fanciful devices: More Goodies 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.

4/3/10

More Goodies from my haul

I made some necklaces from some pieces from my Uruguay haul.

The first includes much randomness, many bits from Sparrow's package.

The second was color-inspired by Lorelei.

Then I made an assemblage of dirty whites, based around an antique white clay pipe stem from London.

Man I love them dirty whites!

Then it was on to 2 pairs of wacky raccoon bone and hair earrings.

This time I added some fancy rhinestone rondelles, Czech glass faceted garnet rondelles and sterling silver ear wires that I formed, hammered and oxidized myself.

That's my hair, from the way back where it wasn't missed.

I have so many random half-started bits on my table.

The image is from a very old book in French about Russian Icons that I got in Uruguay. It's on an old piece of tin contact. There's a partially legless and entirely headless horse and rider figure in cast pewter.

Here's a weird soldering piece I started years ago. It's still hasn't been properly sanded and it also needs to be oxidized.

Here's where the heat of the iron cracked it:

Which shouldn't be a problem since it would still need a violent hammering to come apart.

And here's where it still needs to be taped and soldered:

2 comments:

Unknown said...: Your work really is a feast for the eyes. It amazes me how you can continue to assemble all of these bits of seeming randomness into one beautifully coherent piece after another. My money situation is far from agreeable to me right now, but someday I will have a Fanciful Device of my own & wear it proudly!; 4/4/10, 11:14 AM
fanciful devices said...: AWWWW!! Thank you so much for saying that!!
I'm so bad in regards to money that I actually enjoy a comment like that more than I do a sale. I mean, I can't buy supplies w/that comment, but it keeps me happy, feeling like I'm going in the right direction, feeling like I am a success despite my bank account.
"A feast for the eyes"!!!
I'm gonna repeat that to myself all week, I'm sure.; 4/4/10, 10:20 PM