fanciful devices: ETSY Convo

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.

11/10/09

ETSY Convo

Hi there,
I am DYING to purchase this Beautiful piece, and hoping to do so if no one snatches it up in the next week or two...I am a Huge magick/occult follower and reader of Crowley and would love to know the significance you place on the individual aspects of the necklace/pendant. (briefly of course, just curious as to your inspirations etc for it and anything more about it you can tell me)...I do hope I manage to purchase it!
Please do more like this!
Thanks,
Maryana

Hi- thanks for the note and the inquiry. Yes, I'm super fond of it too. I want to make more like this, but it all totally depends on the materials I have available, and since I use all this random stuff, I can't completely dictate where the pieces will take me.

Well, I have only recently discovered crowley's wonderful over-the-top poetry, and I find it really expresses some experiences I had back when I was totally spiritual and kinda crazy. Now, I'm more chill and secular, but I get maybe *all* of my "mood" inspiration from that time. I mean, the mood the pieces evoke for me. However, I pick and choose from any and all things, science, poetry, a lot of history, medieval europe and arab philosophy and systems of knowledge, christianity, even, in my post descriptions. It almost doesn't matter what I believe or even if, cuz I'm (sort of) atheist. My only desire here is to evoke that feeling. Having so much to reference from, I realize that any and all beliefs are possible, within any particular philosophy, any symbolism or metaphor can be valid. Therefore, I don't assign particular meaning to pieces, but rather, put pieces together in a way that *feels like* it has meaning or import. I sort of emulate the visual language of metaphysics. Wow- that sounded fancy!
So for me, as I make it or look at it, it evokes a world in which this object could have been made. The one you like feels sort of regal to me, something an important person might wear- high in her culture's hierarchy, like a shaman or noble, but w/in a small society of nomadic, family-based groups (ie tribes).
For me its beauty and evocativeness IS its magik- an object that can transport you via its aesthetic is all the magic I need. So, it's up to you if you want to assign it specific meaning. I like the idea of buyers finding their own meaning for my pieces, but I don't need to. And if I did, that might get in the way of the process of making, possibly resulting in an uglier piece- since the message would distract me from the purely the aesthetic decisions. (Like, if I have a specific meaning to convey, I should just write an essay or something.)
OK, that was probably more than you expected, but this is what happens when I'm over-caffinated. I'm going to put this convo exchange on my blog if that's ok!
hugs
fanciful