Thanks for this class - there are aspects that I am sure to continue in the future. Also, I have some thoughts on creating usable ciphers.  :)

DAY ONE:

Observing tomato plants and using the new Cóntè a Paris pencils I bought. I'm not crazy about them for a sketchbook that gets shuffled around a lot, but I do like the antique feel of the pencils. As to the backwards writing ... I've been doing it since geometry class in 1988, when I was attempting to ignore someone who was arguing with the teacher a LOT. (You cannnot change the rules of geometry to suit your hurt feelings, Melissa!) I started by flipping over lined paper and tracing what I saw. Eventually I learned to create the letters on my own, in cursive. It's a bit rusty as I haven't done it in a while. It's handy for discouraging folks who read over your shoulder.

DAY TWO

Background information on pokeberries. 

DAY THREE

Imagination. My go-to doodles are the psychedelic flower (!!!) and those leaves. I could combine them into that star pattern perhaps. When I closed my eyes and sketched what I saw, I saw a window in a circular hole. No idea what that is about. Makes a great pattern for belts or handbags though.  Also, did you know you can make purple dye out of a lichen? 

DAY FOUR

Rabbit holes. Did you know that pokeberry seeds are hard and are viable for 40 years? And each berry has 10 seeds? And the endless stream of mourning doves in the neighborhood love pokeberries? No wonder it's everywhere. And it's perennial! I think it's lovely so maybe I can justify making dye, ink, or something else out of it .... gorgeous. 

DAY FIVE

Lists. What's with the list of animals? It's animals featured in Beatles songs. Lists are great for organizing (and culling) ideas.

DAY SIX

Construction. Fun! 

DAY SEVEN

Ciphers and backwards writing. I explained the backwards stuff. As to creating ciphers, I used to make wands and brooms for local metaphysical shops. They included antique ciphers like Theban, Malachi, Celestial, etc. Since "magic" is all about "intent" I decided to create my own ciphers. The key is to make E/T/A/O/N/R/I/S/H your simplest ciphers. Write a whole bunch of practice sentences with it so you can see how the cipher looks and feels. I wonder if I could create a cipher that is as lovely as Arabic writing can be? That would be nice. 

"Falco" is my previous cipher; my new one is called "poke" or "pokeberry", hence all the circles and round curves. Originally I used filled circles but felt that they slowed the flow of the writing too much. (That's why T went from a filled circle to an X.) Since "E" is the most frequent letter, I made it a simple circle. For wands I made specific symbols for frequent words -- like "and", "the", etc. I figure since we have the & symbol it's okay to make my own shortcuts. As to the numbers ... I kept Falco's system since it makes sense to me and there's no use in making math harder than it needs to be. (My brain isn't big thinkly on the math stuff.) And rather than have double letters, I use one symbol and underline it.