DeskSpace es un programa que añade escritorios virtuales a la PC. Lo mas llamativo del programa es que el escritorio se convierte en un cubo 3D. Esto no es nuevo para los usuarios de Linux que suelen utilizar beryl.

No podía pasar mucho tiempo para que saliera una versión para Windows. El programa es muy intuitivo. Podemos cambiar de un escritorio a otro, simplemente presionando Ctrl + Shift y algún numero del uno al cuatro. Hecho esto el escritorio se aleja, se convierte en un cubo y gira para hacernos aterrizar en un nuevo escritorio.

El programa es configurable de acuerdo a los recursos que posea el usuario.    Puede   funcionar en 16 o 32 bits y podemos seleccionar un fondo de pantalla que sea de nuestro agrado.

I often design around traditional gemstone cuts.  However, gemstones can be cut in many fascinating, innovative and gorgeous ways and there are masters of gemstone cutting as there are master goldsmiths and designers.  For today’s design, I chose to design around a designer-cut beryl by multiple award-winning gemstone cutter Michael Dyber.

Colored Pencil and Gouache Beryl, Gold, and Diamond Pendant Rendering by Joana Miranda

I echoed the bubbles in the beryl’s cut with dapped and blackened gold circles together with round brilliant diamonds.  This combination further enhances the effervescent quality of the gemstone’s cut.  To see more of Michael Dyber’s gemstones in finished jewelry pieces, please take a look here.

“There’s a stone, a jewel, much prized, called beryl. Are you named for that? If your eyes were green, I’d think you were. It’s a pretty idea to name girls after precious stones.”

(Cynthia Voigt, On Fortune’s Wheel, 1990)

Little curlicue on one of the word balloons there. I stole that idea from James Powell (see?) Sorry, James.

So, now I have calmed down after my paranormal, necklace, happening – YIKES!!!

I will attempt to show you where I am with the latest necklace.

Homage to the Sun God, So far:

This has been a big project.

Firstly I had to create that spooky chain, which took ages, as I had to make all of the links by hand (which really hurts your fingers, as you wrap the silver wire round the mandrel – I’ll do a video of making a silver link at some point and you will see the pain in my eyes, if anyone knows a better way, please let me know!).

Then each link had to be connected and soldered. I did it in two parts as it is quite long and needed to be tumbled after soldering and pickling (more about pickling later for those who don’t know what it is).

Once it was shiny and clean and connected together it was ready – and here it is almost finished and awaiting its final execution (or is that sacrifice…)

This picture was the only one I could get without it ’shining’, it still looks like gold but it is actually sterling silver (oh crikey is it the influence of the sun god again – arghhhh…). I think it would be nice in gold but I’d only do that on commission.

The Sun God Chain

The next part I had to make was the ’sun’ itself. This comprises several parts:

1. The main sun disc,

2. The bezel setting for the beryl which makes up the heart of the sun

3. The Beryl sun heart itself

4. The sun rays

The Sun Disc:

The main Sun Disc was cut out using a machine saw, as it is made from pretty thick sterling  silver sheet. It had to be further cutout in the middle to hold the Beryl gemstone heart.

I made the bezel setting for the Beryl heart using sterling silver for the base and bezel silver strip to contain the Beryl.

I then had to solder the bezel setting into the heart of the sun disc – here it is at that stage (looks a bit of a mess as it has just been pickled):

Sun disc early stages

Pickling, by the way, is what you do after soldering to remove ‘fire stain’. The pickling solution is a weak acid solution (such as 10% sulphuric acid) and it is heated in that for about 15 minutes or more until any stains from the soldering process are removed  – the stains being copper impurities in the sterling silver.

Once the soldering of the bezel setting and pickling was done, I then moved onto making the rays.

The Rays:

Each ray is made from different size sterling silver wire lengths. Each length of wire is held over a micro soldering torch until a ball is formed. The rays are then pickled and each is hammered out so that they have a flattened end – makes it a little easier to solder onto the sun disc.

This is what the pendant will look like with the rays attached (again, it’ll need to be tumbled and cleaned up at the very end):

Sun disc with rays

The Final Stage:

I now have to finish the piece by soldering the rays onto the sun disc – this is really difficult, sounds easy but it isn’t and the reason is that the sun disc is a large piece of silver and it acts like a heat sink, pulling all the heat away from the solder, so that the solder can’t flow and fix the rays to the disc. I need help with this part as someone will have to hold the rays in the right position while I try and heat from below and above to get the temperature high enough in the right places. I did consider kiln soldering it, but the rays are heavier at one end and might not sit correctly in the kiln.

