My Spoon Collection

Let's be honest. I'm kind of a hoarder and have lots of little collections- bee hives, stones, sea glass, vintage ephemera, and spoons. There might be a few more too, like the tin boxes in the photographs. I just really like things, especially old and unique things. They become memories for me like, "oh, I got this for my birthday" or  "this reminds me of our trip." It's also just nice to eat ice cream with a beautiful white porcelain spoon.

I have a few more I forgot to photograph, but I listed all of these below. The diagram was inspired by a recent trip to the Met. I believe all lists should now be accompanied by a museum-like diagram.

1. Juniper wooden spoon, Sweden, from Kiosk
2. Dead Horse Bay find
3. Swan spoon, antique, gift
4. Wooden spoon my mom gave that I'm sure is from Cost Plus ;)
5.  by Love Daniella 
6. porcelain spoon by kg ceramics. I bought two of these spoons because I loved it so much, and I'm glad I did since my cats love to break all my favorite things.
7. from Nepal as a souvenir from our trip 
8. Evil Eye Spoon, porcelain, by Deme Ceramics 
9. Ceramic spoon by Kara No Te (her shop is closed now, but I love her hand formed ceramics)
10. Dead Horse Bay find
11. gift
12. Shino Takeda, ceramic

the things we treasure....

here are some on my newest cabinets of curiosity. i've started to create themes for them based on their contents. the top most image is, Secret Society for all some little odd fellows pins. The red vial is "Letters From the Front" based on an imaginary WWI story. The bottom two are "Be Prepared" a boy scout themed cabinet is a medicine vial. so fun making these and creating stories for them....

more cabinet images in this flickr set

what do you collect?

a collection a day....

...images from lisa congdon's ongoing project  a collection a day. she explains,

"Since I was a young girl, I have been obsessed both with collecting and with arranging, organizing and displaying my collections. This is my attempt to document my collections, both the real and the imagined....The only rule is that I must photograph or draw a whole or part of a collection each day for 365 days and post the result here on this blog."

365 days of collections, that's some dedication!  i'm going to be checking in on the blog to see whats next...

i wish i was a carpenter...

...because i would like to make this in my home.

found via dezeen

as much as i love collecting, i like storing them away so that i can come back to them. pull them out of a old cigar box or a drawer and go through them. the places that we store things and how we save our most beloved possessions interests me. the bell jar, the drawer, the vitrine. these separate the objects from the ordinary, the utilitarian and elevate them.

i like the work of Christian Boltanski and i was lucky enough to have seen his work in person at archive fever. this piece, Vitrine of Reference, 1971 is a great example of how ordinary objects change- their importance, use, and aesthetic qualities- in the context of how we keep them. theres a detachment and melancholy in their new beauty as objects in a collection.

i keep my stones in glass jars; picture in boxes and albums; keys, bugs, hair and sea glass in drawers. i like finding these things and finding ways to store them...what do you collect? how do you keep them?