Threadscape, detail image

Once upon a time, a metal coffee can full of threaded hardware sat rusting in a Mythic Glass Factory. One day, a girl named Jo happened along and foolishly dumped the contents onto a table. The Muses thereupon condemned her to sort the threaded objects--by type, size, material, and rust content--only unlike Psyche, without the aid of friendly mice. The odd turquoise-colored electronic insulator had to be incorporated into the end result of the Great Sorting by virtue of the fact that it was in the coffee can, for that was the Rule. She put two bits of similarly-colored smalti on either side of it to keep it company and to develop her Principle of Extrapolation.