Transcripts
1. Introduction: Mindful living is an adventure
and it's all inclusive. So it doesn't matter
what your background is, your hobbies or interests, or your career
wherever that may be. Mindfulness does not have to be limited to any of those things. In this course, I invite you
to explore how to integrate the skill of mindfulness in your own Do It
Yourself projects. But in particular,
for this course on creative shelf design
and construction. Hi, I'm Arielle. And over the last 30 years I've learned how to
integrate the skill of mindfulness into every
activity in life. My arts and crafts, photography, making
tea, doing laundry, and also in personal and
professional relationships today for guidance and
self-realization and meditation. So for those of you who
choose to join in on this adventure and hopefully their future adventures to come. There is the possibility
of discovering that life itself can be an
enjoyable meditation. By the end of this course, not only will you
be able to build his shelf that reflects your
own designer's aesthetic. But you'll also be equipped
with a few months old techniques that you can
apply to any activity. First, we'll take a
look at our toolkit. These are the materials
and tools that I'll be using to build the
shelf that I've designed. And of course, they may vary
depending on your needs. And lessons four through six, we'll dive into
the design process and I'll share a bit
about my inspiration, the concepts of form and
function, and color selection. And lessons a through ten, you'll receive a short
introduction to mindfulness and begin prepping the materials and constructing the shelves. During the preparation
and construction phase, I'll point out mindful moments. These are brief moments that are opportunities
for self-inquiry. I'll present you with a
question for contemplation, along with a few
tips on how to tune in and flow mindfully
with your work. This course is geared towards beginners and for those
who do have a little bit of experience with DIY
projects and mixed media art. With that being said, that the adventure begin.
2. Our Class Project: Our class project is
a call to action to be creative and
mindfully of interests. The project consists
of two parts. Part one is on
creative shelf design, which can be completed
after lesson for and part two is on mindful construction to be completed at the
end of the course. In part one for
creative shelf design. This consists of tapping into your own inspiration and
making it a bit more concrete, all while applying the
concepts of form and function and color selection. For this, you'll need to
submit a rough sketch of your design and share
how you came up with it. In the project description, I've included a few
questions to keep in mind to help
you along the way. And even though I'd be
honored if you were to create the design
that I came up with, it's definitely
not a requirement. You have the freedom to create whatever
resonates with you. For part two on
mindful construction, it's simply the opportunity to apply the techniques
that you've learned and directly
experienced mindfulness in your building process. It's less about perfect
craftsmanship and more about enjoying the
building process and sharing your experience. For this, you'll need
to post a photo of your finished project along with a short description
of your experience. I encourage you to complete
both parts of the project, but feel free to
complete part one on creative shelf
design and then return to part two on mindful construction
at a later time. It's important that you feel
comfortable and relaxed in order to apply the
mindful techniques that are covered in the course. And again, this is
for you to enjoy. So there's no need to stress or worry about getting
everything just right. In the next lesson,
we'll take a look at our toolkit for
constructing a shelf. See you there.
3. Our Toolkit: Welcome to the course on
mindful do it yourself. We're creative, shelf
design and construction. Let's begin by
assessing the tools and materials will be using
for today's design. Now keep in mind that
these things can vary depending on a
number of factors, including the type of material you're using
for your shelf. And most importantly,
the kind of wall that you plan on
attaching yourself to, many are attaching the
shelf to dry wall. I'll actually be attaching
mine to concrete. I'm not even going to
begin to embarrass myself in trying to
show you that process. I'll save that for another time. But nevertheless, it's important to keep these things in mind when picking out your materials
and designing your shelf. Let's dive right in. First
I have a fine point marker. You can use a pin, a small
bottle of acrylic paint, paint brush, measuring tape, sandpaper, and a small
screwdriver or drill. I'll actually be using both. But again, it depends on
the type of material, the shelf material
that you'll be using. And since I'm working
with both wood and metal and attaching
it to concrete. I'll be using both the
screwdriver and the drill. Lastly, is a epoxy. Now this is totally optional, just depends on if
you'd like to add some additional reinforcement to the parts that you'll be
attaching to your shelf. Next, we have the shelf itself, which consists of
a 20 centimeter by 80 centimeter wooden board, about a centimeter and a half, a little bit more than a
centimeter and a half. Thickness of wood. I have to 1.5 centimeters screws to three and
a quarter screws. These are a little bit
longer because once again, I'll be attaching at time
two concrete and then the screws will be to
attach the plumbing parts, the metal to the
wooden board itself. For stainless steel washers to 90 degree elbows. Again, these are plumbing parts for ten centimeter long pipe joints. And in the plumbing industry, these are called nipples. I'll leave it at that. Then we have 4.5 couplings. Let's take a moment
to see all the parts as they're displayed
on the board. And up next we'll get into the design process
mainly on inspiration.
