fanciful devices

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.

2/14/11

So guess what? I'm in exactly 300 treasuries as of 3 days ago. Thought I should mention that since its pretty amazing.
OK, I checked again. It's 302. What is this treasury fever everyone's got?
Aarti. Pyrite Smokey Quartz and Rhinestones.

Aarti. Pyrite Smokey Quartz and Rhinestones.

Aarti.
Got these up.
The Fight. Soldered Antique Label.

The Fight. Maji. Double Sided Antique Label Pendant.

Maji.
I got a comment from fancylinda asking where in the world I got antique Indian sequins from. So I poked around to find them again and, guess what? They're not antique!! I just hallucinated that. Oops. Brain farts. So I fixed the listing. And you can find them all here.
100 SEQUINS OVAL ...................GREYISH

100 SEQUINS OVAL ...................GREYISH

100 SEQUINS METALLIC....................BLACK AND SILVER

100 sequins METALLIC...............GOLDEN AND BLACK

Have y'all been enjoying the new Activity Feed as much as I have? I love to see all my etsy buddies poking around. I see their little avatars, see their various tastes in the things they favorite and then get to check them out meself. Oh, happy times. Then I also like to see an item or two get favorited by a whole series of people, because it means a worthy etsian is getting some word-of-mouth promotion. word-of-mouth? image-of-eye? cycle-of-favoriting?
Right there! Proof that etsy is expanding human experience faster than the speed of language. Strange times to be a crafter, indeed.

2 comments:

stregata said...: '...expanding human experience faster than the speed of language.'
I like that, I like that a lot! I am going to have to keep that phrase...; 2/15/11, 12:09 AM
Anonymous said...: Thanks for sharing the info about the sequins! That's very kind of you. And I have been enjoying the Etsy Circle Activity Feed thing too. It's fun to see what everyone favorites. I hope everyone is not sick of me favoriting 25 random items a day...; 2/15/11, 12:36 AM