fanciful devices: 01/2013

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.

1/30/13

Just had to share.

The Moon in Deeper Languidness. Cosmic Victorian Tribal Assemblage Earrings.

The Moon in Deeper Languidness.
I know, I'm blogging so much no one can keep up.

Oh well, here's more. Is the Moon Still There. Aluminum coaster blade hoops with black patina and flowers.

Is the Moon Still There.

Free Shipping. Bedlam. Pale Victorian Tribal Kuchi Assemblage Necklace with Bones.

I did another rework! This guy's been sitting in my shop for fifty years.

The problem was no Victorian to balance all the Tribal. Just like the other one there was no cosmic to balance the vintage...

Bedlam.
So I removed the that and added the this.
Bedlam. Pale Victorian Tribal Kuchi Assemblage Necklace with Bones.

And then I made this:

Which is actually two necklaces but if you don't wear them together they self-destruct.

And then this:

And then I watched this:

1/28/13

Before and After

I used to do some before and after posts to show how I improved things. I used to also use tags in my blog posts until I realized every single post I used had the tag 'new'....
Anywho.
Here's a piece I had up forever that never sold. Dream of Existing. Primitive Rustic Choker with Ceramics, Garnet Roman Glass, Antique Tag, Pyrite.

I liked it but like I'm saying, never sold. Dream of Existing. Primitive Rustic Choker with Ceramics, Garnet Roman Glass, Antique Tag, Pyrite.

One thing that bugged me was the generic vintage image in that awesome tag. Much more in keeping with my vision would be a snippet of nebula, and that's all I intended to change. As I was going about it, a package arrived with these cabs I'd taken a chance on from here. And I need to get more of them yesterday! Since the raku brought in the iridescence, I had to add a couple more iridescent accents. Eventually:

Dream of Existing.
I'm pretty excited about it.

So much so, I'mna make you look at this third image of it in which I highlight with my professional photoshopping skills all the new elements I added:

I also removed a couple, but I'll just stop now...

Also, you might remember a buyer got this:

Free Shipping Sale. Lamb. Cosmic pink opal amethyst pendant.

And ask me to rework it into a necklace. And so far I had:

Let me point out that this is a lady for whom more is more, so while I would normally have put it on some sort of leather choker and called it good, I needed something over-the-top. After much artistic turmoil, I just threw on every special, handmade bead in anything near the appropriate colors without even a link to separate them:

And she loved it! Phew!

The end.

PS:

1/25/13

More Chunk.

I think I got my mojo back today. In any case I got a lot of pictures taken. Imna show you this massive necklace I put together after a friend was complaining that there's not good waist-length necklaces out there.

Dark Flow.

I just decided to go over the top and toss in everything remotely dark colored I had. Kind of how I make bangles by first sorting out colors.

Although in fact it's not easy to get one of these guys to hang nicely. There has to be a balance and a sort of cascade effect that can be quite a bitch to get right.

I can't get a decent picture of this to save my life!

Why bother... moving on.

To another piece I can't get a decent image of...

That's an astronomer and God's hand holding out a star overhead.

And if I thought those were hard, the next two pieces had me disavowing bracelet-making for good.

The Old Astronomer.

Yeah, these are some cool replica coins that I may have distressed to death.

The originals looked like this: Byzantine Michael III Solidus 842-867 AD brass replica coin

Bohemia John the Blind Florin 1310-1346 brass replica coin

From here.

And then this one: Your Own Myth. Cosmic Gypsy Iridescent Assemblage Bracelet Cuff with gold leaf, vintage antique found objects.

Your Own Myth.
Your Own Myth. Cosmic Gypsy Iridescent Assemblage Bracelet Cuff with gold leaf, vintage antique found objects.

Still need to put a drop of superglue in the spots the balls screw into the bars on the body jewelry...

Oh and a few rings from yesterday. Kiss the Ground. Raw Amethyst crystal on chunky oxidized ring.

Kiss the Ground.

The Cave of Night.
The Cave of Night. Rough, raw amethyst chunk and Buffalo tooth in rectangular ring. Primitive, modern.

Where You Fear to Live.

Gotta go jam wit ma boyz now...

1/24/13

Chunky WIPs.

So I got a smary-pants comment---

<<beadybaby said... What's a "cunk"?>> I know you expect me to claim it was a misspelling of "chunk," as if I go around making mistakes! For your information, "cunk" is a merging of "chunk" and "crunk," (see gif). It's when I dance around the studio while joining together large sized elements. eeehhh? eeeehhhh?

Speaking of which, I got a shit-ton of random amethyst rock chooonks for next to nothing on a whim. I've been having a ball with them and some plumbers epoxy putty.

Here's a ring with a boar's tooth Flotsam gave me.

I tried to take a picture of the side view but it turned out like this:

And here's this one. So there's no focus going on today. Handle it!

These are fun to make but if you choose to go with the plumber's putty, be careful when you shape it or it will look like you stuck the thing together with bubble gum.

Kind of the way some polymer clay stuff looks, you know, rounded? Cartoony? Here's a little geode I got and decided to make a ring of.

Again with the awesome focusizing.

And I used 2 little druzys (druzies?) to make sorta bell type things with the putty and some screw eyes. By now the top thirds are gold leafed. They might become earrings....

Here's a bracelet I'm working on... I think a lack of the secondary meds I lowered after lowering my primary meds is making me sluggish. I haven't had a good 8-10 hour making session since before I left for my auntie weekend... I dunno... *wanders off mumbling to self*