the field A-gap and the boundary B-gap? Is the boundary DE supposed to force the ball back inside? His aggressive play up the field sure put McDowell in a bind when the B-gap, between the left tackle and guard, was expanded by his absence from the line of scrimmage.

The last time I saw a defense attempt an approach to run defense this outdated against an air raid team, Tavon Austin was running for 344 yards on Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, the Buffaloes were making a leap in Year 2 with Leavitt, a year in which he was confident enough in his players’ understanding of fundamentals to move from the 4-3 to the 3-4. With multiple guys across the defense that had earned Leavitt’s trust as pure football players in 2015, the Buffs were able to embrace the flexibility of the 3-4 to employ lots of different tactics to force offenses to play left-handed.

The Colorado front three of nose tackle Josh Tupou and ends Jordan Carrell and Samson Kafovalu was a very stout unit — all seniors and all willing to battle double teams and maintain the line of scrimmage on behalf of inside linebackers Kenneth Olugbode and Rick Gamboa.

The way in which USC completely fails to move the line of scrimmage here is rather stark. But that was normal for the Buffs, playing with a pair of inside linebackers that were flowing to the ball fast and confidently behind such a sturdy group in front of them.

The secondary was equally brilliant, as recently became evident from the NFL combine. With Ahkello Witherspoon, Chidobe Awuzie, and Tedric Thompson on the field the Buffs had a lot of coverage options for adjusting to various opponents. One of their more effective schemes was a fun combination of cover 2 and ultra-aggressive quarters that they’d employ to help stop the run:

On the chalkboard, you can see how they leveraged the talents of the secondary to set themselves up to lock down the Cardinal’s favorite players and plays:

The Buffs are playing cover 2 over the TE side, with Awuzie (No. 4) stationed there, where he can be active on the perimeter. Awuzie was third on the team in tackles and had four sacks, because they’d often put him in the boundary or over the slot so he could be involved against the run. Witherspoon (No. 23) is out wide in press coverage, while Thompson (No. 9) is helping the Sam linebacker bracket the slot in cover 4.

The key to the cover 4 coverage over the slot is that the Sam, staffed here by 6’1, 215-pound DB Ryan Moeller, can be aggressive on a run read. That’s because Thompson is athletic and skilled enough in coverage to pick up the slot if he attacks the edge. Moeller (No. 25) was basically a specialist for Colorado last year, forcing the edge and serving as a tackler in space, and he was able to be very aggressive and useful in their run defenses because Thompson was behind him.

The Buffs would mix in cover 3 and other schemes and vary who played where to pull off tricks like bracketing an opposing team’s No. 1 receiver while locking down the No. 2 in man coverage, a la Bill Belichick’s Patriots. Such are the luxuries of life when you have a sound football team stocked with skilled veterans.

At Oregon, Leavitt will have chances to mold the defense over time.

The two best players for Oregon this past year might have been freshmen Dye (Sam linebacker) and Schooler (free safety). This is unquestionably a good thing for the Ducks, because Leavitt is going to groom the younger players on this squad into football players and then go from there.

Dye will be an interesting player for Leavitt to utilize, as his skill set didn’t exactly exist on the 2016 Buffaloes. Colorado did have Jimmie Gilbert, a 6’5, 230-pound outside backer who Leavitt used to patrol the boundary and blitz the edge. But Oregon has two such players, Dye and Justin Hollins (6’6, 230), both returning. I don’t think Leavitt will leave Dye out in space on the far hash mark to defend screens as Hoke regularly did, particularly if he proves to once again be the best pass rusher on the team.

Schooler’s specialty last season was erasing the mistakes of his teammates with his downhill fills and good angles in the open field. That’s a fairly universal skill for a safety and will surely prove useful again this coming year, as the Ducks work through a new defensive scheme. But Leavitt may involve him in the run fits more than Hoke did.

The defensive line was basically recruited to Leavitt’s scheme and should round into form sooner than later, but the Oregon defensive backfield is filled with upperclassmen that have been through bad campaigns. The fix there may take longer for Oregon, but there’s still reason for optimism.

If the Ducks can arrange their talent in a way that maximizes it, we’ll see a better defense than we’ve seen the last few years in Eugene. That’s how it looked in Boulder, after all.