Drawing or Painting : repost from Lellie Loop

[Just a quick note. I, Diella, am reposting this from my other Blog Lellie Loop because I thought that this was something that you might find interesting too.]

I posit a question today. Is my art classified as drawing or painting?
I ask this question, to myself mainly, because I submit my art to a few websites and most of them ask for me to classify which it is that I am doing.

Instinctual I think, pencil crayons are not paint so it can't be a painting. Simple. But then I begin to feel troubled again as I look up the words in the dictionary.

The OED says that the definition of draw is
" [to] Produce (a picture or diagram) by making lines and marks on paper with a pencil, pen, etc.he drew a map".   

Now this doesn't suit me much. Yes initially I draw, that is I draw with an HB pencil and then I ink it with some fineliners.... but my use of pencil crayon is not to make lines on paper. In fact I work hard not to produce lines. I work in small little circles to cover an area with colour without having lines!

 So lets see what the OED says about painting.

"1Cover the surface of (something) with paint:[WITH OBJECT AND COMPLEMENT]: the ceiling was painted dark grey"

"Apply (a liquid) to a surface with a brush." 

Alright so the verb is a little tricky here. The first iteration is ambigous because I am covering the surface of the page... but not with what I would call paint. Another iteration of the verb is even worse as it requires paint to be understood as a liquid and that is certainly not my pencil crayons. So I shall look at the noun.

"1[MASS NOUN] A coloured substance which is spread over a surface and dries to leave a thin decorative or protective coating:" 

Again slightly troubling... My pencil crayons do not dry but they are spread over the surface of the pace and they do leave a thin decorative coating.

To be honest at this point I feel that whether one chooses to call my kind of art drawing or painting is totally up to personal preference as neither definition fits perfectly. However I have chosen to define mine as painting as I feel this is the better fit for me.

I hope that you found my little exposition into these terms insightful or at least thought provoking. I mean that purely in the sense that the statements are meant to provoke or stimulate thought. I do not mean that they are supposed to be shocking. Heehee.
Anyway that's enough from me for today.

Diella :)

Change of Plans

Okay so I have had a slight change of plans.

I will still be posting here with my mother... but I will be sticking more to the topic in future and less about my stuff. If you want my thoughts on things, stay tuned here. If you want to see what I get up to during the next year head on over to my new blog Lellie Loop.

Well that's about it from me for today,
Bye :)

Blogful of Beanies!

Hi...

Okay so yesterday I was looking over my posts and I noticed that I often start with "Hello again" so today it is just Hi.

Last week and part of this week I have been working on ribbed beanies for my stall in March. In total I want to have ten ribbed beanies to sell. At the moment I have made five. They actually take quite a long time to make. It is about 4 hours if I just sat down and focused really hard. But considering I take time to make tea and do some house chores and answer the phone and have lunch it lands up taking me a whole day to make one. (in case you were wondering I charge as though it were four hours. I timed it the first time and I made it without stopping.)

I am so tired of making these beanies that I am going to change to making some of the other stuff before I make the next five.
Here are some photos that my sister took for me. I even got my other half to help me model them.

Blue Beanie without PomPom

Pink Beanie with Pompom

Red Beanie with Pompom

Blue beanie without Pompom, not folded

Blue beanie without Pompom, folded

all 5 beanies, although two still need sewing up.

As you can see the beanies are quite stretchy due to the ribbed stitch. There is only one blue beanie and I can wear it and I have a small head (I choose my glasses from the children's range) and my man has a large head. He struggles to find hats that fit him and as a consequence gets sunburned on his face quite often.

I hope you enjoyed the little peak into my life,
Keep Drinking Tea,
Diella

Harfield Village Carnival 2015

Hello again lovely readers,

I am sure that you have noticed me hinting at the market I am going to attend, but I decided that it was high time that I actually gave you some more details.
Last year I went to an indoor market at Longbeach Mall and I met a lovely lady called Lucretia who was selling her crochet goods. We started chatting about our shared love for crochet and we exchanged details. Fast forward to this year. Lucretia contacted me some time in January to tell me that she was working with the Harfield Village Carnival and she wanted to know if I would be interested in having a stall.

To be honest I had not been so sure about going to markets because it is summer in South Africa and that means most days it is like 32 degrees C and even doing crochet is very hot never mind wearing it. I was also admittedly a little nervous of trying to figure out who to contact about getting a stall and how the whole process worked. So when Lucretia contacted me and sent me all the required forms I just felt like it was meant to be.

