Howard Finster's 'Paradise': The South's most inspired garden

Pennville, Georgia (CNN) -- A human face appeared in white paint on the end of his finger.

It sounds crazy, but the way late folk artist Howard Finster told the story, the mysterious face said, "Paint sacred art; paint sacred art."

The vision came to the retired Baptist preacher in 1976 while he was working on a bicycle in his Pennville, Georgia, repair shop. One of a lifelong string of visions, it was just the sign he needed to devote the rest of his days to spreading God's message through art.

Finster was 59.

"When most people are winding down, he was winding up," said Jordan Poole, executive director of Paradise Garden, a 4-acre property teeming with Finster's creations, about 90 miles northwest of Atlanta.

And more than a dozen years after his death, interest in Finster seems to be winding up again, too.

Howard Finster displayed the work of other artists alongside his own on the walls of the garden's "Rolling Chair Ramp."

He's one of the headliners in a new exhibit in Baltimore at the American Visionary Art Museum, which bills him as "America's most prolific self-tutored and 'on fire' artist." He's also the star of the documentary "Paradise Garden: Howard Finster's Legacy," released this year by Art West Film.

But perhaps most significant, there's a revival under way in the garden where he worked frenetically, day and night, to grow towering heaps of bicycle parts and a meditation chapel draped in whimsical bric-a-brac along with hand-painted Bible verses, a covered "Rolling Chair" gallery, the glimmering World's Folk Art Church and a mosaic wonderland embedded with plastic toys, fragments of mirror, shards of colored glass, Madonnas and more.

Paradise Garden is located about 90 miles northwest of Atlanta in unincorporated Pennville, Georgia. The garden is open Tuesday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for seniors and $2 for children.

The documentary "Paradise Garden: Howard Finster's Legacy" is showing November 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the Goat Farm Arts Center in Atlanta.

Finster was a musician, a showman and an avid artistic collaborator.

In the 1980s, he designed album covers for R.E.M. and the Talking Heads, and charmed audiences with his tales, songs and banjo-playing on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show." R.E.M.'s "Radio Free Europe" music video was filmed in the garden.

Yet his overarching purpose was clear, and he defined it simply: "God called me here. I'm interested in every human being in this world," he said during a 1987 event at the garden.

"I didn't come here to put nothin' on nobody, push nothin' on nobody. I didn't come here to take nothin' away from nobody. I didn't come here to start some new kind of religion.

"I come here for one thing, and that is, I have visions of other worlds. I have visions that's inimaginable. I have visions that I can't even tell people. And I try, the best I can, to draw my visions," he said.

MORE: 6 reasons to love Atlanta

He didn't sleep much. Finster produced 46,991 numbered works before he died in 2001 at 84. And that figure doesn't include most of what's on view in the garden.

The jumbled property in northern Georgia was in desperate need of attention after Chattooga County purchased the garden in late 2011 and handed management to the Paradise Garden Foundation in 2012.

Over the past few years, the foundation has literally been digging the art out. The new documentary film, directed by Ava Leigh Stewart, chronicles the process from the beginning.

The swampy ground where the Finster family made their home in the early 1960s had started to reclaim some of the structures that sprouted up in the garden over the years. With the help of more than $700,000 in grant money, the foundation has raised and stabilized many of the garden's key attractions.

The restoration has been a delicate balance, though.

"We went to great lengths to have it slightly decayed-looking. We don't want it to be pristine," Poole said.

A mural called the "People of Nineveh" adorns an exterior wall of Finster's former studio.

Finster and his wife, Pauline, moved down the road to Summerville in the early '90s after Pauline got fed up with fans turning up at all hours for an audience with her husband. Although Finster still spent a lot of time at the garden, it didn't get as much attention after the couple moved, Poole said, and deteriorated after Finster's death in 2001.

Now, there's a new visitor center with exhibition space and an audiovisual experience that introduces guests to the "man of visions," plus new plumbing and electricity for that unglorifed but essential museum amenity: restrooms.

The site is now welcoming about 7,000 visitors a year, Poole said.

It's not a huge number but definitely a huge spike. Visitation jumped by more than 400% between August 2012 and August 2014.

The restoration is good for the garden, but it's also good for the unincorporated community of Pennville and neighboring Summerville.