4. Design Process - Inspiration: The main focus of
today's lesson is on inspiration within
the design process. I figured now's a
good time for me to share with you a bit about my inspiration and what
inspired me to create this particular design of the shelf that we'll
be building together. So our recently relocated
just a few blocks away from the Mediterranean
coast is beautiful. Seeing the ships come
in dark and depart. And when I think of the vibe, the emotion that's evoked within me when I'm looking at the C is, well first I find the color
blue to be very comforting. And it's been that way
since I was a child. But also the flow of change, how the water comes and goes with a tie,
the changing tide. And really the way that the Earth adapts to the
changing of the tides. I could just go
on and on and on. It gets a little bit
philosophical and abstract. So I'll try to keep it
somewhere concrete. But these are just
a few of the things that really inspire me. It's the movement,
it's the flow, the overall vibe, the colors, and the elements
of the outdoors. And so when it comes to what inspired this
particular design in moving into this studio and wanting to go along
with the theme of, or the vibe of the color blue
and being close to the sea. Of course, I had
to choose a blue. There'll be suitable
for the indoor space. I went onto Google and did a
few minutes of research on Grecian architecture and
Mediterranean interior design. Now both of these also speak to me very much because I find that the union between the indoor and the outdoor space is really
aesthetically pleasing. Bringing in plants, bringing nature in to the indoor space. And not only the
placement of the plants, but also the color
and how it can blend in with the rest
of the environment. And also the union of different elements
like wood and metal. Now, wooden metal putting these two things together is something that I'm
also drawn to, experimented with this before. And mixed media art and some of the art creations that I've
come up with over the years. And so one thing that I would recommend when it
comes to tapping into your inspiration
is that before going in looking on IG
Pinterest or Google, just to sit silently. And it's always helpful
to close the eyes that allows all of
the sensors to kind of turn inwards and access the imagination with
a little bit more precision. But to sit with yourself, close your eyes and
just contemplate, think, Okay, so
what, what really, what's RAS, me, what speaks
to me in terms of color, which we're gonna get to
color in another lesson, but it doesn't help
to visualize that. Now, when you're looking
for your inspiration, also, think of the vibe
that you would like the shelf to give in terms of not only exactly where you're gonna
be placing it, but how it will impact the vibe of the
rest of your space. That's also very important
because you want everything to flow nicely together and
have a sense of cohesion. Also, take a moment
to assess, okay, When I think of what inspires me is that nature and how
can I incorporate nature? Is it the animals? Is that the sky,
the sea, clouds? Is it music? Whatever it may be. Try to visualize. Or if you can't
visualize and imagine just to contemplate silently, what is it exactly? Pinpoint, what is
it exactly within each of these things
that really catch my attention is that the
lighting is the way that the light is absorbed on whatever object
you have in mind. Is it the texture, the form, the color is that the
weight is at the depth. Is it a sense of richness? Is it a sense of simplicity? Minimalists are maximalist. For myself, I've actually been exploring minimalism
quite a bit over the last few years
and even more so after relocating this
beautiful location, I wanted to make sure
that whatever I'm designing will flow nicely with the minimalists aesthetic that I've attempted to create here. Now, you may notice that there's placed strategically
throughout the apartment. And the art is very bright
and vivid in its color. But even some would say, Okay, well look, this is
a little bit too much for a minimalist. I didn't say it was
an expert minimalist. It's just something
that I that I definitely vibe with and then
I wanted to incorporate. But in any event, when it comes to this
particular design, I thought of how to incorporate the union of wood and metal. How to, of course, stage through to the
Greek color theme or the Mediterranean
color theme. And my favorite
color, which is blue. And I thought of a way to add a little bit
of ***** to it, you know, kinda make it
rough around the edges. No pun intended since we're
dealing with sharp edges. So I thought of incorporating the element of water by
using plumbing parts. So there's so many
different ways that you can come up with. Just creative usage of materials that you
normally wouldn't find exposed on the walls
of a home indoors at least. And just be adventurous with it. Allow yourself to be open and free to the wide range of
possibilities when it comes to working with different
materials and then creating a beautiful marriage
between what you have in your mind and
what you see with your eyes, but also something that
really resonates with exactly your vibe and what
you're wanting to create. In the next lesson,
we'll continue along with the design process and we'll dive a little
bit deeper into the concepts of
form and function. I'll see you there.
5. Design Process - Form & Function: Now we're going to focus
on the concepts of form and function within
the design process. General rule of thumb to keep in mind is that form
follows function. This means that the form of whatever it is
that you're designing and building should support the object or the items
intended function. Now this design principle
originated, I believe, in the mid to late 19th century, specifically to
architectural design. But it is something that is
relevant to arts and crafts, home improvement,
and interior design. If you're like me when it
comes to creative expression. One of the first things
that comes to mind and the feeling that I get when I'm expressing my creativity is that feeling and an overall
sense of freedom. The freedom to design and build a create whatever I
want without any limits. And by following this principle of form, following function. Although it may, on the
surface seem to play some limitations on creativity. It's something that
can really pay off in the long run and save
you a headache of having to tear down and rebuild whatever it is
that you've created. I want to share a
quick example with you actually two examples. One is with the bathroom of the studio that
I've moved into. The bathroom is fairly small. And one of the first
things that I noticed when I've found the apartment
is that there wasn't a place to put the shower soap. There wasn't a place