So what am I planning to sell?
Beanies, scarves, wrist warmers, bags, bracelets, milk jug covers (aka fly nets), head bands, shawls, and possibly some cushion covers if I have time.

So what happened to me complaining about the South African heat?
Well I figured that

Okay well it is only March so it is more like Autumn is coming... but since February is often the hottest month hopefully things will be better in March. Otherwise I suppose the fly nets will do well. Heehee.

Well that is it from me for today,
Keep drinking tea,
Diella

Letter Case

Hello Again,

I love all things hand crafty, not only crochet. Crochet is my passion but I do do other handy work as well. Yesterday I sewed myself a letter case! And I am going to share the process with you.

As most of you know I majored in English Literature. And during the course of my studies we of course read a little Jane Austen. So two years ago when I was at a book sale, I found Jane Austen's Sewing Box and I just had to buy it. After that I was so absorbed in my studies that I did not actually make anything from the book. Yesterday however I decided it was time to break out the sewing machine again. I am sure that these projects are supposed to be hand sewn but as I am currently preparing for a craft market and I have a lot of crochet to do I decided to save time and machine sew it.

I decided on the Letter Case partly because I already had some material that I could use and partly because I am an avid fan of writing hand written letters and posting them to my friends and family. I am not going to share the whole thing with you but I will share the basics and what I did to change it. I won't share the pattern from the book because I am sure that that would contradict the wishes of the author.

The shape is 42cm tall and 20cm wide.

Now comes my first deviation... (did I ever mention that I suck at sticking to patterns.) I was supposed to use two panels of patterned cotton and one panel of interfacing. But unfortunately I did not have any interfacing that I could use. However I did have some stiffer material. It is either a very stiff cotton, or I suspect it is some kind of linen. But I decided that it would be nice to have a different colour fabric for the inside of the case anyway. So I cut one panel of the cotton (floral), and two panels of the stiffer striped fabric.

Okidoki think that we are done with deviations? Think again. The pattern called for an extra square pocket to be sewn on. But I got out one of my usual envelopes and measured... and decided that this would make the case way too big for my liking. I wanted something that could easily stay in my handbag until I could post the letter. So I went with out the pocket.

Now I pinned my three panels together. The floral and striped facing each other and the third panel doesn't matter which way it faced. Then I got my sewing machine and sewed up the one side, round the top and down the other side. I left the bottom open. 

Now you turn the case the right way round.

This part is a little tricky. You need to fold the edges of the bottom inward to face each other. This is made slightly difficult by the middle panel. If I did it again I might have made the "interfacing" panel slightly shorter than the other two. Anyway the stripes on mine made it slightly easier to see that I had the fold relatively straight. Then I pinned it and did a hem stitch across by hand.

Then the rest is rather easy. I just folded the bottom up to make a little pocket. I checked with the flap that the proportions were to my liking. I pinned it in place in the middle not along the sides. Then I ironed the sides flat. This made it easier to take through the sewing machine. And there it was done.

Well it was done in theory. But for me I decided to cut some lace/ribbon and decorate it a little further. My mother showed me how to lay the ribbon log cabin style, apparently this is a patchwork thing. and I sewed it on with the machine again.

And here is a little picture of our tea pots... haha my mother and I drank soooo much tea yesterday that we had our own tea pots. Mine is the pink one with the blue butterfly. We also had a power cut yesterday. South Africa is starting to feel more and more like a third world country. We now have scheduled  weekly/daily power cuts depending on the stage of the electricity problem. So we had two hours yesterday where my father couldn't work and I couldn't use my sewing machine or the internet (my phone uses the home wifi) or my computer. This is a problem for my getting patterns. 

But this got me thinking. The next thing that I sew might just be a tea-cosy so that next time I will be able to have warm tea. Hehe. 

Keep drinking Tea!
Diella
XOXO

Photo quickie

This is just a quick photo of what I am doing today. :)

Keep drinking tea,
Diella

Crochet Bracelets

Hello Again,

I wanted to show you have I have been spending my time doing these days.
Since yesterday I have been focusing on making these :

The ones pictured here I am not selling because these are my sister's ones but you can see them as an example of the different shapes that I have been doing.
I have started making more because yesterday my sister went to university and she came back and told me that the bracelets had been getting a lot of compliments and that she had even given my facebook site to someone. So I figured that if people are interested I better make some more. :)

The photos were taken by my sister by the way. I love her photography.

