My Current Favorites – [August 2025] – Illumination, Charisma, DIY, A Dream within a dream
I spent a whole month in the Paris region cat-sitting for friends while they were on vacation, so I had quite a variety of activities.
Illumination
I don’t know if I’ve ever told you about my obsession with illumination, but it’s been going on for several years now.
I’d wanted to train in illumination for years, but it wasn’t until this year that I was in Paris at the right time and could sign up for Florence Aseult’s illumination workshop. Several participants said that illumination had become an obsession, and it was only by practicing it that I understood why. It’s the first time I’ve seen a repetitive task that lasts for hours (applying paint in several thin layers) in a craft; and since it doesn’t require much thinking, you enter a ‘flow’ state comparable to meditation. You cut yourself off from the outside world, find yourself face to face with yourself, and it’s incredibly relaxing. When I saw the subject on the first day (a dragon), I thought I’d never manage it in 2 days. At the end of the first day, I went home feeling very confused and full of doubts because the result was really bad and I don’t even know where I messed up, as I felt I had followed the instructions more or less. Luckily, on the second day, when we started adding shading, my drawing finally started to look like something. I’m quite proud of myself, even though the result looks NOTHING like the original model.
There are some people who do illumination for the first time and manage 10 times better than me. I believe in innate talent but also in hard work and perseverance. After this illumination workshop, I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t consider a career change into craftsmanship. The main reason is my lack of dexterity. I know it can be worked on, but I’ve been able to compare mine with others during numerous workshops and classes. A person with less dexterity like me, instead of putting in 10,000 hours to master an art, might put in 15,000, for example. Whereas innate talent could have brought that down to 8,000 hours.
I speak from experience: being naturally gifted in music, I’ve been able to concretely measure the advantage that innate abilities represent. The number of hours of practice I saved compared to my fellow conservatory students is striking.
Paradoxically, we are often drawn to areas where we excel the least, because those where we succeed naturally seem to lack challenge. Our talents often elude us precisely because they come to us effortlessly. We naively assume that everyone masters what seems obvious to us as easily as we do. That’s why the external perspective—teachers, colleagues, managers—is so valuable: it reveals those easefulness that we no longer perceive.
The anecdote about Jeff Bezos perfectly illustrates this reality: at Princeton, he and his roommate spent three hours struggling with a math problem. Exhausted and discouraged, they went to see Yasantha, their Sri Lankan classmate. He solved in minutes what had taken them hours without success. Bezos realized at that moment that he could never compete with true natural talents in theoretical physics. Rather than stubbornly pursuing a path where he would always struggle against geniuses like Yasantha, he had the wisdom to pivot to computer science and engineering—fields where his natural abilities could fully flourish. That decision led him to create Amazon. Imagine if he had persisted in physics out of pride: instead of revolutionizing global commerce, he would likely have had a laborious academic career, always trailing behind the true prodigies.
I will continue these craft practices for the pleasure they bring and the independence they offer. They free me from the dictates of the market and trends, allowing me to materialize my own creative desires. But my priority now will be to find a field where I am naturally gifted and that I am passionate about.
Lucy Boucher
At the rare book fair in Paris in 2023, I came across an illustration by the artist Lucy Boucher. I wanted to buy it, but I was told it was for decorating the booth and that I had to buy the whole book (€1000, I think) to have it. I have a bad habit of inventing challenges when someone says ‘no,’ and I believe it was from that moment that I developed an obsession with illumination.
I finally got my hands on a Lucy Boucher illustration after two years of searching and alerts on auction sites. It’s not the same one from the fair, but another, similar one. This style isn’t illumination, but it’s a form of modern illumination. The artists who do it are called ‘miniature painters.’ Instead of making a single copy like medieval illumination, stencils are used to reproduce illustrations up to 1,000 copies. But it’s no walk in the park. It’s very manual. Pigments are applied using zinc stencils. It takes between 20 and 80 passes for one drawing. I found this one for 25 euros on Vinted (a steal!). You’ll find this kind of illustration in art books, books for bibliophiles published in the 60s. Some are signed and offered with the book; others are taken from books, as is the case with my illustration. In any case, the colors are very vibrant and the illustrations are often gilded (with gold powder).