Once the rays are in place, all that is left to do, is fix the Beryl in its cup, attach the sun disc to the necklace (oh I have to drill 3 holes in the top of the disc to do this – I want the attached part of the necklace to mimic the rays below) and hey presto, the Sun God lives…

Here  it is with the Beryl in situ and the chain above to give you a bit of an idea of what it will look like once completed.

I’ll post the finished piece on this blog soon!

Almost completed Sun God necklace

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Originally uploaded by Sassy Strawberry

Some test shots of the 1Ds Mk III <3

Apareció años atrás en Nintendomanía cuando anunciaban a Zelda Ocarina of Time, apareció en el Documental de La Reina Roja Misterio Maya (mandé varios correos a los productores y los putos nunca respondieron), y bueno hoy viendo la TV la escuche con esta serie nueva.

Alguien sabe cómo se llama esta canción??

Alguien sabe cómo se llama esta canción??

Alguien sabe cómo se llama esta canción??

Y siento recurrir a esto, pero es lo que más gente atrae y lo que google busca y más gente vera el post: PSP, iPhone, iPod Touch, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Porno, XXX

Yes, I’m finally getting around to posting my 24 hour comic. No, it didn’t take me 2 weeks to finish. I’ve been so busy lately I barely have time to sit down in front of the computer, but now I’m getting caught up.

I missed the first few hours of the event–I was there from about 2:00 pm til 10:00 am, I think. Got all the pencils and lettering done there, plus a little inking. Then I was sick for a couple days, so I finished the inking later in the week. Here are the first 2 pages:

The beryl used in the Homage to the Sun God necklace

I think that I will do an occasional series called ‘Gemstones I love’ and each posting will talk about a specific gemstone I’m working with at the minute.

This week, I am creating a necklace which is an homage to the sun god (not that I worship the sun god or anything, but you know what I mean…).

I love Beryl, the first time I saw it I kind of went all mushy: It’s sooo pretty and sweet and understated.

I will expand this posting later with images of me creating the necklace, but for now I’ll just concentrate on the gem itself.

Beryl or beryllium aluminium silicate Be₃Al₂(Si₆O₁₈ ), comes in a variety of colours, depending on the impurities in the stone (personally, I dont like the use of the word impurities in this context, rather they are ‘additions’). The beryl I’m working with at the minute is a lovely soft yellow and is called ‘heliodor beryl’.

Other stones that are part of the beryl family are aquamarine and emerald.

Now why use heliodor beryl in a necklace that represents an homage to the sun god – because in greek, heliodor, means sun and gift.

And just to add weight to the whole homage to the sun god theme, beryl is used as a charm against laziness (well you can hardly call the sun lazy as its up every morning at the crack of dawn).

More to come – with pictures!

The trouble with travel for a flighty, spur of the moment and adventurous person like me is the planning of a trip.

I do love to adventure and trip around but to be bound by schedules and times and dates really does take a little bit of the excitement out of it. And yes, there is the option to “wing it” and just off and trip and see how you go, but there is always the initial planning of getting to the place before you can become foot loose and fancy free.

I am currently making plans to go to India for a wedding, Nepal to see a friend and then on to London, Scotland and Germany to see family and friends. Sounds like an amazing trip huh! But the problem is trying to arrange the dates, flights, locations and people so that it all fits neatly into a step by step travel path….. it’s not working!

There are some great websites like STA and Student flights which allow you to map out your trip. Trouble is, the computer then decides what the best route is for you- and does not take into account the time, cost or whether or not your Aunt Beryl will be in Scotland when the flight is best scheduled to arrive.

I know once it’s all planned and set that it will be fine and I will have a great time, but really and truly the amount of time and effort that goes into the planning process is crazy.

Sigh- the things we do for love.

Çoğu kişi Linux‘a ara yüzü Windows‘tan kötü diye gereksiz bir önyargıyla yaklaşır. Ancak Ubuntu ve türevlerinde olan görsellik kesinlikle Vista‘yı veya Windows 7‘yi sollayacak güçtedir ki Vista gibi her efektte belleğe yüklenmez.

