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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.

7/15/10

Even More New Items in Shop

Hello lovely friends. Play with what you love. Button Wrap.

Here is an item that is very unlike me, but I still quite like. Play with what you love. Button Wrap.

I made it w/a bunch of buttons from my recent flea-market extravaganza. I wasn't going to buy these b/c I feared supply overload, but my brilliant husband said I should. And here I've already used at least a quarter of them. They're so flippin' tiny! I'm a sucker for tiny. Dark my Light and Darker my Desire. Salvage Cuff.

I finally finished and listed the cuffs. Dark my Light and Darker my Desire. Salvage Cuff.

I even grunged them up a bit, couldn't resist. I Meet My Shadow. Salvage Cuff with Czech Glass Buckle.

And I found some lovely Theodore Roethke poems to add into the descriptions. I Meet My Shadow. Salvage Cuff with Czech Glass Buckle.

I hadn't read him before and I thought he was German, from the name. Epidermal Macabre. Salvage Cuff.

Poetry is the easiest for listings, though I wonder if people don't just skip over it. Epidermal Macabre. Salvage Cuff.

I have a tendency to skip over poetry, and I actually like it. Some of it. But my eyes are always flying over everything to get to the stuff I want- pretty supplies. Epidermal Macabre. Salvage Cuff.