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.

10/23/10

me frets

stillpointworks made these especially for me!

I'm feeling kinda fretful. It's like, I can never make all the things I wanna make fast enough, I always have to work, even though it's so few hours, I sleep so many hours that I guess I only have a small window of productivity in life. And with these opportunities for publishing coming up, it's stressful, because it makes you think about taking your career in this or that direction.... but tutorials and that take up so much time. And the stuff in the store never sells. Or so it feels lately. Only a few new items here and there sell, not the stuff there now. The pretty things sell ... but I only rarely feel like making girly things... and there's not a huge market for no-color having doorknob necklaces...
Missficklemedia superwonderfully offered me help to get things in markets and fairs, and maybe that'll help. Etsy will have to be less the center of my world, though, which is hard for me to fathom. I love putting everything there because then total strangers write me the most beautiful things! It's my parents- I'd be fine being poor, it's them that exert so much pressure on me... if I didn't live so close to them. if my mom weren't so intense and stress-inducing... I know the more time I have to dedicate to this, the better I get, I just have to stand up to her for the 1st time in my life...
Yeah, these are the thoughts roaming through the ol' brain...
I think a lot about 'if I'd only stood up to them' in my childhood. Realizing that what I felt all that time was right and true. and I know this is right and true, so I have no excuses... I gotta talk to my boss about dropping a class.
I guess I could just put a lot more pictures here on the blog and share that way, if I'm sending things off to markets. I could actually do flickr.

Hmm...

Here's some old sold stuff to add eye candy to this whiny post:

The Purser and the Phantom Crew. Antique Coin Purse Necklace.

Hypatia. Victorian Tribal Calendar Neck Piece.

10/21/10

finally up

My these-guys are finally up in the shiz-op.

They Thought They Could Touch the Sky. Doorknob Rosette and Found Poetry.

My sister was just over amazed that anyone would spend, say, $100 on a necklace. I asked her how much she got for a relative amount of work. Turns out she's never calculated her hourly wage. So she did and, guess what? $100/hr plus bonuses! I'm like, I can't believe anyone would pay that much for an hour's worth of writing code (or whatever it is she does). And she goes "I know!!! Especially since I suck at it!" Which cracked me up so much.

Needless to say I spend considerably more than an hour on these. FuckDamnit.

It has no end and no beginning. Jar Lid and Found Poetry.

Made me laugh, though, as she was checking out this one w/the jar lid, and I told her it was a jar lid, she kept asking, "Did you find it this way?" Um, a jar lid that says 'it has no end and no beginning'? With a rose? "No it's just that it looks like it's bee there forever!" Uh, yeah. That's what I dooz.

Notice the bits of lace, too. "Was that there when you found it?" Bits of lace? Strategically encased around a rusty old jar lid? "No, I know! It's just that it looks so old!"

Huh. Deja vu....

10/20/10

Hallelulja

I got my period! Thank you God of menses! From here on out- my clothes will fit, my boobages won't hurt, and I won't feel like I'm dragging a sack of bowling balls through life. Also. I won't feel like everyone's annoying to the point of driving me mad. Yeeha!

Also- 2 finished necklseez. I do a happy dance!

Imagine how much more I could make without gainful employment...

Sigh.

10/19/10

thangs

Finally got some post-ready pictures.

Yesterday I was working on my 1st tutorial ever, and it was a mess.

It was for missficklemedia's e-book I'm waiting with baited breath to see if they suck ass or will be at all acceptable.

Meanwhile I should be getting ready for work.

So I'm actually brushing my teeth while I blog.

One handed typing.

ridiculous.

Note: This stuff's up in the store now. And missfickle loved my pictures!!!)

Maddest thing ever

10/17/10

Icky

Managed to sleep 'til 5 am, be awake 'til 8, then sleep 'til 2 pm. Feel like caca.

I snuck back into the studio to make myself feel better. But then I wanted to take some pictures to share and they're so crap, I swung back to caca.

I got me some photoshop elements so that my pictures couls be reasonably good, but there seems to be a lot of ps elements issues. Like the fact that I have a PowerPC processor instead of an Intel one (?). Which makes more recent versions unusable. So I bought version 6.

But man, hearing all the complaints on the reviews stressed me out. I don't know the things they're talking about and don't wanna spend entire days getting the run-around on the automated phone system while trying to get help.

Plus I had one of those horrible stress dreams where you're back in school, can't find your locker or locker combination, forgot your schedule and can't remember how to find it. Plus it may be finals and you've just realized you were signed up for several classes you've forgotten to ever attend.

Ugh, I can't get the colors right on these! It's totally the automatic focus washing them out. They I over-saturate to compensate and it's a mess. ugh, ugh, ugh.

On another tangent- this piece is now available for general purchase as it is no longer on reserve:

A tiny tiny grain of sand in the sky. Beach bits and Turkoman Necklace.

A tiny tiny grain of sand in the sky.
Note- It sold already! MAN that was fast. Oh happy yay. Despite caca-tude and possible low-grade fever with flu-like aches. Happy yay with cacatude!