#Silca

[dtico29t]

Today we will create a hulk fist from epoxy resin

[eusthetic]

Transitional Deck Cedar Rapids Deck - large transitional backyard deck idea with no cover

[grilledcheese-samwich]

Uncovered in Cedar Rapids Inspiration for a sizable, open-air, transitional backyard deck renovation

[spnbitchnomore]

Transitional Deck Cedar Rapids Inspiration for a sizable, open-air, transitional backyard deck renovation

[clovaerae]

guys I am silco's #1 hater but I fear that one design of him where he looks like a lesbian is swaying my opinion a little 😭

[valiantskellingtonartist]

Dnd with my family!!

I usually draw during our sessions, so this time, instead of drawing my character, or her familiar, I drew my sister's character!

This is Rector Lucius Cornelius(we keep making rectum jokes) he's canonically a fucking idiot, but also a hella good bounty hunter or something??? Super annoying a dense. Like, his armor is made from Dragonborns, specifically dragonborns from my Nala(my mom's character)'s tribe, who have all been wiped out. It's been many ingame weeks, and loads of sessions irl, and only this session did he wonder of he should not be wearing it. Nala threatens bodily harm on him and a constant banter between the two will be about a separate argument, or Rector trying to stop Nala from killing everything that moves, or doesn't even, so Nala just keeps saying the he killed her tribe as a comeback, despite even a magical being confirming he hasn't, or saying he's wearing her dead people. Very funny.

Also, screw all your pretty petite elves, this is beauty. I know he only half-elf, but other than being skinny and pointed ears, he doesn't seem to be your stereotypical elf. He has facial hair, insanly short hair, and is really fucking stupid. I love him, and him and my in-game character, being the smartest in the group and the greatest moral backbone, are besties.

Now, I did draw my character, but it's only a wip, and I wanted to do a full-body drawing, because if only draw her head so far sooo...

Here's Silca, or Mousi as a nickname. She's a tiefling who files her horns down. Her hair is a bit curly, but also pretty dirty/messy/greasy so it doesn't really look the best. I still have trouble trying to draw her hair. I've drawn her head, and outlined her posture mostly. She's on this quest not for herself, but for her Master, my other sister's character called Izora or Izzy, Izora only took Mousi in because she likes to collect useless things, yet Mousi is getting more competent and useful for Izora, therefore Izora is caring about Mousi less and less. It's really interesting. It's not acknowledged often, but sometimes Rector tries to talk to Mousi about it. Mousi is the smartest character overall, and her wisdom is only matched by the high elf of the party, a character/player that joined only just this session. Even then, her intelligence is not as high. However, Mousi speaks broken common, with big words randomly said throughout to hopefully help her sound smarter, but despite her work, she isn't taken as seriously because of her broken common, and being a tiefling. The only one who asks for her advice, is, again, Rector. They are best buddies:3

[st4rguy]

i so badly wish that working with ceramics wasn’t my personal sensory hell beacuse you can get so creative with it.. why was i cursed this wayyyy. i wanna make mugs!! And weird little figurines!!! And plates!!!

[kara-knight]

Jedi Padawan Omi <3

Thanks to the combined genius of @getal-the-twilek and myself, behold Omi, the Force-sensitive Death Star trash compactor monster who baptises Luke (wookiepedia source) in an AU where she becomes a Jedi.

After she died on the Death Star, this 'verse she reincarnates as a baby version of her Dianoga self, makes it her mission to find that person that It (the Force) really liked, does so, then becomes a student of Luke!

Imagine younglings, all sitting cross-legged on the floor in meditation class, plus Omi, in a bucket cause thats more comfy for her, mimicking them.

She had a padawan silca bead braid because yes.

Her tentrils float in the air when using the Force.

She is a very dedicated jedi padawan communing with :sparkles: It :sparkles:

Her and Luke are best buddies.

We love Omi very much.

