Saturday, February 21, 2015

Five Fandom Friday on Saturday: 1 Book and 4 Beads I Bought But Haven't Read/Used Yet



This week's 5 Fandom Friday is right up my alley. I'm late in posting it because yesterday was horrible, and busy, and horribly busy.

I am a compulsive shopper and collector. This is the worst when it comes to two things: books and beads. Books have always been my weakness, from a young age—it's better now that I've become a public library champion. Beads came later, but there is a scarcity involved with some of them that isn't inherent with books. I think a lot of us beaders go broke buying up way too much stock of beads we love "just in case." (I regret nothing, though.) So here is one book I have yet to read, and four strands of beads I have yet to use (either at all or in their entirety), listed in order from oldest to newest.

5. The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea



Out of all my books and beads, this is the one that has remained unread and unused the longest. I bought it because a boy I had a stupid crush on in high school liked it. (Though I wonder now if it was a crush or some weird nerd envy about wanting to be "that smart," who knows, everyone's a mess in high school.) I tried, I made a valiant effort, but I don't think 17-year-old me was really ready for this madness.

In fact, this is exactly the book I was thinking of tackling when I made my 101 in 1001 "read books I haven't read yet" goal but I was so intimidated by it that I went for other books instead. This is one of those books that has intimidated me by virtue of teenage me not being able to finish it. I was able to conquer my fear of A Clockwork Orange last year. Maybe that means I'm finally ready for The Illuminatus! Trilogy.


4. These glass flower beads


These are just something I found at JoAnn's when I first started getting into beading. I bought just one full strand (that is, 16" of them) and I haven't done much with them except a pair of non-mathematical earrings. They might be good as an XOR gate in a full adder bracelet or necklace. It would be a weird clash between a natural, slightly feminine flowery theme and a very artificial and "unnatural" concept, but maybe that would make it interesting. Hm.


4. These funky agate chunks



I bought these at the Silk Market in Beijing in 2010. I wish I had bought all the strands I saw there, because I haven't seen anything cut quite like this, but one strand is better than no strands! I wanted to make something funky and unique out of them, as a memento of my trip to China (I climbed The Great Wall! I ate scorpions at the night market! I crashed a Lunar New Year party at a restaurant and was treated to a veritable feast when nothing else was open!), but I haven't had ~the perfect idea~. I think I might use one of them as a focal point in a Viking knit bracelet, but that's a project that will have to wait until I can get these beads from my parents' house in the states.



3. These faceted agate beads



Yeah, these striped agate beads from the first geo-shopping post five years ago. I still haven't had ~the perfect idea~.



1. These faceted blue rondelles



The newest of my acquisitions, these were a one-off purchase that I split with a coworker at the bead store. I used some of them in a piece I didn't photograph. But I still have a whole bunch left, enough for a least one more project, and considering that I bought them sometime in 2010 or 2011, it's high time I finished up the measly half a strand.

What projects do you need to finish up? Any suggestions for my bead box scraps here?

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