It started simply... a bead here, a bead there.. mostly cheap, mostly plastic... one tool.
Slowly but surely I started collecting and filling up plastic boxes bought at Lowes, Home Depot, or the KMart fishing section. You know the ones. You look at them and think "man, I could really use one of these to put______ in !!". Well, I look at a shelf of them and think "wow... I could really use ALL Of those to put BEADS in !" or pieces of glass, or buttons, or... well you get the idea !Once I started going to REAL bead stores and moved beyond the Ben Franklins of the world, my collection started to grow. Online stores were wonderful and allowed me to see how many options were out there as well, but REAL bead stores let me see the beads, understand what 4mm faceted rondelle meant. I could touch them, hold them next to other beads. And what it also allowed me to see was that I wasn't going to be happy with just my 5 little plastic boxes and my one tool. I wanted to expand my horizons and not just put beads on fishing line and silk thread, so I started to buy the tools that I knew I'd need at some point.
That's when I took up residency in the dining room. At first I'd clean it up each night and pull everything up from the basement the next day. Then I started leaving some things out a day at a time. Slowly, but surely, I just started setting it up as a work station ! Some day I'll spend some time talking about actually setting up a great work space, but right now I can tell you that my dining room is a wonderful space for creating ! It might not be the safest, but it's big and bright, central to the house, and let's face it, who eats in their dining rooms anymore?!? I'm thinking it was basically wasted space until I put my anvil there :)
As you can see, there's little space for my tool collection to get much bigger. Adding a kiln will mean that I'm going to have to either add a side table or actually (and I hate this thought) move! I still maintain a space for my trusted assistant to sit and stare at me, and I still have a spot for house phone, cell phone, and a nice big mug of coffee.
Knowing that I have that still usable space is a comfort for me. It means that I can add some more plastic boxes, get a handful more stamping tools, some more hammers, and that tumbler I'm checking out ! Yes, the obsession is still growing .... it's changing... and it doesnt seem to be slowing down. But right now, Im still being encouraged and so I consider it a healthy addiction at this point. If it gets out of hand, Im sure someone will let me know......
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