Sunday, February 02, 2014

Creativity Takes on Different Forms



This an actual view of my temple at night, I decided to add vines and change some minor things with the side structure.  I must admit I really love the way it turned out.

For those of you that play Minecraft, I mined all the ore and such and everything is legit.  I spent hours in the Nether playing tennis with Ghasts mining Nether Quartz crystals.  I spent hours gathering materials up to trade with villagers for the Emeralds, and I still have a few to go as well as one diamond ore block.  But this is the way I chose to do it.

Everyone has rules that they play by and that is the great thing about Minecraft; you play the way you want to.  Each world I have played in has had different rules that I have adhered to.  In the Temple world everything I build, I gather myself.  I don't use Creative or spawn things in.

Each project takes resources and I must think about the impact of my taking of those resources on the world around me. When wood is harvested, seedlings must be replanted for a new forest to grow.  When ores are depleted, they are gone.

The Emeralds in the Temple I get by trading with Villagers but I still needed to harvest sugar cane, make paper, kill Zombies, shear sheep and kill Spiders to be able to make these trades.  I know that I am still quite a few short in the picture, but this is a work in progress.

This temple has truly taken a lot of planning.  I know it wasn't really huge but if you consider that each Chiseled Quartz Block takes 4 pieces of Nether Quartz to make a Block of Quartz.  You then take  3 Blocks of Quartz and create a Quartz Slab (you get 6 of these which is nice).  You then take 2 Quartz Slabs to make 1 Chiseled Quartz Block.  That my friends, is a ton of Nether Quartz.

I really enjoy the satisfaction that comes with each new area I complete or resource I am able to gather. Sometimes it is the simple things which bring the most profound pleasure.





In my vision, this temple area has always had a giant spirit tree so this is my next project.  I have chosen spruce wood since I like the look of it, though I will not be making a spruce tree because I wanted something with branches.  I took the temple picture standing on the top of the trunk portion of my spirit tree.  And the above picture is only a work-in-progress shot of the tree.  I still need to work on the inner branches.  I added a few leaves to flush out where the branches should be to give loft to the structure.

Building this tree is a challenge because it is so tall.  I hollowed out the middle and put Glowstone up the center to keep out undesirables.  I put vines down the sides of the middle so I can climb up there and get to my branches.

Everything is slow patient work since I am up there at cloud level and it is a long way to fall.  Each branch is built out by sneaking and peeking over the edge of the previous block.  Somewhere in this project I lost my fear of heights and started enjoying the view.  It really is beautiful up here.  Later on, I will be able to climb to the cloud level and mediate up here.  I'm putting in a hidden door that vines will cover the entrance on the outside of the tree.  I really love using vines since I am right by a swamp Biome and they grow on the trees anyway.

The wood for this project was not really an issue.  I gathered enough saplings to plant 8 2X2 Spruce trees. These trees practically hit cloud level themselves and each was just a bit different from its neighbor. These trees provided me with more than enough wood and I used shears to get all of their leaves as well.  Being four blocks they were easy to stair-step up, which made harvesting the wood easy.

This project teaches me patience; there is a time to gather and a time to build.  There are things that will need to be changed and things that I will like right away.  Ideas need to be flexible so that they can be seen from all views and improved upon as new sparks of imagination take place.  This tree may take me months, weeks or days depending on the fluidity of my building.  The time that it takes is not important as long as the finished project gives me joy.



Here is a project that is giving me joy, the Hue Shift Afghan.  Last week we took a pic of our blankets side by side to show how different our blocks are.  The jewel tones in my sister's blanket are rich and deep and my block is almost like shades of fire or a sunset.  They are both gorgeous in their own right.  Each week a new layer is formed in our squares and slowly we are creating a blanket; the journey is a delight and every week adds a new dance of color in our squares.



Here is this week's block layer; 1 layer to go until square #1 is done!

Happy crafting in whatever you choose to create,
Ruinwen
:)


No comments: