fanciful devices: Making and Forsaking-

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.

8/7/13

Making and Forsaking-

-all other activities. See, Lela, I don't have a clone. You'd be amazed how much you get done if you stop cleaning, cooking, leaving your house or showering. All those things waste a lot of making time. Doing hair/makeup. Getting mani-pedis. People waste hella time on dumb crap like that. Exercising. Socializing. Working or raising offspring. Having a life, in other words.

The lovely customer who sent me stuff I mentioned earlier, I made these using all her stuff except for the seed beads:

I'd certainly never used a box clasp before but she sent tons. As you can see, I went from one to four to three to two strands all in one piece. You have to know the exact size wrist/necklace when you use them as there's no adding an extender chain.

Friendliness!

Y'all know I'm all about extender chains. Like in this piece I also made for her:

Among what she sent were the ring of cobalt rhinestones, the sacred heart charm I placed within it and the dagger stamping below, along with the brass oval above. I chose to mount the focal on two layers of the ruined tintype my photo friend sent to keep the sacred heart from flipping around. Then I whatchacallit. Riveted the dagger piece- which of course I oxidzed along with the brass oval and everything else. Interestingly the chevron trade beads and the big dangle bead were just given to me by a friend last week. And I needed some tribal to balance the Victorian.

I don't know but I love how unexpected gifts present design challenges that you wouldn't have otherwise chosen for yourself. I used to buy findings that I had no idea the use of just to see what I'd end up doing with them.

Soldered some more Roman glass to finish this pendant Patroness got from me ages ago:

I made it so that the chain hooks right into the pendant, also not allowing for extender chain. But I like the simple silhouette. Note: Lela, my process is nowhere near that complicated. I put in 10mm raw brass jump rings I bought and solder with an iron- no need to worry about overheating.

Can we just stop and look at some Scorched Earth awesomesauce I recently indulged in?

These crackle luster glazes have me swooning. And for me to be pro-shine you know it has to be special.

But also just because she rocks she added some things not available in the shop (but which SO SHOULD BE) like these teeny hearts. Squeee!

And these stripies that I'v already started forming into mis-matched pairs.

Which leaves me with a long dark one and a pink one that don't really go but that dark one is amazeballs- it looks like some kind of horn! I'm thinking of waxing them just to give them that final touch of done-ness. I like the unglazed but... maybe it's just cuz I've been looking at her uberglazes.

I've been sharing lots of supply porn lately, hu? When did all my virtual friends become so brilliant? Y'all were cool to begin with but recently it's been getting ... next-level shit. Which makes the idea of us all raising our prices very timely. I think of it as an experiment. Been listing earrings for $89 and just going, "lol. I'm crazy!" and just forgetting about it. I see more and more underpriced things and I realize that we all have to stop thinking of ourselves as amateurs and hobbyists. That hurts us as artists and as people who aren't yet homeless. Also when I read comments on Sparrow's recent series of posts where someone mentions keeping their prices down because they couldn't possibly charge as much as me, well, that was a wake-up call.
Here's what I'm still working on:

Still gotta get it to hang right.

My fave recent comment is Jiorji saying, "I knew you'd make some mind barfing explosive awesomeness with those cabs." I ran downstairs to tell Mr. Devices, "A commenter said a pair of my earrings were mind-barfingly awesome!" and he thought that was pretty great too.
Also Patroness told me that she has to force herself not to look at my shop because, "your jewelry is like a tumor in my brain. In the best sense." That's up there with the time shipwreck called a pair of my danglies "anti-earrings."
Now Imma drag my ass over to the TV:

I'm hooked on the show "The Bridge."

6 comments:

beadybaby said...: So this is a weird harmonic covergence. My word of the week, harmonic. Dissonance, resonance. Reading post, enjoying pics, staring at that bizarro kitten...I had not been to the conversation forum in months. Reading thread about rebar, steel jump rings, oxing, etc.

So I'm filling an order for a regular customer in OK. I didn't have enough jump rings so I was looking in my overstock drawer. I still couldn't find any, but before I closed the drawer I accidentally drew my finger over a bag of Vintaj Arte Metal Decorivets and sliced it open (just shallow enough not to bleed but one good whack and I'm through). I don't usually hurt myself on those things. The customer also bought some arte metal, and I'm counting, and looking at crazeh kitteh, and thinking, and watching M*A*S*H, and reading forum, and thinking you all would LOVE the arte metal decorivets and other arte metal. I don't usually do a lot of plugging my site outside my personal forums, but this stuff is black steel! It rusts! There's jump rings! only 3 sizes but there's chains with open links! The decorivets, if you have not seen them, have 2 little pointy tabs that you stick through something (not your finger, ideally), and then fold over. You can also make loops outta them with round nose pliers or cut them off, flatten them, whatever! There are some cool hardware plates too. Search for arte metal or type in AHW (hardware), ADV (decorivets), AJR, ACH, AER, AHP, AEP, ADP (charms), AP (pendants), have a blast! A lot of the pieces have been discontinued by the company, and I am well stocked on some. I hope this is helpful... cindy/beadybaby @ www.wickedgoodbeadz.com :-); 8/7/13, 9:27 PM
Lela said...: Wait. The roman glass was already drilled? Or you drilled it? (Tedious) Then you made big jump rings & soldered them in place? With a torch? And the glass didn't get too hot? Hrm.

I mean... I've soldered jump rings on a sterling/turquoise bracelet, but there were no stones near the heat. Did you bury the stones in sand?

So many questions...well, because it's perplexing.

And yes, Petra's goodies are AMAZOINK!!; 8/8/13, 11:01 AM
Unknown said...: Okay, the skull with the gold head just makes me flip my wig...love it. Is that Bauxite or coral? Those reddish beads remind me of bauxite I had once. It's just beautiful - the pairing with the millifiori beads - well whoo. I wish I had some of the snappy words like the rest of your fans but I'll just have to settle for saying it's "awesome".; 8/8/13, 8:35 PM
Wildthorne said...: I love Mr. Skully!!! Huzzah.; 8/9/13, 1:44 AM
martinisfor2 said...: ok, the golden skull necklace with that glorious bead mix made my eyes explode! You've captured my heart with this one. I can hardly wait to see what you do with Petra's wonky baubles.; 8/9/13, 9:39 AM
Laura Flowers said...: "Making and forsaking"... yes, this has been me lately. FUN! SO much better than mani-pedis or television :); 8/31/13, 6:34 AM