hiii!!! i love your blog and typeing style so much, i hope you're haveing a great day. your blog introduced me to aqua, and aqua mouses by extension, and i was so obsessed i went and ordered one right away, a crayola one!! i'll update you when i get it if ya want. but anyway, i'm new to the aqua interest/collecting and i was wondering where you recommend i start? if you don't mind, what are some nice aqua things to have/hunt for, or places to look for them, or blogs/imageboards/anything of the sort ? tysm Bug!!! <333
So SO happy I could introduce you to all this, and you have no idea how giddy this question makes me! Let’s see now, where to begin?
I suppose a good place to start would be figuring out what kinds of Aquatic media you’re really into, as Aqua as an aesthetic genre can actually be somewhat vast! If you haven’t already, I would recommend taking a glance over at my “What is Aqua?” post to get a good idea of just what all may be included under the label. Who knows, you may just realize something I don’t have listed fits the definition!
If you like Aqua Mouses though, I think I may have a decent idea as to what else you may like.
Aqua Mouses are most known for their tanks full of alcohol and colored oil which creates a 2 layer liquid appearance, most often with a charm floating on top, riding the wave so to speak.
If that’s peak Aqua appeal for you, you may also take interest in Liquid Wave Paperweights, Liquid Motion Timers, and Floater Keychains!
For the purpose of collecting, some of my personal favorite buy & sell sites have been Mercari, eBay, Etsy, Amazon, and AliExpress. Mercari is great for buying lots of items, and if you’re buying multiple things from one seller, they will often be open to bundling to save on shipping, sometimes quite uncommon items will pop up as well! eBay is great for less common and vintage items, I’ve gotten most of my best scores from there. Etsy is also good for the same reasons as eBay. Amazon can have a decent selection, including bulk items! AliExpress often has lots of cheaper items, but be warned, sometimes items will be of inferior quality, definitely check reviews! With the first 3 you can save searches and set it up so you receive notifications if a new item matching the keywords you saved is listed, this is my go-to method usually. If you have the chance though, check out some touristy locations and look for souvenir shops! They’ll very often have some Aqua items, at least from my experience. Found some myself just today!
USEFUL SEARCH KEYWORDS: [ Paperweight, Timer, Keychain, Desk, Desk Toy, Cube, Cubic, Acrylic, Liquid, Liquid Motion, Oil, Quicksand, Float, Floating, Floater, Wave, Waving, Surf, Moving, Motion, Rocking, Rocker, Bubbler, Hourglass, Souvenir, Animal ]
Try out as many combinations of the above keywords as you like until you find some that suit your needs. I do not recommend adding the word “Sensory” to your search unless you are just looking for images, as items advertised as Sensory have notoriously been raised in price.
Now as for my particular favorites, I’m rather fond of Water Games! Specifically vintage, bizarre, and or tech-mimicking (Faux Tech) kinds! Water Games are the bulk of my collection really, as they’re usually on the cheaper side, and are simple nostalgic fun!
[ photo 2 credit- heirloomboy on eBay ]
As for blogs and image boards, there sadly aren’t many out there about the broad idea of Aqua that I’m currently aware of, that’s part of why I started this blog actually! However, I’ve recommended them before and I’ll do so again; @bootlegpals and @oceantoyz are great blogs that also post occasional Aqua content! Real cool people, check ‘em out for sure.
Pinterest can also sometimes be a decent source for Aqua images you haven’t already seen, though I’ll warn you, it can take a little while of searching and training the algorithm through what you view and save to really start showing you some neat stuff. Just be aware: a lot of images that aren’t uploaded directly from source links are not credited at all, but a bit of reverse image searching can remedy this if you intend on sharing the images yourself.
Sorry this answer became so long, do feel free to submit some photos once you get your mouse! Let me know if you have further questions, and have fun :]!
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