fanciful devices: Mail Madness

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.

8/5/10

Mail Madness

Once again, I must insist that my desire to rid myself of my piles of beautiful but abandoned ephemera is in no way a sneaky con to get y'all to send me stuff!!!

However, I received a SASE from Diane Denise Herrera with this inside. Mad piles of gorgeous cards like I've never allowed myself to indulge in before. All different sizes and shapes, each w/its own little envelope.

But wait, there's more! Inside of each and every one, a hand written poem by any of a huge variety of poets. Many were placed inside on post-its, thus allowing me to use the cards for my own impress-the-in-laws purposes.

Here are images of me trying to decipher some of the handwriting. I'm not good at certain kinds of handwriting. Help! And I must read these to decide if I wanna steal them for listings! As is, I'm so focused on the handwriting I've yet to, like, absorb any of the poetry... (note: Denise helped w/the poems and I think it wasn't that the handwriting was so illegible but that the poems were so bizarre...)

Another weird thing about mailings- this is the second time I received a SASE where the over-envelope that reached me didn't have the postage stamped w/a cancellation stamp. As in, I've been able to re-use the outer envelope to send packages to buyers. WTF? This one and the last one from Raida of Havana Beads. I've used both the outer envelopes to send packs to buyers. So... thanks!

Oh, also- my extreme oxidizing dried more overnight and turned ghostly! And i realized I have a ton more stuff to do this to- like all my keys. Not, like, my car keys, I mean... you know what I mean! Ugh, I hate overuse of exclamation marks on-line.

Oh, and finally, my number of treasuries went from a hundred to 69 to 75...