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I hit the mother load when I was five. At the time we were renting from the guy who owned Thomas Amusements and he stored all the game prizes in a building behind our apartment. After the exhibition had packed up and left Bridgewater, he’d left a cardboard box beside the road for the garbage filled with various junk, stuffed Teddy bears that had gotten wet and mostly broken items like cheap metal chains and baubles that could only delight a child’s mind. I pimped up like a modern day rapper with multiple necklaces and bejeweled fingers. Yo yall, I’m Chrissy from da hood!
So later in life when I discovered handmade beads I almost lost my mind. I started ordering them online and made jewelry to sell in the store and I was successful at it, selling most pieces I made. The entire front of the shop was dedicated to bling, all one of a kind pieces that I put my heart and soul into making. I was smitten, deeply in love with beads! They were incredible, so soft and creamy and the light glinted off them like shooting stars. I’d lay them out on the table and drink them in with my eyes, run my hand over their shapes…my little pretties. I coveted them, drooled over them, but strangely once they were processed into wearable art, I never wore any of it. My joy was seeing others purchase and appreciate my handiwork. Selecting a piece of my jewelry to frame their face, dress up and compliment their outfits was intoxicating!
So I searched for and ordered more and more beads, only happy with the last find. I needed more, bigger, better, shinier. I had to have it all, would stay up all hours of the night searching sites for more treasure. My eyes were bloodshot many mornings heading to work but I was high from the hunt and bagging the latest score. I lived to go to the post office, parcels were coming in daily and it was like Christmas opening each package to find the object of my desire waiting for me to fulfill its life’s’ purpose.
If you remember the “I Love Lucy” show and the chocolate factory scene, where the candy rolled down the conveyor belt so quickly she lost her mind, well that was me. So many beads were arriving I couldn’t address them right away so they began to pile up in containers. Dozens, then hundreds all cast aside to wait their time in line.
I became overwhelmed. Then I shut down and did nothing other than order more beads. They were coming in but nothing was going out. That part of it never got dull and the panic that I might miss out on a bead that I couldn’t live without glued me to the computer every night. I was on a mission, to bankrupt our account and fill the closets with fired glass.
I don’t think there was a straw that broke the camel’s back and one day I was obsessed and the next not, I was gradually accepting the fact that I’d fallen down the rabbit hole hard and had potential brain damage. It scared me to think I could lose control like that. Blue Willow dishes had been a passion but it never reached the obsessive buying like beads had.
About that time I was realizing that I couldn’t serve two masters successfully. Rug Hooking came first and I was neglecting my eldest passion. I looked around the shop and it was obvious the choice I had to make. One had to go so last in, first out. Maybe if I’d discovered beads first I would be in that business, but my hooking was suffering as I dedicated most of my time to bling. If only wool could shine it would be even more perfect; with sequins and blingy threads. My two passions were splitting me down the middle and pulling me both ways but in the end the beads weighed me down. The other casualty, my dining room table had suffered long enough. At any given moment it could have crashed to the floor under the weight of Rubbermaid containers filled with beads. I stopped inviting people to dinner because it was too much of a hassle to pack it all up. Beads had isolated me even more than my own introverted ways.
It’s time to let go so I’m opening a pop-up store coinciding with the Father Christmas Festival. Sat & Sun Nov. 28th & 29th and Sat & Sun Dec. 5th and 6th. 10:00 – 5:00 each day.
I’m not marking the beads up to make profit. I only want my investment back. There won’t be any tax as it isn’t part of my rug hooking business so this is the perfect time to find unique beads to take your jewelry making to the next level. It will be sad to see them go but they should be in the hands of someone who will love them and appreciate their beauty, make exquisite bling for the world to see instead of lining the inside of boxes and plastic containers.
If you know anyone that makes jewelry, please pass this along. Help me to unload the guilt of my purchasing ways. Truthfully, I’m almost embarrassed to show you my collection, your eyes might leave their sockets. Anyone that’s a serious beader will not have seen anything like this at a tradeshow. I’ve been to them so I know!
We are setting up for only four days and then it will be over. I’ve started a Facebook Page dedicated to the beads called BEADS FOR SALE and will post sets on there over the next few months, until everything is gone. Also, there will be special findings, Swarovski Glass Pearls, Spider Brooches and some of my finished pieces that I thought I would wear but have been forgotten in my jewelry box. All the beads are for sale so if you are interested email or message me privately to set up payment by PayPal, Cash, MC or Visa.
And my hubby is selling off some of this crystals and fossils. He’s been collecting for decades, beautiful pieces steeped in history. He calls them Treasures of the Earth.
My new Facebook page "Beads For Sale" click this link to see some of the beads I will be offering.
https://www.facebook.com/beadsfantastic/?fref=ts