What does 'retirement' look like?

Okay, let me get ONE thing straight.

I'm not retired.

First, I'm 48. Unless I forgot that I started Google, I am too young to retire.

Second, just because I closed the Raleigh store doesn't mean I am leaving the beady world forever.
Or even for more than a long vacation.

I just can't. It's part of who I am, part of what I do. I ADORN things (remember the sign on the fence?) I just can't stop.

I did, however, close the store. It was a hard decision, and one I took in a mad rush. I just couldn't do it any longer. Ornamentea was not actually a business (on so many levels!) but more of an art project. A big, participatory art project. A 16+ year, multi-faceted, performance and visual art project. A hard and fabulous and challenging and exciting art project. A project with a zillion guest stars and a wonderful core cast and a LOT of different influences. Like any art project, any painting or dance or musical number, it had to end. It wore me out. I had to end that part of my creative self to make some space for new creative activities.

Which was good and will be fun and I will love it.

BUT OH IT'S SOOO MUCH WORK.

The closing down part. Really, I did not know how long it would take, or how much this part of the 'play' (I guess it's called striking the set?) would/could drag on. I feel like I've looked in a million boxes and sorted a zillion things. I've priced desks and shelves and chairs and lamps. I've been burning up the Craiglist postings for weeks. I'm making piles for the Scrap Exchange, and the Green Chair, and Habitat for Humanity.

It was actually easier to have a bead store.

(just kidding...)

But seriously, anyone want to buy a table?

Worth the trip...

We sell a lot of items in our store in Raleigh, North Carolina, that will NEVER make it to the website. Take these vintage pearl dangles. We have about 28 of them, in a mix of silver and gold. We won't put them on the site, or even the etsy shop, because there are just too few of them.

To see them, you have to come to the store.

In this Amazon-everything world, this is a weird concept for some folks. They are confused by why we would sell ANYTHING that we don't have on our site.

Sigh...

See, we think we are worth the trip. Yes, we aren't the biggest bead store. Yes, we don't have EVERY SINGLE SEED BEAD in the universe. So what. We have things you've never seen before, or won't see very often. We have a red work table where you can sit and play with the items you find. I think those things, and the rest of the do-dads and gee-gaws make us worth the trip...

Finding something right under your nose...

I spend a good bit of my time searching for the perfect new items for the store. It sometimes is fun, but sometimes it's frustrating when I can't find exactly what I want.

This fall, I feel like I'm on some kind of a lucky spree.

We've been looking for a long time (okay, maybe two years...) for really big, interesting toggles. Customers come in wanting larger (25 mm or more) toggles and we just don't have them. The few companies who make larger toggles put them out in one or two styles that sort of scream 'CHEAP' when you look at them. You know what I mean...the kind of findings that make anything you make look way less interesting the second you attach them.

Somehow, after all our searching, the perfect solution just popped up. Sarah Tector, of S.Tector metals, was first a customer, and then a staff member. She's a talented metal smith with an exacting eye for details and specifics. When she heard us griping over yet another vendor who's 'big' toggle looked like it had been made, and chewed on, by muskrats, she spoke up. Her impeccable work always features hand-made closures and she thought she could solve our problem.

Wow, was she right. I fell in love INSTANTLY with the clean, architectural designs of her toggles. They are large, yet light and airy at the same time. She had designs with square wire, with round wire, with twisted wire. She had toggles that you'd hate to hide at the back of your neck.

Needless to say, I ordered a whole bunch. Now we've got them in our case...and many sold out on their first evening in the store.

The history behind your favorite gemstones

This New York Times article is worth reading...I especially liked knowing that jade (one of my favorite stones) was formed in the depths of long-ago seas.

Read the article here. The photo above was nicked from the NYT site. It is an armful of jade nuggets from a stone market in China.