fanciful devices: studio

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.

Showing posts with label studio. Show all posts

9/21/11

Interlude.

I love questions!
Jackie: It's 'who', not 'whom'. How do you know? Use 'whom' as the object of a preposition. (HU?) A preposition, as you've all forgotten several decades ago, is a word like to, in, at, on, from, for. So here's some examples:

Agate - Agate Micro Faceted Rondelles - 15mm - 15 Inch Strand - 23Pieces

To whom it may concern
The leader in whom we trust
The man at whom the pie was thrown (OK, please don't ever use such roundabout constructions as this. We're American, damnit. Direct and to the point. Then go eat some batter-fried bacon.)
For whom the bell tolls
OK, you get the idea.

<--Richelle, the bead is agate... It did look rather nice in the pictures, hu? I'm just as surprised as you

I got a new clean, spacious space!

Before:

<--After, bitches!

<-- Check out the big empty floor. See the burn marks lower right? That's from my heat gun. Friggin' utee.

So I wanted to share some wall displays I made of some of Sparrow's insane photography.

Here's the one with the smaller pieces:

But my favorite is the one with the big ones:

And yeah, the photo at the bottom of each grouping is repeated, but I just really loved it and they needed that exact amount for a pleasing cluster.
What else?
I packed up EIGHT items yesterday people. Just sayin'.

7/7/11

This 'n' That

OK, these are up:

Aquabib.

A Party of Owls.

Lococession.

Here's some WIP. Disclaimer- my floor is so orangey in photos that I'm always trying to fix it and the color ends up all weird. Anyways, I'm still mulling these over.

But it seems like there's so many supplies just screaming to be used!

"Give birth to me Mommy!" They yell. In my head. (Creee-py!)

How about these? What will they become?

Which will be first to exist? I wonder as I lay out a buncha different things, re-arrange a hundred elements.

I also got some mail goodies from SacredCake, including among others, these:

And then I pulled this out and peed myself:

An actual quote of mine from this post.

So now there's pee all over my floor and I blame you SacredCake- if that even is your real name!

6/4/11

Score!

Last night, I couldn't sleep. I think my carpal tunnel pain meds keep me up. I entertained myself by poking around the websicle for attractive storage for all my makings, of which there soon shall be much more, I expect. (My last day of dayjob is the 30th-eeee!) I started looking for block printers trays, or whatever they're called. The average price for an un-adulterated tray on etsy is over $50, including shipping.
Anywhoo, I finally got to sleep at 7 am and woke up at 3:40 pm. My husband leaves me notes about his walks with our dog, which he refers to as the "Poo Bandit" for some reason. Today's note mentioned Bingo not wanting anything to do with the book fair crowds. Book fair!
Before I even had my headache releiving coffee, I ran my boney ass through the start of a rainstorm, got there just as the downpour was starting and snatched up two uh-may-zing block printers trays - for $20 total! And no shipping!!! Plus I got the long compartments which are good for necklaces, having already jerry-rigged an earring solution. Just goes to show what living in a neighborhood called Printer's Row can getcha. Yes, two blocks away are a couple streets which were 100% dedicated to printing back in the day, and once a year these folks come out with more letter blocks than you can shake a stick at. You see these crowds trying their best to shake sticks at them, and they just can't.

This one sold, but it was my favorite.

Here's another. All different styles.

I should mention that all this was inspired by missficklemedia's new driftwood display pieces, which look nothing like these trays. Her pieces are more like for shows and fairs. Which I'm to lazy to join. If you aren't so lazy, go check out her new display collection. They're beautiful and actually rather reasonable, even for my cheap ass. Especially if you don't happen to live in Printer's Row.

3/17/11

Meh

Thank you all for your well-wishes. I can barely use my hands and it's making me sad. Not in a horrible way, just in a can't-get-myself-to-roll-out-of-bed way. That could also be the pain meds. My right hand surgery is on Monday. I'm not sure how long the recovery will be. I thought I'd show you all the shame and horror that is my 'studio'. Maybe it'll motivate me to organize when I get use of my hands back.

I keep knocking shit over and then I'm too glum to even think about picking it up, plus the hands.

Here's this hot mess I was supposed to turn into a day bed.

Boxes sorta grow roots wherever they're put down...

I also found some cute things I'd forgotten about.

This coin used to be an ashtray. There were mini lamas as the 'legs' and sorta curved leaves as the cigarette rests, all of which I've long ago used in earrings. This had sat on a shelf at my grandmother's house for decades.

This gorgeous thing from Opulent Oddities.

Here's something.

A box of somethings.

This was the top part of a paper weight from Opulent Oddities. I detached it from the base which was big and heavy enough to anchor a ~~yat..~~.~~yacht~~ ... ~~yahcht~~ boat. I removed the picture that was in it and while trying to bend the frame to fit more snugly over the new picture, broke the glass, of course. Oh well.

2/23/11

Hey Kids!

Would you like to see some random stuff from around my studio under crappy night lighting?
Sure you would!

Scapular and a chunk of ring.

Earring possibilities.

Red and clear/white.

Stuff.

Delicious stuff.

Buttony stuff.

<--Someone's already called dibs on this bit. That's allowed, y'all. If you see a bit you must have... I mean, must have in a piece I make, after I make it...