Room for Thought – Chapter 4: Sometimes, Natural Materials Drive Me Crazy

I love natural materials.

I’ve never been particularly drawn to things that look perfectly mass-produced, especially when it comes to home décor.

Natural materials always catch my attention.

Crystals.

Linen.

Handmade ceramics.

Anything with a little texture, variation and evidence that it wasn’t made by a machine.

But recently, natural materials have started driving me slightly crazy.

This usually happens when I’m organising inventory.

When dozens—sometimes more than a hundred—pieces are laid out in front of me, I start examining everything.

Why is this crystal slice slightly uneven?

Why is this one so much darker than the others?

Why is that geode leaning to one side?

Why is this crystal pendant not quite as round as that one?

Is that tiny opening part of the natural stone, or is it damage?

Why is this hanging half a centimetre shorter?

And why is that slice half a centimetre bigger?

Once I start, I can’t stop.

At moments like this, I deeply miss mass-produced factory products.

Every piece looks exactly the same.

No questions.

No measuring.

No staring at one crystal for five minutes from three different angles.

Natural materials are unique.

And uniqueness can feel beautiful and exciting when you receive one special piece.

But when you’re the person inspecting dozens of them every day, uniqueness can occasionally feel like a form of torture.

Of course, natural variation and actual damage are not the same thing.

Natural variation is part of the material.

Damage is something I won’t send.

My job is to examine every piece and work out the difference.

So I’m learning to accept both the perfection and the imperfection of nature.

Very slowly.