really besides a tiny corner of the sink
to place a hand soap. And I thought, okay, so why don't I just get a
little bit creative and see if I can be crafty with it. Like I mentioned
in the first video on the design process
and inspiration. I'm inspired by seeing the sea a few blocks away and watching
the ships come and go. So I thought of using rope, incorporating rope and a
flower pot to be able to hang the shower soap, and also using wood for the
hand soap next to the sink. So we'll take a look at
this video real fast. I'll slow it down a bit. And you can see here
is the rope that I have attached to the top of the shower board,
the shower bar. It hangs down, it connects
to the flower pot. Then the shower soap fits in. Then here we have a block of wood with just enough
space for the hand. And then over here I have a hand-washing cup that also
have attached to the robe. I really thought, once again, incorporating the
rope would make things a little interesting. And it would flow with
the cohesiveness of the aesthetic of the
rest of the studio. So this lasted for a few
days until last night. Actually, I heard a crash and a bang and I went into the
bathroom and I saw this. My intention here was to of course be a
little bit creative, a little bit crafty. And also makes sure that the soap was conveniently
placed in the shower area. But the form of it really
did not support the bar, didn't support the form
that I had in mind. And so when the
bars slipped due to the weight of the flower pot, the flower pots shattered. And then I have to
find another option. That's just small-scale example, I'm sure many others. Maybe you've
experienced this before where you wanted to have
something that's functional. But really having to think through how the form
can be supported. And you won't end up with a mess like the one that I
have to clean up over here. Next, let's hop over
to the kitchen and I'll show you how I kept this principle in mind when it comes to creating
the shelf design. And yeah, let's check it out. The intention that I
had when designing this shelf was to be
able to place it in the kitchen in a way
to where I could easily access my ****** and T's. So when I'm thinking of the design of the shelf itself and how it could
fit into this space. I first wanted
twist us the size. How much room do I
have to work with? So right off the bat already
knew that I wanted to have at least hands breath space between the wall In the
beginning of the first shelf. Hands breath space
in the middle. Then a hand's breadth space from the second shelf to the end of the wall or the end of the
tiled area of the kitchen. I have one of the
completed shelves here. It turned out beautifully and I can't wait to
attach to the wall. But the first thing I
had to deal with this. Okay. Now, when it comes
to mounting the shelf, is it gonna be mounted
from underneath? Are mounted from above. Going back to the
inspiration of being close to the water and wanting to
incorporate water elements. I chose materials that are related to the water,
like plumbing materials. And so I thought
okay, so if I have the plumbing
material underneath, if I have the pipes
underneath and have it mounted that way,
what would happen? It looks like it's gonna
be a little bit too high. Let's flip it upside down and see if we were
to do it this way. It's a little bit high
and I'm only five-sixths. So it doesn't
really work for me. And even though it would
serve its intended function, it wouldn't be comfortable
experience for me to have to stand on my tippy
toes to reach up for things that are
used on a daily basis. Then I thought, okay,
well, it makes sense to have the piping on top. That way the shelf can
be a little bit lower. The form and the
design of this shelf, it definitely doesn't impact the functionality of
especially the amount of space that I have here. I can put up all of my ******. I even have an extra room for t. I'll have oils, essential
oils and the other shelf. And so these are just
a few of the things that I had in mind when it comes to when it came to
designing this particular form. Making sure that it's
functional and being really intentional about
the placement of things. So that's just another example. And I hope that helps. So please feel free to share. I'd really love to hear from
you if you have any stories on how you've encountered
form following function, how you've utilized
this principle in some of your other projects. And if there's any
challenges that came up and how you
worked around that. For our next lesson, we're gonna get into color selection. And I'll see you there.
6. Design Process - Color Selection: So far within the
design process, we've covered inspiration
where I shared a bit on what my inspiration is
for this particular design, as well as a few
quick tips on how to tap into your
own inspiration. Then we went on to learn about the concepts of
form and function. Remember, form follows function. And now onto my favorite part which is on color selection. You may have noticed
actually that I've mentioned colors several times in
the last few lessons. And even though each lesson does have its own
dedicated topic, I just couldn't help myself, that's how much I love color. I'm excited to share
with you two resources, great resources
that you can find online to help you take
your inspiration and make it a bit more concrete in terms of pinpointing
the exact shade of color or the combination of colors that you would like
to apply to your design. The first one is
color palettes.net. I'm going to pull it
up here on the side. When you go to color
palettes, dotnet. There are several options
that appear at the top. You have warm palettes, cool palettes, pastel palettes,
and contrasting pallets. Now there's also
a drop-down menu. If you click on the
three horizontal lines next to the word menu, it shows about us all
tags and contact us. So I actually went to
the alt tags page and search Greek because as I mentioned in the
Inspiration lesson, that I was inspired
by the Grecian theme. I wanted to stay as close as possible to the
Greek color scheme. But before we go there, just want to show you
the different options within the main menu options. First, if you click
on warm pallets, you see you already have several beautiful
different combinations and shades of warm pinks, reds, rich purples, and browns. So this is great if you already know that you want to
have a warmer color, even if you don't know
exactly what that color is, but you know what's
on the warmer side. Then I highly recommend
going to this page first before searching
through all tags. We also have cool palettes. This first one is
beautiful, Number 43114311, the desert sands, the cool
grayish tone of blue. And then we have some
