fanciful devices: Stylin' and Profilin'

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.

7/7/13

Stylin' and Profilin'

I'm telling you, blogger is insisting on titles so you get whatever comes to mind.

The Courtly Ones.

Wow I didn't get enough sleep last night to handle all this color.

Maggie Zee commented: Oh, I don't know about the Modernists - what if what they did was free our minds up a bit to see art everywhere and recognize the artists in our own selves?

From the Darkest Depths.

Oh well yes, that. Of course they did that. I mean the unintended consequences. The next generation thinking art isn't art unless it's questioning everything. But I think that generation is already past and any and all artists I see are just having a ball making what they like. It's just me who's slow on the uptake. But yeah, of course you're right Maggie. (And welcome, and thanks for commenting!)

Celestials.

You know what makes me happy? This: "Ok so this is seriously my new favorite blog. Sass and randomness and eye candy. Eff yeah. Bought your bangle pdf like ehhhh a month ago? and I've read it like six times, put it on my iPad Kindle app, now I'm stalking your blog. Cuz it's kinda rocking my world lately..." Betsi Goutal

The Garden Dwellers. (With locket for solid perfume!)

And then I blush and do a happy squirm in my chair.

I really seem all about the mis-matched gem rondelles lately. I wonder why I like everything so wonky. This is a celluloid gumball machine charm. I made these 'stones' by plopping rhinestone settings on old paper, filling with liquid utee, heating with gun until smoothish.

Life is But a Dream.

Here's some druzy in gold leafed tin with dangles from grebird.

The Ghost Dancers.

Look even the ear wires are mis-matched.

Reign of Dragons.

Here's these resins, since the first pair sold. To Patroness! These are hammered child-sized bangles I got off ebay.

Astronomic.

It's been a looong time since I made one of these buddhist reliquaries. But here you have one, will wonders never cease?

Das all.

8 comments:

Numinosity said...: Just checking in for my fix of wonderfullness from the Wonderness. ( Wonderess?) Splendid combos and thanks for reiterating my explanation for my seemingly left field comment the other day. I just assume everyone can read between the lines in my crazy head chatter that I post here.
You just keep churning out the most crazy super bits and I end up running out of superlatives for your mind/hand circuitry. Love what you do and how you share! xoxox; 7/7/13, 3:28 PM
Juliette said...: AAAAAh, those 'african blade charms' - any sources??? I would LOVE to use something like that in my pieces.

I adore your 'Ghost Dancers' so much - I'm a fan of Greybird too, but have yet to use her pieces. Someday soon. xoxo J; 7/7/13, 6:46 PM
HenrietteWhite said...: Beautiful!! All of them! With The Courtly Ones'being my favorite!!; 7/8/13, 7:21 AM
Maggie Zee said...: Wow - thank you for your link to me. "Slow on the uptake" is the LAST thing I would think about you! Your brain is so far ahead here, everyone else is in the dust. I think we're better than artists: I think we're alchemists and magicians and shamans. Who needs to look for deep meanings when we're having so much fun???; 7/8/13, 9:48 AM
betweenreader said...: Agh, I'm still recovering from art school in the 70s. But I have to say, there's nothing invalid about making a statement, we do it unconsciously, anyway. Flip side, there should be no tyranny in art, just freedom. Of which our Fanci is an exemplar! Love whatcher doin dear!; 7/9/13, 11:21 AM
RaggedRobyn said...: Lovin the mismatched beads on earrings! Keep it up chickadee :); 7/10/13, 4:05 PM
Unknown said...: Woohoo, happy chair squirms right back atcha - I'm all flattered that you're flattered. :) Fwiw I am withour non-smartphone internetz for about a week or so, so please don't take it personally if I'm stalking you a bit less for a little while. ;)

Oh my gosh, the loops on those earring being hammered bangles intrigues me! Any chance we could get a more side-angle view?? Oh wait, might be on the listing... Stupid lack of decent Internet. Grr. And stupid mobile comment form being weird at me. Oh well, guess I will just have to work on unpacking my shiny new internetless house instead of poking the internetz. Stalk ya later, you talented thang! :); 7/10/13, 4:22 PM
Unknown said...: Yay, she likes me!! Or at least doesn't think I'm all that scary. :D I'm all flattered that you're flattered now. Don't take it too personally if I don't stalk you much in the next week, our Internet "provider" screwed up and failed to let us know that they don't have the address of my shiny new house in their records (new house and all) so I'm not going to have Internet aside from my phone for a week or so. And my phone seems to hate this comment form to boot! Wjich explains some typos, as well as why you might get two comments from me. Dumb smartphone.

Oh and I lovelovelove the idea of hammered bangles as earring hoops. How cool is that??! Love it, keep on being awesome... :); 7/10/13, 4:30 PM