No really, a lot.  Since I was around 15 years old I've been pretty sure that I was going to end up in visual art somehow.  And I've always loved collage, which has a special sort of obsessive collection related to it.

Over the last few weeks I've been going through all of it.  The massive accumulation of carefully selected objects is overwhelming, and even more overwhelming was the lack of useful categorization.  But I'm changing that.  Hundreds of thousands of small objects are now grouped with like objects, but not without a massive amount of time and effort.  And I don't exaggerate when it comes to numbers, I buy thousands of beads and LEDs at a time.  The same goes with buttons.  Yards of fabric, dozens of colors of ribbon, little toys, pieces of glass and plastic, mechanical parts, yarns, paints, brushes, papers, and countless other objects have all taken their toll.  Everything that could ever make the perfect piece of jewelry or be the ideal cornerstone for a collage is now finding a place.  Without constant vigilance these objects take over my space and my life, and wear on my time when I have to hunt for or replace what I need. 

Now it's all being sorted into stacks of standard office paper boxes, each carefully labeled with it's contents like police evidence.  If I can fight my instinct for chaos and keep a sense of order in my world it should work, but I know how difficult it will be to maintain.  At least now when I need something I can look over my boxes, searching for the label I need and hoping that I still use the same words to describe it as I always have.  At least I tried, if nothing else.

I'm nearly done with this mind numbing task which will hopefully clear the way for a lot of new work.  For starters, all of the projects I've accumulated parts for in the past.  And all of the things I've come up with as I sort.  I'm pretty sure I'll never run out of things to make....