#carving is so nice

[myreitha]

I think everyone's gotten theirs by now, so please enjoy the linocut I designed, carved, printed on cards and sent out for February's International Correspondence Writing Month :)

[Image Description 1: A black linocut print featuring a moth with sparkling star eye patterns on its six wings and surrounded by a starburst of lines and small stars. End description.]

Some process and more details under the cut - including the other stamps I carved to go on the envelopes and inside the cards!

Please enjoy my chaotic printing station and my beautiful stack of shelves, baskets, and my baking racks being used as a place for all the prints to dry (well, most of them)

I also carved individual stamps of the starry eyeballs based off the eye shapes in the moth's wings. I love love love love how they came out, and also had a lot of fun with the variety of little star stamps I made to embellish things with.

[Image ID 2: A photo of my kitchen table overtaken by a precarious stack of wire shelves and racks that are covered in drying prints. In front of the drying prints is my printing surface where the ink, roller, and the linocut are visible. Image ID 3-4: Photos of the envelopes used to send the cards, they've got stars stamped on the front and a large starry eye stamped on the flap. The eyes are two different variations of a similar design and match the eye pattern on the moth's wings. End Description.]

For funsies, please also enjoy how gorgeous this design came out on brown paper

[Image Description 5: Another image of the same print, this time on brown paper intead of white]

[claypigeonpottery]

this is still one of my most requested mugs—the Calvin and Hobbes quote resonates with tumblr dwellers. we appreciate a good frog and bug

here are some sow bugs and frogs from my last few takes on this mug

(fun fact: sow bugs are crustaceans lmao. I only recently learned this. so I guess my mandate also includes weird crustaceans)

[krussyarts]

Smth smth December 16 smth smth D-16

[amphibianaday]

day 1818 Happy (late) Halloween!!

[waspspots]

The finished fossil timescale vase! Seven periods represented by seven fossils in the seven colors of the rainbow. Closeups and fossil names below

Red: Trilobites, ammonites, and pikaia among other things for the Cambrian. Orange: Tiktaalik filling in as the Devonian representative, had to include the iconic transition fossil :] Yellow: Thrinaxodon and Broomistega in the Triassic cuddle. Green: my favorite pterosaur, Ramphorynchus, representing the Jurassic. Blue: my first favorite dinosaur, Spinosaurus, for the Cretaceous. Indigo: my favorite animal, a coelacanth, sort of wedged in for the Late Cretaceous since I couldn't come up with a better Cenozoic fossil in time. Violet: Sahelanthropus Tchadensis, an early hominid (I'm not 100% on if it's still regarded as our earliest known ancestor, cool regardless!!)

[vinceaddams]

I wondered if perhaps Lestat's nice art nouveau wallpaper was a reproduction of a historical design, but it seems it's a modern one - "Nouveau Damask Wallpaper" by Antonina Vella. Ah well. Still lovely!

From what I've seen, the actual historical ones usually have many more colours than just 2. But they did have wallpapers with shiny metallics! I should go back and look at his other wallpapers and see if any of them are on my historical pattern pinterest boards. Art nouveau wallpapers & furnishing fabrics are one of my favourite things in all of surface design history.

[spkyart]

Of course hiei is eating the sticks

[schizo2709]

Let's get married. Mm. When? When the law changes.

Our Youth [special episode]

[canisalbus]

I hope you have a lovely day today. ❤️

Thank you! You too! 🧡

[scribblesscribblings]

Was thinking about ways Xioyun’s story could potentially go and stumbled into a cute concept of him being a humble kindly priest to an orphanage in a quiet town c:

Too bad the prerequisite for this happening is him getting completely disgraced from the Stolen Lands and losing connections to everyone he knew there. Womp womp

[fossilknits]

guess who's picking up a new hobby!

[eri-pl]

Silm Advent calendar 4: Beard*

Warnings: sort of a small panic attack in PoV. Implications of… well, we are seeing Celebrimbor post-reembodiment. So you can estimate. But only implications.

"I wish I could see them again," said Celebrimbor. "The Dwarves, I mean." It was still somewhat strange to speak with words.

Mahtan smiled. "I wish I could see one of them too."

Right. Great-grandfather hadn't ever met any of the Khazad, obviously. Because he had enough common sense to not leave. Obviously. Celebrimbor looked at him. "I'm sorry."

Mahtan laughed and continued leading him down the stony corridors of Lord Aulë's mansion.

Assuming that he could continue the conversation, Celebrimbor said "I've always wondered, and Narvi too—how it is with beards? Are they something Lord Aulë invented, or...?" He trailed off. It seemed a stupid question.

And yet, his great-grandfather was not offended. He stroked his own—meticulously braided— beard, and spoke. "I've always assumed it was his thing, as I had not grown mine before I became his apprentice. But now of course they say the Men have those too— they do, right? It's not another thing Pengolodh made up?"

"Oh yes, they do have beards. Some quite impressive."