of the darker browns. Just like with the first option. If you know that you
want to stick with a cooler palette,
you can go there. And the same thing
with pastels are highly contrasting color
palette combinations. Let's take a look at all tags. I click here on the top
menu and go to all tags. Instead of scrolling all the
way down to g for Greek, I just do Control F to
find Greek on the page, I type in Greek, and five options
are highlighted. I wanted to choose the
one that had the most, the most selections on the page. Right here we have Greek color, which only has one Greek
palette, Greek tavern, Greek color palette with six
spelled with a U for color, but with Greek color palette,
there's eight options. When I go there, I see a wide range of
beautiful shades of blues. That of course, since
my paper color is blue and I knew that I
wanted to go for the Grecian color scheme. This is great. How come here? And I can see the different combinations
and the various shades and their descriptions being that I'm gonna be using
plumbing parts. And I wanted to
have something that contrasts with the
metal very well. Blue is a great option for that. And going back to inspiration, being able to have the
union of wood and metal, those two different elements. I find that really appealing. But now it's time to figure out exactly which shade of blue. Now, the first option, 3728, here on the top-left, the blue to the far
left is a little bit too dark for me personally. It's all in what fits for you and the vibe that
you get from it. And being that I wanted the
color to match the walls, then I wanted to have the same
color through and through. This one's a little
bit too dark. And the second option
to the right of that is a tad bit too bright. If I keep scrolling
down a little bit further and see what
else they have, I reach color
palette number 2718. Now 2718 has a beautiful
shade of blue. That's the third
option from the left. And this bloom,
if I click on it, it gives a great description
here it says, cold, charming gamma of colors, shades of blue and combination with a
black and white create unexpected effect of
plainness and nobility. Such a combination
will look sheikh in interiors of
rooms and C-style. Perfect, That speaks to me. I think this is the shade of
blue that I want to go with. And of course, I need to
do the work of making sure that I can find
the exact name. My door is making a lot of
noise in the background. I apologize about that. It's a windy day. But this shade of blue, I want to find the
name of this color, this shade, so that when
I go to the paint store, I can pinpoint
this exact shades. So it turns out that this is
called a Greek island blue. And it's carried in one
of the main brands. And my location, what's also
great as at the bottom of the color palette
you see here there's the different a hex codes. You can also take this code, you can take this combination, give it to whoever is working at the pink store
that's helping you out. And they can get as close to, if not exact, to this color
that you've selected. The second resource is the
Adobe color wheel site. And you can reach that site
by going to color.adobe.com. When we type that
in color.adobe.com, it automatically opens
up the color wheel. This is great if you want to experiment with
complimentary colors, you want to see on the left
we have monochromatic triad, complimentary split,
complimentary double split, complementary, so
on and so forth. This is great if you're
gonna be combining different shades or if you want to make sure that your art, whatever art you're gonna
be hanging in the room. It can flow with the walls, the color of the walls, and also the shelf that
you'll be designing. And this one is a little
bit more in depth. Actually, it's not as simple as the color palettes.net site, but it's definitely
a great resource and I highly recommend that you take your time exploring this site and just seeing
what works for you. Now, I know that oftentimes we have
different colors in mind. Like for me, I love blue. So right off the bat, I knew I wanted to
incorporate blue. And it's always good to start
off with a good foundation. But again, it's great to
have an open mind and use these resources to
experiment with different shades in
different combinations. And it can definitely help you actually come up with some really creative
twists to whatever arts, crafts, or home design
projects you're working on. Next is the part one of the project on
creative shelf design. Enjoy, take your time. And afterwards we're gonna begin the construction phase with a quick introduction
to mindfulness. And from there we'll prep our
materials for construction.
7. Project Part 1 - Creative Shelf Design: For part one of the project which is on creative
shelf design, your assignment is to
create a design sketch of your own shelf of any size using whatever
materials you like. It should also include
mounting or wall attachment. No need to be an
expert at drawing. Just go with the flow and share a photo of your design and also how you've applied the following concepts that were covered within the course. The first is inspiration. How did you tap into
that inspiration? I mentioned in lesson four that silent
contemplation with eyes closed can help as you consider what speaks
to you is it art, crafts, music, nature, and what inspires you about
this particular design? Is there a certain
feeling revived that's evoked when you
have this design in mind. Also, after you've sat in silent contemplation or you've done a little bit
of visualization. Take a look at the shelf
designs on Pinterest, Instagram, Google,
or in magazines, and see what catches your eye. Afterwards, sit alone
again in silence and contemplate ways to express your particular
style in the design. Next is form and function. Does the form follow the function of the shelf
that you're designing? Which materials do
you plan on using? What we use to mount
and attach yourself to the wall where your shelf
supports something lightweight, like a small plant or a
picture or a heavier object. Even though wood or metal or the standard materials
used for shelving, you'd be surprised at what
other materials can be used according to how functional
you want yourself to be. For example, a
lightweight shelf can be created using an artist
canvas as the base. Or you could use
other found objects to serve as a strong
flat surface. Be mindfully creative, but also remember the
intended purpose. Last but not least
is color selection. Which colors did you
choose for yourself and why did you go for a
high contrast color, a color that matches a
wall or a mix of both. Is it cohesive with
your environment? So these are just a few
questions for you to consider as you're working
on part one of your project. And I look forward to
seeing your design. Good luck.
