Everything But The Beads

Well given that I was a student in Hull, albeit not as early as 1982, you'll perhaps forgive my title...

Today I thought I'd bring you up to speed with everything but the beads... and yes there are TWO chess locks in that photo.  There are also two plain locks but you might have missed those in the excitement.

Whilst Victoria over at Endangered Trolls alerted everyone that the chess lock was about to make an appearance actually for sale through a retailer and kept us all up to date, later on Michael over at Mike's Trollbead Adventure! wrote a lovely piece on the history of this lock, supplemented by his insider knowledge of not only having worked with Trollbeads but also having visited Fable who are the UK distributors of Trollbeads.  I would recommend a visit to those two blogs for a much more detailed account of this lovely lock and the story of how it all happened.

For me personally, the appeal is a lot about what the lock is not... it's not floral, an animal or particularly girly/cute.  I like it because it is more plain, gender neutral, a bit abstract even though it's a pattern and I love the history of it.  As an aside I anticipate that I may be switching over to Redbalifrog locks next time I want a new one as I love their detailing and designs.

There was quite a scrum, as first one, then two, then three, then four Danish retailers were able to sell a very small quantity of these locks, which flew out of the shops selling like proverbial hot cakes. Whilst I did manage to get my own lock on the second attempt (I found a retailer selling these before it had become common knowledge), the credit for my second lock goes to a very lovely troll friend who managed to source several for people who were unable or unsuccessful in buying any at all.  I did make sure that everyone had had the chance of getting at least one before I felt confident in snagging a second... I didn't want anyone to miss out!

Bracelet wise, I'm now up to 7 silver bracelets and have been steadily buying stoppers and safety chains for all of these.  All my safety chains are artisan as I just can't bring myself to pay the official asking price for a safety chain... When I first started collecting I did purchase an official chain, ironically this broke (totally my own fault I hasten to add) and I didn't want to pay out for another.  I've also been able to source artisan stoppers too so apart from my first 2 troll ones, I've picked up 4 more official troll ones at half price but the rest are all artisan.  More bead fund for beads!

Leather wise I just have my original blue leather bought back last summer and the brown leather I picked up just after Christmas, the new collection that released in January 2013 saw some 2 toned leather bracelets added so I think that may be just where I am headed next.  Leather bracelets are great when you want a more casual look, to wear less beads or need to type/write and a full bracelet is just too tricky.

Just before the all the chess lock excitement/drama happened, I'd finally matched up the number of bracelets to locks to stoppers to safety chains, not that this matters but it was fun (in a nerdy kind of way) to have everything all equal.  I'm sat here wondering if this is a good enough reason for more bracelets now I have 2 spare locks?  In an even rarer Mars moment, all bracelets are actually made up right now and I have none spare for bead play (for all the spare beads) - and yes I did have to dismantle everything and store it with military precision to take all these photos and yes it very much was a complete pain in the ass to do so.  That should remind me to plan ahead a bit more with photography for blog posts, or maybe not!

Which is probably why the next picture happened, I think I thought that if everything was dismantled I needed more to show for it... now I know what I think this is a picture of, but I wonder if we see the same thing?  Tony Hart I am not!

Finally there was one more thing I was really in need of.  If you read the blog on a regular basis you won't have failed to notice that my collection has increased quite substantially over the last 5 months in particular.  I overcame the storage issue by buying another stacking case (I can't recommend these enough for being very useful) but I was hankering after something a bit more substantial.

I'd seen the official Trollbead white jewellery cases when they came out, but being not a fan of white, I completely ignored it, and to be fair I didn't need something that size at the time.  What changed my mind was a discussion on how friends kept their beads, there were some great solutions but then I saw photos of the white jewellery box with someone's collection in and realised just how much it held.  So then I was on the hunt for one, which was much harder than I expected given it was still on all the websites.

Unbeknownst to even my Local Dealer, not only had they all sold out, but were no longer available from Fable either.  I then turned my attention online and scoured the internet, lots of jewellers had them on their websites, but as an order in item; which you can't do if there are none left... I finally found one and ordered it and probably confused the shop by ringing them up to ask "You definitely have this actually in stock in the shop, one you can physically send out?"  as I knew I was running out of time to find one... but yes they did have one actually in the shop and yes they did physically send it out the next day.  I would show you this full of beads but given my title... you'll just have to wait.