Keep drinking tea! I am going back to my crochet and tea now. :D

Diella

Two More Days

I am going to say it again. TWO MORE DAYS!

"Two more days until what?" You may ask...

Two more days until my mommy gets home!

I cannot wait! I have missed my mother so much. I am used to seeing her all the time and chatting to her about, anything really. We even just sit together and journal. When I stayed away from home for a while I used to call her on the phone all the time. I have had some skype and whatsapp contact with her but it is just not the same.

I am a little apprehensive about Thursday as this is also the day of my first exam and it is at 8 in the morning! I am hardly functioning at that time. But it will make it even more of a treat to see my mom again when I get back home after.

Keep Drinking Tea,
Diella

NaNoWriMo

Hi Guys I hope that everything is going well for you!

To day I want to tell you about NaNoWriMo. This stands for National Novel Writing Month. Okay so I know that it says National but it is actually international and it happens every year.

NaNoWriMo is a competition which is held every year in November. The challenge is to write a 50 000 word novel in the 30 days of November. There are a few actual prizes up for grabs but the actual achievement is how proud of yourself you will be when you have completed a novel. This challenge is aimed at giving people the motivation and community to actually go ahead and write that novel they keep promising themselves that they will write.

I started doing NaNoWriMo last year but I got a little crazy and I stopped going out and stopped interacting with people so I had to stop it. But I am going to try again this year! I have a friend who is going to be doing it as well, so that sorta counts as socializing... doesn't it?
I am going to have to work extra hard because I will have to start 7 days late since my exams only end on the 7th of November. That being said I have already come up with my idea and planned somethings so that will help with the days that I have missed out on.

My sister came up with the title for me. It is called Empty Shoes and Loose Change. And! After she had read some of my ideas and everything she when ahead and photographed a front cover for me!!

   Isn't it wonderful?

I totally encourage you to do NaNoWriMo with me this year! My username is Starfire333 so you can go ahead and add me as a writing buddy!

Keep drinking tea!
Diella

P.S. I am on day four of Blogilates Beginners Calendar, still loving it but man is it tough! I can seriously feel the burn. :)

Blogilates

Hello Again;

I am so excited! My sister and I have started Blogilates together. If you have never heard of this before you should totally go and check it out.

So what is Blogilates, well it is all in the name really. Cassey Ho is a Pilates instructor (and a lot more than that too :)) and you can follow her video blogs and posts on her website www.blogilates.com. She calls her works outs "PopPilates". You can find her beginner calendar here. I am really enjoying it so far and I really like her videos. 

Before you ask, no I am not doing this to lose weight. I am actually doing this to build muscle and therefore gain weight. Also I believe that it is just healthy to exercise whether you are trying to lose weight or not. I am naturally skinny at the moment... but once I get older I may not be so lucky so I am going to prepare for that by building healthy habits now.

I hope that you are all doing well,
Keep drinking Tea,
Diella

Yarn Bombing

Hello All,

I am currently working on my second last essay, ever! But I have been reading all day and I need to have a break so I thought I would talk a little about yarn bombing.

ThankYouTree CC BY-SA 3.0

Shrewdcat - Own work

I cannot accurately remember when I first found out about yarn bombing but I have always found it very attractive. Essentially yarn bombing is the act of installing an artwork made of yarn in a public space. It is sort of like graffiti but it is generally considered attractive and it is easy to remove and therefore not considered damaging to public properly. The most common forms that I know of are crochet and knitting yarn bombs.
Here are some examples of what I am talking about:

Apparently an entire town got together and "yarn bombed" their public spaces. You can see pictures here.

And here is a blog by someone who does yarn bombing.

Now here is where I have reached a dilemma. In South Africa, and Cape Town specifically there is a lot of poverty. At night when we are driving places I often pass people who have no houses. I specifically do not say home because I feel that a home is a very personal thing and anything can be a home. But there are many people here who do not have adequate shelter. I see them outside a closed shop sheltering from the rain and wind. There are some terrible news reports, during the cold winter weeks, of people who have died due to the exposure to the cold. Living in a city like this I just feel too bad to do yarn bombing. Although I would likely get no credit for my work and likely not be able to see people appreciating my work, I feel like my time and money would be better spent in crocheting clothes and blankets for the people on the street. We also have numerous orphanages where my donations would be appreciated as well.

