2019 #14 Inchies & Twinchies: Meditation Cube with ESA {by Alison Bomber}

2019 Topic 14: Inchies & Twinchies

You will understand why Alison loves the meditative process of handling this cube when you see the calming and gentle colours and textures she's used. Utilising embossing powder is a clever touch to create beautiful relief in both senses of the word. ~ Keren

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

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

When I saw the topic I thought, well, inchies and twinchies - best to choose some Mini stamps for that, so I've been playing with Seth Apter's Minis, some of the older ones and some from the latest release.  I've used EM37, EM40, EM43, EM44, EM45 and EM47.

   

  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the contrast between the light and dark embossing makes me very happy.

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

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you create on the tiny playing space of an inchie or twinchie this fortnight.

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