[oscillating-fan-whore5]

I eat da little silca gel packet in my bacon bits munch munch munch :)

[dark-falz]

So instead of looking into the Falz seal I whipped up this Algolian seal but took an alchemic approach to it. Almost looks like an upside down Philosopher’s Stone. This was mostly free-handed in Photoshop if you can tell by the line width inconsistency, but it was much easier than on paper. The Marquee and I aren’t BFF’s as you can see my text is even a lil wonky, so I just draw a big dot then erase the middle with a slightly smaller dot!

I also stuck with the PSO font because I already write my magic in it so its fitting in all ways. Here’s a breakdown of it if you’re curious but I mostly just wanted to share the design cause it was fun to come up with :3 

This is a prosperity spell based on the middlemost circle of text. The outside circle reads “And why may you multiply this medicine”, the inner circle reads “So you have more than you need to spend”. These quotes are from George Ripley’s “The Twelve Gates” or “The compound of Alchemy�� regarding the multiplication process in alchemy. Changing the outer circle of text would change the process, and changing the middle text would change its intent.

The planets chosen; Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury were picked in my best attempt to follow the “Body, Mind, Spirit” / “Salt, Mercury, Sulfur” concept in Alchemy, as well as best representing prosperity. The names of the Zodiac they rule over are across from them, where the photon blasts would go, followed by their symbols in the space below. I’m fortunate the planets I picked all ruled over 2 Zodiacs otherwise I’d have much more trouble writing this lol. In attempt to keep the rule of 3′s, I added the symbols for the metals/minerals in correlation with the Zodiacs and the planets that rule them. I did have to cheat a bit though. Non metals are present such as Salt and “Crystal”. I’ll get into the messy bit in a sec. Here’s the breakdown;

♃ Jupiter: Metal- Tin ♃ | Zodiacs- Sagittarius ♐︎, Pisces ♓︎ | Zodiac “Metals”- ♐︎ Salt 🜔 & Tin ♃ , ♓︎ Neptunium ♆ & Silca (used symbol for crystal which is n/a)

☿ Mercury: Metal- Mercury ☿  | Zodiacs- Gemini ♊︎, Virgo ♍︎ | Zodiac “Metals”- ♊︎ Brass(n/a) & Mercury ☿, ♍︎ Copper ♀ & Phosphorus (n/a)

♄ Saturn: Metals- Lead ♄, Iron ♂, Steel (n/a) | Mineral- Sulfur 🜍 | Zodiacs- Capricorn ♑︎, Aquarius ♒︎ | Zodiac Metal:- ♑︎ Platinum(n/a)

So with everything laid out, we can see Saturn has a few metals in association whereas Mercury and Jupiter only have 1 main one. So some things had to be filled in, where Saturn I had to pick and choose from.

With Jupiter’s lacking of fitting metals and minerals, since salt is a direct association with prosperity as is Jupiter, and a necessity in the formula, it got placed here. We also have Neptunium which I know completely different planet but is all Pisces had for me to work with. Silca is a mineral in association with Jupiter but there isn’t a symbol for that to my knowledge so I used “crystal” instead.

Mercury is as close to normal as it can get but prolly don’t fuck with actual phosphorus less you’re doing actual alchemy/chemistry, its there cause its a mineral directly linked with the planet Mercury and Mercury only has one obvious metal to it. (incorporate phosphate minerals, such as turquoise)

Saturn is a fucking mess and can be chaotic to work with. Fortunately it has a bunch of metals its associated with as do both Aquarius and Capricorn. So I picked and chose from what is most stable. Sulfur is thrown in to follow the formula and a mineral associated with Saturn.

The energies work as Jupiter generates, Mercury directs or “communicates”, Saturn contains, stabilizes and prolongs.

I’d also like to mention the alchemy processes the Zodiac signs represent;

♊︎  Fixation, ♍︎ Distillation, ♐︎ Ceration, ♑︎ Fermentation, ♒︎ Multiplication, ♓︎ Projection.

