fanciful devices: 07/2011

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.

7/28/11

Hello ladies of adornment obsessions.

Tumbling After.
I think I fixed the pictures in the previous post. Tell me if you can see them.

A crazy rainstorm just burst upon Chicago, with lightning strong enough to make all the car alarms go off. It'll hopefully take care of this nasty humidity that suddenly blanketed the city.

Mistress of Tides.
My mother just returned after a long stay in California where she came upon and adopted 2 sweet kitty cats. We've never had cats before. But now when we go over to Mom and Dad's-- what will Bingo do? He is very possessive of his territory. His universe is about to be turned upside down!

Mistress of Tides.

I went out and got all the accouterments: the litter box, the litter, the litter box liners, food, toys, bed, scratching post- phew! And since I've never had cats I was all upset-and-confused shopping. Where you're looking at all the brands and different styles of everything totally clueless as to what to get. I mean, is multi-cat litter formula really any different than regular formula?

Our Lady of Unbearable Seeing. Handmade Milagro Cuff.

Our Lady of Unbearable Seeing.
Tonight, even though they were hiding beneath the beds, I managed to give one a little scratch under the ear and next thing you know she was rolling all over me purring her fuzzy heart out.

I'm so happy Mom has that to keep her busy after her recent retirement.

The Interplanetary Horror Vacui.
Too much time on her hands leads to coming over cuz she's bored which in turn leads to her noticing the tumbleweeds of dog hair around this place, and nothing good can come of that.

Check out the glowing cab by Polymerpretties. I actually grunged it a bit and bordered it with black paint to tone it down some. The thing is so luminous, I think my face got sunburnt from looking at it too long.

From Sorrow to Sorrow.
In this batch I'm recycling some item names, from a little while back when I had a bit more inspiration.

Threshold of the Infinite.
This one is totally cosmic to me. Can you see my glittery dangle from yesterday? Or was it the day before? What year is this? Where am I?

Are these as good as my last batch with the buddhist reliquaries? I never know. If they sell I'll be all "Of course they're gorgeous! I know what I'm doing- I'm awesome." And if they don't I'll be all, "What was I thinking? These are hideous."

Before We Are Clay.
Does anyone know what the green stone is here? there's one dangling from the focal and another at the end of the 'chain'. It's quite pretty, though these pictures don't do them justice.

Here you can see a mini milagro I made. I struggled a bit trying to paint it til I realized the best paint brush was the end of some thin waxed polyester cording I have. Then I oxidized over the paint which took a lot of it off. To nice effect, I think. Oh crap, I just remembered I haven't waxed it yet. For protection. I get so eager to show them off I don't even finish them before I'm taking pictures.
Before We Are Clay.

Also, as I was working on this the sunlight hit the tourmaline just so and I realized that every one of these stones have translucent sections that glow in the light. It's gorgeous.
Notice the wider blog? It's so I can use the extra large size images without them getting cut off. Still getting a hang of it.

7/27/11

I'm published. Tangentially.

Jennifer Valentine, aka SacredCake, has been published several times in different Somerset/Stampington magazines. Now she has a piece in Somerset Home one that gives a great big shout out to your truly.

What an honor, lady! I can't wait to show this to my mom. Maybe some day I'll be able to hold off the instant gratification rush of etsy and send something in myself.

Get your copy here.

7/25/11

Buying Frenzy + Experiments

luxoccasions:

Beautiful Orange Sunset Vintage Cabochons 20mm x 10mm

Vintage Orange Sunset OVAL Cabochons 30 MM x 21MM

Vintage Amber Textured Bead Findings (2)

Vintage Glass Emerald Cut Cabochons in Light Rosalin 10mm x 8mm

Vintage Antique Gold Faceted Bead Lot 12 MM

The last thing I need is all this new stuff. Yet, when I'm tired from a long day of making, there's nothing I want more than to poke around etsy and buy pretties.

ourbackyard:
Pink Peruvian Opal 9 Stick Beads

neatothings:
Watermelon Tourmaline heishi gemstone beads1 full strand

Smoky quartz gemstone button rondell beads WHOLE STRAND

Labradorite 4mm faceted rondells with flash14" long budget strand

Watermelon Tourmaline gemstone button beads full strand

Petro tourmaline full strand faceted rondells autumn colors

Moonstone faceted rondells very tiny only 5 bucks for a whole 14in strand

Iolite heishi gemstone Very Dark blue WHOLE STRAND

Aquamarine faceted rondells 1 full strand

ChelleV2:

Sampler Set large hole ceramic beads (5)

Mint Cream handmade stoneware beads pendant & bead caps (6)

I'm proly gonna go into a tailspin of supply panic again.

rubycquins:

16 pieces of terracotta beach pottery 2698

missficklemedia:
Saffron Yellow Toggle - Patinated Copper Clasp - CLP00117

Ghost White Toggle - Patina Copper Clasp-CLP00121

Twisted Copper Chain in Verde - CHN00135

Saffron Patina Textured Copper Chain - Large Link - CHN00144

Marsi10:

Antique French cut metal bead strand bright gold 12 inches trim Victorian embellishments

Antique French metal bead strand 20 inches Spring color mix blue pink purple gold

GemmeTresor:
Matt finish black onyx teardrop 14x10mm, 6 pcs (item ID YWBOTS16)

Hand hammered large antique brass ring aprox 20mm in diameter, 6 pcs (item ID ABX2702-0.5K)

Hand hammered antique brass circle link 45mm, 6 pcs (item ID HMBCL45)

Dahlia flower cabchon hot pink 12mm, 12 pcs (item ID YW07ABLP)

Handmade hammered copper hoop 35x20mm, 1 pair (item ID SHCE35x20H)

Hand hammered antique copper ring aprox 24mm in diameter, 8 pcs (item ID ACOR20K)

Somebody please stop me.

So anyways, today I was experimenting. I took eye pins, cheap beads, and eyeshadow that I haven't worn since the Carter administration.

I pulled out my trusty heat gun- the kind from the hardware store not the wimpy craft store kind, and some UTEE.

And made these:

Squeeeeee!!!!

One note of warning, if you wanna try, I recommend stone of some kind. These above burned some. And here's what happened when I tried wood:

Basically, they have to handle a lot of heat and displace it evenly. I had to heat and re-heat them to get the surfaces smooth so that there wouldn't be some random glob, or at least so that the glob pointed directly downward... upward? Oh and I kept dipping them into the pink glitter over and over again, after which I had to then reheat to get it into the UTEE. I tried with some little round jaspers I'm not crazy about and they worked awesome. I'm thinking this might be a good use for all those stone chip strands folks always have lying around without any use for. Of course, then you wouldn't get the perfect rounds, but. Don't know 'til you try.