"It's not just to save the place for its own sake but ... to help a community and be a part of that community and to reawaken a community that was really and truly almost dead just a couple years ago," said Poole, who grew up in Summerville.

New businesses and art galleries have opened. There's more activism around the arts, and local business are embracing cultural tourism, Poole said.

There's still a lot of work to be done. The foundation aims to raise $900,000 for the next phase of the garden's revival.

One key goal of the next phase's capital campaign is to rehabilitate the rotting interior of the World's Folk Art Church, a church that Finster bought with a grant in 1982 and retopped to look like a towering wedding cake.

Despite the work ahead, the transformation is already apparent to repeat visitors.

Theresa Dean, 56, an art teacher from Sandy Springs, Georgia, has been to the garden several times since her first visit in 2007. She visited again at the end of October with a group of middle school students.

There's been a "huge change" since her last visit about two years ago, she said.

"It's beautiful," Dean said. "I can tell they're still working, but it just seems like it's loved, well-loved."

The life aquatic: Amazing underwater photos from around the world

(CNN) -- "The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever." -- French explorer Jacques Cousteau

It's said that the ocean is like space: Vast and filled with life, most of which we have yet to discover. The aquatic frontier captivates those who dare to explore its depths, by offering a new realm filled with color and mystery.

Living 60 feet underwater for 31 days

Wow! Giant s

In 1968, with the advent of color TV, French explorer Jacques Cousteau introduced viewers to the deep blue sea with his show, "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau," which used underwater cinematography to bring the beauty and wonder of the ocean to viewers around the globe.

Fabien Cousteau spends 31 days under the sea

Today, thanks to relatively inexpensive, yet highly sophisticated equipment and access to diving lessons, photographers are able to explore the ocean through their own lens. CNN invited enthusiasts to share their best underwater photos and the stories behind their explorations under the sea.

Ready to dive into the world of underwater photography? Explore the gallery above to view some of the best user-submitted photos and to find out how they captured these amazing underwater images.

Processo Ruby: "Nelle orge Belen Rodriguez, Nicole Minetti e Barbara D'Urso"

"Rapporti con Minetti, Faggioli, Rodriguez e tante altre", queste le dichiarazioni bollenti della giovane nel 2010, ai tempi minorenne, sul bunga bunga ad Arcore.

Pubblicate le motivazioni della sentenza che ha visto condannato Silvio Berlusconi al processo Ruby, presso il tribunale di Milano. Fino ad oggi l’ex premier ha sempre descritto i festini ad Arcore come “cene eleganti”, ma con la pubblicazione delle motivazioni, sono venute a galla anche le dichiarazioni di Ruby Rubacuori rilasciate nel 2010, più volte ritrattate in seguito, portando i giudici a reputare inattendibile la teste. Il testo integrale delle carte è stato pubblicato su il Fatto Quotidiano.it: Ruby, nelle prime testimonianze avrebbe parlato chiaramente di orge.

La ragazza marocchina, ai tempi minorenne, raccontava nel 2010 che le serate di Arcore potevano essere molto affollate di personaggi di vario genere. Inoltre descrisse nel dettaglio la pratica del “bunga bunga”, nella quale: “tutte le ragazze erano completamente nude ed alcune (Barbara D'Urso, la Carfagna, la Yespica, la Rodriguez, la Faggioli e altre che non ricordo) si masturbavano ed altre facevano contestualmente petting fra di loro (Marincea, Amanda Del Valle e anche la Rodriguez). Berlusconi, vestito in maniera elegante (giacca e cravatta) era l'unico uomo presente ed assisteva; ad un certo punto ricordo di averlo visto leccare i genitali di Sara Tommasi.” Ruby, secondo la sua testimonianza, restò a dormire ad Arcore, in una “stanza prospiciente quella dove si ritirarono insieme il predetto Berlusconi, Belen Rodiguez, Nicole Minetti e Barbara Faggioli.”

Un insieme di personaggi che hanno spinto la ragazza “Animata dalla curiosità” ad avvicinarsi: “poco dopo mi alzai per spiare all'interno della stanza la cui porta non era chiusa a chiave.” Qui avrebbe trovato: “Minetti che praticava un rapporto orale a Berlusconi mentre lo stesso leccava i genitali della Rodriguez mentre la Faggioli era intenta a ballare nuda.” 

