Education In Hobby Lobby

I gave this lady a ride to Target yesterday, which is right next door to Hobby Lobby.  These places are located near the mall which I try to avoid at all costs, as there isn't anything there for me.  Hobby Lobby is one of those stores that has replaced my old favorite craft shop on Mt Vernon....I think it was called Du Lots.  This was way back even before Odd Lots, so lots (pun intended) has happened since the days when I went a few blocks away from my house in my neighborhood to buy art/craft supplies.  Back then, I was making candles in addition to cutting stones.  My needs for glue, beads, grommets, rivets, and all the bells and whistles that go with getting serious about my art are greater than Hobby Lobby can provide.  The store was nearly revolting to me, as it reminded me that we have outsourced virtually everything to China.
Still, there was a whole education in actually examining the items that I have seen in books, but have had to improvise and make my own....or just find a way of doing without.
I was not able to locate the rivets I want to use.  Hobby Lobby had rivets, but I would have been downgrading to an inferior quality if I had purchased them there.  Main Hardware didn't have an employee that knew about the mechanics of rivets, nor did Home Depo.  I had almost decided to make my own rivets out of cut off screws and nails (not recommended in the books because of the rust factor), when I remembered eBay.  You can find any kind of rivet in the world on eBay, so without too many minutes "surfing", I found plenty of what I was looking for in the rivet kingdom.  I will be waiting by my mailbox in the next few days to hopefully get the needed supplies to finish the knife sheath and move on to the next project.  Meanwhile, more neglected knives are coming out of their hiding places to join the ranks of projects on the bench.  One of the librarians brought me some beautiful black walnut.  It was a very nice surprise, and the timing was almost perfect.  I had already purchased knife scales for Brian's knife, but only need to wait for them to be packed and shipped.  The new gift of black walnut may solve the age old problem of what to put on the blades Lorelei made for me 18 years ago.  She made twin blades from Damascus steel which I believe is probably the finest steel on earth!  Lorelei's daggers are nearly identical, and I wanted them to have an exotic wood handle like ebony.  My exotic wood collection got stolen when I moved from Paul Drive, and I have been grieving the loss.  But what is a person to do, weep endlessly about everything that is lost, stolen or out of reach?  Not me....or not me, for long.  I can't stand that.  It waste's time.  I move on to the next thing and hope that my "higher power" will replace those things with something better.
Every tool in this picture is a tool that I supposedly need.  My ancestors made their own, and I am making my own.  I learn a lot from stores like Hobby Lobby.  Mostly, I learn that I can get around the item, make it, or just plain skip it.  There is a deadline on Friday, that only a miracle of God will get in my hands what I need, then the pictures to support the entry.  The show is the Ohio Artist Registry show.  It is a good show, and I had high hopes to enter it.  This year, it seems it is out of my reach.  There is always next year!