Blackout Poems

I came across a great way to write poetry. It's simple, all you need is a bunch of written words (i.e. a newspaper, magazine or old book) a Sharpie, and some creative thinking! Below is a before and after of one of my first 'blackout' poems:

KATYA

while in college I had the time to 

realize a great love for the world

It is a puzzle in figuring out how to twist the given words into something totally different. I sometimes felt confined by not having free reign in word choice, yet that's where creativity came into (word) play. These poems are more or less force into minimalism, which I enjoyed. Here are some more poems I 'wrote':

WILLIAM WALLET

money for travel

a perfect life

ELO

envy love often

yet know that there is 

nothing superior 

to one's own

happiness and health

HAPPILY EVER AFTER

when romance patiently says jump,

think about the potential of opportunity,

a new world: 

a small possibility

LIFE

merely 

a 

romantic 

experience that 

is 

beautiful 

to the end

Stained

There is no question in my mind that some day I will be carpenter by hobby. Both of my grandfathers had a knack with wood, so it is in my blood. While I do not have the means or space to do much, I do what I can. This project did not entail any construction with wood, but more the working of wood. In this case, a wooden stool.

A while back, a friend showed me a mesmerizing wood staining technique that uses multiple colors of dye to extenuate wood. When complete, the color scheme and technique I was aiming for looks like this:

A mix between a fireball and tiger eye. I thought it would be fun to try out this stain method on the seat of my stool, which was wooden and had some beautifully curled wood on the seat. 

In short, the method I followed was to dye the wood with black then red then yellow dyes, and sand in between dyes with a finer and finer grit of sand paper. The final step was to seal/gloss the wood with polyurethane. This last step is what really brings the wood to life. 

Once I sanded off the existing layer of gloss, I was ready to dye, sand, dye, sand, dye...

then came layer after layer of polyurethane...

...and viola! 

While my finished seat did not look quite like the fireball tiger eye I was aiming for, I am quite content with my end product. This project taught me a lot about how wood works as a canvass. I will surely be doing more wood staining in the future!