Dichiarazioni scottanti, che hanno suscitato non poche reazioni; già oggi, dopo la pubblicazione, Belen Rodriguez ha minacciato querele. I suoi legali hanno diffuso la seguente nota: “In relazione alle notizie pubblicate in queste ore su alcuni siti tratte da dichiarazioni che sarebbero state rilasciate da Ruby circa la partecipazione di Belen Rodriguez a festini o "cene eleganti" la signora Belen Rodriguez intende precisare e ribadire quanto già dichiarato, a suo tempo, avanti al magistrato. ‘Non ha mai preso parte a tali festini o cene e si riserva di adire la magistratura contro chiunque diffonda tali false notizie.’ La signora Rodriguez precisa di aver già conferito mandato al suo legale di agire contro coloro che hanno diffuso tali notizie.”

Anche Barbara d'Urso ha minacciato querele, ribadendo le dichirazioni che rilasciò ai giudici: "Mai stata a cena ad Arcore, solo un pranzo dieci anni fa."

The most romantic places in Rome

Rome is not only a capital city rich in history, but also the Eternal City par excellence, universally recognized for its unique charm, its history, its tradition, its culture. If you plan a trip with your partner, there are places you shouldn’t miss. Let’s see the most romantic places in Rome, for you to enjoy a visit to the city in different way from the usual tourist canons and by living life to the fullest, one quite carefree and romantic.

The quintessential romantic people should start their visit in the early morning and go up the steps of Piazza di Spagna, to enjoy a coffee and enjoy a few moments of intimacy before the hordes of tourists start crowding the square and spoil the magic atmosphere.

Trevi Fountain

Piazza di Spagna

You can continue the rendez-vous with a walk through Rome, passing through the streets of the old town to the Villa Borghese. Once in the park of Villa Borghese, you can enjoy the park while having a picnic, a trip on the lake or just a walk hand-in-hand towards the Pincio terrace that gives you the breathtaking view of the city and the Piazza del Popolo.

Panorama from Pincio Terrace

In the afternoon, the Park of the Janiculum is much less crowded than the streets of downtown. This will ensure a bit of privacy as you will only meet other couples enjoying their walk as you do. Head for the Pantheon and the monument of Vittorio Emanuele in the Piazza Venezia and sit on the steps of the Quercia del Tasso Amphitheatre.

Pantheon

At sunset you can not miss the Imàgo Hotel Hassler, a restaurant with a terrace, located in the Piazza Trinita dei Monti, to enjoy a great view, incomparable and unique, with good company and a good drink. A super-romantic evening is guaranteed with a boat cruise, including maybe a dinner along the Tiber, from Ponte Duca d’Aosta to Tiberina Island and back, enjoying the view as a dessert of real jewels of Rome: Castel Sant’Angelo, St. Peter’s and the Janiculum.

Castel Sant’Angelo

After your dinner, you can head north and walk on the Milvian Bridge, which connects the Cardinal Consalvi square to the square of the Milvian Bridge, known as the Bridge of lovers. There, you wil find many love locks, signs of love of a lot of couples. Continuing the tour, you can head towards the Trevi Fountain illuminated at night to show all its glory, making it of course even more beautiful at night than during the day. There, you have to throw a coin behind your shoulder in the fountain and make two wishes. Of course, one will be to bring you back to Rome one day.

A couple in Milvian Bridge

Shame on Monica Lewinsky

(CNN) -- Shameless. There's no other word to describe Monica Lewinsky. Sixteen years after her affair with President Bill Clinton became public knowledge, she's returned to the limelight with a campaign against cyberbullying -- of which she claims to have been "patient zero."

Ignore the fact that she was patently not the primary victim in the Zippergate affair (poor Hillary Clinton was) or that any comparison with someone suffering a disease, especially at a time when people are dropping dead from Ebola, is tasteless in the extreme.

What's most depressing is that when she rejoined the public stage, she said she was inspired to speak out by the story of Tyler Clementi, a student who committed suicide after a video of him kissing another boy went up online. Young Clementi was the victim of societal homophobia as well as an invasion of his privacy, and his death makes any comparison with Lewinsky's self-imposed troubles ridiculous. Moreover, Clementi died in 2010. Lewinsky has decided to revisit his cause in 2014, suggesting that the timing may have less to do with him than it does with Hillary Clinton.

