Which sounds totally ludicrous to me, really—China's on the other side of the globe, after all!—but so I was. And should you ever find yourself in Beijing's Silk Market, you could easily get lost in all of the beads.
Most of what I found wasn't all that impressive: scores and scores of freshwater pearls, semi-pecious stones in assorted smooth round styles, with little variation on shapes or sizes, and so on. But then I found these beauties:
Aren't they gorgeous?! Look at the contrast with the orange-red and the light blue! What poppers!
My only regret is not buying more strands. They're a kind of agate (I think perhaps Blue Lace, judging from the polished bits, but I can't be sure) and about an inch long. I've been sitting on these for months, assembling a necklace in the back of my brain. I've got some beads picked out especially for these guys.
What has me especially pumped is not only how unique these are, but all of the memories they carry inside of them. I was in Beijing for a week, over the Lunar New Year, and had an incredible time. I climbed the Great Wall, I ate scorpions, I saw the Forbidden City, and I even crashed a New Year's Eve party at a random dumpling restaurant, where I and my buddy/guide were treated to a free New Year's Eve feast! Having a hand-made, one-of-a-kind souvenir from it is like the cherry on top.
Do your supplies have any stories/memories behind them?
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