fanciful devices: WIP, rafflage

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.

10/20/14

WIP, rafflage

Some WIP, pre-oxidizing.

I had a mess of key rings which some geodes and bits from Uruguay had come on. I had no use for them but before tossing it occurred to me that I'd been looking around for ring things with all the lariats I've been making. Lightbulb moment: I soldered them.

Some I just wire wrapped (top), some I wrapped with stones (right, with steel wire- it's solderable!) and some I went full solderbonkers on. The key is trying to apply the solder in balls, not peaks. I'm still not 100% sure how to manage it. I know the solder, iron and surface need to be super clean. I think the surface needs to be non-molten so the solder doesn't just blend right in. If anyone knows more, help a sister out in the comments.

(Solder.)

I've also been having some serious fun making chain. It's always easier than I expect and I wonder why I don't do it more. But here too I struggled a bit to get solder globs instead of peaks and had to sand some sharp bits away.

Here this cuff needed buttons for a closure, so I made some with antique African cocowood discs, leafed tin, Roman glass and soldered pin. This is one piece of wire that connects on the underside. I need to get some stretchy fabric/cord/lace (?) for the loops now.

Some caged baby the original way, just cuz.

I'm working on a triple wrap bracelet and a lot of the links here are soldered. I have a very minutely stitched strap to finish this. But then I wore it today and realized that the mop hearts with arrow are going to have to be cut in half because they simply don't curve enough. I hate bracelets that have long flat elements, I find them unacceptable.

The bail kept popping off this heart. I tried several different epoxies before I realized I'd have to solder hammered copper there after sanding the top of the heart til I got to bare metal. So now I guess I have to retake all those damned pictures just for this bit! I can be grateful it didn't pop off after being in the hands of a buyer though.

As I've mentioned, I'm all about the lariats at the mo. That and my exercise classes.

The other day I was in spinning class and I was up in the standingish position, checking myself out in the wall o' mirrors and thinking, "Damn, I look just like one of those badass people that do the ... thing that I'm doing right now (!!!)... OMG am I one of those badass-- no wait, calm down." Like, I'm not but I'm super getting there. What was I talking about?
Here's this amazing treasury Pricilla of yesdearsister (previously readbetweenlines) made for Wildthorne:

And Theresa of thoughtfulhands shared her awesome results from my tute:

Orbitals. Polymer clay art beads, cored with layers of neutrals and brights.

Aren't they awesome?

OK, finally here's today's raffle for these babies:

And the winner is: Cindy's Wicked Good Beads! Etsy convo me to give me your address, etc.
How did this turn into such a long post? I'll save the gifs for next time.

5 comments:

Thoughtfulhands said...: Love the solder rings really cool. Some hopefully helpful solder tips on the peaking instead of balling up is flux plenty of flux. You can even dip your iron with loaded solder into the flux then tap where you want. This should eliminate the peaks.; 10/21/14, 12:24 AM
Thoughtfulhands said...: And thank-you for sharing my photo hope I did you proud...; 10/21/14, 12:34 AM
Unknown said...: Hi there...I am not sure what kind of solder you are working with but, I have soldered 25 years and have always used a flux core solder that is as thin as spaghetti, flows perfectly! I will gladly send you some so you can try it out. Not sure what solder question you have??
bobbi; 10/21/14, 8:59 AM
Saraccino said...: The rings are such a great idea! (as always all your work is so full of stories!) :); 10/21/14, 2:55 PM
RomAntiqueSoul said...: Here's an idea, but I don't know if it will work...I'm gonna try it and let you know...I don't solder with a soldering gun too much, but I'm pushing boundaries and experimenting with that too...

Have you thought about maybe ball up your copper wire at one end with a torch -the way to do it is point the flame to a higher point of the end of the wire at the hottest point of the torch- and maybe then solder the wire?

I hope that makes sense...I'll try it today and then msg you and let you know...or you can go ahead an try it out to see if works...; 10/22/14, 10:08 AM