 

And, of course, this will be embarrassing for Hillary Clinton. Lewinsky has joined Twitter, which will allow her to make uncensored remarks in the course of the 2016 campaign. And Lewinsky has also lashed out at the way the White House machine trashed her in its desire to protect Bill Clinton's reputation (as it was paid to do -- she had an affair with the President of the United States, not an anonymous bank manager no one gave a damn about).

Another view: Stop judging Monica Lewinsky

All of which will give ammunition to Hillary Clinton's critics on both the right and left. The right won't have to waste its own resources reminding people of the seedier side of the Clinton years -- Lewinsky can do that now. And Democratic opponents to the left of Hillary Clinton will rejoice that someone is perpetuating the narrative that the Clintons are gangsters who toy with the lives of others.

Lewinsky's new cyberbullying angle is inspired: A significant number of Hollywood liberals must live in terror of unflattering/undressed photos of them getting out online.

But while Lewinsky grabs some TV time talking about her own liberties, she forgets those of her fellow sisters -- the mistreated wives. Imagine that your husband was caught cheating and the contents of your marriage were discussed every night on television. Would you feel happy about his mistress reappearing 16 years later to drag the whole thing up again, and even to play the victim? Does Hillary Clinton not have a right to put this scandal behind her and have a political identity separate from her husband's?

Lewinsky says that she wants to take on the "shame game." But what she did all those years ago and what she's doing now makes her a perfect candidate for a good, old-fashioned shaming.

VIDEO - Indonesia's 'discriminatory, cruel and degrading' test for female police recruits

Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) -- The Indonesian police continue to use a "degrading" invasive physical test to check for female recruits virginity, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report has claimed.

A manual examination is used to physically check for an intact hymen in the recruits, the report alleges.

It is, according to the report, a long-standing part of the health check that women must undergo to be accepted onto the force.

While the virginity test is not specifically part of the required "obstetrics and gynecology" examination that female recruits are required to undergo to gain entry to the National Police, senior female officers told the report's authors that it has long been part of the process.

Virginity a requirement

The National Police website lists the health requirements for female recruits, listing virginity as one of the requirements.

"In addition to the other medical and physical examinations. Women who want to become policewomen are to undergo a virginity test. Policewomen must keep their virginity," the informational page states. It ends the section with a cheery "thank you" and a smiley-face emoticon.

Married women are not eligible to apply for service in the police force.

Police: Exams applicable to both sexes

A police spokesperson told CNN that all recruits, not only female, were subject to thorough medical tests that included examination of genitalia.

"Overall, the medical and physical examination has two main objectives. The first one is to make sure that the candidates' health and physical condition will not harm them when admitted into police force," spokesperson Roni Sompie said.

"Secondly, it is to make sure that they do not possess any communicable diseases that will not allow them to perform maximally as trained police personnel," he said.

"As to the examination of the virginity, it is just a part of the whole medical and physical test, not intended to solely seek for the virginity condition. Or it can not be put in a perspective for the sake of finding out the virginity, instead, it is for the sake of the completeness of medical and physical examination."

Sompie also said that the HRW report was incomplete because it had not sought comment from police medical authorities.

'Discriminatory, cruel, degrading'

HRW says they interviewed several female officers and applicants, as well as police medical and recruitment staff. They also say they spoke with a National Police commission member. The officers and recruits who had undergone the test called it "painful" and "traumatic."

The report describes the test, administered by Police Medical and Health Center staff in police hospitals in the cities of Bandung, Jakarta, Padang, Pekanbaru, Makassar, and Medan, as "discriminatory, cruel (and) degrading."

One recruit interviewed by HRW for the report said: "Entering the virginity test examination room was really upsetting. I feared that after they performed the test I would not be a virgin anymore. It really hurt. My friend even fainted because... it really hurt, really hurt."

HRW called the test "subjective and unscientific."

"The Indonesian National Police's use of 'virginity tests' is a discriminatory practice that harms and humiliates women," said Nisha Varia, associate women's rights director at Human Rights Watch in a statement.

"Police authorities in Jakarta need to immediately and unequivocally abolish the test, and then make certain that all police recruiting stations nationwide stop administering it."

Outside condemnation

Women's rights advocates have corroborated the HRW reports' findings.

"Over the last 12 years, I have been visited by many police women complaining about virginity tests conducted by police department, with some of them (saying) they have suffered from trauma having conducted the test, because they felt painful and they felt ashamed of being tested. The trauma lasts even until now," Yefri Heriyani, of Padang based Women's Crisis center Nurani Perempuan, told CNN.

