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.

1/15/14

More Earring Factory

The coupon code is off, thank you guys.

Here's two pairs of earrings with oxidized brass stampings layered over gold leafed tin.

My new addiction is listening to This American Life on soundcloud. Sooo transfixing!

There's a couple dangly bits here by Sparrow, who isn't making jewelry for now but is enjoying her new AC quite a bit.

You can also see I've been using lots of ScorchedEarthonEtsy bits like these which have an AB coating that looks like an oil slick. I know!

Here we have some ScorchedEarth and some Sparrow bits with religious medals and a bit of asymmetry.

Sweet and simple, acorns over ScorchedEarth drops!

I've also been altering these utee beads sent to me by my etsybud Claudia.

I've been sanding them to remove any shiny and give a rough etched texture...

dirt-waxing them... I've used them in earrings because they're so lightweight.

Since each one is OOAK, I've been pairing them up as close as I could, but they're not exactly matched, which you know I love.

Here I think these work well since the top bit is thick and a touch weighty.

These are light as air. These I rubbed with black Guilder's.

These too but I'm not sure about them. I just am useless with tube beads! Does someone want these? If so let me know in the comments and they're yours. You pay shipping.

One of you mentioned I'd soon be on the floor again- Stregata? Yeah, I'm gonna blame you that on the floor again. Might be because I never put up the shelves and I don't have enough surface. Whatevs. I also haven't cleaned out my closet in maybe 7 years for that matter.... Ugh. Why do things always need doing? Hu? I hate maintaining things. I can't keep plants, I forget to brush my teeth... ugh. Maintaining! My least favorite aspect of life. So repetitive. Every day- eat, pee, sleep! Everyday! Screw it. What am I babbling about? What else did I wanna mention?

Oh yeah- On the post before last, Betsi Goutal commented, "Did you know that wombats poop cubes?"
Yes but did you know that this is the second time someone's brought that up in my comment section? On a post on 8/22/12 I included these pictures

which caused alteredarcheology to ask, "Did you know that a wombats poop is square? Not sure about 'roo poo."

On the following post I had to include this video which attempts to explain the phenomenon.

Now I have a great excuse to include this picture which I happened to have on my desktop where I'm always dragging cute animal pix off my browser window to later make Mr Devices look at while I scream, "LOOK AT THAT! LOOK! HOW!" etc.
I don't even understand what these creatures are but I must cuddle one.

1/11/14

Do you ever get into this zone

where you don't wanna do anything but read in bed and watch Netflix? I know, I should be saying do you ever get out of that zone. Look at this recent picture of the president of my country:

Yup. He's the guy in the middle. And y'all wonder why I'm silly.
Now lets look at some pix that have recently made me laugh. (There will be a prize at the end of this whole pointless post.)

"WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME?"

The above made me laugh for two years.

And dude captioned this with "I couldn't find my bird anywhere and then..."

I wanna live in this guy's face.

Now look at this table that is not connected to the wall.

No really, look at it.

OK, your reward for indulging me is a big ol' coupon for anything in the shop EXCEPT tutorials for 30% off when you use the code 30PERCENT. During checkout, under "How you'll pay" click "Apply coupon code" and enter it there. It won't work if you put it in 'notes to seller'!!!!! And I'm only announcing this on the blog, cuz it's been a while since I did giveaways or anything.

1/5/14

Speaking of Which

So Mom was like, "I saw your blog. Poo poo poo poo poo!"

So I'm all, "I'm almost 40 years old! You can't say nothing!" That's my argument. It works for almost anything the 'rents say to me.

"Is that a new shirt?" "I'm almost 40 years old!" "Your sister called today." "I'm almost 40 years old!"

Dogs align their bodies along a North-South axis when they poop

A real article over on io9.

Speaking of my last post, I have to quote Betsi Goutal's comment. "Ok, I'll admit that when your story reached 'That's when it's my time to shine. If you've ever watched a home decor show, you'll have heard that the best thing you can do is paint a room.' it was like watching some kind of surgery documentary - I was equally horrified and excited, because for a second there I was convinced you'd started painting dog poo and - being you - somehow had found some way to make it grungaliciously gorgeous. :D"

She thought I was gonna Paint. With. Poo.

Yeah. No. Let that sink in. That's how well y'all know me. Cuz probably of anybody I've ever met I'm the closest to someone that would actually do that.

Betsi, by the way, is reading my entire blog from the beginning (!!!!!) and mentioned this post in which I analyze and learn design from an old fave- Lorelei Eurto. She thought I should link to it as being edifying for a general audience.

She also just quoted me from my own blog the following. "I apologize to any men who may have wandered on to this blog hoping for some techniques or deep thoughts about the universe. I promise after my period I'll... do some manly posts. About manly techniques and manly thoughts about the universe. Yeah."

You wanna boost someone's ego, quote them back to them.

You guys I have the best blog followers ever. I have a new bud who is a Canadian living in Spain who found me via the book and now writes me about her struggles with art.

I have one who writes me these long involved convos where she keeps insisting how BADASS my stuff is- always in all caps.

I clicked on her avatar to get a closer look at it (it's of her cute dog) and on her profile page I saw just two different lists of favorites. The generic "Items I Love" and another: "BADASS jewelry by Marina Rios." *falls off chair*

And while I'm quoting. Also from last post's comments, Beatnheart. "I fell in love all over with you marina...you never ever get old or stale... Your wild eyed way of looking at the world brings me indescribable happiness... "
*sniffs*

I got some dust in my eye, shut up.

Nook at a picture I took of my back patio.

That was hours ago and it's still snowing. By now that cake of snow on the table is just a tall cylinder. Tomorrow it's going to be -20 F (-28 C for all y'all lucky enough not to live in this great country of ours) with the wind chill making it -45 to -45 (-40 to -43 C). You'd think it were Armageddon. It doesn't concern me, I don't leave the house anyways.

(Edit: I fixed those numbers. I was converting the wrong way. Keep forgetting if we're Celcilious or Farghenhuten.)