I would like to make it clear that I am in no way trying to criticize those people who do participate in yarn bombing, I think that it is a really beautiful art form. But I just feel that personally I would feel happier with myself if I donated my efforts elsewhere.
   
Anyway, I should be getting back to work now.
Have a good day and keep drinking tea ;)
Diella

A Jolly Chunky bag of my own

Hello all :)

Recently I have been crocheting up a storm as I have been working on new patterns for my shop, xYoopx, and also trying to build up some stock.
Although I do so enjoy making up my own patterns, there is definitely something to be said for following someone-else's pattern too. To day my latest creation was made using a pattern from Attic24. Her blog is LOVELY so you should totally go and check it out. :) The pattern is Jolly Chunky Bag.

So I went out and bought my yarn for this on Friday. I decided to use acrylic yarn as I was not sure how it was going to turn out and I didn't want to spend too much money on something I wasn't going to use. I also decided to change the colours a little-bit to suit me. I still kept the colours in the same order as Lucy, but instead of dark blue I used dark purple (my friends all know my obsession with purple), and instead of medium blue I used a lilac type colour, instead of yellow I used a light green.

I started the base on Friday evening.
On Saturday my man had a hockey tournament so I went to go an support him. For the times when he was not playing I worked on my bag. I finished all but two rows of the actually body of the bag during that time. While I was working a couple of people commented that they had not seen anyone crocheting in a long time. I am always pleased when people say crocheting instead of knitting... because I get that a lot. I also had a couple of people asking me if I sell my work, and a few people asking if I was making a beanie, they were very disappointed that it was a bag not a beanie. At home again I finished the body and started the straps.
To day I finished the straps, made the flowers and leaves and sewed it all together. It was a lovely morning/afternoon. My sister was doing some hand sewing and I was doing my crochet so we got a picnic blanket and sat outside in the sun while we worked. It really was lovely.

And here are some closeups. It was me taking photos here, not my sister, so they are not very good. I was just playing around with the manual focus as you can see. I think that the photos are a bit over exposed.

 
If you are considering using the pattern I do strongly recommend it. The instructions were easy to follow, plus she tells you how to convert between UK and US stitches. And the bag has turned out wonderfully. I really love it and I am going to be using it as my yarn project bag. Just looking at the bright stripy colours makes me excited.

I hope that you have enjoyed this post.
Keep drinking tea,
Diella

Winding up with Wool

Hello Again,

I know that I have been posting a lot recently, and I will continue to do so for the next couple of weeks, but then I shall sadly be gone again when term starts. I start my studies again on the 21st of July.

What I want to talk about today is Wool or Yarn shops. There are a couple of them available in Cape Town, my favourite one is Mamacos in Bergvliet, but yesterday I was looking for some aran yarn that was a natural blend and was not too expensive. I am making my SO a scarf and he always likes things to be at least partly natural. A quick search on the internet reviled that there are more online yarn shops in South Africa than I thought there were. The one that we have decided to try is called Craft&Yarn. I will write up a review on the site and the yarn when I receive it.

The pattern that I probably will be using is this one from Suzanne Resaul. I found it via a pinterest board.

I try not to do too much haberdashery during my holidays because my passion for it tends to spill over into the term time but I could not help myself this time. My mother came to me a few weeks ago and asked me to teach her to crochet so that she could make herself a beanie, and since that I have been asked to teach someone else to crochet. Because of this I have landed up planning lessons, writing up instructions, and crocheting samples of stitches and stitch variations. One thing naturally lead to another and I landed up offering my SO a scarf for this very cold weather we have been having.

Try to keep warm,
Keeping drinking tea,
Diella

first Thursdays

Hi All,

Last Thursday I went to an evening event called First Thursdays. The first Thursday of every month a bunch of the art galleries in Cape Town city bowl are open until 9pm for working people to be able to go and browse. It really was lovely. I went with my SO and some friends. First we went for supper at Gourmet Boerie, which is a restaurant specialising in boerewors rolls. I had the Herbiworse with Lamb sausage.  It was really yummy.

Then we walked around and looked at the art galleries.. it was really fun and I enjoyed looking at the art. Some of it was a bit ridiculous though, like the green square priced at R4,500!!

Outside one of the galleries we even saw a spray painting artist.