"We protest this virginity test, which is now disguised under the name 'medical and physical examination' ... Virginity tests (are) one of the forms of sexual violence, and therefore a human rights violation. We demand an end to this practice."

Reform attempts insufficient

Attempts to reform the physical and abolish the "archaic" test, HRW says, have failed and the use of the test still widespread.

The group says virginity tests contradict internationally-agreed human rights standards. The rights organization has also cataloged similar abuses by police in several other countries including Egypt, India, and Afghanistan, and has previously spoken out against virginity tests for Indonesian schoolgirls.

HRW say the report is counterproductive to the Indonesian government's aim to recruit more women to the police force.

"So-called virginity tests are discriminatory and a form of gender-based violence -- not a measure of women's eligibility for a career in the police," Varia said.

"This pernicious practice not only keeps able women out of the police, but deprives all Indonesians of a police force with the most genuinely qualified officers."

In the shadow of the storm called Ferguson, a quiet grave

Normandy, Missouri (CNN) -- The 119 acres of St. Peter's Cemetery lie blanketed by the season's first snowfall. A hush fills the air; the only sound is the wind blowing accumulated snow, like confectioners' sugar, off the branches of nearly bare trees.

I enter through the gate on Lucas and Hunt Road, thinking back to a decidedly different day in late August. The sun was bright and hot for late summer. The verdant oaks and elms soared to the sky.

I have written down the grave I am seeking: Section 10, Block F, Lot 12, Grave 4.

Inside the cemetery office, I inquire how to find this particular grave in this vast space. An employee looks at the number scribbled in my reporter's notebook.

"Oh."

A small bouquet of plastic flowers marks the grave of Michael Brown in St. Peter's Cemetery.

I look at him, not knowing at first what to make of his reaction.

From behind the counter, he whips out a photocopied flier.

"You're looking for Michael Brown, right?"

I nod, yes, and glance at the flier. It's a cemetery map. I see Brown's name and a hand-drawn line pointing to the lot where he is buried. The fliers became necessary because so many visitors asked the same question I did.

Several have already been here today, says the man behind the counter. Even in this cold.

I head down St. Peter's Drive to the intersection of Hickory, just as the man instructed. I see why a marked map is necessary. There are rows and rows of graves. The sections are not marked, and the headstones are low and not that distinctive.

Ferguson couple: We're afraid, staying

Officer Darren Wilson shown in new video?

I am searching for something that says his name: Michael Brown. Such a common name, I think. How many Michael Browns do I know? At least six that I can recall in an instant.

But I cannot find him. I study the flier, fluttering in the frigid wind, and discern that he is somewhere between others whose names are marked on the map. Bradley. Wilder. Hamilton.

Then, I see the footprints, fresh on the snow. The rest of the field is pristine, but there has been a flurry of foot traffic here. I follow the footprints to a small bouquet of plastic flowers, red and purple, planted in the ground.

There is not yet a headstone at Brown's grave. I stand where Brown's parents wailed as their son's casket was lowered on August 25 into a copper vault. Sixteen days before, he had been shot dead by Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson.

One minute, the 18-year-old stood 6 feet 4. The next, he fell to the ground on Canfield Drive. His blood colored the dull asphalt.

He lay there for four hours.

Photos of his body on social media heightened the anger over a police officer's killing of an unarmed black teenager. Brown became a symbol.

What #Ferguson stands for

We all know what happened in the days and weeks afterward.

What a contrast there is between those days and this one. Hot against cold. Fury against calm.

A tale of two streets in Ferguson

A black hearse carried Brown's gold and black casket through the streets of St. Louis on that late August day. A white horse-drawn wagon delivered him to his final resting place. A photograph taken after everyone was gone shows a spot in the field where grass was disturbed and the dirt turned and showered with a burst of red and white roses.

Now nothing remains but the plastic flowers. Almost three long months have passed. Ferguson is not resolved.

It's her Ferguson -- and it's not all black and white

The August 9 shooting death of Michael Brown has sparked a national debate over race and police conduct.

What would Brown think if he could see what is happening in his name today?

Perhaps he would approve of the demands for justice and calls for reform. But how would he feel about the violent protests? About the way his hometown, just a few miles from here, waits with fear and anxiety for a grand jury decision?

