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Our Fellow Collectors
Thank you to all the folks who submitted photos of their wonderful collections in response to the call for submissions in our recent post: "The Collector: Earn Your Own Badge." I absolutely loved seeing the wide variety of collectibles, and the wondrous ways in which they're all so lovingly curated and displayed. Here are a few highlights - enjoy!
Great mid-century modern colors!
That's a lot of stamps!
These remind me of a great kids' book called Spoon by my friend Amy KR!
Puka shells!
Sarah's awesome collection of hands, with Serpico keeping watch.
Check out the really small ones on the top shelf.
I suddenly feel very calm.
Makes me hungry for a sandwich.
A thousand and one ways to roll the dice.
These hair-rollers almost remind me of geologic striations.
This must be life without Netflix. That's a lot of DVDs!
I can almost hear the ocean.
Lisa's prized collection of children's books.
A well curated cabinet of small wonders.
The natural world - neatly organized for all to admire by a curious 2-year old.
A fresh bracelet for each day of the year.
Simply charming.
Michelle's "Discarded Animal Reserve Collection" of creatures found abandoned in streets from San Francisco to Berlin.
6-year old Owen's "treasure jars" of found objects. Jar #4 is in the works.
Tagged call for submissions, collections, curated, merit badges
The Collector: Earn Your Own Badge
Just today, while going through some old drawers, I stumbled upon a stash of vintage girl scout "The Collector" badges. These deserve to be awarded and enjoyed, so here's my idea...
Email me a photo of a collection of unusual or mundane things you have curated, horded, or assembled and I'll send the first twenty of you one of these special badges to commemorate your gathering. Just be sure to include your mailing address in your email submission.
Earning Your Badge
I won't require that you follow the original girl scout program to earn the badge, but isn't it fun to read nonetheless? Here are the classic instructions:
- Start a collection or add to one you have already started.
- Figure out a way to arrange your collection at home. Use scrapbooks, shelves, boxes, or whatever seems best for the collection
- Group or label the objects in your collection so they will be interesting to other people.
- Choose three objects and write a display label for each telling such things as: Where you found it. Age of object. How it was made. Story about it.
- Find out more about your collection in one of the following ways: Visit another collector to see his or her exhibit. Read books or magazines. Talk to someone who knows about what you are collecting.
- Show your troop your newest addition and one of your favorite pieces in your collection.
- Display your collection at a troop meeting or hobby show, or invite some troop members to see your collection at home.
I particularly like requirements three, four and five because they encourage you to be a curator and connect your collection to other people and the wider world around you.
My Favorite Collections
Here are two examples from my own varied collection of collections: vintage feature matchbooks and miniature postal items.
Feature matches were used for advertising and promotion for all kinds of businesses, and first appeared around 1935.
The matches themselves are printed, often in very imaginative and sweet ways.
Update 8/10/2012 - Inspired by my collection, Lisa Hix of Collectors Weekly just published Playing With Matches, a wonderful article tracking the evolution of feature matches. Lisa's write-up includes plenty more fun examples of creative matchbook concepts.
Second up is my "small" collection of vintage postal related items. The paper truck and mailbox are constructed from cutouts from an old magazine. And check out the tiny girl scout epistolary badge! The three tiny birdies with even tinier letters in their beaks (look closely!) were a 30th birthday gift from my mom last year: one for each decade.
What do you collect? I'd love to see!
Tagged call for submissions, collection, merit badges
Handcrafted Clothes Tag Memory Game
I've always loved the simple game of memory. There are so many whimsical and artistic variations on this playful theme -- the possibilities are literally endless. Inspired by my ongoing Changing Clothes project, I decided to craft a memory game set using vintage clothing tags and an old favorite shirt.
Here's the game bag, cut and stitched from my old shirt.
A first glimpse of the game pieces.
Game Setup
The shirt material is carefully hand-stitched onto the reverse side of each tag, so that they all look the same when laid out face down. This design is fun because you have an additional clue when trying to make matches - the size and shape! To get started, you lay everything out tag-side down, just like any other memory game.
No two tags are exactly alike!
Making the Match
If you turn over two clothes tags where the garment was made in the same country, you get to take that pair and keep it in your pile. You also get to go again whenever you make a match. Take turns finding matches, or missing them, until the board is clear. Whoever has the most clothes tags in their pile wins! Of course, winning is really beside the point but the competition is always fun.
Which countries do you think turn up most often?
The full set!
If you want to play, but aren't up for all the sewing, just cut a bunch of tags off of old (or new) clothes and use them as is. Try to pull together a really rich collection of tags so that plenty of different countries are represented in your game. If you make your very own set of memory clothes tags, please email me a photo!
If you really dig clothes tags (like I do!) check out the rest of my Changing Clothes project, including the tag exchange. Also, check out one of my very favorite mass-produced memory game sets, the Eames Memory Game
Tagged changing clothes, games, memory
