Collections

Over the years I have been a collector. My first collection was Salem cigarette boxes that I used to decorate the walls of my room (looking back, I have no idea how my mother allowed this creative freedom!) Plates, pens, planners, what I called the 3P’s, for years were an obsession. Today my collections are:

• Plates – I have approximately 8 sets of dishes; my newest collection is Fiestaware.


• Clocks – 1 standing grandfather, a wall grandfather, several small clocks.


• Pens – colored and funky design along with “good” i.e., writing instruments.


• Books – decorating, art, and a large pile of “books for future reading.”


• My grandparent’s 50th anniversary gold-rimmed dishes and glasses; not a collection, rather an inheritance.


• Buttons – my mom’s old button box, buttons from flea markets, buttons from old clothing …


• Shells – shells I’ve gathered and shells I’ve been given and shells I’ve purchased.


• Candle holders – I love candles but I think I love candleholders more.


• Mugs – along with the mugs and cups/saucers from the sets of dishes, I have lots! of mugs, way too many for a household of two!


• Dolls – a childhood doll, and a nice collection of “ethnic” dolls.


• Birdcages and birdhouses – my first ‘arting’ was painting and collaging unpainted birdhouses that I picked up at Michaels.


• Ceramics – pottery, vases, pitchers
  
• Journals and blank books – funny how I write all the time but some of these blank books don’t draw me in, maybe the paper is to ‘precious’.


• Art supplies – glues, paints, brushes, pastels, colored pencils, watercolor pencils, gel pens, paint pens, fabric (phew, do I have fabric!), thread, papers of all kinds, magazines, ephemera of all kinds, photos (actually not enough), images, beads, “stuff” i.e., embellishments.

What do you collect? What do you think collections tell us about ourselves? How do our collections inform our creativity and our art?