I’m painting a new toy box for the dogs. I went into the sewing room to see if the paint was dry, and happened to look in the trash can. I saw a metallic belt that I had decided to get rid of. I pulled it out. I can’t throw that away.
(That’s an old sheet I use to protect a table when I’m painting underneath the belt.)
As I looked at the belt, I realized was planning to re-donate parts of two jewelry grab bags I bought the day before, at Habitat ReStore.
I really didn’t need to throw all that away either. Just before Christmas, I bought a small tub of jewelry junk. I don’t usually work in old jewelry, but with this much stuff on hand, this cheaply, how could I not? The belt fit right in.
I will take the belt and the grab bag leavings, that is, the jewelry I won’t ever wear myself, but might use in a sculpture, or wreath, or an embellished mirror frame, and put it into the shoe box with my other jewelry parts.
This raw material doesn’t take up much space. It doesn’t cost me anything to hold onto it until I am ready to work with it. What I do need is space to lay it out and look at it and decide what it’s going to be come. I have just about created that space in my studio, now that I have taken everything to the swap shed or the PTA or Friends of the Library book sale. I have a great deal more open volume in my house then I did this time last week. I can afford to hang on to some jewelry parts.
