Take a Key Ring... Please!

For the first time in my life I have a new car.  Not just new to me, but brand spanking, 15kms on the clock new.

Along with my new car came some wonderful new car things - new car smell, new car dashboard (with 3000 buttons and dials of which I will probably figure out 3 before the car and I part ways), new car floor (clean!), new car mirrors (no spider webs) and new car key.

As with all new cars, the opening jigger is now a push button (not included in the count of 3000 above) that locks and unlocks.  Another first for me.  Formerly I've just had your everyday old fashioned key.

I'm not sure what your key ring looks like, but mine looks like I have a key to open every lock in the world - and it comes with the weight of the world included.

There are 3 car keys (not including my new opener jigger), 3 front door keys (all for different locks on 2 different houses), 1 back door key, 1 back shed key, 1 garage padlock key, 1 gate key, 1 large farm shed key, 1 post office box key, 3 keys for work (2 door, 1 post office box), and 4 or 5 small keys that I'm too frightened to get rid of because as soon as I do I'll work out what they open.

Ever pick up your handbag and wonder why it's so heavy?  It's the keys!

I thought it would be nice to put just the car opening jigger and the front door key together on one key ring and ditch the others.  Of course I can't actually ditch the others I've realised, just in case I lose something and need one, so I'm still lugging them around - but I don't actually have to heft them in and out of my bag now, which is a definite bonus.

Being a jewellery artiste these days, I decided to make myself a snazzy little beaded key ring.  Kill two birds with one stone sort of thing - have a lightweight easy to find keyring, and show off some merchandise at the same time, hopefully having someone ask where I got the keyring from.  (Note: if someone asks where you got your jewellery from, it pays to be humble and modest about the fact that you've made it yourself.  Screaming "Oh my God - do you love it? I made it myself! How many do you want to buy???" whilst grabbing them by the lapels, is not a great sales strategy).

Blue is my favourite colour, so here's how I went about designing my new beaded keyring.

My beautiful new beaded key ring

1/  Choose colour
2/  Get all beads of that colour out
3/  Get some contrasting beads out
3/  Get more contrasting beads out (just in case the first 15 sorts aren't enough)
4/  Get another work bench set up, because the workspace is now taken over by blue and contrasting beads
5/  Work out a pleasing combination of blue and silver (my contrast colour) beads.  This involves laying out patterns of beads to find the pattern you like the most.  The good thing is there isn't a wrong pattern.  The bad thing is, there isn't a wrong pattern, which would narrow down the choice a little.
6/  Pick beads up off the floor, where they rolled trying to move pattern 3 and pattern 7 around.  Pattern 3 & 7 still perfectly okay.  Patterns 1 & 2, and 4 to 6 now rolling.
7/  Pick beads up off the floor from patterns 3 & 7 (bumped my head on the table picking up the others - all of them now on the floor)
8/  Try and remember the good patterns
9/  Give up, start again on new patterns
10  Find the PERFECT pattern of beads, carefully put others away, shoot fist in the air in a hallelujah moment, pick up beads again after knocking the table.

And that was the easy part!  Now I have to do is join them all together.

And - no disasters.  No funny story to tell about "the joining of the beads".  IT JUST WORKED.  A definite capital letter sentence moment if ever there was one.

The connector pins connected, my lovely pointy nose pliers made beautiful little round loop ends on the connector pins, all of the jump rings opened and closed in time to the music, and the beads all looked great together.

This was fun - not just kinda nice fun, but huge enormous satisfying fun.  So I made some more - purple, pink, blue, red and yellow.  No two keyrings are alike, so there was no boredom factor (not for me making them, and hopefully not for someone looking to buy), and they look great slung together on a rod (important for the look of a market stall).

The growing stash of beaded key rings, key clips & bag clips

My only real problem is that I'm finding it difficult to stop with the key rings.  Having found something that I can do with nothing more disastrous occurring than my standard "pick the beads off the floor 50 times" and a bumped head, I'm reluctant to move on.  I mean, there are endless combinations to make.  All I need to do is find endless people to purchase them and I'll be right.

Either that or every key in my possession, including the I-forget-what-they-open ones, will have it's very own keyring.  However, should you wish to purchase a really whizz bang gorgeous beaded key ring or key clip, just look for the woman pushing a wheelbarrow - I'll be shouting "Cockles and Mussels" as a ruse.  And if you hear of a local Key Rings Anonymous please let me know.