Sunday Vlog Episode #1

TED Tuesday - Jamie Oliver

Going back to TED Tuesday; I want to share a video with you about food eduction. Hopefully this motivates you to eat a little bit better if you aren't already. While watching this, an idea popped into my head: apple a day self-project. Just for no reason whatsoever, I am gonna pledge to eat at least one apple a day.

Its a little under 22 minutes long, but really easy to watch.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver.html

I am aware the I had done a TED video regarding food before, but some of the statistics mentioned here are amazing.

Feel free to discuss,
Serg

Pyrography - an interesting form of art

I would like to share a guest written blog by, Meagen. She has a blog at: http://artistmeg.blogspot.com/

The best way to begin talking about what exactly pyrography is would be to define it. According to dictionary.com pyrography is the process of burning designs on wood, leather, etc., with a heated tool. Its more common name is simply wood burning, but I think pyrography sounds flashier, which is probably why the word was invented in the first place. I first learned about pyrography when I kid and it had always been a “forbidden” creative outlet since my parents really didn’t want me burning myself on the tool! Now that I’m older (but certainly not more mature) I decided to take up this art form as a new hobby and in the process I learned a bit about the history of it as well.

Pyrography itself has been around for a while. In Lima, Peru’s Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History, there is a cup from the Nazca culture that dates back to pre-700 AD. While this is the earliest piece found, there has been some speculation that cave men would use their own form of pyrography on cave walls. Unfortunately charcoal does not withstand the weather and passing of time overly well so this has remained only a speculation without tangible proof. Pyrography does not show up again in recorded history until about 1910 where the art was referred to as “pokerwork” or “fire etching” and often was used to decorate picture frames, spines of books or pieces of furniture. From my understanding of it the name “pokerwork” was used for pyrography as people would the poker from their fireplace to etch designs on different objects.

So now that you have a brief history and definition of pyrography I bet you’re keen on learning more about how it’s done and where to get all the supplies. I think the best way to do this is a quick “how to” guide.

The two main things you need in order to do pyrography are wood and the heated tool. Now the wood is easy enough to come by you can either go chop up your own tree, or if you’re a city slicker (like myself) you can go to your nearest craft store and purchase it. The wood itself comes in any shape and size you can think of so you should have plenty to choose from. For the purposes of this project I’m choosing to burn the lid of a wooden box.

(side view of box)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/BoxProject012.jpg
(top view of box)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/BoxProject011.jpg

Now comes the more complicated decision, which type of tool to purchase. There are in fact two types of tools to choose from, and there are pros and cons for both.
Tool A
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/BoxProject008.jpg

Tool B
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/BoxProject010.jpg

Tool A you as you can see is a far more simple design and as such is far cheaper than Tool B. You can usually find Tool A for around $30 including 4 or more interchangeable tips whereas Tool B I recently purchased for $150 and only includes one tip. As for purchasing these tools I suggest going to your local craft store or purchase them online. If you do purchase the cheaper tool, be aware there is no temperature gauge so it heats up to its maximum temperature (which varies by device) and stays there, and it also takes longer for the tip to heat up. Tool A takes approximately 1 minute to heat whereas Tool B heats in about 8 seconds. Each tool burns a little different as well. The piece in the how to guide is an example of how Tool B, and below is a couple examples of how Tool A burns.
Whichever tool you choose just remember to stay within your means.

i. (the “gone fishing” piece) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/DSCN0696.jpg
ii. (Lo Shu Turtle Box) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/momanddadcheckinoutthezoo062.jpg
iii. (Celtic cross and doves) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/kahlanamnell_rox/Pyrography/momanddadcheckinoutthezoo075.jpg
As you can see in these examples Tool A usually causes your piece to come out dark which can be good depending on the design you are creating.

So now you have your new toy, your piece of wood and the design or image you plan on burning into the wood. The design can be as simple or as complicated as you want. If it is your first time playing around with pyrography I suggest purchasing a couple cheap scrap pieces to practice on before you begin your actual piece, just so you can get the feel and limitations of the process itself.

I find the process of creating a piece of artwork from wood to be an all encompassing Zen like experience. In a stressful world where we are always running around and moving too fast, taking the time to sit and only think about the task at hand is a rewarding and rejuvenating experience in itself. Hopefully this article helped shed a little light on the subject of pyrography and maybe it even convinced you to give it a try, who knows you may even like it.
~Meg

“Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses - especially learn how to see. Realise that everything connects to everything else. “
-Leonardo DaVinci

For more tips and advice from Meagen on Pyrography, visit her blog at http://artistmeg.blogspot.com/, or shoot her an email at artistmeg@yahoo.ca

Milgram Experiment

One of my goals that developed for this blog was to spread knowledge. Ignorance is an excuse that we turn to very easily when mistakes happen. I want to present to you, my fellow readers, an interesting experiment that was done in the 1960's by Professor Milgram. He was conducting an experiment on authority. How far would an individual go to obey an authority figure if it went against their personal conscience? As you watch this, it may be easy for you to say, "oh, I'd stop" but shockingly about 60 - 65% continued to do so.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

What does this show? Why is this important? This study has been used to compare to the infamous Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse. Soldiers took their power and the lack of responsibility a little to far when they were asked by the higher ups to get any information possible. Even if it meant they would be doing this to innocent civilians. Of course, another way to look at this would be not when it comes to physically hurting people directly, but indirectly. The Enron scandal comes to mind where people continued to lie about numbers, following the orders from their authority figure because they thought the blame would be shifted to them.

Thank you for reading.

More info at wiki

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous then a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

-Martin Luther King Jr