fanciful devices: Failure Friday.

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.

5/3/13

Failure Friday.

Imna clean my room, lol! OK, that was my failure. That's just my permanent and on-going failure. But I was able to make some. The round floor-space seen here is where my ass was parked.

And no HenrietteWhiteJewelry I have never considered teaching a class in Amsterdam. But if you pay for my airplane and hotel... and find a hotel... then sure.
But honestly guys I was gone just three days and I missed my studio. I'm insane. And love my life way more than is fair to others.

Here's this lady with a glob of gold mid-forehead.

All these even have cute stuff going on with the beads around the back of the neck but I wasn't able to get that yet. If you note the image to the left and the one below, the hook is on different rings, changing the focal length.

I also gave Perkilicious here a layer of white over top of all the muck that'd gotten on her. In fact, I figured out that she'd darkened from all the pencil marks on the original paper being rubbed all over. Guess I hadn't sealed.

Could still use more. I just used a white ink pad like for stamping that was on hand. I think my tube of acrylic white's all dried up.

Here's a tab-tastic pendant with a section of magical lantern glass slide. There's two layers of tin riveted together in the middle, behind the glass.

Didn't get a good picture of this cuz I got all wrapped up thinking about what to do with the backs of these and just forgot. Then I got distracted doing whatever else. Creative ADD strikes again.

Meanwhile, on the webs....
I’m Google by Dina Kelberman is a stream-of-conscious tumbler project.

Found via This is Colossal.

Also this mind blowing thing found via Cracked.com.

Get it, failure front, failure Friday? Ugh, sorry.

5 comments:

StaroftheEast said...: Love the necklace with the castle.
And the video is fantastic!
Thank you!; 5/4/13, 2:16 AM
Beatnheart said...: I'm in the midst of failure Saturday.; 5/4/13, 3:12 PM
Wildthorne said...: So glad that you are back, love your prong settings and tin focal techniques. If you can function in your room and create then you are good. Aww I like your round spot on the floor.; 5/5/13, 1:14 AM
PipnMolly said...: Ooooo. Nice bits !! Especially like the Rey twine (?) influence in the last one.; 5/5/13, 9:31 AM
CraftyHope said...: Hahahahaha at the ass-area in the floor. I posted a similar picture several weeks backs as I sorted through my craft room too. I wasn't surrounded by yummy little bits like you, but big ole boxes of CRAP that I was trying to get rid of.
Anyway, the jewelry is fab. I like that you used some color in these!; 5/27/13, 9:46 AM