Simple Talismon and Lamen Construction
This page contains some simple, effective and aethestically pleasing talimons, lamens, and penticles depening on what you want.
Base
- Go to your pantry or cuboard and look for light cardboard. The best example are cereal boxes. Take them out, since they are the basis of the item.
- Carefully take the box apart at the edges so you get the most surface area.
- Now go to your computer--which you have since you are reading this--and design or construct the talismon with your desired graphics program e.g. MS Paint, Photoshop. Remeber that 72 pixels is 1 inch.
- Print out the talismon. For those without color printers, make sure you design the talismon appropriately i.e. like a coloring book. (Converting an image to Greyscale and Posterizing works pretty well.)
- Paste the printed talismon on the cardboard. Personally I prefer using opaque paper and pasting it on the printed (out)side of the cardboard, leaving a neutral grey or brown on the back.
- When dry cut out the talismon.
Lamen
- Take a string and cut it to an appropriate length. Ideally it should be long so that the lamen rests right on the breast bone or solar plexus.
- Tie the ends together and trim the fringe. A square knot should be good enough.
- Take a small paper clip and loop it on the string.
- Now to make lamen, just take the base and wedge it on the paper clip, exachanging the base as needed.
A lamen cord can be more elaborate if a friendship braclet is used instead. All that's needed is some embrodiiery floss. See this for the basics of starting and ending.
3 Strand Braid a.k.a. Hair Braid
| This required three strands. | 1 2 3 |
| Take the right most strand and place it over and between the other two. | 2 1 3 |
| Take the left most strand and place it over and between the other two. | 2 3 1 |
| Pull the strands apart so that the braid goes up to the top and tightens. |
| Repeat until done. |
4 Strand Braid
| This required four strands. | 1 23 4 |
| Take the right most strand and pull it under the middle two. | 23 1 4 |
| Now take the same strand is pull it over and to the middle of the two you just went under. | 2 1 3 4 |
| Now repeat with the other side, so under. | 2 4 13 |
| And over. | 2 1 4 3 |
| Pull the strands apart so that the braid goes up to the top and tightens. |
| Repeat until done. |
| If you start with this pattern you get a spiral like a candy cane. | 1 2 3 4 |
| If you start with this pattern you get a more checked "piller". | 1 2 3 4 |
Miscelanous Tips
- It's always good to have a black permanet marker, glue stick, and sharp scissors on hand.
- Learn to use a white-out pen. It's really great to drawn on black.
- Draw a design on colored construction paper with a white-out pen and color it in with marker if you suck at computer graphics or do not want to mess with color printing.
- Mix white glue with a little bit of water to make it easy to paint with.
- Glitter is not just for kindergarden.
- Never underestimate simplicity.
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Last updated on 03-Feb-2006 11:04 AM