Briefing this from a non spiritual standpoint; Fixation: A liquid or gas to a solid. Distillation: To seperate & purify. Creation: Addition of water through absorption. Fermentation: To cook over time. Multiplication: To increase potency Projection: Transmute / Change anything into anything (ultimate goal) However we know alchemy is chemistry now, so most people of this era when talking about alchemy are talking about spiritual alchemy.

The symbols inside the 3 circles pointing at the planet symbols are the alchemy symbol for “essense”, the tridents coming off of the circles toward the text use the planets to create the alchemy symbol for “compose”. Here is my reference sheet of Alchemy symbols in PSO lettering, I circled the symbols used. (There are a variety of symbols for some of the same thing out there, this is what I’ve compiled so far with keeping the symbols simple)

[artfromawildfish]

You entered the Fae forest, out of curiosity the place was unexplored as far as you were aware. Manny people entered and none left, and you, you planned to be the first to change that outcome! What a foolish thought. The forest would not let you leave, no matter how far you tried to navigate back to the beginning everything was no longer the way it was, it was if this place changed the moment you set foot into it, an endless maze of wonders, a place that now has become your home, and inescapable prison. Days, months years, how long were you here? you no longer remember, you continued to walk, and walk a single straight path, before every muscle in your body froze, before a creature of beauty and fear. The Silca a draconic creature of legends store upon you, its eyes piercing your very soul. However lucky for you, you are not a creature worth its time, for it searches for creatures that hold magic, and you are not one such creature, it continues walking, its eyes not leaving your form, it you really were its target you would be laying dead on the ground by now. You didn't even see this creature coming. You are lucky this creature does not seek to harm you but you were still trapped within this forest. Maybe just maybe the stupid idea that popped up within your head would pay off, you decided to follow said creature for it must know the way through this place. What a foolish idea that was.

[glitchlight]

hello excellent dirt person. do you know anything about kaolin? i am curious if so, what the Dirt Person view on it would be

So the long and short of it is I have no view on it because kaolin is just, a thing that exists. I have no view on steel or grapes. They exist. There's a lot of commercial grade uses for rock and soil that lay people wouldn't anticipate but are entirely common within certain industries, from gravel and sand mining, to the mining of rocks and soils bearing certain clay minerals or rich in certain elements. Kaolin in particular has uses valuable to ceramics and the paper industry but I know very little about either of those. However, I do know things about the clay mineral that is actually what's extracted from kaolinite and what an excellent opportunity to talk about phyllosilicates, aka, clays and micas!

I am, more technically speaking, an environmental soil chemist, and though I lean on the last one of those titles the least, here we're going to have to take a quick detour onto chemical bond angles and crystals. This is a very brief oversimplification but deeply relevant.

Atoms bind together in order to be more stable, but the bonds themselves are charged, and therefore repel each other. Imagine an atom as an orb with things sticking out of it:

If you have two bonds, as far apart on a circle means 360/2, so the bond angle will be 180, and they'll be on opposite ends (examples: CO2)

If you have three, 360/3 means 120, and so you get something that looks like a triangle.

If you have four, then things get fun, because the previous two have been two dimensional shapes, and what you actually get instead is a three dimensional tetrahedron with an average bond angle of ~109. And when you get into silicates, tetrahedrons are your basic building block

If you have six, then your average bond angle is 90 degrees; imagine four in a square plane and two at the 'poles'. Remember these for later!

Silicates dominate our world. If carbon forms everything living, then silicon forms everything non-living. Over 90 percent of the earth's crust is formed by silicate minerals, which are as astounding diverse and varied as big brother carbon's molecules. This diversity comes in spite of the fact that silicon is near-exclusively bound in the form of the silica tetrahedron seen above.

