fanciful devices: LK Farnsworth

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.

5/13/10

LK Farnsworth

I'm kinda obsessed with LK Farnsworth.

She is the creator of all this candy-coated sweetness.

Retro-style, color-saturated things that, as you can see, are nothing like anything I make.

But that I'd love to wear, since I cant really sport weird things at work w/o totally distracting my students.

These are so damn fresh and sweet and fun! And at $19-$21 they're super affordable.

There's some necklaces, too.

Though its the earrings where she really shines.

I even like these pink things, and I seem to have a subconscious aversion to pink as a sign of weakness or something.

Look at these crazy things!

She does do this odd thing where she often stands up flower drops so they seem to defy gravity. Bizarre, but original.

Ug, this green is so gorgeous it hurts!

And look at this cray turnip!

Seems like she must have infinite access to a defunct factory of bizarre rhinestones and cabochons.

Here's some from her massive sold section:

And you can see where I got my inspiration to use textured rhinestones.

Which you can see here:

But beyond that, it made me realize that a lot of my cute colorful beads would make nice earrings for me to actually keep for myself.

How long has it been since i made something for myself?

And I'm using these very 70s-era handicraft big beads that I haven't had as much luck w/in my etsy work.

So fun not to have to worry about perfection, get to use my cheap-o ear wires, don't worry that they're too simple to get a price that would make it worthwhile to put them in the shop.

Right now I'm wearing earrings that are just 3 of these dangling on a short, small ear wire.