(中文版在英文版之後)
There are many online stores selling “Paint-by-numbers” types of products (16×20 canvas). Some selling identical pieces, some have unique ones, and some are only accepting custom ones (you upload photos and choose different types of look).
Northern California’s “Shelter in place” order started on 3/17 so I place two orders with two different companies on 3/19 and 3/23. The custom one I used Mii Creative with one image I took from Switzerland last summer. They came with a rolled canvas with paint in tiny containers with numbers on the lids plus three small brushes.
Some of the areas are very small. I paint a little bit every night after dinner and it took me about a week to complete. It was very therapeutic and relax (not so relax on my eyes and fingers because the brushes were too thin to hold for a long period of time).
The other order was with “My Paint By Numbers” with 6 from their painting collections and only one arrived and the other 5 are still somewhere (after almost 2 months). NOT RECOMMENDED.
Both companies shipped from China. The custom one was placed a few days after the other one and arrived way sooner, with a better quality of canvas and with instruction.
There are many these type of “Paint-by-numbers” companies so I think most of them are shipped from China, few are from the USA; however, I do believe some has better quality or tracking system than others so choose wisely.
Here are what I have seen, and I am sure I have missed a few.
https://mypaintbynumbers.com/ I ordered 6 paintings but only received 1 in two months.
https://bestpaintbynumberkits.com/
https://www.miicreative.com/ Only Custom piece (from your photos)
https://paintplot.com/ more expensive but nicer choices
https://masterpiecebynumbers.com/ a UK company, has nicer pieces
There are also other websites that you can try to create your own “special color blocks” image.
我在臉書的廣告上常看到這一類按數字上色的美術勞作品, 有點像繪本, 以前工作忙, 練書法都來不及了, 沒想過買來試試, 但三月中舊金山灣區因為武漢肺炎的疫情被強迫就地避難, 多數人都被迫在家上班, 不能在家上班的就被迫停工或失業, 很多商家都關門不營業, 除了可以外出買菜, 遛狗散步, 看醫生 (有些醫生也不看診了), 餐廳只能做外帶外送, 其他時間都鼓勵你待在家裡.
時間變多了, 於是就有興趣來試試按數字上色的事了. 我分別跟二家不同公司下訂單, 二家都是從中國大陸寄出的, 一家是從他們的畫作主題裡選擇喜歡的六款, 一家是我上傳去年夏天我在瑞士拍的一張照片. 前者(“My Paint By Numbers“)到目前為止我只有收到一幅, 後者(Mii Creative)我還晚了近五天才下單的, 但我都已經畫完了, 前者的另外五幅還不知道在哪裡 (前後都快二個月了), 所以非常不推薦這家公司.
照數字上色不難, 細心一點都能塗得乾淨. 不過附贈的三支畫筆都太細, 握久了手很酸, 有些區域很小, 也挺傷眼, 所以每半小時還是得起身動動, 不過大致上說來是挺療癒的. 那幅畫我每晚的晚餐後就畫一點, 大概花了一週時間完成.
市面上有很多家公司都是做這種按數字上色的產品, 有好幾家公司賣的畫作都一樣或類似, 也許他們都是來自同一家公司吧; 有些公司有比較特別的畫作可以選, 有些公司的價格高一些 (也許品質好些), 有些公司只做特製 (你上傳相片), 所以還是要多比較一下.
市面上還有一些網站可以讓你自己弄出 “色塊類” 的照片檔, 有興趣的也可以試試.
H. Philip Hsieh and I both studied Chinese Calligraphy under Master Chang, Mei-Chu but he is my senior by more than ten years. He gets ideas from his daily life and when he travels and writes them up as modern poems in Chinese. Then, he uses his strong Chinese Calligraphy foundation with creativity to showcase his poetry in a very modern way. I really love how he interpreted traditional Chinese Calligraphy and give it a new twist – on how it’s framed, on how he wrote, on how the layout of the words, on what type of papers, the color of the ink, etc. This is NOT your typical nor traditional Chinese Calligraphy.
And the Japanese flower arrangement accompanies around the calligraphy is another highlight of the show. At his talk, he told us that he started learning Calligraphy when he is 55 years od and start writing poetry when he is 60 years old. When I heard that, I was shocked.
I went to Missoula, Montana for a 5-months Photography School in the summer of 2009. During that time, I went to visit a small town called Philipsburg a few times. The town looks like a movie set because the buildings are nothing like where I came from (Taiwan or San Francisco Bay Area).
I didn’t know Montana has mining and the Montana sapphire comes in every color of the rainbow, yellow, pink, white, gold, green, parti-color (multi-colored) and blue in every shade!
My classmates and I went for our first gem gravel hunt – we bought a bag of Montana sapphire gravel, and the store provides all the tools. I was hooked, and it was so much fun. After the staff from the store teach us what to look for, we began a fun afternoon of a treasure hunting.
We found different sizes and colors of gemstones. The staff will help us to determine whether those gemstones are worth to spend extra money to get them heat treating and faceting (quality and size of the stones).
I selected a few largest and good enough quality gemstones to get heat treating and faceting, and planning one day I will make some jewelry pieces out of them. Now, 10 years later, I finally found a chance to do that.
In January this year, I saw a flyer outside of a Peet’s coffee in Palo Alto for a Jewelry Studio offering individual classes. I was so happy. So I checked out the website – 
I finally bring myself, and my gemstones to Carol’s studio. After some discussions, I began my first class with Carol. Boy, I have so much fun. It’s very therapeutic. It help me stay focus, calm, and at the same time, I have fun. It’s the same feeling when I am doing gardening, baking, painting or photography.
The studio also displays a lot of finished pieces. 現場也有展示很多已經完成的作品.
So my first project with Carol is a Raindrop Pendant with a sapphire mounted. I used the photo above as a guide, and I choose to use copper instead of silver this time.
The first two hours of the class was just getting that thin long piece ready to shape a raindrop form – first using a piercing saw to cut a long narrow piece from a big copper piece, and then using different grade or size of file tools to smooth the piece on 4 sides (front and back plus two edges), then to form the raindrop shape.
中間漏掉一些照片 – 把一細條銅片彎曲成水滴狀, 焊接, 穿洞 (鏈子可以過), 鑲鑽的爪子座台, 光是做到這裡, 就花了六小時. . . . . 要不是我享受那個做的過程和學習, 我會強力建議大家買現成的首飾就好了, 若你有收到別人親手做的東西, 不論是手工皂, 蠟燭, 皮革包, 首飾, 都要感恩, 因為不光是花錢花時間, 那個心, 才是無價!!!!!
My first handmade jewelry was back in 2017 in SF. They have three projects for you to choose from – a ring, a pair of earrings, and a pendant. I made a silver ring. Since it was a one-time class (I think it was a Groupon), many steps are already been taking care of to save time.
