fanciful devices

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.

2/9/11

I'm sick so Im gonna cheer myself up by posting some glorious treasuries 2 of my best etsy buds included me in.

THE PERFECT PAIR. Curated by SacredCake.

Antique French Nude Student Study Painting 1 of 6

Pear Original Oil Painting by Claire Elan - 10x8

Winter Frost...One Pair of Raku Wing Cabochons

CURLEY is the New Straight, BLEACHED Peacock Feather Pair

SALE - 40 perc. off - Nuno felted wrist arm warmers - Growing Spring on my skin OOAK

Vintage White Textured Kid Leather Gloves Size 6 1/4

French Scripte Pair of Accent pillows 10x14

Wedding Handmade Place Cards Set of 60 Victorian Heart Wings Brown Kraft

Three Golden Pears - 10x20 Original Oil Painting

A Chimney sweep's heart. Curated by sparrowsalvage.
4 x 6 Black and White Tower Bridge London England Photograph

the priestess of panormita. tribal victorian arm cuff.

Vegan Eye Shadow Eyeliner Eyeshadow Large Black Orchid Mineral Makeup

Chimney Sweep Boy Folk Wood Top Hat Ladder vintage

Black Cinnabar Carved Butterfly Beads Pendant 2 pieces

SALE Antique Napkin Ring Victorian Edwardian Christmas

Spirit Voices--Antique Rosary Bead Earrings

2 Vintage Silver Tone Metal Top Hat Drops or Charms

In the Realm Between Gods and Mortals. Soldered Fossil Necklace.

Vintage brass primitive ring. Woman wedding ring.

There's tons more glorious treasuries that include one of my babies. How do people make them so easily and frequently? I'm terrible at it. I can only handle one thing at a time.
AVintageSeason has included me in a bunch. She makes like 10 per day, though, and they're all beautiful. Isn't it funny how what comes so natural to one person that they do it just for fun seems like work to another? I'm talking about video games, of course.
I'm sick, my throat hurts and I don't have to make sense. By the way, my students can't say throat. They say troak or something. It's very cute.

2/6/11

newsy new

Thaumaturge
I made some like these before. It was time for another pair.
Thaumaturge- A Worker of Marvels. Sterling and Tin Slice Earrings.

World-Soul. Stitched Cuff with Brass Dragons.

World-Soul.
Here's the brass piece SacredCake sent. Been a while since I made a cuff. There's 4 layers of fabric and I sewed each on separately because I'm nuts. This is all I've been doing the past couple days.
World-Soul. Stitched Cuff with Brass Dragons.

Can't get a good picture of the whole thing, so I'm showing you the size reference pic.
Bodhisattva. RESERVED for ShesSoWeird.

Bodhisattva. A regular who saw the haul specifically requested a necklace made from this cross. I even included the clip tied to the cross, curling it into a clasp.
I took the opportunity to try some oversized links I'd been thinking on. I think you'll have to mold them to your neck a bit in back, Linda.
Bodhisattva. RESERVED for ShesSoWeird.

Lotsa hammering, very satisfying. The central focal looked like a Bodhisattva so that's what I named it.

2/5/11

Because it's that kind of day

CRANK IT NOW!

2/3/11

Hello from blizzardville! These ladies are up:
God of Ritual Madness. Earrings.

God of Ritual Madness.
And if you're waiting for something from me- I'm gonna wait for Chicago to get back to normal before sending them.

The Four Branches of the Mabinogion. Currency and Dangles.

The Four Branches of the Mabinogion.
My fear is that they'll sit in the mailbox across the street in the sub-zero weather for 3 days, or that shoveled snow will bury the mail box and then the snow will melt into it, soggying up everything...

The Heart of the Ocean of Naught. Amber Earrings.

The Heart of the Ocean of Naught.
Actually, I think the mailbox across the street is under a mountain of snow.
The Will of the Air. Pearl Earrings.

The Will of the Air.
We had to dig out mine and my mom's patios because our dumb dog wouldn't poo! Because all around, the snow has covered up the smells. So we were just walking him around for hours and he'd just be sniffing frantically for ever- and did I mention it's cold out? Spirare. Papered Filigree Hoops.

Spirare.

So if it doesn't smell a little poopy already, he doesn't consider it poop-worthy.
Haecceity. Victorian Tribal Pearly Drops.

Haecceity.
Mr. Husband said, "I guess that's like if I had to poo and couldn't find a toilet." Which cracked me up because he didn't say "it's like if a person couldn't find a toilet." but rather "I." Cuz really, if I had to poo and couldn't find a toilet, screw it, I'd go behind a bush.
Well, isn't that nice? You came to see pretty jewelry and here's what you got: an image of me pooping behind a bush.

2/2/11

Peeks

New girls for your eye's sweet tooth.

Couldn't sleep last night so I made earrings through out the blizzard.

Though right now it's lovely out. Tonight's supposed to get sub-zero though.

I am a bit hazy from not sleeping, so I kinda sat here in a daze and worked on editing these pictures waaay too long. But they look good to have been taken in awful light.

Used a bunch of the ear wires Jennifer sent me.

Here I glued bits of old money on square brass and put that UTEE stuff with way too much flex in it to turn it that amber color... and there's 4 black diamond rhinestones- can you find them? So, the pix are nice but now I realize you can't see the actual items that well...

Some work in progress...

Look what I got off ebay:

Vintage Indian match box labels.

They're killing me, they're so yummy!

Stay warm girls.

2/1/11

Barathrum. Barathrum. Necklace.

I'm all excited about these earrings. First, I finally figured out what to do with the wired beads I mentioned a couple weeks ago. Fancylinda sent a convo w/an example of wired beads that looked nothing like these but made me realize they had to be connected to something hard and stable. Thanks girl!
Selcouth. Papered Filigree Earrings.

Selcouth.
I cut a big round filigree in half, sanded, oxidized. Then I papered it with watery white glue. Then I had to burn all that off b/c the paper was too crispy and not flexible/strong enough to really wrap around the filigree curves. The burning with my hardware heat gun made the whole house stink and created two big burn marks on my floor. OK, so then I found the right paper and had to do all the little holes. Dremel, baby. But then I learned an exacto knife first is best. But then I had to re-oxidize all the parts filed back to shiny by the dremel. Then topcoat glue seal. Then wire in the beads. Hammer the sterling ear wires. Scratch my butt. Drink some coffee. Fall back on the weird-word-titles for lack of inspiration.... Pick my nose....