His name was so ordinary. His headstone, I presume, will make it a tiny bit less so: Michael O.D. Brown. That's what the copper vault said. But through death, his life turned out to be anything but ordinary.

Michael O.D. Brown's exit from this world unleashed a seething anger and sparked a new conversation about an age-old problem.

Some people believe him to be a thug who shoved the clerk at the Ferguson Market and Liquor and then stole Swisher Sweets cigars. Some people believe he provoked Wilson, the police officer.

But those who make the pilgrimage to his grave site, I imagine, see him another way. As a loving son, a brother. Or perhaps as a hero, a martyr of sorts. I wonder what else his headstone might say.

Standing at his grave, I feel the cold invade my bones. I get back in my rental car and leave the quiet of St. Peter's to return to the storm of Ferguson.

How did this human face appear in a gemstone?

(CNN) -- Locked inside the gemstone there appears to be a human face.

As the jewel is turned it fragments, appearing to be looking in several different directions at once.

How the disembodied head, which seems to have a life of its own, was spirited into the gem seems to be something of a mystery.

"It is a sacred thing to create a face," says Wallace Chan, 58, the Chinese artisan jeweler that produced the piece.

"It's like a ghost appearing in the gem as you work. The dialogue of gemstone, color and light gives it life.

"There is a Buddhist saying that every person has many selves, and that inspired me spiritually as I created this work."

The work, Now and Always, is a depiction of Horae, the Greek goddess of the seasons. Her dancing was said to move the year from through winter to fall, spring and summer.

Such a multifaceted figure from mythology seemed the perfect inspiration for the jeweler.

Chan's exceptional artistry has caught the eye of a number of high-profile buyers, including Francois Curiel, chairman of Christie's in Asia, and Prince Henrik of Denmark.

Each piece can take me thousands of hours
Wallace Chan, jeweler

Carving out his own identity

It's not the first time that Chan has "created" a human face in a jewel. But Now and Always is certainly the finest demonstration of the "Wallace cut", a technique that Chan invented and perfected over decades.

Rather than cutting into the surface of the jewel, shaping it into a geometric form, Chan cuts into it from the back, carving out complex images from inside the gem.

"Every stroke and cut has to consider movement of the light," he says. "It took a lot of practice because I had to learn how to carve in reverse.

"When you work from the back of the jewel, right is left, top is bottom and deep becomes shallow. It is like having to drive a car backwards and forwards at the same time."

Chan uses a dentist's drill with a specially adapted blade, which rotates 36,000 times a minute.

When he started using the tool, he quickly realized that the heat generated would damage the gemstone -- a major problem with material that is this expensive.

So he developed a technique of working under cold water.

"It means I can't see clearly when I'm cutting," he says. "It becomes a very repetitive process. I make one cut, take it out of the water to check it, dry the stone, check it again, and if it's fine I put it back in the water and make another cut."

This is a painstaking process, but for Chan it is also a meditative one.

He puts his "soul and consciousness into the creation", he says, and becomes so absorbed that he "forgets [his] own existence".

"My mind is one with the work, and my physical self is removed from the gemstone," he explains.

"It's quite emotional, because I'm within in the inner world of gemstone, focused on how the light enters and interacts with the colors."

READ: The jewelry made from boiled bones

My mind is one with the work, and my physical self is removed from the gemstone
Wallace Chan, jeweler

From rags to riches

Chan's technique is the culmination of many years of development.

He was born in a poor part of Fuzhou in 1958, and left school at the age of 13. In order to support his family, he became an apprentice to a sculptor making Chinese religious iconography.

He went on to study Western sculpture, and in 1974 set up his own workshop. After being commissioned by a Taiwanese art collector to make a jeweled "stupa", or Buddhist reliquary, Chan's focus shifted from sculpture to jewelery and he began to explore innovative techniques.

He began setting jewels in titanium instead of gold, which allowed him to create "jewelery sculptures" that were still light enough to wear. He also experimented with using gems to fix each other in place, rather than metal settings, as well as new methods of cutting jade.

But his dream was to find an entirely new way of working with gemstones. Gradually, he refined his ideas until he arrived at the concept of reverse cutting.

In the Eighties he began to practice, using cheap crystals. But after a year-and-a-half, he realized that the tools he had been using were not equal to the task.