8. Intro to Mindfulness: Hey everyone, welcome back. For this lesson, I'm
going to give you a quick introduction
into mindfulness. And this really
sets the stage for the lessons to come on
mindful construction. Now whether you're brand
new to mindfulness or you have a little bit of experience or you're
very experienced. Something that I've learned over the years is that
it always helps to hear other interpretations
based on experience. And sometimes we can
get that golden key that unlocks the door to exactly
what we hope to achieve. So mindfulness, mindfulness is the method of becoming aware of what
the mind is full of. In a nutshell, it's anything and everything that touches
upon the five senses. The senses are functioning. The information that is
received through sight, taste, touch, hearing, or smell. That information is
filtered through, interpreted by the brain and produces either a
reaction or response. Also thoughts. And the appearance
of that knowledge through that which is interpreted through
the five senses, gives rise to something
that we call mind. The mind. Now, once one is
proficient in mindfulness, has applied
mindfulness full list skillfully in one's activities, then meditation
arises on its own. Now I understand that if
you Google mindfulness, you may have seen and heard that a lot of people say
mindfulness meditation. And it's rare that you will hear that there's a distinction
between these two. But I am that guy that makes a very fine distinction between mindfulness
and meditation. Meditation is like the concept known in xin called
mucin in Japanese. That means no muss. No mind. Meditation. When the mind is
absolutely silent. And while the senses
are functioning, they're interpreting and
reporting information. The silence or the meditation
remains untouched. And it is quite a
blissful state. It is very natural. I feel it is natural
to the human being. It is a part of our nature. Be meditative, silent, centered, and aware no matter
what we're engaging in. And there is a time
for reaction for sure. Reaction can take place
and sodas response. But yet and still. Through mindfulness, deepening in mindfulness
and awareness, meditation arises
naturally on its own. That meditation remains
untouched by any body, mind, or thought activity. Something that I
highly recommend is don't try and skip
to the meditation part. If you don't have experience. But it's up to you. It's your choice. Actually. Even if you were to spend
60 seconds and apply mindfulness for 60 seconds out of the 86,400 seconds a day. You are well on your
way to meditation. To the direct
experience of that. Being that this day and age, we're inundated with
lots of information. Ten seconds can be difficult
for many, but that's okay. Just give it a shot. See how it feels. Experimental little bit. You know, as I mentioned
in the introduction, there will be mindful
moments throughout the rest of the process for
the upcoming lessons. And it's not about
whether you feel a certain way or suddenly the mind disappears and you're automatically
in the flow state. Although that is
an ice flow state is a form of meditation. When the mind is
silent in time seems to stop and you're working. You're painting. With undivided attention. That flow state is when the
worker becomes the work. All of that sounds great. But then once again, you can just be mindful
for a few moments. Then you may be pleasantly surprised and delighted at how meditation
arises on its own. It's quite enjoyable. For sure. I look forward to sharing more of these
mindful moments with you through the rest of this course and in
courses to come. See you in the next lesson. The next lesson, by the way, is gonna be on
mindful construction. Beginning to prepare our
materials, sanding, painting, measuring things out
in terms of where to place the screws and
the different parts. So I'll see you there.
9. Mindful Construction - Prepping Materials: Okay, so let's begin measuring. The first thing is make
sure that you have your tools handy and all
of your materials ready. Now this is just one end of the board and
I'm going to need the same materials for the other end to
attach it properly. But just to begin
what you want to have ready or you're
too flat washers. 2.5 couplings with one end
is a little bit closed in. This is where you're
gonna put one moisture inside as well as a screw. I have 1.51 centimeters screw and 138 and a
quarter centimeter screw. And then my 90 degree elbow. This is pretty much the exact same fitting
as this same parts. It's just all put together. Of course, have your pen ready, measuring tape, and your
screwdriver or your drill. If you're gonna
be using a drill, have that handy as well. I wanted to determine
the distance between the end of the board which is going to be flush
against the wall. The distance between that
and where to drill the hole. For the bottom of
the shelf mountain. Everything fits
together very easily. It only takes a
few seconds to do. You just take one of
the pipe couplings, the washer inside. Then you're going to add
the 1.5 centimeters screw. So it should look like this. Once you put these
three pieces together, it's okay to just set
it to the side for now. I'll demonstrate again. You'll have your half coupling with the wide
open side facing you. Then you're going to
insert your flat washer. Then lastly, This
is gonna be the 1.5 centimeters screw
that goes straight in. And this will actually be
what's attached to the board. This is the piece
that's most important because we're going to
drill a hole for this one. Next. Take one of the pipe
tubes or the nipples. And you're going to connect
it to your 90 degree angle, 90 degree elbow, excuse me. And it screws together
quite nicely. Very easy. You'll take the second pipe
tube connected at the top. Then there you go.
Quick and easy. Next, we need to connect
the half coupling, the washer, and the three and a quarter
centimeter screw for this end. Just like you did with
the first half coupling. We'll take the second place, the washer and side, followed by the screw. For this one. You can actually go
ahead and connect it to the end of the pipe joint. Because we want to use this as a reference point for where
it'll be flush with the wall, just like the bottom of the board will be flush
against the wall as well. It's okay to go ahead and
pop that screw in there. Then what we're
gonna do is connect the bottom of the
attachment like this. There we go. Quick. Easy. It's
beautiful, in my opinion. But now we need to
determine once again, where does rule the first hole. Like I said, we want to
measure the distance between the base
of the board being flushed against the wall parallel to the end
of your pipe tube. The top of the mountain. Let's go ahead and
I'll put it like that. We're going to bring
this to the edge here. See how close to the
edge we can get. The key here is you want to
make sure that it is flat. Actually not flat
but parallel to the head so that it fits
perfectly against the wall. Now one way you can do
