The Stash

I have a confession to to make, I may be a bit of a hoarder. Not the kind of hoarder who has to wade through piles of dated newspapers and empty milk cartons to get to the sofa but the kind who has tiny collections of shiny objects tucked away in pretty tins. More like a pack rat, wait, that sounds worse. Well, whatever you want to call it, I have collections, many of them. There is a seashell collection hiding in a golden tin that my favorite elder once gave me. The tin was marked "Favorite things" and filled with chocolate chocolate chip cookies. It's the perfect spot for shells I've spent a lifetime collecting. Then there is the bakelite collection secretly tucked away in my closet. Sometimes I bring them out to play but mostly I like to look at them. When I was in collage, my roommate found a hippo collection in our basement, he insisted I needed this collection. So now folks give me hippos. Not that I really care for them. And the pez collection I started in high school, it's still hanging out in my studio. All those tiny heads once filled with candy just stare at me now as they collect dust.

But my most treasured collection, the first one I packed up when I was evacuated during last years fire, is my bead collection. This may rival the seashell collection in age, I've been collecting both as long as I can remember. In fact, I used to only collect seashells with holes in them so they could be used as beads. I have jars and tins and boxes and boxes filled with beads. Some are old african beads, some are blown glass, some I made from seeds but mostly they are gems stones. I'll save my favorite bead from a full strand for years and just admire it rather than make it into jewelry. I'll buy a whole stand just for that one bead! Yep, these beads are my very favorite things. My version of pirate booty.

So after a lifetime of collecting beads, I have decided to finally make some of my favorites into jewelry. My newest line features Labradorites with the brightest flash, green apatite like I've never seen before, and a few of the deepest blue gemmy kyanites. All of these treasures have been sitting in my bead box for ages just for my personal viewing pleasure. So if they speak to you as they have spoken to me, you'd better grab them fast. Otherwise I may decide to put them back into my prized collection.

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