Keep  drinking tea,

Diella

Holiday

Hello All,

You may be wondering what I have been doing with myself this holiday. A bit of this and a bit of that really, but mainly... Diablo III. As soon as my exams were over and I could afford to lose myself to the world of computer games I ordered the expansion pack Reaper of Souls! Unfortunately the Rand had just been affected that week, I could have bought the expansion pack while I was studying but then I would never study. But the week later when I went to buy it it would cost me an extra R200! Luckily Kalahari.com had stock and if I ordered from them the price was still cheaper, only the game needed to be delivered I could not buy the keycode directly from them. So I had to wait. I was very impressed with their delivery speed. (For those not from South Africa, postal services here can be slow.) I ordered it on a Saturday, the Monday was a public holiday so I assumed that they would only post it on the Tuesday but they delivered it on the Tuesday! I finished the new act V that night.

The next day I started a Crusader. I also tried out the Adventure mode a little bit. It has been so much fun. Unfortunately I don't have many friends who play Diablo III so I have been playing on my own but I have still been having a lot of fun.

Okay so now I want to talk a little more about the actual game content and there may be some spoilers. You have been warned. ;) To see the text highlight between the following two stars.

*One of the things that I really like about the expansion is the new in game conversations between your character and your followers. For example there are times when the followers mock computer game conventions. When Myriam comments on your character as been skinny and she says that you do not take care of yourself. Lyndon replies, that he has never seen you eat. I really liked this because I have commonly heard it joked about that you never have to eat or sleep or go to the toilet in these kinds of games. I am not saying that you should, it would just be tedious, but it was funny. 

Another thing that I liked is that the Crusader's responses in conversations tend to be more sarcastic and imply that the player has already played the game and knows what is coming. I found this enjoyable since playing the same acts repeatedly even on different difficulties can get tedious. For example when you find Tyrael is the "star", Tyrael says that he remembers falling and the Crusader responds "Through several floors at least." I found that amusing too.

I really liked Act 5, it lengthened the game a little and although it is quite short the excitement about the game just encouraged me to go and try the Adventure mode. I have not played that much Adventure mode but so far it has been fun. I like that you can just teleport to the different parts of the map, it would be annoying if you had to run all the way there every time even though you weren't playing the campaign. 

I have not got enough Blood shards to really know how the vender works but the two items I have bought have been useless so I need to play around with that a little bit more.*

I will still be playing a lot this holiday so I will post more about Diablo III later in the week as I discover more and play more.

I hope that you enjoyed this post,
Keep drinking tea,
Diella

Baking Butter Biscuits

Baking butter biscuits today! I really love baking but I just don't seem to have time to bake during the term.

These biscuits are lovely and perfect with tea.

here is the recipe:

250g butter
250ml sugar
5ml vanilla essence
3 eggs
250ml cornflour
750ml flour
10ml baking powder
2ml salt

preheat oven to 190°c
Cream the butter and sugar.
Add vanilla essence and eggs.
Sift cornflour, flour, salt and baking powder into the mixture and cut in.
Roll out to 3mm thickness and cut into shapes.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.

This recipe makes roughly 120 biscuits depending in how thick you make them.

Keep drinking tea,
Diella

What's next

Hi all,

I really love writing. It is something which I enjoy so much that it motivated me to start this blog with my mother.

I have so many things that I want to blog about here. I want to do some posts on my art, and how my mother has inspired me and encouraged me as an artist and just as a creative person in general. And I want to do some posts on some of the computer games that I play and how I have experienced them. I may do a little walk through of my favourite one at the moment, Guild Wars 2. My mother and I have even been asked to do a post about tattoos!

But. Unfortunately this is probably the last you'll be hearing from me until sometime in June. I am nearing my busiest time with my studies and then I go into exam period. Thankfully once that is done I will have LOADS of time to blog and to play Guild Wars. :D

Have fun doing what every you do,
Keep positive,
And keep drinking tea ;)

Diella
Xxx

Diella on Septum piercings

Captive bead ring

Hello again,

Diella here to talk about septum piercings.

This piercing I got when I was 20 years old. This is a funny one, it is actually rather conservative for me but it does seem to get me a lot of attention. Seriously, I can't tell you how many times random people have come up to me in the street or on the bus and asked me questions about it. Two of the most common ones are, "Did it hurt." (duh! All piercings hurt to some extent) and, "Can you still blow your nose with that thing?". (Erm... yes. I can. easily.)

So one day I asked Sheep how he would feel if I got a nose ring. Sheep said that he didn't mind but he would prefer a septum ring. I was aghast, Sheep is usually quite conservative and he is always the one dissuading me from doing something "crazy". And he was happy with a septum ring?! But then when he explained his reasons to me they started to make a lot of sense.

