fanciful devices: Solderbabies

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.

3/19/14

Solderbabies

After all yr comments about my polymers I was just doing a wiggle dance in my chair. I've begun to incorporate them into stuff but meanwhile, I got out the soldering mishmosh.

A friend requested some more of these, remember these?

So since before people wanted to know what they looked like pre-solder, here:

I use tons of solder globs and end up doing a lot of sanding down afterwards with the dremel. In fact, the top and bottom link hoops I always have to re-open cuz the solder always goes right over them.

While I was at it, I finished some more soldered bits.

Ancient beads! With Scorched Earth oil spill globs.

These also I connected to the ring with one of my solder pins.

And this huge rock which just begged to be turned into a ring.

I just wrote "simple ring" and had to go back to erase 'simple'. Cuz bitch please.

You guys I made a video of me skillfully connecting my beads:

6 comments:

Unknown said...: awesomeness as usual!!
That "simple" ring is just stunning. Me want.; 3/19/14, 3:26 AM
Lucie Tales said...: Oh I'm in love with the first ring! Well I admit I'm in love with all the beauties in that post for that matter. For the solder job, did you use your torch or soldering iron?; 3/19/14, 4:21 AM
Unknown said...: Love the solder globbiness - it's insanely wonderful. And I'm not sure if it works for low temp solder the way it does for my torch but when I don't want something to flow into an area I use white out in that spot and it keeps it from flowing there. It scrubs out after.

I've got major earring envy girlfriend.; 3/19/14, 8:16 PM
Marcie Abney Carroll said...: I like the gif with the guy in the background smiling playfully like it's totally normal to watch a lion playing with a car tire like it's a chew ring that he bought at Petsmart. Just sayin'.; 3/19/14, 8:53 PM
Mardi said...: Your creations are awesome. For a first time with PC your beads blew me away too. I love how you showed the before/after for the soldered pieces. There is so much style to your work that they have a definite personality all their own.; 3/20/14, 5:11 AM
Ellen R. W. said...: Sure hope you add more of these beautiful earrings to your Etsy site! In in for buying a pair!; 3/27/14, 2:15 PM