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.

8/14/11

Sorry, y'all. I was hacked. Oh to think they got past that firewall I installed. Even though I use encoded routers and a hydraulic feedback loop... I have to get new specs for the... satellite.... logarithm....
Wow, I ran out of sentence there. Can't even pretend tech-talk.
I had to share a line from a comment that made me lol (out loud!):
I'm so lame I just had to ask my teen daughter and her friend how to spell an evil laugh.
HAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Oh man.
And that after the commenter, Gardanne, totally flattered me by saying she's been all turned to the dark side by me... at least the matte side. And as it turns out she is the lady behind the very well-known GardanneBeads and the creatrix of all this insanity:
Grab Bag/ Flying Butterflies Mix 18

Why am I such a whore for glass head pins y'all?
OK, it's 4 AM and ...just why am I up?

5 comments:

Unknown said...: the better question is why can't I wake up like this on a WORK morning?; 8/14/11, 5:05 AM
Lorelei Eurto said...: got another "hacked" email from your email address this morning. i hope you can get that worked out!!

I am a sucker for headpins too!; 8/14/11, 5:57 AM
Michelle York said...: You can take credit for my determination to only buy from my fellow 'Etsyans'.; 8/14/11, 9:19 AM
Michelle York said...: A quote for you.."Perfection Includes Imperfection".; 8/14/11, 9:26 AM
Gardanne said...: OMG!!!! Thanks so much for the shout out on your blog and I will see you on the dark side.; 8/14/11, 11:04 AM