Off The Wagon

There have been times, but I have been strong lately.

Back in the nineties you could get these amazing deals on wool yarns on eBay, and the place was awash with boutique fibre vendors, and I had the watch-list and disposable income of which I disposed.

When I'm retired and on a fixed income I will not have to spend a cent on yarn or spinning fibre; in fact I could stop right now, stop beading even and spend all my time knitting and spinning until I retire and I still wouldn't run out.

Then I stopped that.

Some years later I was given a virtual eBay gift certificate for lampwork beads and once again I fell hard. I used up the gift certificate and kept on going. I had my favourite lampwork artists, but was in no way restricted by my favourites.

If I gave up knitting and spinning and teaching and only beaded things incorporating lampwork beads and seed beads - well, I might eventually have to buy more, but not for a while. I stopped the breakneck rate of acquisition when I was laid off a few years ago, and occasionally succumb, but not often.

And then there were gifts but they didn't quite cover all the bases, so I did it myself.

And to prove that I don't just accumulate lampwork in order to increase my collection, I started something, a slightly embellished version of yesterday's red necklace. I rather like these little thingies. Components, for want of a better word.

They're not beaded beads because they're not bead-shaped, whatever that may be.

They're not beading findings because, well, they're not clasps or links or ear wires or anything like that.

Thingies.

Components, I suppose.

I'm debating bead placement.

The focal is more or less symmetric in terms of overall shape, but it definitely isn't in terms of colour placement and design, so perhaps it ought to be hung vertically, but it fits so nicely this way and really, I'm not usually hung up on symmetry so actually yes, I think I'll just leave it this way.

Thanks for helping me talk it out.