I was out malling and people watching last Saturday before my dialysis and I saw something interesting in the mall. There was this tiny stall that sold patterns and materials for Rhinestone Art. I got curious and had a chitchat with the nice lady that manned the stall and she allowed me to take pictures for me to blog about it in Steemit. I told myself, this could be something I can do on my free time which is like 80% of my time. LOL
I bought a tiny template which the saleslady said was for a celphone back case design. She sold it for 70 pesos which is like 1.4 USD. I want to try it first to know if it is something I'll find worthwhile and enjoyable. The design was adorable because it was a baby mermaid pattern, something close to my heart. I chose 
Rhinestone Art makes me nostalgic, it reminds me of the late 90s fad of cross-stitching but relatively this is easier. Unlike in cross-stitch that you needed to sew crosses to make each block, here you just put a rhinestone and it sticks right there.
So what comes with each packet? I opened the packet and it had a dish, the character-coded rhinestones, the little mermaid template with an adhesive on the surface and something that looked like a pen. The dish was where you put the tiny rhinestones. The rhinestones were coded with either a letter or a number (Red was number 3, White was number 5, etc). The mermaid template was drawn with the corresponding codes for each color and its surface was sticky with an adhesive for the rhinestones to stick to (her hair was coded number 3s for Red, her tail was coded 'T' for Green, etc.). The pen like stuff was used to pick up the tiny rhinestones and it was efficient in moving them around the sticky surface. It's pretty easy and self explanatory, the packet did not even have instructions on how to do the stuff.
This is one of the displayed finish products in the stall and I think it's dazzlingly cute.
I just found the time to do this now, because it's a Monday. I am usually alone in the house during daytime Monday. A storm is coming and it's cold and rainy and I'm quite bored, so I decided to do the Rhinestone Art I bought last weekend. I kind of like the thought that I will be making art because the name of the craft is Rhinestone Art. I love art but I am not in any way an artist but I know how to appreciate stuff and I have some tricks on my sleeves but I don't think it's good enough for flaunting.
When I got to Steemit, I was so happy when I saw a lot of artists' works. It feels like this is their happy place to express themselves and finally their crafts are seen by the world, appreciated and monetized. I haven't been writing or drawing in a long time but seeing all the things done here in Steemit, it inspires me to try. I probably need more art now than ever. Now that I am living with chronic illness, I should do more art. It reminds me of the words of a great literary artist, Neil Gaiman...
Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art.
I'm serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it's all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn't matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art.
Make it on the good days too.
Source: Neil Gaiman, Make Good Art (Commencement Speech at the University of the Arts, 2012)
So let's do it!
I had everything timed and it took me 1 hour and 48 minutes. Not too bad for a beginner, I guess. I really enjoyed doing this, it's amazing how it's made me focus and concentrate in finishing it. Like always, it feels good to be able to make something. Maybe next time I will do something more complicated like the picture below. What do you say?
I recommend Rhinestone Art for people who used to love cross-stitching. It's quite easy to do and it doesn't really take so much time to make. Kids can do it, but not for the young ones though because these small stones might be ingested.
I love that I made it on my laptop, the roughness of the pattern feels good to touch every now and then, and I love how the rhinestones shine and reflect light. It definitely added a good vibe to my 6-year old lappy.
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