The nano bags
For leather goods, I understood that I had to repeat the same gestures over and over to improve. So, I make micro bags. I waste less leather, while still making all the parts of a bag. I believe luxury brands make up to 20 prototypes before the final design. I’m only on my 3rd prototype. I’m not satisfied with the design yet, but I see improvements from one design to the next. By repeating the same gestures, I no longer make the same mistakes and the finishes are better. I really like it because it’s the first time I can afford to take the time to execute each gesture properly. Before, I was often constrained by time or the need to have the object immediately (to use).
So you can see:
- my blue micro bag that can only hold AirPods Pro. The downside of this design is the lack of reinforcement; the bag warps over time.
- my micro bag that can only hold AirPods Pro. The downside of this design is the snap button, which I find way too thick.
- my micro bag that can hold 2 credit cards, AirPods Pro & my keys. The downside of this design is the zipper closure being too short. The micro bag’s dimensions are just right, but the handles are too long and thin.
I visited quite a few museums this month, but my favorite remains the Jacquemart-André, which I mentioned in another article.
A Dream Within a Dream
It’s a Chinese drama that came out this summer.
Synopsis: Song Xiaoyu, a young aspiring actress, finds herself transported into the world of the script she was reading… in the shoes of the tragic heroine Song Yimeng. Knowing the storyline, she tries to change her heroine’s fate, but it’s intimately tied to that of Prince Nan Heng, played by Liu Yuning. Some key scenes absolutely must play out, no matter her efforts, because they’re dictated by the script.
The series has 40 fairly short episodes, and frankly, it’s hilarious.
As episodes go by, other characters also start to realize they’re just characters in a script. At first, they don’t believe it, of course (who would easily accept that their world doesn’t exist?), but little by little, they too try to take control of their own path. This echoes themes deeply rooted in Asian culture: determinism, the question of free will, and the idea that our world might be an illusion, a dream. And that when we “wake up,” we’ll return to a primordial form, to the “SOURCE” (the Tao). Yet, the series offers a subtle reading: even if this world is fictional, even if it’s pre-written, it deserves to be lived to the fullest, with intensity and freedom.
This seems to be a response to a current trend in Asia, where some people choose to completely detach from society, convinced they’ve reached a form ofenlightenment. But the series seems to suggest that the human experience, flawed as it may be, must first be fully lived. It’s only after going through life in all its complexity that a true return to the “source” can have meaning. In other words, fleeing the world in the name of enlightenment might itself be an illusion, because inner growth comes first through engagement with one’s environment, whatever it is.
Among the supporting characters, one stood out to me: a young man born into a good family, not very sharp but doing well because he’s well surrounded. He doesn’t realize his luck or his position. And the most ironic part? Every time he fails due to his own decisions, he blames the hero. Sure, the hero isn’t the nicest person on the planet either, but this supporting character is also responsible for quite a few dramas in his life that he won’t admit. The more he goes after the hero, the more the hero rises. This kind of character isn’t fictional: we meet them in real life. People stuck in a permanent victim stance, unable to question themselves, shirking responsibility and preferring to blame others rather than look in the mirror.
Finally, there’s another extremely intelligent female character, a “high achiever“. Yet, she embodies what you might call a “doormat girl”: she chases after her crush, draws 73 portraits of him in three days, devotes herself entirely. And in the end, he confesses that all that devotion makes him feel useless, that he has no place because she already does everything. This dynamic is very telling: when someone gives everything, they end up smothering the other, reducing them to a passive role. Over time, the giver ends up exhausted, feeling alone in the emotion. And often, they’re the one who eventually explodes, reproaching the other for their inaction, even though they’ve taken up all the space from the beginning. It’s a painful paradox: he feels erased, she feels misunderstood and unloved. She gives everything, he’s ungrateful. It’s a common trap for “high achievers“. You need a balance, like yin and yang. In the series, they end up married and happy, but in real life, we tend more toward divorce, like Astrid and her husband in the excellent Crazy Rich Asianss. When a man knows he doesn’t deserve a certain woman and says it loud and clear, you should listen, believe him, instead of running after him.
