fanciful devices: Next next next

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.

3/21/16

Next next next

The Warmth of Embers.

The next two listings I'm putting up are all about warmy-warmz. I've tried calling this color amber, topaz and just plain brown- even yellow!- but I can't shake the feeling there's a better word for it I'm forgetting.

Lately blogger isn't letting me see my cursor and it's really hard to do anything without it... But anyways, look at that pretty-ass coin. It's from Brazil, 1927. The only time I polish to bring out the details instead of leaving something dark and oxidized is with coins. The intricacy of the designs is just delicious.

The biwa and rhinestone drops below, I tinted with alcohol ink to get them that golden color. (That's another word I've tried in tags and titles- golden.) Always seal your alcohol ink work! Also your alcohol probably.

Cwtch (Welsh): "to hug, a safe welcoming place."

I used the same two colors of ink on the mop button and rhinestones here. I think the colors were called ginger and mushroom?

I always feel like mop should be MOP, but then it seems like I'm yelling cuz I think mother of pearl is so important. But if you just write mop, I always think=====>>

Sparrow wrote a funny comment:

"Oh also maybe I have a brain tumor as well because the other day I was watching wheel of fortune and the puzzle revealed and I read "rousing applesauce" and I went on a huge rant about how wtf does that even mean and basically it wasn't until I googled it 5 min later and goog said "did you mean applause?" Yes I did."

And I liked it not only because "rousing applesauce" is just the kind of nonsense that will make me laugh for days, holy christ, but also cuz I know that when she says she "went on a rant", it was just her ranting to herself.

I too have very spirited discussions with the audience in my head. cat funny cute cute cat funny cat

Here's me gesticulating wildly while I talk to the imaginary people.

4 comments:

richelle said...: I use "ochre" sometimes for this amber color range because it covers a lot of bases but I don't think it's a super search term. I just saw the beads below and I'm so happy they were fun to color; they look great. I'm going to try out selling a plain white strand for people to color & embellish! Thanks for showing them off.; 3/22/16, 6:06 AM
Anvil Artifacts said...: Whatever you end up calling it, that necklace is fantastic. And another great bracelet with (and this is no small feat) good bracelet pictures! Kudos.; 3/22/16, 8:59 AM
Penelope said...: I beg your pardon, I will have you know I do NOT rant to myself. It is aimed squarely at the television because they can hear me. Also that invisible audience you mentioned.

Citrine? Goldenrod? Butterscotch? Honeycomb? Pumpkin? Butterbeer? ok now I'm hungry.; 3/24/16, 10:56 AM
Cindy L said...: I'm LOVING your new approach to blog updates. These shorter entries actually seem to encourage a closer look at things, which is so enjoyable.

Thank you for giving your faithful followers incredible inspiration and sharing in such a beautiful (and fun!) presentation. Making your "makies" is one thing--but I can only imagine the time and effort involved in getting them photographed and writing down your thoughts about each one. It's always exciting to click and see what's been going on in your workroom. It would be incredible to just hang out there and watch your process, enjoying all the stream-of-conscious dialogue you probably carry on with yourself. ;)

You probably have no idea how much joy your blog brings.; 3/27/16, 8:35 AM