Horseshoe ring

With a horse shoe ring, if you suddenly find yourself in a situation where it was better that you did not have facial piercing, you can just quickly flip it up. These situations for me include meeting friends' grandparents, meeting little children (it seems to freak out my year old cousin for some reason) and that sort of thing. The other advantage is that if you decide to take it out... there is no scar or hole left visible. So this is why I think of it as a conservative piercing rather than a radical one.

Getting pierced. Oh my goodness gracious me. It hurt. A LOT. Like so much so that it is by far the most painful piercing that I have ever had and if it fell out and closed I would NOT do it again. Don't get me wrong I love the piercing it is so pretty, but way too sore. Retrospectively I think that my piercing was done through the cartilage not through the sweet spot, and this could be why it was so painful. It also took 14 months to heal, which is like a personal record for me, if you have read my other posts on piercings you'll know that I tend to heal fast.
On the day I was walking around the mall with Sheep before I went home and I didn't know what to do with myself it was so sore. Sheep kept saying that he thought it was pierced skew (actually my skin had swollen unevenly so it looked skew but a week or so later it went straight again)... I told him that if he touched my face I would kill him. So that was probably an exaggerated threat on my part but seriously I was not in the mood to be messed with.
The first few days were agony. In fact it was about 2 weeks where I was in incredible pain. Luckily I had not yet started university for the year so I did not miss anything. The day after I got it pierced my family and I went to go and see the second Sherlock Holmes movie, and I do not remember a thing. (That reminds me I should probably rewatch it.) Anyway it was just so sore that I could not concentrate on anything. I felt like I was sick. Suddenly I had realised how connected my nose/septum was to everything else. Here is a list of a bunch of things I remember hurting my nose:
Moving my eyebrows, talking, smiling, frowning, laughing, coughing... pretty much everything.

Then after about 2 weeks it started to calm down. It was sill sore if I moved my nose or bumped it but there wasn't the constant pain anymore. But, with healing comes itching. So I would wake up in the middle of the night in agony because I had scratched my nose in my sleep. *sigh* After about a month or two my nose was pretty much painless unless I applied direct pressure to the tip. Although it was only 4 or 5 months before I could flip up my piercing into my nose. Then after about 5 or 6 months I needed to have my wisdom teeth taken out. So I needed to change all my jewelry for bioplast or just take them out, if they were old piercings. Ouch ouch ouch. Changing my septum piercing hurt more than my wisdom operation! (Oh, I can actually do a post on my operation if people want. Comment below.)
Then it was only after 14 months, as I said before, that my nose did not hurt when I applied direct pressure to the tip.
Now it is completely healed. It doesn't hurt, and changing the jewelry is a breeze. :)

Here are some septum jewelry pieces which I love and totally want to buy when I have more money.  

Not my photo, click on photo to follow link

Not my photo, click on photo to follow link

Anyway. That is it from me. I hope that you enjoyed this post and found it informative.
Keep drinking tea!
Diella

Xxx

To be updated/ future piercing posts:

Diella on Piercings
Morag on Piercings
General piercing guide
Lobe and Cartilage piercings
Navel Piercing
Septum Piercing  (you are here)

Diella's general guide to piercings

Hello there,

Diella here with a general guide to piercings.
Please note that I am not a professional piercer so if your piercer or doctor tells you something different rather listen to them. This is just an account of what I do to care for my piercings and what has worked for me. I feel that I am able to write this because I have 12 piercings and I have been caring for my piercings since I was at least 11 although I can't actually remember when I got my first earrings. My second were at 11 years old.

I would also like to note that I seem to heal really quickly! I first noticed this when I went for a 2 month checkup on my navel piercing and they didn't want to believe me that it was only 2 months old. Then also again when I got my second cartilage piercing I realized that it was healing quicker than they are usually said to heal. So if you want to follow my care strategies then you may need to do certain steps for longer than I did. Having so many piercings means that I can usually use my judgement and tell what I need to do at certain stages. If you have any questions or concerns I strongly suggest that you contact your piercer or health care professional. I can't help you to deal with infections because I have never had an infection in any of my piercings!

