fanciful devices

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.

7/25/13

Forehead-Moppin' and Show-Stoppin'

Re the talk on Sparrow's blog I remembered this: On a show called "Bar Rescue" that hubs likes, guy says, "Look, I put this bottle of $400 wine on your menu. Now, nobody's gonna buy a $400 bottle of wine, right? But suddenly, the $80 one doesn't look so bad."

Pretty sneaky. So I'm introducing some "show pieces" with just tons of fancy and rare bits... OK, Ok. They were already in the works, I just happened to have finished them right in time for this conversation.

Thing is now I have to be chill with the idea that these are going to sit there being show pieces and not necessarily sell. And that's my problem. I never think a piece is successful until after it's been purchased.

Cuz I'm nuts. And another thing! Have you noticed how easy it is to tell a fellow artist to raise her prices but then how hard it is to do it yourself? At least that's how it is for me.

Is it because I'm always wanting to get rid of everything I make as fast as possible? And is that because I only think a piece successful if it sells? Whatever. How much should I price these for? You gais! The thought of charging what I "should" (supplies x3 x labor + time of the month divided by purple....) makes me scared.

I had this piece up ages ago. I leafed the Indian wood block stamp and am putting it back up. It's an odd one.

I recently stumbled upon myself in someone's old pin somewhere which said, "fancifuldevices puts together some of the strangest necklaces I've ever seen." That was right from the time I made this one. It made me very happy to hear. Of course I never set about trying to be strange. These things have an interior logic that is perfectly evident to me. Not in a throw-it-on-for-everyday-wear type of logic. More of a magical-key-to-an-imaginary-realm kind of logic.

The tigereye pendant isn't reading so well in these pictures. Or is it? Idk.

But look, a warped pin by Numinosity, a cap-like thing by greybird, a bird bit SacredCake sent me, pearls, rough garnet, bronze skulls, yak bone... A calendar and a round piece of found steel from the desert for layering that I jazzed up with some Gilder's. And a star! That used to be a ribbon slide but I cut the bar out of.

Phew, what's next? This round... ameth...jasp...dyed...stone of some sort with kuchi pendant, Hebron glass, African glass and some leafing. A singlette.

Another brooch since that last one disappeared before I could realize I'd rather underpriced it. This one's gonna be one million dollars!

I'm sorta digging lilac lately. Lilac and gold.

Look at it. Loooook.... Two little rings that I had leftover from that one piece. Leafed beach stone and shell.

I keep telling myself just as soon as I'm done with this batch of makies I'll jump right on that tute. Quick like a bunny! No wait. I've never said "quick like a bunny" to myself. But it's really hard to get into such a different mind set.
Since I was just showing off some supplies look what I just got from 4ophelia:

Leetle earring post cups with white enameling. Squee!

Rough and gorgeous ring base I'm gonna oxidize and maybe use in my tute.

Oh! Oh! See the color of these cabs? They are clear but the bottoms are leafed! I'm sure I read that in the description but it didn't really register. What this means is there's all this dimensional ... yumminess going on. And bangle pins. They can serve as dangles or the beginnings of links.

But the best were these rough metal enameled triangles. What oh what shall I do with them? They make my head spin. Joiji is a creative dynamo.
handmade headpins beads with gemstone chips and reclaimed metal 3"

handmade headpins beads with gemstone chips and reclaimed metal 3"

reclaimed metal pyrite resin pendant focal bead handmade enamel

gemstone chips handmade earring post bezel cups

pink gold green enamel drop charm bead handmade findings 2 pcs

white enamel reclaimed metal bezel cups with holes 2 pcs handmade

seashell tibetan quartz points and peridot gemstone chips 3" copper handmade headpins

Das all.

7/23/13

Evocative Beauty

She Held Tight to the White Bear by Kay Nielsen

Statuette de femme coiffée d’un croissant de lune doré, Albâtre, bronze, yeux et nombril en rubis

This image from Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a stellar nursery containing 1000's of young stars and developing protostars near the sword of the constellation Orion.

eye of providence, sun worship, sacred triangle, esoteric, esotericism, masonic,

All this and more can be seen on my pinterest spirit board. Just felt like sharing. And while I'm sharing... It bothers me that you can see right away which of your images have been liked and re-pinned. Feels like those that haven't are failures. Feels like a competition with yourself. I need the grace not to care about these things and I mostly don't. But it's the same way that I feel like unsold items are failures.

Speaking of beauty, I ordered these from Numinosity:

And, perhaps because I'm always pimping her shop and calling her da bidness, but mostly because she's awesome, she tossed in all of these:

(Oh poop I left out a gorgeous little purple pin.) That one bit that looks like a box is a decoupaged bamboo tile bead. The discs are mica. Wait. what's that over there?

SQUEEEEE!

Yeah, she mentioned she was gonna send a broken-off head. I'll take that thank you very much.

(here)

Sales have been pretty great lately so I've just been indulging in all the supplies.

Keep forgetting that if it's for the shop it's not exactly frivolous spending.

(here)

Brass and rhinestones from jan's jewels.

Tanya Mcguire lampwork.

I even somewhat cleaned the studio:

At least there's a path to the windows, since the handyman had to come fix them so that I might once again be able to solder. See that board sitting there on the floor by the table? It's epoxied there. Yup.

Turning slightly left: