Square Pegs

What with all the problems I've had with my gel polishes, I decided not to take any more chances with it — despite the introduction of the new UV shield labels. So while I was at ISSE in Long Beach last weekend, I bought this thing.

Obviously it's a display thing — the man who sold it to me says there are 96 tips. I have not counted them myself, but I felt that 96 seemed sufficient to display my gel polishes.

Now I am in the process of lovingly polishing each tip (after I made my mom buff the shiny surface off all the clear tips) in each color of gel polish that I have. This may take a while.

The project seemed like a really good idea while it was still in my head. Since getting started, however, several things have come to my attention.

First, labeling these little sticks was not cleverly accounted for by the manufacturer of said little sticks. There's a flat spot on each stick below the tip that I think was meant for this purpose. But there's no way I can write the name of each color in that spot. Not to mention what am I supposed to use to write with? I have some thoughts about how to solve this labeling problem, but for the time being, I am settling for writing the number of the color on that little flat spot with a fine tip Sharpie marker. BTW, if you have ever written on slick acrylic with a Sharpie marker you probably already know that it will wipe off. Which means I have to prevent my clients from actually touching them before I get printed labels done.

But the thing about this project that has really left me thinking, "If I made one of these things, I'd do it like this..." is that all these little sticks are round. I understand why this is — it's easy to drill little round holes in the acrylic which keeps the project cheaper. BUT what's going to happen is all these lovingly prepared little display tips are going to get all karfuffled in their holder. They are going to tilt in different directions and the thing that will really send me over the edge is that the tips will end up all facing different directions.

It's true, I like things organized. I will spend countless hours carefully arranging these tips so that they face outward in a very specific pattern. Then people will come and pick them up and move them around and the tips will be all out of alignment.

It's going to drive me insane.

I think the sticks and the little holes they go into should be square. That way they can't get turned around and the display will always look neat and professional. It'll probably also mean this thing will cost at least three times more than I paid for it.

I think it'd be worth it.