Getting your piercing
As I said in my first piercing post, I suggest that you think long and hard about whether you do want the piercing and then do lots of research into it. I always get my piercings for me. I don't care if other people like them or not, although if they do like them it is an added bonus. But first and foremost I get my piercings for ME. The sorts if things that I research before getting a piercing is:
1. Any complications that I might expect.
2. How to look after the piercing, some piercings need special treatment.
3. How sore I can expect it to be.
4. What sort of jewelry I can wear once it is healed, and what it should be pierced with.
5. What the ideal location for that piercing is.
6. What the expected healing time usually is.
7. How likely rejection or infection is.
(You could totally ask other questions, these are just the questions that I usually ask)

Then the piercer. In the beginning I spoke to loads of my friends who had piercings to find out where they went to get their piercings done. I wanted a reputable place that had experienced/trained piercers, that adhered to strict hygiene standards ect. Yes, sometimes going to a reputable place means that you will pay a lot more than at another place, but I would rather pay more than risk an infection or an incorrectly done piercing.

So now I don't need to find a place because I have two good places in my city which I trust. (Wildfire and Body Architects)

When I have done my research and I have decided that I do want the piercing I go and speak to one of my piercers. Often when I google articles, they are written by people who have got the piercing. So it can be good to go and ask the person who is giving the piercing, I ask the same 7 questions as I researched.    

When I go and get pierced I always like to have a friend with me for moral support. Often for hygiene reasons the piercer won't allow your friend into the actual piercing room but they will be there for you afterwards. It can be really horrible if you are in pain and then you have to travel home on your own! I don't like to take painkillers before my piercing. I am not entirely sure why or if it is true but I have heard that it is not good to. I know that in some cases some painkillers can thin your blood and then if you bleed when they pierce you then you can bleed more than usual. A couple of hours after though, if I am not bleeding and I am in considerable pain I do sometimes time an anti-inflammatory.

General piercing afterwards:

• Sleeping on it IS going to hurt so I would advise against it. It hurts... and probably isn't that good for the piercing anyway. 
• DON'T touch / fiddle with it. If you do need to touch it, for goodness sake wash your hands. I am not certain but I am pretty sure that most infections come from dirty hands touching.
• This is kinda gross but it needs to be said. Don't get any foreign bodily fluids on it, so if you get a tongue ring... don't kiss your significant other... or what ever. 
• Try not to get it hooked on things or bump it on things.
• I prefer to shower rather than bath because I feel that when bathing you are letting your piercing sit in dirty water.
• I don't swim for a couple of months while the piercing is new. 

Cleaning

First note. When I was young and first got piercings I was always encouraged to use surgical spirits on my piercings. Now days they seem to say that this is very bad, so now I only use Saline Solution/ Salt water. I use this even for ear piercings.

Second note: I have never had infection so I am not sure what that looks like. But crusties in my experience, can vary. They can be clear, yellowish, slightly green when dry. But they never look like pus, to me. They are usually clearish not cloudy. Obviously when they are new they might have a little blood in them. 

First two weeks... okay this period may be longer or shorter depending on your healing time. Everyone is probably different. The only piercing that this period was much longer for me was for my septum, which for some reason took a really long time to heal.

1. I get all my things ready in a clean bathroom and then wash my hands so that everything is clean! I have some Saline Solution(SS), a little tub or shot glass, some earbuds, and some fresh clean water.
2. I put the fresh SS in the shot glass and put that on my piercing for about 5 minutes. For my septum I made a little cup of SS and lent forwards with my nose in it. 
3. After about 5 minuets when all the crusties/scabs are soft I take an earbud (q-tip) and dip it into the fesh SS. Then I take my clean fingers and flatten the tip slightly.
4. Then I gently wipe away all the softened crusties/scabs.
5. Because SS tends to dry out my skin I rinse off my piercing with fresh clean water. 

After about 2 weeks:

At this stage my piercing is not usually crusty at all and there is never blood on mine. Also incidentally at this stage my piercing usually don't hurt unless it is bumped or something. So I usually have a shower and then when anything that might be there is all softened I do steps 3-5 from above. As I said usually there is nothing there but I just wipe the surface of the piercing with the SS anyway because I know it is the right thing to do and I don't want infections.
I usually continue this until the expected healing time is up... or until the piercing doesn't hurt at all even when bumped.  

Everyday cleaning:

You might have noticed that I don't move around my new piercings. I follow the school of thought that if there is any bacteria or scabs the you will just be pushing that into the wound by moving the jewelry. Also if there are any scabs that you have not managed to soften, moving the piercing could tear the skin and increase your chance of infection/ slow healing.

