fanciful devices: fancylinda, how can I thank you?

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.

6/5/10

fancylinda, how can I thank you?

I wrote this post, what, 4 days ago? Then two days ago I received a deceptively small box in the mail.

In it I found an array of precious, tiny treasured that gave me a panic attack each time I looked at them. I had to put it away twice before really looking at it. It was too much.

How do you go about thanking someone you've never met for the best, and for sure most unexpected, gift you've ever gotten?

Stars and eyes, carved fans and antique cut steel buttons. reverse painted religious cabochons, milk glass droplets and flowers, connectors and oversized sequins, tinted glass leaves with a worn, silvered surface-treatment.

Tiny chevron evil eyes, ceramic disks and rounds, playing cards, rhinestone rounds, carved buttons, shanks and semi precious stones in a soft grey-cream.

Nailhead-style pressed black antique Czech glass beads, some tiny and some large with painted gold caps. Rhinestone in strange tiny sorta geometric black drop settings.

Big, mottled-blue ceramic beads. A sew-on crown-shaped rhinestone.

The most amazing applique bird made with silver-gold bullion, along with a bunch of little applique babies to surround it.

These big, silver, faceted, glass coins with a lightly worn or scratched off luster ab finish. More carved buttons. Tiny cut steel buckles and rhinestone hoops in smokey dust and opaque jet.

All wrapped up in a beautiful little box made to look like a stack of old letters, wound around by delicate cotton lace trim.

And then she thanks me? Honestly, this is BETTER than winning the lottery, since that's just money.

And sure I could buy these with money, but it wouldn't be as good as some amazing, mysterious person deciding to give them to me. After all, if I won the lottery, I'd feel obliged to give it all to so many in need. But I can't very well offer beads to save the chimpanzees or give vintage glass to Haiti, can I? I'm sure I could, actually. But I really don't want to... I mean. Oh, no. Now I have to worry that maybe I should. Am I nuts? Am I babbling again?