fanciful devices: 2014

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.

12/24/14

Festivus post is looong.

Y'all are so kind and supportive with your comments I can't even think how to thank you.

Seems like if you show vulnerability in the online world of artisans, folks close up ranks and become just incredibly loving and wonderful.

But let me reiterate that I was already OK when I wrote that post. Which is why I was able to write it. Before that I couldn't even call up the wherewithal to form coherent sentences. But I'm fine now! See? Bracelets?

In fact I'm very lucky to find myself so responsive to medicine, I don't think most people are.

OK, but back to the matter at hand. I had this tore up old strand of gorgeous antique African beads which at some point was itself a necklace because while the string it was on was worn out, it ended in this amazing toggle/button clasp you see here. I thought I could find a use for it, and I've been seeing all these lovely bracelets with big ball beads around the craft-o-sphere so I got inspired.

Actually I'm just super proud of how I was able to hide all the strands and mechanisms using the clusters of little beads. Also that I glued in eyelets as cores in some of the beads where the holes were too big. You know how somethings you're just proud of how you managed to put it together so seamlessly? And used all these beads I had no plan for? So friggin' pleased with myself.

Ok so this one has this piece of metal from an archeological dig which I was intrigued by because on the underside it had two huge prongs. My plan was to slightly curve the piece and use the prongs as rivets. Then two years go by. And now I've finally made the dang thing, joining it with a Kathyhaul rhinestone choker.

Come to find the metal was actually copper! Most archeological things are steel and they are hard as shit which makes them almost impossible to hammer/pierce/etc. But copper is made for rivets, see picture above.

Basically I've been storing up a million bracelet elements since forever and I've finally started putting them all together. Like this applique cuff from Kathystash with druzies also from Kathystash.

I coated the cuff in many layers of polyurethane for strength and stiffness, stitched it on to a wire frame underneath, leafed the druzies, etc. Even those little metal spacers were given to me in an old patroness strand. Nepalese I think.

Next!

Ok so ages ago I showed you in my most recent Uruhaul, this little bottle with the edge that had come completely apart.

I fixed it!! Yay solder.

Used some of my recent handmade chain and this one button with a thistle from a set of cuff links as the closure.

But guess what? As I was pulling apart the cufflinks, I found that they have a special mechanism to adjust to any size cuff. There's some kind of spring inside that if you pull on it releases more chain. No clue how I could make use of such a thing but it's pretty cool.

So yeah necklaces. And lots of cords. Cording. Cord-usage.

And this amazing "Application and Conduct" academic medal. Sure are lots of school medals in Uruguay.

And this old bracelet that lays along the back of the neck, with more handmade chain.

Another lariat with more cord and more delicate Uruguayan treasure. I waxed all this fiber cord, then felt like they were too waxed, so I evaporated it off with a heat gun and now they all look extra time-worn. And all the rust deposits from the liquid oxidizer.

Amazing detail and amazingly flashy labradorite.

OK, I'm not into Jesus but I like how in this one he looks like he's going, "Why I oughta...!"

In Uruguay I found a few slabs of gorgeous minerals, like this rhutilated quartz.

I edged them with solder after cutting the copper tape to fit perfectly along the slender edges.

And they came out so stunning I felt they needed very little extra. Didn't want to distract. So I just finished them with fine chain and simple wire closures and added tiny gorgeous charms that I had collected thinking of earrings.

Like this sterling rocking horse that really rocks! Cuz I've made millions of earrings and I'm not as motivated by them just now.

Here I used a whole bunch of charms with a slab of stalactite.

The windmill spins and the leaf is fine silver and the moonstone is crazy opalescent.

But here's a pair of what I consider classic fancifuldevices earrings.

This medal is too sweet.

And finally what might be my last pair of this particular style of caged earrings with hand-gruged vintage glass pearls.

Phew!

Happy War on Christmas everyone! I love you and thanks for all the comments for realz y'all made me teary.

12/14/14

Re-emerging from under my rock.

Why howdy ladies, remember me?

These past two silent weeks I've been sick with the flu.

As always happens when I get sick, my meds sort of blinked out and stopped working. It's the strangest phenomenon.

And you know how when you drink coffee everyday and then one day you don't, it's much worse than if you'd never had any coffee to begin with? Yeah it's like that except for instead of caffeine it's the hormones that keep your brain working in a non-schitzo way.

So it feels like a really bad acid trip overlaid with the joys of the flu. Oh, and add to that the lack of inspiration I'd been feeling lately and, well, shit got dark.

I of course decided that I was stuck that way and that this past decade of stability and functioning was just a temporary island in a stream of despair. I remembered what it was like for reality to take on a creepy atmosphere of utter strangeness. Like different moods could color existence itself.

Granted, right now that last sentence sounds like gibberish to me, but I was experiencing that quite distinctly...

Aaaand, then I got all better and went on a bracelet kick, the results of which you can see here. So that was weird.

Every time I get sick and this happens I have a renewed appreciation for sanity, home, family and whatever limited productivity/functioning I am able to achieve when I'm stable.

And I remind myself that I don't have to be the best most successful artist in the world and that my pieces don't all have to make me tear my hair out with amazement. Rather I should just do what I know how to do simply and with enjoyment for the pleasure of of the work.

And if something doesn't sell, it doesn't necessarily mean it was a failure, as art is not always wearable per se.

The piece below is a perfect example of that. Like, maybe no woman out there wants Napoleon around their neck. I tried adding dangly beads to pretty it up, but they didn't work. This piece wants to be minimal and masculine and I like it so there.

Anyways, all the meds I kept lowering in hopes of clearing the fog in my head? Turns out I needed those and that's where my drive to do anything at all had gone to.

Not very romantic to think inspiration is some kind of hormone you can directly consume, but all the stuff that happens in our brains, even our emotions, are all made up of hormones. It's all chemical reactions.

But like technology that is advanced enough will always seem indistinguishable from magic to the lay observer, this chemistry takes place at a level of complexity so beyond our comprehension that taking meds for mental and emotional harmony seems sometimes like ...

Throwing aspirin into a thunderstorm? Doing a rain dance and hoping it pays off? Playing the lottery? I don't have a metaphor, it's that far beyond me.

In other news, this necklace was inspired by the idea of making something super simple and after re-arranging each element several hundred times for the perfect balance I've decided once again I'm incapable of simple.

Literally, I was inspired by this type of thing I saw originally on pinterest:

My only guiding thought being "grey bits!" and I end up with this unholy mess. OK, actually I really love it and it's not unholy. It was just a pain to get it all to hang just so. And I did make that simple Napoleon choker above, so... I don't have a point.