Where we move from bond angles to crystals is the fact that each oxygen in a silica tetrahedron has two charges, meaning oxygen can be bound to two different silicon atoms, which creates a crystal lattice structure of repeating units of silica tetrahedra. Depending on how silca tetrahedra are linked together, you get the following structures:

(Fun fact! Quartz and Zeolites are some of the most chemically and mechanically stable minerals on earth, and the Tectosilicate arrangement is the exact same crystalline pattern that makes up diamonds. Anyways!)

Focusing down on phyllosilicates, the structures that form are vast molecule thin sheets of repeated chained circles of silica, which is just one of the many ways math that may seem abstract emerges in the natural world, as what forms as a result is a tesselation. Now although silicates are dominated by silica, they are not exclusively silica tetrahedra for the simple fact that the real world conditions in which these form are messy, but secondly, the tetrahedral shape means that in a sheet crystal, silica has leftover oxygens that it could share with other ions. And so what you get in nature is that phyllosilicates are not just sheets of silica tetrahedra, but are two to three layers of repeating tetrahedra/octahedral units bound to a silica backbone.

(src paper; good resource for those who want to know more)

Now these phyllosilicates, literally "sheet-silicates", are very strong and chemically resistant molecule thin layers. But the thing about being so strongly attached to itself means that the actual attraction between layers is governed by an entirely different form of chemical bond (IMFs, which we won't get into), and ranges from no real binding to tightly bound to weakly bound.

And finally, it's time to talk about kaolinite!

Kaolinite is the clay mineral named for kaolin, the rocks/sediment that bears a lot of it. Kaolinite, pictured above, has very uniform physical properties, is very chemically stable, is quite cheap, and has abundant material use.

But, time for a shock and a swerve, I spent all this time talking about clay minerals to talk about smectite instead! You fool!

Smectitic clays differ from kaolinite substantially in ways we won't get into, but the short answer of it is that bonds form between sheet layers, but weak bonds. Strong bonds will basically not really come apart and aren't an issue. No bonds aren't an issue. Weak bonds are an issue.

What weak bonds between layers leads to is a shrinking and swelling of clay layers over time, as water enters clay layers in the fall through spring, then leaves in the summer, causing the entire soil to shrink and swell with moisture, like thermal expansion joints on bridges but much more pronounced. This also leads to a lot of interesting soil properties, so much so there's an entire soil order named for soils with smectitic clays, the Vertisols.

What's shown here with the slickensides are literal smooth surfaces that form as large units of soil shrink-swell and rub against each other. Very strange stuff!

On the human scale, soils with vertic characteristics cause a lot of headaches in the places I grew up, meaning a lot of people in North to Central Texas spend time watering their lawns in deep summer heat to avoid foundations cracking. I've seen new homeowners in Texas who didn't know about it have their entire fence come down because of soil cracks, especially wood fences that catch the wind.

And that's how clay will ruin your foundation.

(PS: Clay mineralogy is foundational to soil chemistry but we'll get into that at a later date. To simplify: clay mineralogy is variable by geology and essentially serves as the most chemically active site in soils, but you kind of have to get real in the weeds on it and I do not have time to get into ion substitution and why every mineral's chemical formula looks like a fucking math equation just so I can talk about cation exchange capacity right now.)

[domingocavecanem]

I❤️Silca

[a-life-revised]

Do you like, legit have a list of rocks you prefer for snacks?

"It is entirely dependent on the amount of silica or otherwise usable minerals inside of the rock.

Which is why Diamonds are absolutely garbage to eat.

Igneous Rocks? High in silica. Excellent snacks.

Certain Quartz? Mafic and Ultramafic? Terrible silca quantity, changes the taste. Feldspar has about a 53% silica content but the sodium and barium make up for it.

...which is to say, yes, I do."

[fingerdownthebooksspine]

For the record, she winds up calling poison control (Her daughter ate a silca packet, iirc), and they said "As long as she's not vomiting blood, she should be fine!"

And she was.

do you take a werewolf boyfriend to the vet or the doctor. this is too complicated

[abysmal0]

Come share a bottle with Iga, won't you? Cheers!

Patreon commisson for Silca!

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