BUT when my piercings are all healed up and good then when ever I am in the shower I put a tiny bit of mild soap  (lathered up) on on my piercings and move them around a bit, then I rinse then/ move them under the water. This is because the dead skin cells build up and can become smelly and just unclean. Yes I do this to ALL my piercings, even my lobe piercings. I know many people don't clean their piercings. 

Aaaand I think that that is all that I have to say on general piercing care. If you think that I have left something out please feel free to leave a comment below or to contact me and I will either do a new post or answer your question in a comment as best as I can.

And again I want to warn you that I am not a professional and that my way of doing things may be though incorrect by some people, this is just the way that I do it and it has worked for me for over 12 years.

Keep drinking tea!
Diella

Xxx
  
To be updated/ future piercing posts:

Diella on Piercings
Morag on Piercings 
General piercing guide (You are here)
Lobe and Cartilage piercings
Navel Piercing
Septum Piercing 

Diella on piercings

Hello again, Diella here.

Today I am going to be giving you my opinion on piercings. Obviously from my first post you can tell that I am not against piercings/body modification.

I feel that piercings, if well thought through, can be a valuable addition to one's body. But I also feel that piercings do need to be thought through and researched before you go out and get one. I did a few silly things when I was younger that I did not really think through. Thankfully I do not regret any of them but I am very lucky that that is so. Since I was 18 I have not got any piercings that I have not spent a lot of time thinking about and researching. I usually wait a year or two before getting a piercing so that I know that I really do want it. Some of my piercings I have waited over 3 years for to be sure that I want them.  Research is also important because some piercings can have complications. For example there is a risk with lip piercings that they can chip at your tooth enamel, this can lead to dental problems, or just a chance that your medical aid will not want to pay for your dental care. These are all things to keep in mind.

The piercings that I have are: 3 lobe piercings in each ear, one cartilage piercing in each ear, septum piercing and a navel piercing... I also have one or two more personal piercings which I got just for me as a private part of my journey in life which I will not be sharing much information on.  
I did not get any of my more esoteric piercings until I was 18. I always just had my ear piercings before that. I feel that this was a good way for me to do this, I think that this was also partly encouraged by my mother. To be honest I feel that usually people do not really know what they want to do for the rest of their lives until they are out of school for sometime. Even sometimes longer than that. Only at 22 can I say that I have a reasonably sure idea of what I want to do with myself. Why does all this matter? Because some piercings can limit your job opportunities.

If I had children I would allow/encourage them to get ear lobe piercings if they wanted. Even while they were at school, since most schools allow a certain number of lobe piercings. Then I would probably encourage them to wait until they had left school and had more clue of what they wanted to do in the future, for them to get more esoteric piercings which are visible. Obviously things like navel piercings are a little different because if you wanted to do a job which did not allow many piercings... you probably would not be allowed to expose your navel either.

Other than that, I love piercings. I think that they are beautiful and that they can really help you to enjoy your body. I know numerous people, including myself that have pierced parts of their bodies which they had trouble accepting and now feel happier with that part of their body.

Other piercings that I would get?
I love facial piercings like lip piercings, cheek piercings and nose piercings (not septum, I have one already)... BUT Sheep is not keen on facial piercings, and I have friends who have taken theirs out and the holes have not closed. That is not something that I am ready to deal with yet. Maybe in the future.
Ear tunnels/stretching/plugs I think that these are super beautiful but I don't now what size I would go up to. I also need to do more research into how much your ears can shrink back when you remove them. Oh, and again Sheep is not keen.
Dermals.... nope. Unless piercing technology changes a lot, at the moment they seem to be prone to infections, not healing and loads of rejections. Too much trouble for a piercing in my oppinion.
Genital... not considering it at this stage
Tragus... I am concerned to what extent this piercing will affect my hearing. But they are really pretty.
Tongue. No. My friend took hers out because the cleaning was too much admin, and she kept swallowing the balls so she needed spare ones with her all the time.
Eyebrow. No. I like them on men. I don't want to get one myself.
Conch... Don't know yet.
Web or Smilie. Maybe. I will have to see how much they can affect your teeth.  

That is it from me on piercings for today. :) If you have any questions please feel free to ask me in the comments down below or email me and I will try and get back to you/ write a post on it. My email address in on the right.

Keep drinking tea!
Diella

Xxx

To be updated/ future piercing posts:

Diella on Piercings (You are here)
Morag on Piercings 
General piercing guide
Lobe and Cartilage piercings
Navel Piercing
Septum Piercing