this is you can use your pin like so. You can make an
adjustment until it's imperfect and a lot
of perfect alignment. Or you can take another
board or another piece of wood and place it against it just to use
as a guiding point, making sure that
everything is in place. What I'm gonna do
is I'm going to use another wooden board
like this one. I'll place it on the end here. This is just to use an example as an
example for the wall. And then find the
point where it aligns perfectly in both the
bottom of the board. And the pipe joint flat flat against your wall and
then also of course, the two-inch should be parallel. Now, once that's determined,
we want to figure out, okay, so what's the distance between the short
end of the board? Right here, the width where
you want to drill the hole. What I'll do here, of course, this can vary. It's up to you. It just depends on how
much space you would like between one end of the shelf mounting and the other on the opposite
end of the shelf. What I'll do is I'll
place this down. I'll keep the end of the piece that's
attached to the wall. This upper wall coupling, half coupling parallel to
the base of the board. Now, we want to get our
ruler or measuring tape. What I did for mine as I've
put it about four centimeters in four to five centimeters
from the edge of the board. You're gonna come back
to your pipe joints. Make sure that it stays
parallel as much as possible. Just check. Do a freehand check to
see the distance between the short end of the board and then the beginning of
your shelf mountain. So as I mentioned, I'm going for about 4.5
centimeters from the end here from this piece
that juts out. But as you see what happened in the
processes that I moved the mounting a
little bit too far back Just while doing
your initial estimates. So you can just push it
forward until it's once again flat against
your wall here. Come back and measure. We're still at 4.5 centimeters,
so we're good to go. I'm just going to go
ahead and use the pin. You'll take your pen
and make a small marking at the end of the half coupling that
is attached to the board. Just a quick recap. After attaching
your wall mounting and putting the pipes
together with both couplings, you'll want to make sure
that this piece will be flush against your wall just like the base of the board. Best way to do that is you can use another piece of
wood or you can use your pen just to assess exactly
where it should be placed. Now once that's determined, you determine the distance from the end of the wall absorbed
the pipe attachment, the end of the shelf mounting to the short
end of the board, as I said, minus
4.5 centimeters. Okay, great. So then I know that
this is the marking for the beginning of
the half coupling that is attached to
the board itself. Next. Now, how do I determine
exactly what the center is, where I'm going to drill the
hole because as you can see, we can see the washer is placed inside of
the half coupling. And so I need to make sure
that I drill a hole that can that will actually make sure that this is landing
straight in the middle. One way is you can take your
ruler or your tape measure to measure the size
of the half coupling. This one is exactly two
centimeters in width. If we look at the sharp edges, the edges that jut out, the distance between
those edges is two and a quarter centimeters. Now, since I've already made the marking from the
edge that juts out, I'm going to go and measure it inadequate into two centimeters,
but two and a quarter. So two and a quarter
centimeters from this marking. C2 and a quarter up, it's upside down,
but it's all good. We can still figure it out. Here's one centimeter here. Here's two centimeters,
two and a quarter. So this is the opposite end of the half coupling
that's gonna be attached to the
base of the board. We have one centimeter, two and a quarter. Place the marketing there. Let's test it out. See how accurate I am here. We place the half coupling down. So it looks like I missed
the mark just a little bit. Let me try that again. One centimeter, two centimeters. I see what happens. So this is why it's always good to double and triple check. You can never be too
careful with these things is you want to make
sure that you drill the hole on the right spot. One centimeter, two centimeter, two and a quarter is right here. If I come back with the
half coupling that's going to be attached to the
base of the board. Then both edges should align beautifully with the
marketing's that I made. While you can't
see it over here, but it does perfectly. That means that the whole that I'll be drilling will
be directly in the middle. I already drilled this
screw partway through. Like so. Then we'll go ahead and
take the screw back out. I use the drill for this part. There we go. There is the whole this is really the only
hold that should be placed on this end of the board. And then we're gonna
do the same thing to the other end before
we begin to sand. Now if you want to
test just to make sure we have the distance correct, as well as making sure that
the board's remain parallel. The board and the top of the attachment that's gonna
be flush against the wall. You want that to be
imperfect alignments. So let's do a test. I'll put this screw in, connect it like this. I'll go ahead and
spin this around. Now it's attached. And let's go ahead and use
our handy dandy wall here. Looking good. Everything is in
perfect alignment. And we're ready to do
the exact same thing to the other end
of the wood panel. Now that we've
measured things out and determine where
to place the holes. As you can see, I drilled a hole exactly in-between our pen
markings on this side. And we've done the same on the
opposite end of the board. So we're good to go. Now we can move on to sanding. But first, it's time
for a mindful moment. As we learned in the quick
introduction to mindfulness, the five senses are reporting
information and awareness. The brain, and then thoughts are produced
based on our knowledge. Now one okay, either choose
to move in reaction or response based on whatever
is being reported. In the beginning, when we
started measuring things out, two of the five senses
were being accessed. I'll give you a
moment to see if you can guess which ones they were. For measuring. Two senses. In particular, we'll put to use. We used, excuse me, the sense of sight to be able to focus in and see what
our measurements are. As well as touch, touching the board, touching
each of the plumbing parts. Also holding the measuring tape with a ruler, whichever
you're using. Based on those two senses, touching whatever is being perceived through those senses. We were able to successfully place the holes in
perfect measurement. If you look at this board, we know this as a
board because it's wood and we've learned that
this is a wooden board, we know how to identify it. This is considered
to be the object In the observer yourself. Myself, is the subject. Very simple. We turn over
to some of our other parts. We have the plumbing parts. These are objects
