Product test
1st class, first office chair: Zoe tests the Open Art Junior from Topstar
by Patrick Vogt
Spelling it out with homemade jewellery
21.6.2024
Translation: Megan Cornish
I’ve finally figured out how to avoid unpleasant conflicts without saying a word. I simply wear my opinion on a bracelet or necklace.
After a stressful weekend, I might well not be in the mood to hear every detail of my colleagues’ earth-shattering stories. Sorry Petra, if you’re reading this. But 8 a.m. on a Monday just isn’t the time to tell me your border collie Sasha picked up twelve ticks on a walk in the woods. And that you don’t mind removing all the blood-filled things yourself. Ew!
Most of the time I force a smile and nod without asking questions in the hope that the story will soon be over. I’m too polite to share what I’m thinking in the moment. Psychologists would probably call it conflict avoidance. Now I’ve finally found a way to make it clear to the people around me that my battery isn’t quite full yet and that they should go and find someone else to drone on to. I don’t need to say a single word; I just need a bit of skill.
Ditch the diplomacy
To get my small-scale, quiet rebellion on my arm out into the world, I made bracelets using elastic bands and the Glorex bead set. With their colourful, chunky beads, they remind me of the sugar bracelets that I spent hours gnawing on in primary school.
My dentist probably wouldn’t have had much to do if I’d have gone for the tooth decay-free option back then. He’d just have been astonished at how I managed to fit a bracelet with «Please wear gloves when you’re messing around in my mouth» around such a small child’s arm.
While I was making it, I realised that I probably wouldn’t be able to put the long sentence together. Unfortunately, the most important letters are in the minority. The square black and white letters, for example. Not only are they difficult to remove, they also have almost no Rs. And the round ones only have a few Es. The same can’t be said of the ugly, round, mixed-colour letters. There are enough variations of these for every word imaginable. Yay…
The beads mean I can wear all (or at least most) answers imaginable on my arm or neck and still look good enough to eat. And because they don’t always have to be made into jewellery, I decorated my USB stick with them. Let’s see how my new strategy goes down. At worst, I’m sure I’ll find the letters I need in the depths of the box: S O R R Y.
In a nutshell
A fun beaded jewellery set
The bead set has a nice variety of colours and shapes. The beads are easy to thread and look very similar to sugar bracelets. Unfortunately, a few important letters are missing, while there are too many of others. That limits the possible combinations. For example, I probably wouldn’t have had enough square Os to make the words «possible combinations».
Pro
- pretty colours
- easy to thread
- cool result
Contra
- not enough of the essential letter beads
- square letter beads are harder to remove
- I really don’t like the colourful round letters
Header image: Stefanie Lechthaler
Painting the walls just before handing over the flat? Making your own kimchi? Soldering a broken raclette oven? There's nothing you can't do yourself. Well, perhaps sometimes, but I'll definitely give it a try.
Arts and crafts
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