Needletherapy In Miniature Tutorials and New Giveaway!

Hello World and congratulations with the 1st of November!

If you noticed, I have a new page on my blog. It is called "Needletherapy in Miniature". I am opening a series of tutorials in needlework in miniature by the request of many of my followers.

TUTORIALS

NEEDLETHERAPY IN MINIATURE

Part 1. Where To Start With?

During last 3 years of my Bloggerland experience I met so many people all over the world with the amazing personality and the generous ability to share their talent and knowledge with the rest of the world. I made so many wonderful friends and the range of the countries is like the rainbow – limitless: Russia, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Australia, Italy, Spain, USA, New Zealand, Turkey, France, Mexico, and many, many others…

During last year I've been asked to put together a Tutorial about the Needlework in miniature. In spite of the fact, that the Internet is full of needlework tutorials, after some hesitation and doubts, I finally decided to do it. I thought that if you stumbled upon my blog, that is fully devoted to the Needlework in miniature, you might want to try your hand in needlepoint and some other types of needlework the tips and hints of which I am planning to share with you.

Yes, please, keep in mind, that the goal of publishing these Tutorials is not teaching you “how-to”, I am only sharing the knowledge of what I've accumulated during last years.

First of all, if you are a beginner and decided to learn needlepoint in miniature, remember:

IF YOU CAN HOLD A NEEDLE, YOU CAN DO NEEDLEPOINT IN ANY SCALE!

Don’t be discouraged by the small scale, tons of work or amount of time you are going to spend on your little project, but remember, your success depends on 4 P’s:

PRACTICE - PERCISTANCE - PATIENCE – PERFECTION

Practice – try to devote at least 15-30 minutes of your time to the needlework daily.

Persistence – do you remember the Ovid’s saying “Gutta cavat lapidem” that means "A drop hollows out the stone"?

Patience - Little strokes fell great oaks and Rome was not build in a day! Keep stitching!

Perfection – What I am trying to say here is that No one is perfect… that’s why pencils have erasers, BUT “When you aim for perfection, you discover it’s a moving target” (George Fisher)

Another thing to take to the consideration is that it doesn't matter how long you spend on stitching remember to take care of your health. The reason behind is that needlework in 1/12th scale requires sitting and holding the arms in the same position for a long period of time; it also takes a lot of pressure on your eyes. After 15-20 minutes of stitching you will feel your eyes being tired and the back and arms need some stretching. Put your stitching aside, get up and do them. Don't laugh! It is very important!

Exercises for the fingers, wrists and arms:

1. Bend Your Fingers. Relax your hand. Begin by keeping your fingers straight and right next to each other. Gently bend the middle and end joints of all four fingers and keep your wrist and knuckles straight. Slowly move your fingers so they're straight again. Repeat this exercise with your other hand.

2. Make a fist. Begin with your fingers straight and apart from each other. Gently make a loose fist and wrap your thumb around your fingers. Don't squeeze your fingers too tightly together. Slowly return your fingers to their original position. Repeat and do this exercise with your other hand.

3. Wrist rotation. Hold a medium size can or light free weight in one hand. With your arm extended straight out in front of you and your palm facing down, using just the strength of your wrist, rotate the can 180 degrees so your wrist faces to your side.

4. Shoulder rotation. Stand straight with both arms extended out toward your sides. Start making clockwise--from front to back--circles with both arms. Repeat this movement for 20 seconds and rotate both of your arms counterclockwise--from back to front.

Find more exercises for fingers, wrists and arms here:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/108256-exercises-strengthen-arm-fingers-/#ixzz2Azl3eCqd

Now let’s talk about the exercises for your beautiful eyes.

My favorite complex of the exercises is by Mirzikarim Norbekov, Uzbek by origin, Russian self-healing teacher, that he describes in his book “The Experience of a Fool Who Had An Epiphany About How to Get Rid of His Glasses”. I highly recommend to read it.

If you are interested, you can spend more time on researching about Grunwald Eyebody Method and Emotional Freedom Technique.

I am not affiliate to any of these programs, but my personal preference is the complex of the exercises by M. Norbekov. You can read more about him here:
www.norbekov.com

http://www.norbekov-europe.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=28

Start with these simple exercises:

Before to do any exercises, please, remove the glasses or contacts.

1. Blinking.
For the next 2 minutes blink every 3-4 seconds. After you are done blinking each 3-4 seconds during 2 minutes, blink for 30 seconds at a time for 2 minutes.

2. Palming is a way to relax your eyes and to relieve the stress around them.
- Make yourself comfortable
- Take a couple of deep breathes.
- Place your two hands over your eyes with the cup of your palm covering your eyes, your fingers on your forehead and the heel of your hand will rest on your cheekbone. Make sure you can blink freely and you are not putting too much pressure on your eyes. Hold it for 2 minutes. You can repeat it for several times.

3. The sign of бесконечности.
Imagine number 8 about 10 feet in front of you. Turn it on its side. Trace the figure of 8 with your eyes slowly, try not to move your head. You use only the eyes’ muscles. Do it in one way, then in opposite directions for a few minutes.

4. Zooming.
Stand in a place where there is a far way spot and zoom your eyes instead of squinting. You have to do it every day at 3 times/a day for 20-30 min.

5. And last but not least, my favorite of all: 3D dimension images.
I JUST LOVE THEM!

Finally, to encourage you I offer a Giveaway.

Here are you will find 3 images in 3D. Please, let me know what you see deep inside of each of them. Click on each image to enlarge.

1. Image # 1.

2. Image # 2.

3. Image # 3.

First person, who sends me a correct answer, will get a kit of my new design to stitch the screen for a 1/12th Square Pole Screen as a prize. No images - surprise, :)))!

The kit includes: framed silk gauze with a needle, floss, square pole screen that you need to put together with the instructions, chart in color symbols, directions.

Sorry for a long post today, but I hope you found this information useful and had fun!

Have a great weekend,
Natalia