Starling's Nest

Please consider donating, I cannot accept comms rn.

no goal since i keep being kicked while down lol

ppl: [email protected]

Courtesy of @flaskoflethe, we had the wonderful opportunity to experiment with knapping sapphire!

We started with this lovely piece of synthetic sapphire from Tom's Box of Rocks, although it started too round and needed to be thinned and flatenned before I could knap it.

After grinding, it was time to start flaking. I was not remotely prepared for how difficult this would be, the first flake took 6 attempts with the full force of my body to drive even a small little chip, and the sapphire fought me just as much for every next flake.

After hours of exhausting work, I was finally able to create a knapped edge across the entire piece. I could not manage to drive flakes all the way to the center, but both my tools and body had taken enough of a beating that I decided to declare the piece finished after polishing up the frosted center a little.

This was an amazing project, and I'm really thankful I finally had the opportunity to try out sapphire. I want to experiment with the material more, but I think for now and more pieces made in ruby or sapphire will be case by case commissions, as I cannot justify the cost, labor hours, and recovery time without a client paying upfront. Once I can get some more specialized tools like a lapidary saw I'm hopeful it'll be a more practical material to work with.

Feel free to ask any questions about this project! It was easily the most difficult material I have ever worked, and I'm excited to talk about it more to those curious.

start being comfortable posting Black people's words in your blogs, the same way you'll reblog posts about transness, gayness, disability, because these specific topics can affect you

yes, women are expected under patriarchy to perform this form of labour, and it is often involuntary or coerced, and usually physically grueling. yes, the proletariat as a class are constituted under capitalism by being forced to sell their labour-power to be used by someone else, contrary to their own interests, in alienating, life-negating conditions.

but no, being unable to get a job in a society that continually punishes those who fail to successfully market themselves as employees to the ruling class of capitalists is not lucky or a privilege. you should not tell the unemployed person who can't afford to eat that they're at least lucky they don't have to waste their time waiting tables.

does anyone have $10 or anything for a family of 7, 4 who're disabled, 2 kids under 15, in a abusive house for food and $41 for Dereks insulin that he MUST take to stay out of an er? im panicking as his dosage was upped last year this is URGENT he's been out TWO DAYS please im begging yall we need help to get through this anything helps be it dollar or less. also please help me give these kids food to eat

p3ypal: avatarerin

c3sh app: $avatarpyler

v3nmo: skiesofperiwinkle

k0fi: gothkittygalore

I have some gigs lined up this month, but if folks are able to pitch in a little bit it’d really take a lot of stress off. A lot of things have changed for us financially in a short period of time and I fear this may continue to happen for a bit. I know times are tough for literally everyone right now, but basically if like 85 or so people chip in $5 each we’d be golden. Which is to say I have a goal of $425, but honestly anything at all towards that would help a lot! thank you!

To my surprise, someone has already done this and written two books:

Race and the Animated Bodyscape: Constructing and Ascribing a Racialized Asian Identity in Avatar and Korra

and

The Avatar Television Franchise: Storytelling, Identity, Trauma and Fandom.

I read the first book. Just for context, I am Han Chinese with partial ethnic minority heritage, and I enjoy watching Japanese, American, and European animation. Even though my college major isn't in a related field, I'm very interested in the humanities and social sciences. I think the author did a great job—the research is meticulous and reasonably objective.

As a side note: I noticed that some white racist Avatar fans actually claim Aang is white, which honestly leaves me and other minority netizens not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Aang's design and inspiration are so clearly rooted in Tibetan and Nepalese Buddhism.