fanciful devices: Adieu

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.

9/27/09

Adieu

I'd like to formally take my leave of some items which have recently been purchased from my shop. Today will be a wrapping frenzy, I believe.

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. Does this mean I can or should raise prices? And thus be one step closer to my dream of living off of this?

3 comments:

Penelope said...: I think you should raise your prices! I seriously do, especially if you're not getting a profit. Next time you list something, put $10 more on it than you otherwise would. Then go from there. Etsy is starting to pick up now (I had 5 sales this week!) so you can easily have a wide range of prices and sell in all of them.; 9/30/09, 4:26 AM
Venus Soberanes said...: I do think you should raise your prices, I have thought this all along. I am so happy at your success.; 10/1/09, 1:46 AM
fanciful devices said...: Thanks, that's so kind of you to say. I'm basically letting my newly-listed things be the more expensive ones. And my prices ARE higher than when I started. So is my level of work, of course... Strange how you might see similar things on etsy for $8 to $80...; 10/3/09, 8:25 PM