Umazon Blog

Prints on canvas have become the new trend over the last few years, largely thanks to A0 printers, cheap stretcher bars and canvas and a permanent craving for folk to express themselves in a very personalised way.

These days you can go to a shop that sells canvas prints carrying a digital camera, and a short time later walk out in possession of a large canvas of one of your photos. There are countless possibilities in terms of what you can grace your house with : family photos, your own artwork represented as a canvas print, holiday photos, other artist’s works, street scenes, graffiti prints, nature scenes etc. In a nutshell, you can select what you want on the canvas itself these days, and not just be limited to a particular amount of prints.

So is this a DIY art movement? No, in order to create a professional, respectable print on your wall. It’s advisable to go to a dedicated print shop - they should be utilising the quality canvas, the best stretcher bars, ought to be skilled in stretching and clipping canvas, and have top-quality software and printers to make it happen. They also have the know-how to adjust your photos in order to produce the best result on the canvas itself.

Many print shops sell their canvases online. Just type in some keywords into Google like canvas art prints and you’ll find a great many vendors where it’s possible to buy these sorts of canvas prints from.

Tempering is an important process that cannot be skipped because without it, your chocolate will not be shiny or smooth and these qualities are not naturally present in chocolate. The chocolate particles are made fine by the conching process but only when you temper does the chocolate particles become so fine as to be undetected by the tongue.

You can impart gloss, crispness, firmness, smoothness, creaminess and a longer shelf life to your chocolate but only through the difficult process of tempering. You can also avoid the occurrence of blooming that imparts a streaky look and gritty texture to chocolate. There will be no takers of such unattractive chocolates.

Since you melt the chocolates during tempering at temperatures more than 90F, the chocolates lose the temper that came with buying them from the chocolate makers so that you need to do re-tempering to maintain the highest quality.

Tempering by hand will especially be an asset when there’s a power disruption, when your tempering machine will be useless. It behooves you to learn tempering by hand if you wish to be known for fine quality chocolates.

The first method of tempering by hand, tabliering, is an innovation from France. It’s also called the marble-slab method as you use a marble slab to manage tempering.

A pound of chocolate bars, sliced into strips, is melted on a double boiler at medium heat so it doesn’t burn. The melt is then divided into two halves. The first half is folded and spread on a marble slab to lower the temperature so it thickens; and then you mix the other half in until the entire mixture cools. Tempering temperatures must be accurately maintained using a thermometer that’s calibrated on a regular basis.

The difference between the second method, “seeding” and tabliering is that, in the former you use already tempered chocolate as a seed for creating the proper crystals. Only three-fourths of the chocolate is melted and as the whole mush is cooled down, the unmelted strips are slowly mixed in until the entire chocolate melt is at the right temperature. Maintaining the right temperature accurately is just as important in seeding. Only after tempering is done does a chocolatier begin dipping and molding chocolates.

Chocolatiersboth novice and artisansaccept that tempering by hand is a difficult endeavor because it involves a strict maintenance of correct temperatures. You cannot afford to ignore this important aspect of tempering because even a minute change in temperature levels will force you to repeat tempering. Doing so will split your attention between keeping chocolates in its tempered state (meaning, right temperatures), and designing, sculpting and shaping your chocolate confections.

With a chocolate tempering machine, indeed you’ll have the advantage of coming up with the same quality of chocolate confections whenever you make them. That’s a great plus if you intend to market these candies for profit.

Body piercing has become very popular in our western culture. It is considered to be new and adventurous in our civilization, but it has actually been around since ancient times. Long ago the Egyptians and Indians pierced and decorated their bodies. Sometimes this was just for beauty purposes, like our culture. Other times the ancients used body piercing to denote which social class someone belonged to. Whatever the purpose of the jewelry, you can bet that ancient body jewelry was organic body jewelry.

Body piercing carries some fairly serious health risks if you don’t do it right. For that reason it makes sense that organic body jewelry is of interest to many who have body piercings. The standard types of body jewelry are made from silver, gold, titanium or stainless steel. Organic body jewelry can be made from amber, bamboo, wood, bone or shells. Even certain types of metal jewelry can be considered organic. When you start to think outside the box of body jewelry, you can see that organic body jewelry has potential to be even more beautiful than the common designs. Organic body jewelry may sometimes be more expensive than regular jewelry, but it doesn’t always have to be. Some of the materials are much less expensive. If being organic is important to you, then it is worth shopping around.

Make use of clutter to decorate your home! Sounds strange? Believe me its possible! While moving into my new house, I had to get rid of a lot of old pots, torn clothes, cracked dishes and chipped china. At my wit’s end trying to figure a way out of the mess, it struck me that I could actually use a lot of these to make decorative accents for my new home.

I got my 6 year old daughter involved as she was the only one who was willing to get her hands dirty in the act! Every body thought I was crazy, but that didn’t stop me from going about my business.

First, we sorted what could be re-used and what HAD to be thrown away. It soon turned out that I could reuse most of the things that I had discarded earlier.

