fanciful devices: Drowning in Tasks and Anticipation.

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.

12/10/10

Drowning in Tasks and Anticipation.

Tasks because there's a million little things to do before the last week of a semester AND because my shop is experiencing a rash of sales like nothing I've ever seen!!! So I'm constantly making packages instead of, y'know, jewelry. I'm humbled and amazed.
Anticipation because every time I think that in one week I'll have all the time in the world to make and blog, I get such a rush of adrenaline to the guttoral area that I can't even function. Can't sleep and sure as fuckballs can't teach worth a damn. Well, I can a little but I feel like I'm gonna explode.

Let me tell you about how I'm never going to make earrings like the ones you are looking at right now ever again. It seems that going from inch-wide ones to 3.5 inch ones doesn't increase the difficulty by the expected 3.5 times, but rather exponentially by, oh, 20-30 times. It also doesn't help when you don't mix the correct amount of flex with the embossing enamel so that you have to practically heat the damn things with a butane torch to make the gunk flow, or to pop the bubbles, or to try to even out the bits around the holes that were displaced by jump rings, etc.

I will make more over-sized earrings, but not involving so much embossing enamel, and hopefully I will follow the instructions for the portions to be mixed of flex to resin, and not think I somehow know more than the people who develop the stuff.

I have issues with following directions. Like, if I don't know why I'm being told to do it a certain way, I won't think I have to do it that way. So I won't. Which often leads me to quickly learning why the directions were so and going back, tail between my legs, to do it as originally told.

But just as often, it leads me to discover something new. Like when I mix a can of soup with mashed potato flakes to create a new kind of gruel... sometimes it works, sometimes it ends up in the trash.

Mr. Husband calls me hard-headed. And I might be but it's also lead me to my way of hyper-oxidizing and waxing things to look old. And to soldering fossils the way I do... OK, two things. But two good, solid things.

Hey look at this bracelet. It's made from Afghan 'kutchi' (that one type of middle-eastern jewelry) and wired lengths of beads and even 2 little green links from the lovely missfickle. Not so little, really. I feel like it was a very spontaneous, Sparrow-style piece. Her bits are all about spontaneity.

And, you might notice I'm experimenting w/the shadows in photoshop. Not really there yet, but it makes a lot more sense now. Just muck about 'til you start to get a hang of things. That's my instructions for everything. That's today's tutorial for you.

So, now I gotta go list these. The angel earrings will have to wait, I have no decent image for the 1st picture- notice I put up 3 pix to give you an idea of what they look like, and the 3rd was my 'size-reference' picture which I don't think I could put first in good conscience. (OMG, I can't believe I spelled 'conscience' right on the 1st try. I can't even spell 'wierd' or 'desicion'. And yes, I am a teacher... just barely.)

5 comments:

Penelope said...: Spontaneous! :D My best friend from my 20s used to call me 'living in the now' because she was a hippy. I call it 'not knowing what the fuck I'm doing from one second to the next'. She thought I lived without fear, little she knew I was actually living without memory.

I think it's interesting/telling that I follow direction exactly the same as you. I look at them and think 'well they're for stupid people!' and then chuck them out, confident that not only do I know how to do it, but I'll do it in such a revolutionary and fantastic way that no one has ever seen before. And then of course 10 minutes later I'm pawing through the bin to find them, cursing that whoever made the thing I'm doing was an idiot and you clearly therefore need idiot's instructions to get it right. Logic- I has it.; 12/10/10, 10:54 PM
stregata said...: The pieces are beautiful and I get all breathless just thinking of all the things you are going to make in one week... Anticipation!
The bracelet is fantastic - you really do think outside the box.; 12/11/10, 12:11 AM
~Debi said...: Love the braclet, fanci :)

Can't wait to see how much you can make in a week. You need to keep count for us. :); 12/11/10, 1:14 AM
Spirited Earth said...: love these..and you are soo right, one seemingly small change can,quite unexpectedly, increase your work by mega X's.
LOL spontaneous..my mom calls that"flying by the seat of your pants"..what the heck does That mean?; 12/11/10, 7:48 AM
amandadavie said...: LOl-I do hope your fuckballs get in order and sleep will find you...but your new work is really fantastic...I know you want to smash those earrings, but they are quite amazing..light and love-amanda; 12/11/10, 4:09 PM