My father was cleaning up the house and found a cardboard box filled with toys, crafts and other stuff. Most of it was stuff from my childhood. I sorted out some things Alex might like, or I wanted to keep, and then I found this... a treasure... my butter can filled with beads and jewelry I made when I was a child! Never expected that was still there.
When I was about ten years old, the early eighties, I liked making my own jewelry. Every year we went camping in summer in the Netherlands. My uncle drove us with his VW van and dropped us at the campground 200km further. It felt like a real worldtrip though ;) And one year I took with me all my jewelry supplies, beads, wire, tools etc. and a large piece of softboard with tidy rows of needles sticked into it. Outside the tent I was making jewelry. It was quite a hot summer. One day when we were away, always on bikes riding to a near market or something, the tent had changed into an oven when we came home! Some of my plastic boxes with beads had melted!
Later that week, when my stock was big enough, I took off with my softboard display, towards the pool's entrance. I put the display against the pinetree, set myself next to it and continued making jewelry while waiting for customers. And they came! I did custom orders right underneath the pinetree ;) At that time, such handmade jewelry with all those tiny leaves, birds and elephants, were quite popular. I didn't completely sell out, but I did sell a lot. I kept my money in the empty butter can, which had a lid, so it was safe :)
I don't know what to do with my childhood treasure yet. I'll keep them treasured in the butter can and maybe, when the time is right, I'll change some of them into a collection of new childhood pieces. But for now, I'm just happy they're here with me again :)