There was my mother-in-law’s old iron chest; a wooden bookrack with jammed hinges; a couple of cracked clay planters; dozens of paper bags; old shabby pillow-covers; torn bedsheets; my daughter’s old woollen garments; old magazines and more…

The first thing that we did was to paint the old iron chest in black. My daughter simply loved the idea. With a fresh coat of shiny paint, the chest sprung back to life as it were! We cut out different colored pictures of kids, flowers and cars from the old magazines and pasted them on the lid of the chest once the paint dried up. Looking bright and cheerie, the old chest was transformed into a treasure chest for my daughter’s toys! In it went all her dolls and blocks and cars whatever toys there were scattered all over the house.

Next, came the planters. I smeared my little daughters palms with bright red, green and yellow paint and asked her to stamp the planters. Needless to say, she was delighted at the offer! As most of them were cracked or chipped, they could no longer be used as planters. We found a way to re-use them as dust bins instead. Inside each, we neatly tucked in a paper bag. Now they stand smart in every corner of my new house and have attracted attention of all the guests I have entertained so far. All I need to do, is replace the paper bags when they are full with new ones that comes in with the grocery.

We found a way of re-using the shabby pillow covers and the woollen garments too! I cut the sweaters, booties, caps and all the woollen garments that were discarded into small pieces. Next, I turned the pillow covers inside out, stuffed them with wool and sewed the open side firmly. My cushions were almost ready. I just had to make them more attractive. I made use of the large round and colorful show-buttons that were taken off the old sweaters and booties. I stitched them on the cushions, in groups of three, and soon my cushions looked as attractive and inviting as ever!

You too can reuse a lot of your old stuff and turn a lot of trash into cherished treasures. Look around you, put on your thinking caps and if you’re willing to get your hands dirty, you’ll soon learn to reuse and not just reject!

Ipsita Mukherjee is a freelance article writer, an ardent craft-lover and a homemaker for 12 years. Specializing in web content writing, Ipsita has written articles on a wide variety of topics for various websites.

1Stars over Germany

[1990s]

2Octoberfest1970

[Munich, West Germany]

3Black Forest Cast

[Bravura’s-deep; l970]

4A Lazy Day in Augsburg

[West Germany–1970]

5Wakening of the Mosel

[In the Valley of the Mosel/1976]

1. Stars over Germany

Ah! When ere, long I watched

Your stars reach

From east to west; now

I, as ye (saw)enmeshed in a day,

(From darkness come light?)

Your wings become one?

Come! The ancient flame waits

The exiledland, once your cast

(Homesick) all is now one Germany!…

#1176 2/6/2006

Note: Perhaps this poem is long overdue, but one can only write poetry when it is clear that it is time.

Germany, remains precious within my being, I lived there for four and half years, in the 1970s; it is a most wondrous and beautiful land, with a medieval delightful touch.

I am very proud they found a way to unite east and west, to become one Germany.

2. Octoberfest1970

O Munich, Munich! Evermore,

To hear the dancing, and bronze horns!

(Once more…)

The flavored birch beer, pleasing to thy heart!

I dream of your Octoberfest, cast;

To wake and know thy presence is

O’ so near

Thou twilight of your affect, upon thy eyes,

And thoughts, shapes my soul,

Endlessly…!

Note: the author attended the 1970 Octoberfest in Germany, it was perhaps one of the few highlights of his first visit, and stay in Germany, of which was for ten-months.

3. Black Forest Cast [Bavaria’s Deep]

Wherewith beauty is’s cast:

In the ‘Black Forest,’ of Bavaria;

Wherein, the sunlit tender sky,

Beams the light within the

Winters gleam,

Penetrating the forests white

Beauty fashionedfar and near:

Here, yeshere is where beauty’s

Cast…!

In the 1970s, the author was in the wintry snow, within the Black Forest, with a few friendswhom got stuck with their VW (several times) and felt lucky they made it out and back to Augsburg, with no frozen parts to their bodies. #1177 2/6/06

4. A Lazy Day in Augsburg [West Germany1970]

Now in the forenoon, here I lie

(No work, no place to go)

Against a big oak tree I rest:

Where still: the green grass grows.

Here! The warm blue sky

Looks down on me,

Doubtless, she’s jealous today,

But nonetheless, she doesn’t protest,

She just weaves her golden

Raysto me!

Notes: The author spent much time in Augsburg, Germany, as an American Soldier, in the l970s, and he remembers this moment from a picture he had, and gave it to his son, whom joined the Army Rangers, and likewise, sent his father a picture of him, doing the same thing (sitting back by a tree with his green fatigues on) but with a smirky-smile (Cody); Cody also went to the Octoberfest but 20-years after his father; when he was in the US Army.

5. Wakening of the Mosel (The Valley and River 1976)

Of orchards fresh and mild

I roamed the unforgotten

Mosel Valley;

How fair the wine vinegars were!

How refreshing the long-valley

Breeze!

The hum of the river and bees.

The view o’er the mountain

I bent to look…

All-innocent, with love and fate,

With memories I cannot fathom

Now

And words indiscreet!

Note: among the many places Dennis visited during his two stays in Germany, the Mosel Valley, its river and castles were among the greatest highlights. It is seldom a poet can go back to the moment to capture the event. It took Dennis 30-years to write the 12-poems he did on Vietnam, and when he wrote them, it was in less than a week. Here again, is that magical moment in his poems on Germany, 36-years ago.

See Dennis’ web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com See his new book out: poetry on Minnesota, go to http://www.bn.com or http://www.amazon.com