Ubuntu‘nun en cezbedici özelliği olan küpünün kullanılmasını anlatacağım. Normalde herhangi bir kuruluma gerek yoktur. Çünkü zaten Ubuntu‘nun 7.04 sürümünden itibaren küp ve diğer görsel efektler kurulu olarak gelmektedir. Tek yapılması gereken bu özelliği aktifleştirmektir. Anlatacağım yöntemle küp ile beraber birçok görsel efekti de yönetebilirsiniz.

Eski adıyla Beryl, yeni adıyla Compiz olan masaüstü efektleri uygulaması Ubuntu ilk kurulduğunda bir kısım efektler aktif halde gelir. Ancak küp aktif değildir. Bunun için öncelikle ekran kartı sürücüsünü kurmak gerekir. Eğer kuruluysa bu kısmı dikkate almayınız. Kurmak için “Yönetim”e basılıp “Donanım Sürücüleri“ne basıldığında bilgisayarda kurulu olmayan sürücüleri Ubuntu otomatik olarak gösterir. Eğer ekran kartınız kurulu değilse bu burada görünecektir ve komut verdiğinizde Ubuntu size uygun sürücüyü internetten indirip kuracaktır.

Ekran kartı sürücüsü kurulduktan sonra masaüstünün boş bir yerinde sağ tıklanıp “Görünüm tercihleri”ne girilir. “Efektler” sekmesine girildiğinde karşımıza 3 aşama çıkar(hiçbiri-normal-ekstra). Genelde “normal” işaretlidir. Biz bunu “Ekstra” yapacağız. Yine ekran kartınız kurulu değilse bu işlemden sonra Ubuntu sürücü eksik tarzı bir uyarı verecektir.

Synaptic paket yöneticisi açılır. Arama çubuğuna “compiz” yazılır. Çıkan listeden “compizconfig-settings-manager” bulunur ve çift tıklanır. Yani yükleme için işaretlenir. “Uygula” butonuna basılarak Compiz ayar yöneticisinin yüklenmesi sağlanır. Böylece görsel efekt ayarlarını yönetme panelini Ubuntu internetten indirip kurar.

Kurulum bitince “Sistem” – “Tercihler” yolunu izleyerek açılan listeden “CompizConfig Ayar Yöneticisi“ne basılır.

Artık bütün görsel efektleri buradan yönetebilirsiniz. Küp için listeden “Masaüstü Küpü“nün yanına tik işareti konur. Böylece küp aktifleşmiş olur.(Küp aktifleşirken başka bir efekt pasifleşebilir normaldir.) Farenin orta tuşuna basılı tutarak küp özgürce hareket ettirilebilir. Ctrl+alt+sağ/sol ok kombinasyonuyla da masaüstleri arasında 3 boyutlu geçiş sağlanabilir. Yalnız eğer küpü aktifleştirdikten sonra sadece 2 masaüstü varsa küp tam olarak uygulanamaz çünkü küpün 4 tane yanal yüzü olmalıdır. Bu nedenle masaüstü sayısının 4 yapılması gerekir. Soldaki filtre listesinden “Genel“e basılır. Sağ çerçeveden “Desktop Size” sekmesine basılır. “Masaüstü sayısı” 4 yapılır ve “Yatay Sanal boyut” da 4 yapılır.

Artık küp kullanıma hazırdır. İsteğe bağlı olarak küpün üst alt yüzlerine veya arka planına istenen resimler konabilir.

Örnek olarak benim eski bir masaüstüm:

Bu da hoş bir pencere efekti:

Well, it took a little while but Beryl now seems to be firmly at home with Shelly. This picture taken earlier today show the couple after a lazy lunch with each other. Watch this space for further updates.

CUSTOM MADE WOODEN CANVASES

In creating The Revelation Painting, it was apparent that the weight of the stones and the need for sturdy canvases to hold the fiber optics were going to require wooden canvases.  In the case of the fiber optics requiring small holes drilled from 1-6MM, a cloth canvas would not suffice.  It was estimated that six canvases would be needed to house the fiber optic cables and four to hold the weight of the stones.