They went down another set of stairs, the corridor was windowless and illuminated with lamps. It felt like home, but safer.

"Mhm. See, Tyelpe, we're somewhat secluded here. Nor Tuor, nor of course Earendil had one, so... Anyway, I'm sure you'll grow it eventually."

"I don't— I mean, the fact that I could work with— Despite everything— It's just so much more than I could ever deserve."

Mahtan laughed again—a deep, rolling laughter that felt in place in those stone halls. "You will need to get accustomed to working with people who aren't— nasty."

The forge noises became louder, discouraging further dialogue. Not long after, they reached an arched gate, leading to a huge workshop, where Maiar and Elves worked, and of course, in the center, the Smith himself.

All the hammers stopped and the room went silent. Celebrimbor bowed deeply, barely daring to look at the Vala.

Lord Aulë smiled. "Come, you two. Mahtan, my friend, we've moved your things already. Tyelperinquar, I'm so glad to see you. I— I still don't understand your kind well, but Mahtan said you won't be offended— it is the best workplace after all." As the two Elves came closer, he spoke more quietly. "As an apology."

In the centre of the forge, next to Lord Aulë's huge, carved stone workbench with mithril top, stood two others, smaller, but even more ornate. One, to which Mahtan walked and began checking the tools, was made of bright white stone carved in intricate geometric patterns, parts of which seemed moveable. The other one — apparently meant for Celebrimbor — was a gold square design of perfect four-fold symmetry, with the tools sorted by size and type. While not dusted—nothing in Aman was—it was long unused, judging from types of the tools. There was a peculiar beauty to it, like—

His head went light and he grasped the edge of the golden table— than let it go immediately— if that was to be his apology, he'd have to bear it— he was better now, after years in Mandos—and yet, the very memory—

Mahtan held him like he used to do when Tyelpe was a small boy visiting his forge with the same fascination as his father and grandfather before.

"Shhh. It's all right. It is all right—" he repeated louder. "He will get over it, just give us a moment." He turned his face back to Celebrimbor, whispering: "It's all right. You don't have to, if you don't want to."

"But…. My apology—"

Great-grandfather held him tighter. "Not your apology, Tyelpe. Lord Aulë meant it as his apology to you. He felt like he owed it, especially as there's nobody else to apologize to you now, I think. But let's not get there. It is— we both thought that it would be a kind of justice to give it to you. I'm sorry. You don't have to."

The tightnes in Celebrimbor's chest slowly dissipated. "No, I— I appreciate it, and it would make him so angry and that's good, just— could I maybe reorder it a little. Not much, just…."

He spoke softly, unsure if it was worse to ask Lord Aulë if he could change the designs of his Maia (well, back then), or to talk in private when he was nearby. but apparently it was not soft enough, as the Vala replied him.

"Of course. You can change anything you like. It's yours."

A few days of work later, when Aulë again returned to his forge, he looked at Celebrimbor's workbench—now not as perfectly symmetrical, and carved in rows of Dwarven runes.

He smiled. "It looks alive. I missed it."

[kylejsugarman]

voluntarily thinking about that one breaking bad scene where jesse quietly and procedurally plants flowers in rehab is its own form of self harm

[capricores]

pisces/virgo placements... it's about time you took care of yourself, too, ok?

you burn yourselves out allowing yourself to be pulled by so many people in all different directions. you exhaust all your resources and empty your cup - no, your entire well - to help those around you, even people you don't know. it's such a beautiful thing, and i know you genuinely love helping others, supporting people, seeing them thrive. it's such a beautiful trait! but you constantly end up neglecting yourself, right? you don't realize that you have permission to set aside time to care for you, to cater to your needs for once. you often feel like no one puts a drop in your cup, the favor is never returned - it's exhausting; you might think if you just keep giving your all it will come back; i understand. you will find the people that give the same energy back to you one day, but regardless of whether you've found those people yet, you need to learn to step aside and fill your own cup!

setting boundaries and saying no is the most important thing you will learn to do in this lifetime. it will not be easy for you, sometimes it will feel painful. but you cannot help the world if you're constantly drained and tired! you deserve to take care of yourself in the same way you do for others. be gentle to your kind soul, nourish yourself; do the things you love to do. learn to worry about others less, as hard as it is, and focus on yourself more.

[venacoeurva]

I do feel bad for people who really only use Twitter, I used it exclusively for a while when it was still decent-ish pre-elongated crust, and it's been dogshit but it keeps getting worse... but some people

have all their mutuals and friends there

some people can't use other social media they otherwise would due to it being banned where they are (which might include the aforementioned mutuals and friends living there too)

a ton of people have a larger following or reach there than any other sites they use that won't follow them elsewhere and that's their only source of income so they can't just delete and leave

and it's one of the few major social medias left where there's an active and openly allowed nsfw scene.

The fact that the alternatives are smaller sites scattered all over the place that might die in a few years, get worse, stagnate, or just never get much traffic just has me kinda

[deckitout]

a gift for myself hehe