So he visited factories that produced medical instruments, and after six months of research, came up with the idea of modifying a dentist's drill.

The rest is history. "It was the only way to satisfy the standard I wanted to achieve," he says.

READ: China bans television ads for bling

It is a sacred thing to create a face
Wallace Chan, jeweler

The height of exclusivity

Chan was the first Asian artist to exhibit his work at the prestigious Bienalle des Antiquaires in Paris. In 2012, he showed "Great Wall", a necklace made of diamond maple leaves with a central jade stone. It sold for $73.5 million.

This year, he showed "Vividity", a brooch featuring a deep pink, 64-carat Elbaite tourmaline surrounded by rubies and colored diamonds.

These pieces of jewelry carry such an aura of exclusivity that it is rare to find a Chan piece on the open market. Most of his work is sold directly to collectors, who are loath to sell them on.

When they are put up for sale, they carry hefty price tags. Two years ago, a small pair of Chan earrings sold in Hong Kong for $555,000.

"Each piece can take me thousands of hours," he says.

"It is like going on a journey each time."

Stand with the Maasai

Urgent update: Tanzania’s government is tearing up the promise we helped the Maasai win. Before they meet their Prime Minister to defend their sacred land, let's hit 2 million signers!

We are elders of the Maasai from Tanzania, one of Africa’s oldest tribes. The government has just announced that it plans to kick thousands of our families off our lands so that wealthy tourists can use them to shoot lions and leopards. The evictions are to begin immediately.

Last year, when word first leaked about this plan, almost one million Avaaz members rallied to our aid. Your attention and the storm it created forced the government to deny the plan, and set them back months. But the President has waited for international attention to die down, and now he’s revived his plan to take our land. We need your help again, urgently.

President Kikwete may not care about us, but he has shown he’ll respond to global media and public pressure -- to all of you! We may only have hours. Please stand with us to protect our land, our people and our world’s most majestic animals and tell everyone, before it is too late. This is our last hope.
-- The Maasai community of Ngorongoro District

VIDEO - Ai Fukuhara: From tearful toddler to Japan's table tennis queen

CNN's Human to Hero series celebrates inspiration and achievement in sport. Click here for times, videos and features

(CNN) -- Ai Fukuhara's face is a picture of concentration as she crouches over the table tennis table, batting ball after ball back to her opponent.

As she rocks back and forth, executing every flick, chip and smash with lightning speed, it's easy to see why she says the game calls for a nimble mind as well as quick hands and feet.

"Table tennis is often compared to a 100m run while playing chess," Fukuhara told CNN's Human to Hero series.

"It's really right. You have to think as well as move -- so not only does your energy get used up, but also your brain gets exhausted."

Despite being only 26 years old, Fukuhara is a veteran of the sport honing her game over the course of 16 years in the professional ranks and before that as a precocious amateur.

The girl affectionately known as "Ai-chan" (her first name means "love" in English) shot to fame in her native Japan following a series of appearances on national television when she was a toddler.

"I started table tennis at three years and nine months old and I've been covered by the media since I was four," she explains.

TV viewers marveled at the little girl from Sendai who could barely see over the top of the table but could hold her own against adult opponents.

But it was her tears when she lost a points that most people remember, earning her the nickname "cry baby."

Some of the footage, which can be found on YouTube, looks traumatic at times, but she recalls her early duels against TV opponents with a sense of fondness now.

"I was just putting my whole energy against them," she says. "I was just enjoying surprising people. I wanted to win the game. I was happy that people cheered for me."

The performances helped lodge Fukuhara's name in the public consciousness and set the tone for a life devoted to table tennis.

Today, Fukuhara trains for around six to seven hours every day and estimates to have completed more than 25,000 hours (nearly three years solid) of practice to date.

This work ethic, instilled by her mother, Chiyo, laid the foundations for her rapid rise through the junior ranks.

At five years old, she won her first national competition and turned pro at the age of 10 in 1999.

Four years later, she was representing her country at the world championships in Paris where she reached the quarterfinals, before making history at the 2004 Olympics in Athens when, aged 15 years, 287 days, she became the youngest-ever female table tennis player to appear at the Games.

A medal proved elusive at both Athens and Beijing four years later where she was afforded the honor of flag bearer for the Japanese team.

But a silver medal in the team event in London in 2012 earned her and Japan their first-ever medal in table tennis since it became an Olympic sport in 1988.