Anyway, although it’s a “period” drama, it carries very interesting philosophical and societal messages. The ending, which I won’t spoil, is surprising, and fans have been constantly theorizing since it aired.
Charisma
During my visits, I met a very charismatic woman for whom I had a true platonic crush. She exudes one of the three types of charisma you see in books: presence, power and warmth (presence, power and warmth), and in this specific case, it’s “presence.” According to Olivia Fox Cabane, charisma is made up of three interconnected fundamental elements:
- Presence: being fully here and now in an interaction, which builds trust and makes the other person feel valued.
- Power: the perception of one’s ability to influence the world around them, through expertise, status, body language, etc.
- Warmth: visible kindness towards others.
You get the feeling that when you talk to her, nothing else around you exists. There’s such concentration in her gaze, in her active listening, in the way she rephrases what I’ve just said (to make sure she’s understood my message correctly), thatyou feel understood and appreciated for who you truly are—while others are usually busy thinking about what they’ll say next or preparing arguments to contradict you. This is the first time I’ve met someone in person with such charisma.
In literature, there’s Gatsby:
He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. A smile that, for a moment, seemed to face the whole external world, then turned to you, with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best moments, you hoped to convey.
The second example is someone I’ve only heard about. She’s a friend of a friend. I learned through this friend that this woman had a studio in central Paris, lent to her by her boss for free (with no ulterior motives). I later learned she was the kind of woman people did favors for just to stay friends with her and bask in her presence and light. I asked where her charisma came from, and I was told about presence, concentration… exactly like the woman I met this summer.
I don’t have examples for the second category, “power,” but I have an example of charisma from the last category: “warmth.” A friend gave me a session with a chiropractor, and she told me how she’d “found” him. She was at a public event on the street, and when this chiropractor arrived, he gave off such a strong energy that everyone turned around as if he were Jesus and wondered, “who is that?” During the treatment with him, I understood he had a “guru” energy: he radiates unconditional love, without judgment, that I’ve never seen anywhere else. I understand better why people bow down to gurus, give them their entire fortune, just to be near that field of unconditional love. Unconditional love rarely emanates from perfect strangers—I feel like only a mother can offer it. And not even all mothers, at that. That’s why it’s so rare and irresistible. I’ve told this story to many people, and they all asked why I hadn’t gone back to see this chiropractor. I told them I certainly wasn’t looking for a guru 😀 I just needed to know it existed and that it was the 4th strongest energy a human being can emit (above 500, according to the book Power vs. Force by David R. Hawkins). Before seeking it from an external source, it’s better to work on giving yourself unconditional love.
All of this made me understand that charm trumps physical beauty. If beauty can spark jealousy, charm instantly makes a person more attractive and magnetic. I think charisma can be cultivated, but not in a manipulative way—it’s about aura.
A charismatic person has a naturally high energy level, or works to raise it. This intensity allows them to radiate and share that energy unlimitedly with those around them. Conversely, I’ve also met someone whose aura was extraordinary (a friend crush too), only to see it fade over time due to difficult life circumstances. This confirms that this energy isn’t set in stone and needs to be maintained. Many people miss this nuance and wonder “why do people avoid me even though I smile constantly?”. It’s because others intuitively sense it’s a fake smile, masking deep unease or artificially sustained by Xanax and co. Smiling more doesn’t guarantee being perceived as happy, and this dissonance is immediately felt.
I hope you had a lovely summer, and that I’ll have lots of great things to show you in September.
