5/7/10

Despite the Hands

I can't stop making things.  Much, much less than before.  I seem to have SO much time recently.  I'll look at a clock and it'll be within the same hour as the last time I looked!  So weird.  I actually did some laundry and took out trash!
Here I have this textile piece worn as a sort of ascot.  I think of this as being in celebration of Sparrow's newfound embracing of color and shiny bits.
It's called Zhuangzi Dreams.
Zhuangzi once dreamed of being a butterfly flying hither and thither without care. When he awoke, he asked himself "Am I a man who dreamt he was a butterfly, or am I a butterfly who is dreaming he is a man?"









Opium Wars. Antique Pipe and Recycled Glass Lariat.
In China recreational use of the drug began in the fifteenth century but was limited by its rarity and expense. Opium trade became more regular by the seventeenth century, when, instead of being eaten, it began to be mixed with tobacco for smoking from pipes. This form of ingestion was much more potent and addictive. Opium prohibition in China began in 1729 yet was followed by nearly two centuries of increasing opium use. China had a positive balance sheet in trading with the British, which led to a decrease of the British silver stocks. Therefore, the British tried to encourage Chinese opium use to enhance their balance, and they delivered it from Indian provinces under British control. A massive confiscation of opium by the Chinese emperor, who tried to stop the opium deliveries, led to two Opium Wars in 1839 and 1858, in which Britain suppressed China and traded opium all over the country. After 1860, opium use continued to increase with widespread domestic production in China, until more than a quarter of the male population was addicted by 1905. Recreational or addictive opium use in other nations remained rare into the late nineteenth century, recorded by an ambivalent literature that sometimes praised the drug.


 I can't decide if I like the black cords coming out or if I should just get rid of them.  Anyways, as you can see, its something I made w/the minimum of right hand force.  No wires to be pressed into place with pliers, see?

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