"Everyone was so happy (back at home). I was amazed how pleased they were.

"I was happy to win the medal but I felt even happier to show my medal to the people, and people living in the disaster zone," she says referring to her hometown of Sendai, which was devastated by a tsunami in March 2011.

There have been other triumphs at the table, notably five world championship bronze medals (four team and one mixed doubles), an individual bronze at the 2005 World Cup and a much coveted national title in 2012.

Finally winning her national championships was one of her proudest achievements.

"I finally won at my 13th try -- the competition was hard for me mentally (because) I couldn't win it for such a long time."

Fukuhara has also made an impact off the table, helping to popularize the game in her homeland while also cultivating an avid following in China by competing in the country's Super League.

She also speaks fluent Mandarin and was given an unofficial rubber stamp of approval when she played a few rallies against then Chinese President Hu Jintao during an official trip to Japan in 2008.

What is sky-running?

Today, her popularity in China remains strong and so does the rivalry against the sport's strongest nation.

"Right now, the biggest goal is to beat China," she says.

It's likely she will have to defeat them if she is to fulfill her childhood ambitions and claim gold at the Rio Olympics in just under two years' time.

"I want to be on the podium in both team and individual events there. I can't forget the view from the podium in London -- I feel so proud to see the Japanese flag being raised at (medal) ceremonies."

Fukuhara has defied the simplistic classifications that are frequently applied to child prodigies -- she hasn't become an all-conquering hero, yet, nor has she gone off the rails.

Instead, she has trodden a middle ground, retaining a sense of perspective and satisfaction despite having done much of her growing up in public.

"I'm very proud that I've been able to continue playing table tennis for such a long time," she said.

"I can play thanks to the support of a lot of people. And what makes me happy is to see those people's delighted faces and share a joy of victory with them."

"Seeing happy people gives me the most energy."

She just wishes more people would take up the game.

"Table tennis is such an interesting sport. It's fun to watch, but if you actually play you understand how great it is. If you ever get the chance, please pick up the racket and play!"

VIDEO - Carissa Moore: Surf queen carves out new era in women's boarding

CNN's Human to Hero series celebrates inspiration and achievement in sport. Click here for times, videos and features

(CNN) -- For the millions of us who sit at desks all day, Carissa Moore's description of her workplace might sound a little cruel.

"The water is my office and yeah, I get to spend almost every day in the ocean, and that's tremendous," Moore told CNN's Human to Hero series.

A place that conjures up an image of air-conditioned confinement to most means nothing but fresh air and freedom to the Hawaiian surfer.

"I just love riding a wave. I love getting up early in the morning and driving down to the beach and paddling out and every time I go out, I'm looking for that perfect wave," she explains.

"When you're out there and you find that one that you want to go for, it's just like everything else in the world disappears.

"It's just you and the ocean and just spontaneity and an expression of yourself. There's not really any thinking involved, it's just doing."

Admittedly, it may not be the most original statement ever uttered by a surfer, but Moore's career so far has been anything but derivative.

Carving up the field

The 22-year-old has taken the surfing world by storm in recent years, winning the women's world championship twice in the last four seasons.

Her first world crown was not only a personal triumph but a significant landmark for the sport as she clinched the title at the age of 18 to become the youngest-ever female world champion.

"My first world title in 2011 was a dream come true. I mean, I dreamed of it my entire life and so for it to finally pay off was the best thing ever," she says.

"I never really thought of myself being the youngest person. I still don't. I really don't look back and think, 'Oh! that was such an accomplishment!' I think it was more just like, 'Yeah, I won a world title and that really meant something.'

In a way it was nothing more than surfing aficionados had expected given her incredible progression as a junior.

Moore was born in Honolulu, on Hawaii's third biggest island, Oahu -- home to some of the world's most hallowed surf.

"Not only are the people so sweet, amazing and welcoming -- there's so much "aloha" -- but the waves are perfect for growing up as a surfer," she says.

Oahu's 110 miles of coastline is dotted with spectacular surfing spots from the vertiginous waves of Waimea Bay on the north shore to Waikiki Beach.

It was here, in the more benign waters in the south of the island, that Moore's father introduced her to the sport.

"My dad actually was a very serious water man. He swam, he paddleboard raced, he did all sorts of things in the water," she says.