One of the things I like to do is to create miniatures and modeling. I already used various kinds of materials, including durepoxi. I like to use this material when I make a single piece, and that requires more rigidity in their parties.

To make a miniature in durepoxi, we need to make a skeleton of wire, which will help sustain the piece. Using a piece of wire and pliers, we make the first form of the piece. If we want to make a human figure, we start positioning the head, body, arms and legs, placing the skeleton in the position we want, without forgetting to leave a piece of wire to the basis. In this structure, a coiled wire thinner, for the durepoxi not slip. It is also useful to leave a piece of wire just to hold while working without touching the stuff still soft. Once everything is ready, the piece of wire can be cut.

The tools are also important. Tools to build and put mass, knives etc. We can start buying basic tools and then making our own tools as we need. The truth is that in time we are creating a piece everything can become a tool!

With the skeleton ready, start applying the durepoxi in layers. At each layer, wait to drying to add the next. The biggest secret to work with durepoxi is to mix hand cream in the mass of durepoxi. Buy a pot of cream for hands in the pharmacy or supermarket, and mix a little cream in the mass while modeling. In addition to delaying the drying, the mass is more malleable and easy to work. With the help of the cream, do the final details. If during the execution of work we don’t like some detail, we can sand the piece and then redo the part that we didn’t like before. It is important to look all angles of the piece to search for defects.

I tend to use synthetic enamel paint to paint the miniatures, but I already used ceramics and common craft paint to paint.. It takes long to dry, but we must have patience and wait until to get all details done. I think that the piece has a certain charm with no ink that is lost when we start painting. So I don’t paint some miniatures, which was the case of the “Krav Magá Fighters” miniature, which I decided to not paint.

To keep the youth

Yesterday I had fun making a profile on Orkut for my mother. She will be 76 years old within few days. I did everything. She didn’t touch the computer. The purpose of my mother on Orkut is trying to find her former students. She is a retired teacher. Now I'm trying to convince her to create a blog to write her memories.

All of this made me think about what we must do to maintain youth. After some experience, I have some ideas. I organized an obviously incomplete list, because I don’t know all the answers, nobody knows yet.

1. Accept what is new. As the years go by, try to experience new technologies, change the way of dressing, cutting hair, the makeup. Accept new styles of music, be interested in new films and writers. Try new forms of entertainment. Admire the new cars. Observe language changes. Obviously, I don’t want to say that the older person must be like a teen. Not so.

2. Get some detachment of the past. It is good to remember and learn with the past. But the best moment could be that we are living in the present. Not in the future or the past. We're feeling our breath, our heart beating now. We are more experienced now.

3. Stop the prejudices. The future always comes with strong changes. It is not just to pretend we are accepting the differences. It is really accepting them.

4. Always have an adventure in mind, even if it never happens at all. The expectation of the adventure is what keeps the brightness of our eyes and the excitement. The adventure is personal. Each one has his own. Adventure is that thing that you don’t do always and generally something that you in fact don’t have to do.

5. Accept changes in your body and not be ashamed of it. The body is older, is not so beautiful as the young, but so what?

6. Do not stop trying to learn new things. I’m tired of hearing people saying, for example, are very "old" to learn to drive. That said at 35 years old.

7. New friends. During life, we keep losing many people dear to us. They go to live in other places, are busy, they disappear. Some die. Life is movement. In a day we have a group of friends and social relations. Few years later, we don’t know where they are anymore.So I think it is important to always be making new friends and, sure, keep contact to old friends.

8. Have at least one pet. Dogs, cats, birds, hamsters, turtles, any animal is worth. I often say that who has a cat is never going to be depressed because a cat is a very kind and loving pet.

9. Contact with nature. Nature is a source of youth. Smell a flower, put your foot in the waterfall, admire the formation of clouds during a storm, see the sea, the waves hit, follow the flight of a bird, watch cicadas singing in the summer afternoons, take a fruit of the tree , step barefoot on the grass, hug a tree, walk in the mist, admire the sunset. We have to do these things time to time.

10. Laugh as much as possible and maintain a positive attitude. Chest out, stomach in, head up and steady step. Food and healthy habits also help a lot.

Finally, I just want to say that chronological age does not exactly express the internal age. It is common to hear someone say that a person is acting in one way or another because it is getting "old”. Nope. The person probably act that way since he was young, but nobody ever noticed. One day, if lucky, we will have wrinkles and gray hair.