just like the board. This is another object
of different quality. Have the measuring tape. It's another object with different characteristics
and different qualities. All of that is
based on knowledge, prior learning, and memory. I paint brush here
and other object. Here's another object. But I'm the subject, just like you are the subject. As we engage with these objects. For a moment. Just close your eyes. Place your hands on the board. Feel the board. Remain relaxed, attentive,
and aware of its texture. Even if thoughts are arising. Am I doing this right or
what am I looking for? Allow those thoughts to arise and allow them to
subside on their own. Just continue to feel the board. Next with eyes closed, gently lift the board. Pinpoint what are
the characteristics? With eyes closed? Right now we are using
the sense of touch. And with that, we can
assess the weight. One characteristic at
this time we're honing in on is the characteristic of
weight. The board light? Is it having the
texture hard or soft? Again, these things are
based on knowledge. With eyes close,
totally relaxed. Just check in and ask oneself, where do I feel? The weight of the board? Where is the feeling
being reported to? Now throughout the eons
in our human evolution, our brain has developed
this immense capacity to remember things that are
learned before in the past. And it's only NAD fool
that the mind will say, okay, well, being reported to my hands because my hands
are touching the board. I feel the board. So it's my hands that feel it. But the hands are
also an object. The body is an object. And you are the subject
because you are aware of the body. The question, again
with eyes closed, is where is the
awareness that feels? You feel the weight
of the board? The board is the object. The hands holding the
board is also the object. Whereas the subject. Just take a moment of
silent contemplation. And then we'll take
it from there. Now if you raise the
board and lower it, the object, again is the board. The body which is
also an object, is holding the board,
raising and lowering. Or based on the knowledge
of raising and lowering, which you are aware
of the movement. You're aware of the
knowledge of the movement. You're aware of the
weight of the board. You're aware, you're
aware of the board and the body as the objects. Once again, whereas this awareness located. Okay, so next, let's
begin sanding. We're going to place
the board with the short end
against the ground. Habit upright like this. Pick up the piece of sandpaper. Now the sandpaper
is another object. Just take a moment
to feel the texture. The eyes closed. You feel the texture
of the sandpaper. You hear that scratchy sound. Or at least it's scratchy to me, it could be something
else for you. Hear the sound. You feel the texture. Now, look at the sandpaper. You are aware of
the paper itself. You're aware of the
feeling of the paper, and you're also aware of
the sound of the paper. You're aware. We're aware
together of the body. That knows all three, the site, the sound
and the touch. Again, with eyes closed. Whereas this information
reporting to. Whereas the awareness
of all three allow your breath
to flow naturally. No need to control the breath. If thoughts are flowing, allow them to come and go. Those are also mental objects. But each step of the way, mindfulness, you're aware
of your subjectivity. Subjectivity is the
default position by which all experiences take place. Let's begin to sand. You have the paper in your hand. Position the board. I'm gonna
send just the outer edge. And I'll send where I drill
the holes just a little bit. I don't want to say
into hard because it's beautiful wood grain and I don't want to mess that up at all. Outstanding, each
edge soften it up. Now as you're standing. Notice the sand. I'm sorry, the sound of the
sandpaper and action. Stop. Notice the silence. Start again. Back to the sound.
We have this bound. We have the feeling. We have the site. Then stop. Eyes closed. Undivided attention
on the silence. Then start again. Then let's continue. All right. Let's stop again. Just for a quick moment. See if you can locate
this subjectivity. The awareness that is now
awareness of the silence. Then begin again. Now that the board is standard, all along the sides and
where the holes are drilled. Let's get started with painting. Before we begin painting, it's always a good idea to brush off any of the dust that's
remaining on the board. Of course, if you have a
spare print paintbrush to do the dusting, that's great. But if not, you can use a towel. I'm just going to go
over the edges of the wood wooden board quickly. Also. The spots where I
centered the holes. Just want to get rid of any
remaining does this there. And that way when you paint, you won't have chunks of grit. Now taking another brush, dip it in the paint. Here we go. So time for another
mindful moment. It says you begin to paint and be aware of the
census functioning. The sense of sight, the sense of touch, even the sound of the brush as you're giving
it light strokes. And your awareness of the knowledge of the object
that you're painting. Let's take a moment to feel
the weight of the brush. Look at the color of the paint and feel the weight
of the brush. Then slowly begin. Your paint has a strong odor. Then you can start to
access the sense of smell. What are the qualities and the characteristics of the odor? With slow and
steady brushstrokes remain attentive of the sound. The sound of the
brush, the sensation. Sensation of your painting. And just relax. Remain attentive and allow
the body to do the work. Just be a witness. Awareness. As you continue to paint, to be aware of the
strength of the color, the feeling That's being evoked. Together. We're aware of measuring, drilling, sanding, and painting. These four activities that
we've enjoyed together, all of these activities
are changing. We worked with a measuring tape. We drill the holes. We picked up the paper, we begin to sand. We've got our paintbrush,
open the paint, dip the brush and paint. We're painting together. We're sitting the
board aside to dry. And together we are aware
of all of these activities. But the awareness is
untouched by any activity. It's the same awareness. So one last mindful moment
for now is to check in. Just tuned into this awareness. Where silence. Maybe it's aware of
the birds chirping. Aware of the paintbrush still
being held in the hand. Aware of sitting, aware
of the sound of my voice. Let the awareness is untouched
by any and every activity. These are just a few simple ways to bring mindfulness
into your projects. Really into all activities. Simple. It's not about going
into self-inquiry or inquiry and asking and
answering every question. There is no need to
answer the questions. They're just precontemplation
within with yourself. And I'll see you shortly. I'll let this sit
out to drive for maybe 45 minutes to an hour. And then we'll return and put all of our pieces
together and see how it looks. See you there.
