fanciful devices: 10/2016

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.

10/26/16

Makin' the Makies

I've been making a bunch of beads. Can't seem to stop.

Fractured Stones
The crackled ones turned out totally different than last time. And I made myself crazy with the back painting on these. I found though that it's much easier wiping the top paint off if you use a cloth (I used an old T shirt) and some rubbing alcohol. I was inhaling fumes but other than that, much easier.

Polymer clay art bead sets
As you can see, all kinds of things.

Shapes and facets.
On a whim I bought a bicone bead roller. I just don't think I'm meant for even-shaped beads.

Gold fissures.
On the upper right? Those are Angelina fibers. I'm not done experimenting with them.

Silver long drops.

The silver veneer on these is not metal leaf but rather these rolls of nail transfer foil stuff that I found on eBay. The gold is metal leaf though.

White abalone.
This abalone pattern is from those rolls too.

Gleaming grays.
Again, not done experimenting with these. Lower right, more Angelina fibers but with a layer of translucent clay over the top.

Sparkling wobblies.
These are made with crushed shells.
Blue roses. Polymer clay earring pair connectors. Handmade art beads. You choose.

Blue roses.
Here's some decal connectors, but this time I used bezel settings so that the rings would be external and I wasn't making myself crazy with the little holes.
Rustic polymer clay triangle earring pairs with blue rose decals and crackle. Handmade artisan art beads

Rustic polymer clay triangle earring pairs with blue rose decals and crackle. Handmade artisan art beads

Triangle earring pairs.
Polymer clay connectors. Set of 5 five with Chinese calligraphy painting decals.

Connectors set using the last of my Chinese decals.

Bracelet connectors with more crackle experiments. I added the wire rings to show where they're drilled but maybe that's unnecessary.

Altered mop earring pairs with vintage floral decals and crackles, double sided. These aren't polymer but they're cute, hu?

Jewelry inspiration kit. Look at all the special bits you get!

Rustic Resin Shrine Earring Pairs. I've started listing these cuz I have too much stuff and I only want to make beads.

Rustic Resin Pendants.

Rustic Resin Focals
They're not getting snapped up because I priced them decently. A lot of the beads below went quickly because I thought of them as experiments so I sorta undercharged.

Like good lord, ladies like these heishi.

Polymer clay faceted heishi art bead sets with crusty color. Your choice.

On the one hand they're super easy to make so I might do a free tute. On the other I'm having some tackiness issues with the inexpensive enamel paints I use over the tops.
Polymer clay faceted heishi art bead sets with crusty color. You choose.

Polymer clay faceted heishi art bead sets with crusty color. You choose.

Teal turbans. Polymer clay art beads in blue/green.

So yeah folks are eagle-eyed for the deal$.
Textured gray polymer clay art beads set (5) handmade artisan facet and crackle beads by fancifuldevices

Four polymer clay connectors, earring pairs. Crackle and flowers. Art beads by fancifuldevices.

Connectors...
Grungy Mary. Three (3) polymer clay connectors with crackle.

Polymer clay connector earring pair with green leaves, vintage decals. Art beads by fancifuldevices.

Jewelry inspiration kit in browns and orange with rustic resin oval pendant. Bead soup supply lot mix assortment.

I find these kits very fun to put together. Gathering up coordinating supplies is such a huge part of making jewelry anyways that this is definitely artistically fulfilling.
What else? Oh I have butt-loads more to post:

Dun dun dun!!! That was the dramatic sound effect as they got closer and closer.

