fanciful devices: Ephemera from my haul.

A Stone Is Nobody's

A man ambushed a stone. Caught it.
Made it a prisoner.
Put it in a dark room and stood guard over it for the rest of his life.

His mother asked why.

He said, because it's held captive, because it is captured.

Look, the stone is asleep, she said, it does not know whether it's in a garden or not. Eternity and the stone
are mother and daughter; it is you who are getting old. The stone is only sleeping.

But I caught it, mother, it is mine by conquest, he said.

A stone is nobody's, not even its own. It is you who are conquered; you are minding the prisoner, which is yourself,
because you are afraid to go out, she said.

Yes yes, I am afraid, because you have never loved me, he said.

Which is true, because you have always been to me as the stone is to you, she said.

Russell Edson

FAQs

1. Are you a Southeast Asian dancing girl from the 1800s?

No, sorry to disappoint. My avatar and banner images are from an ancient book I found in the depths of my grandmother's cabinets. More on that here.

2. How do you make everything look so old?

First, you need a good oxidizer to brush on every bit of metal you can reach. I'll tell you all about it here.

Then there's this wax. I first mentioned it here. You'll have to scroll down a lot.

3. How can you be so productive?

I'm insanely obsessed and I have no offspring. I do nothing else- I don't have a day job, I don't clean my house or cook, I spend all day in pjs, often completely abandoning personal hygiene... I only interact with other humans when I walk my dog. And I like people! But I prefer dogs.

And I'm sloppy- but I make that sloppiness work for me.

4. Any tips you'd like to share?

No! Except for these 16 posts about techniques and this one about how to find your aesthetic.

5. Would you be offended if I took some inspiration from your designs?

Well, I'd be happier if you outright copied them.

No really, imitation is how we learn. I have enough ideas to go around. And even if I don't- please. No one's going to do this obsessively enough to threaten my business. (Probably.) I learned by copying others and I've seen others copy me as a step toward developing their own voice. So feel free. (I'd love if you tossed me a link in my comments, so I can feel like a proud momma.)

6. What do you look like?

Why, what have you heard? Really? Wow.

4/4/10

Ephemera from my haul.

I never took pictures of the amazing paper items I brought back from Uruguay. Since I was too lazy to set up pictures (PMS, ya know), I took the dreaded scan (creepy music plays).

These amazingly bright little cards, about the size of playing cards, maybe smaller, came in a lovely embossed folder envelope

I tried to get them all, there are hundreds, it seems. They're French, the envelope is embossed, the print is crazy vivid. I have another pack, more postcard-sized.

I also have a big ledger book, mostly blank:

The little book there has a snap closure, deckled edges and the sweetest yellowed pages. On the 1st 3 pages is a long dedication to my grandma from a class of students thanking her for teaching them so much.

On the one hand I shouldn't sell it. On the other, it'll just be more junk if I don't. And she didn't want it. Or know she had it.

Anywhoo, there along with the first page is a few of a massive piles of vintage bills given to me by my father-in-laws mentor/longtime boss/second father. They are bills from Japan from WWII. He got them off Japanese soldiers he killed while fighting in the pacific. I know! The really crazy beautiful ones, I'm keeping. The ones pictured here are some that have many, many multiples. I know I've seen these on ebay, but I don't want to bother w/ebay. On etsy? they're not exactly craft supplies. I mean, I'd like to make collage kits w/pages from the ledger book, old prayer cards and some other decorative paper I've piled up, bits of dresden and antique labels, ribbons, velvet flowers and decorative pins... Because I have a lot of neat stuff that's too nice to use as wrapping embellishment. (I use my extras to wrap. Buyers always mention it in their feedback. Sometimes more than the jewelry itself. :/)

But grandma's teacher gift and the cards are way too nice to take apart and use in crafts. The cards could be a real treasure to someone who loves history, beautiful little things and is, maybe, religious. But could I sell it in my shop? Would it be worth starting and maintaining a new shop for supplies? Would I be able to get a good price on etsy, considering what an amazing thing it is? And the bills, too. Not too many currency collectors on etsy. Maybe if I sold a bill at a time, like on ebay, it would be worth a second shop.

Here's a lovely accordion picture book about Genova.

I have several of these special things I'd like to sell. Many jewelry makers on etsy have a destash shop. I'm just feeling lazy because of PMS. I mean MS. Surely there are no male sensibilities to offend here by mentioning menstruation. I'm more careful about mentioning blood gushing out of my uterus since I started teaching Mexicans, see. That type of talk is horrifying to the males of the species.

I just typed a funny story here and lost it somehow. And am too menstrual to retype it.