10. Mindful Construction - Constructing Our Shelf: Hey everybody, welcome back. So as you can see,
everything's ride perfectly. I let it sit for a
little bit over an hour and disassembled the parts, the plumbing parts that
we put together earlier, the shelf mountain, just
so I can show you how to put it all together after
standing and painting. So I mixed a little bit of epoxy because as
I mentioned before, I'm using this as an
additional reinforcement. And this is again,
it's optional, just depends on how
much weight you plan on applying to the shelf. Just for a little bit of
extra reinforcement here. Put a little bit of epoxy. The hole was drilled. Gonna do that to both sides. Just to drop. Now the epoxy dries very fast, so we're gonna have
to move quickly here. But let's show you how
it all comes together. So first we're gonna
take the half coupling. We'll place the flat
metal washer inside, followed by the centimeter
and a half screw. The screws should
fit in quite nicely. Let's go ahead and
screw that in first. Again, since the
epoxy dries so fast, it's important to get this part secured sooner
rather than later. There is number one, I'll come over to this side and
do the same thing. Have coupling. On the open-end. I'll place the flat washer with this centimeter
and a half screw. The spot where the
hole is drilled. I'll just go ahead
and get that secure. Now that that's done,
I'll slow it down a bit and show you how to piece the
rest of the parts together. We have our 90
degree elbow that's attached both pipe
tubes that there. Next, we'll take the
other half coupling. We'll put in the flat washer. Then our three and a
quarter centimeters screw goes inside. There we go. All right, so I'm gonna leave this
out because this is the part that's going
to attach to the wall. But as you can see, it in connect to the bottom of the lower pipe that's
connected to the board. And voila, there we go. Now the same thing
for the other side. We'll take our 90 degree elbow. Attach the first pipe tube. The second pipe tube. This is also a good time
for a mindful moment, just to really get in tune again with the
work, to flow with it. Feel the weight, the texture. You see, the appearance. It's good to spend. In a
way it's like spending quality time with everything
that you're engaged in. Just give it your full
undivided attention. Next we'll take the
other half coupling. Insert the flat washer with the three and a
quarter centimeters screw. Will attach that to the end here and connect it to the base. As you can see,
this half coupling. There was a little
bit of attention here in historic to
rotate on that last term. It's not so bad a little bit of the paint came off, but it's
not doing it the world. I can always touch that up. And it also helps to
add just a little bit of March pods or some other
type of sealant to the wood. It's again, it's up to you. I am a little rough around the edges when it
comes to these things. So sometimes I do it,
sometimes I don't. But of course, it's always, it always helps to protect the work part of
good craftsmanship. So I think I'll be adding
some mod podge afterwards. And with the mod podge added in this part
already attached. It's even another layer
of reinforcement, just having that
ceilings surrounding the half couplings that are
connected to the shelf. Here's the finished product. I think it turned
out beautifully. I'm so excited to go inside
attached to the kitchen wall, and finally have a spot to put
all the ****** and things. Let's check it out together.
11. Project Part 2 - Mindful Construction: For part two of
our class project on mindful construction, your assignment is to
apply the design you've created and construct
your shelf mindfully. This is less about perfect
craftsmanship and more about enjoying the building process while applying
mindful techniques. Please share a photo of
your completed shelf a bit about your process and how
you experience mindfulness. Here's just a few
things to consider. While you're in
total relaxation. Allow whatever to
arise to be as it is, your thoughts,
sensations, and emotions. And when you're relaxed
and tune into the work, see if there's any
new ideas or ways of approaching the project
that came up for you? If so, how did you integrate it into your design in
shelf construction? Were there any senses
that were heightened to one sense seemed easier to hone in on more than the others. Are there any questions that
came to mind unexpectedly? Wherever the mind generates, it doesn't necessarily
require an answer. Just observe, be a witness to the movement of
knowledge within you. Also, did you reach
the flow state when the worker becomes the work
with undivided attention. No matter what degree of
mindfulness you reach, all is considered to
be of high value in your direct experience
is beyond measure, comparison or a judgment. So I, myself, along with the other participants
in the course, are excited to hear how
it goes. Good luck.
12. Final Thoughts: Hey everyone, you've just completed the course on mindful, do it yourself for creative shelf design
and construction. And I'm so excited, I finally have my shelves up with my kitchen items in place. Everything's looking great. And you know, it's
a good feeling when you can design and
build something with your own hands and watch
the ideas come to life. So I'm really looking
forward to seeing your ideas come to life through the
projects for this course, but also other courses as well. So please feel free
to keep in touch and share a few final thoughts
before we conclude, I want to remind you that
perfection is a process. It's definitely not an
absolute destination. As long as you're able to approach some of
your activities and projects with a sense of
ease and mindfulness. You'll notice that there's
a different quality to it. And you'll get better and
better at manifesting your ideas from the abstract
imagination into reality. We also learned about
the design process, inspiration, form and
function and color selection. During these phases
of the process, I recommend don't think
outside of the box. Just forget about the
box throwaway, the box. Because this is
what allows you to tap into your own
inspiration and draw from really your heart's desire
in which you're truly want to create and have that be a reflection of
your own aesthetic. Now a common thread
throughout each part of the design process is doing
things with intention. So we are mindfully creative. We're open and receptive,
but also intentional. That is the key to
mindful living. Now as your body is
engaging with your work, remember to turn your
attention to the breath, to the sensors that
are functioning. All of the senses are
functioning at once, of course. But one thing at a time, you can take
step-by-step to bringing your mindful attentiveness to all other things that
are arising within you, even the thoughts
that are arising, that's okay to give your undivided
attention to the work into everything that is arising
in each step of the way. I'd love to hear
about your projects, your design process, and
the overall experience. And of course, I
am looking forward to seeing your projects come to life in hearing
about how you experience the mindful aspect
of that project. And feel free to
follow me on Instagram or you can check out
my website at www. Dot mindful adventure.com. It's currently undergoing
some reconstruction, but I do have a few selected, selected clips posted
there on self-inquiry. And you can find out more
about me and my video bile. With that being said, thank you so much once again for your time and
your participation. And I'm looking forward to
sharing in the next adventure. Remember, be mindful,
creative and adventurous.
Ari Kent, Professional Trainer, Life & Leadership