If I'm not my usual chatty self... You know lately, with the... lets just call it politics, shall we? I feel like there's this slimy layer of hatefulness over our whole society and it's got me all ugh. Well, I was sick last week too but it all coalesced when someone I chatted with regularly on etsy said some wildly ignorant shit about how "open borders" was the reason I was sick. What with the Mexican drug dealing rapist lepers coming to get us all. Do you remember in the movie The Help when the evil white lady was like "They carry different diseases"? Same thing. As a Latin American immigrant myself, who has heard first hand the INDESCRIBABLE shit undocumented immigrants go through... OMG. I'd like to say I was all tough and fuck you about it but I was shivering with fever and when I get sick all my walls fall down and I have emotional open borders so I spent the night sobbing and crying "Why do you hate us so much?" (Cuz oh yeah, the conversation developed, more outrageous claims were made. I couldn't tell if I was shaking from fever or anger or horror...)
Ignorance is so easy y'all. Bullying people who can't fight back is so easy... Coming up with excuses for hate when you've never even talked to the people you're judging.
I could write about this forever but you know what I do instead? I hide away in my home, play with beads and pretend everything is just as pretty outside as it is on my work table. I can do this because of white middle-class privilege of course. (Obviously, I'm hispanic and also white.) But for the last couple months I've felt like I can't push it away, it's eating it's way in.
Deep breath. Deep breath again. Oh god, head rush from too many deep breaths it's not working...
OK yeah. Don't mean to start a shit storm but oh well. I'm almost all the way healthy again and I know not to talk to toxic people so it's all good.
Now for a palette cleanser, lets look at some border walls shall we?

Love you guys, stay safe.

10/9/16

Short post

Trying to pretend the debates aren't going on right now so I don't have a panic attack.

Saffron Trader.
Here's something different! Chunky choker for those of you who're getting sick of the resin.

And another one.

Autumnal.
Both of these backed by that awesome cloth-covered electrical cord used for lamps.

Blue Necklace Inspiration Kit. Rustic resin bezel, mix lot assortment.

Blue Necklace Inspiration Kit.
Also felt like putting together some kits. I love a cute craft kit, I've always been a bit obsessed with them.

Blue Earring Inspiration Kit. Rustic resin shrines, mix lot assortment.

Blue Earring Inspiration Kit.
Often, I like the kit more than whatever you might make with it.

What's up with me and orange lately? I'm all about orange. Sure, it's my murky dusty orange but I never thought of myself as an orange person.

I've been wearing my bullion things and so far so good.

Here's some more orange. Haven't listed these quite yet.

You guys, I'm doing so good at the gym lately! Over the last two years I've been going I can remember so many times thinking, "When is this no longer going to hurt? When won't this be impossibly hard and exhausting?" And guess what? Now is when.

On the minus side I've been going to sleep at 7am and waking up at 4pm everyday. I don't even understand it. I'm going to start going to the earlier gym classes though to see if that helps. (If I can wake up in time for them.)

I've also been making a crap-load of polybabies lately.

This isn't even all of it.

These drops have a transfer on them that looks a bit like abalone. I think it looks better on the black than the grey clay.

Bracelet connectors that can be thin because inside they're strengthened by steel screen. Like, screen door repair mesh.

Did some more crackle which I didn't love as much as my last crackle but I'm not done with it yet.
Here's some pix from my instagram:

In this case, I didn't put the color layer (made with translucent clay and alcohol ink) on top of a white layer, but rather went right in with another translucent and then I shmeared chalk pastels all over... but yeah I was able to somewhat counteract the muddy with some gold in the crevices.

Out of sheer curiosity I bought a bacon bead roller. Below you can see where I made some then cut facets out of the edge. I don't think I was born to create consistently-shaped beads though.
The faceted ones below I think Ive now painted shimmery purple?

Also made some very small nail decal connectors.

Some of them, the crackle keeps you from seeing clearly what the design even is. I think I'll take a pic of the pairs together and do one of those listings where you choose the set you want.

I got a surprise bunch of goodies in the mail from SacredCake! You can't see a thing in these pix. How are iPhone cameras so good but iPad cameras so bad? This is even after I edited in the photoshop app to get it not to look horrible. Sheesh.

Bingo is doing very well with the prednizone. Now he'll only eat ground beef. He even rejects it if we put a little oatmeal in there to soak up the juices.