Fiber optic cables are delicate and will not tolerate numerous placement and removal as the painting moves from location to location.  The idea to drill holes and securely fasten the delicate cables is what brought me to the design of custom-made wooden canvases with drilled holes to accommodate various sizes of cables fixed securely into place with clear adhesive.

 Various sizes and adapters are available to create the light effects from a light source.  Obvious decreased movements and coiling of the frail cables would increase the life of them before replacement was required.  Designing custom canvases 48” x 48” from wood that fit flush with the cloth canvases was no easy task.  Measurements from the side were calculated at 1 ½” combined.

I consider myself an artist and not a carpenter.  It was very difficult for me to try to measure and calculate the needed design as doors were going to have to be on the backs of six canvases to carry the cables securely during transport.  I sketched a rough design and ran an ad for a carpenter, aka woodworker with tools to build the canvases.

I need someone to build 10 canvases, high quality 48″x48″x 1 1/2″, some with doors on the back. These canvases will be painted on; fine art and have to be sanded and smooth. Some will have small holes drilled in them. I do not have tools, so you need your own tools. I will buy the supplies at your direction regarding the type of quality, lightweight, non-warping wood required. I have a cloth example (without doors on the back) to go by for design purposes. I will need a quote from you regarding what you will charge for all 10 canvases. I hope that you can deliver them when done or I will rent a truck to pick them up. You will be required to sign a waiver if injury occurs in the creation or delivery of these canvases that I will not be held responsible.

I was amazed at the response!  After a week or so of careful consideration, I chose a man who may or may not be listed in The Journal of Acknowledgement for his significant contribution toward the creation of the painting based on his decision.  (Please see:  www.therevelationpaintingjournals.wordpress.com regarding this powerful journal.)

The most difficult part of designing the canvases are the side frames which can only be 1 ½ inch combined; the ¼” Birch plywood, the frame, and the width of the latch.  The main problem is finding the correct cut with the application of the latches where the canvas is not forced to sit out from the wall at a wider distance than the cloth canvases.  Solid construction is important here due to weigh.

The remaining four canvases are located at the end of the painting where the twelve foundations of crushed gemstones are found.  It will be interesting to calculate the exact weight of the stones.  (I will deduct the weight of the finished wood canvas, the adhesives and lacquers from the total weight after the stones are applied.)  Just carrying the crushed stones reveals pounds of weight!

I considered and am still considering tracks of LED lights to illuminate the crushed stones through small holes.  The stones, their magnificence of sparkle and light-play is best observed through illumination.  Time will tell regarding this decision.  Many other components were required as well for the completion of fully functional canvases to withstand the test of time.

The main component of the canvases is of course the wood it is made from.  Several carpenters recommended Birch.  I did not know much about Birch, only that I needed a wood that would not warp, could handle the weight and liquid applied to its surface.  I researched Birch and found interesting facts.  I felt this would be a good choice of wood from which to build the canvases.

Birch is a tight and solid wood species that grows in North America and is from the Betula Family, closely related to Beech and Oak. The two most common types of Birch are Paper and Yellow in North America but there are over 50 species found throughout the world.  Birch trees grow an average height of 70 feet with a diameter of 2”.  The bark rolls and peels spontaneously but gets thicker with age.

Birch lumber is used for many, many products from skateboards, to canoes, artist easels, paper and cabinets.  It is chosen for its fine and uniform texture.  It is nearly odorless and is also chosen for long burning fireplace wood.  Once it is dried it resist decay and fungus.  It is fairly priced and the type of Birch chosen for The Revelation Painting was Birch plywood, quarter inch.  Birch plywood is created from lamination of Birch veneer and is light but strong.  It is fine grained and pale.

Other parts associated with the custom wood canvases:

CONTINUOUS HINGE POLISHED BRASS FINISH

 HIGH QUALITY .04  GAUGE STEEL, 36″  BY  1.5”

SLOTTED ADJUSTMENT HOLES EVERY 9TH HOLE

Nickel Flush Drawbolts  -   Approx. 1-1/2″ x 3″

Oddly enough, I consider this painting bringing Revelation to life and I found this interesting fact regarding Birch (from Wikipedia):

Birch trees are associated with the Tír na nÓg, the land of the dead and the Sidhe, in Gaelic folklore, and as such frequently appear in Scottish, Irish, and English folksongs and ballads in association with death, or fairies, or returning from the grave.