I Collect: Stefanie

I love the Internet. I was doing a little googling the other day and came across this fabulous blog by fellow collector Stefanie. Having been inspired by Lisa Congdon's "Collection A Day," Stefanie decided to blog about collecting everyday for one year. Quite and ambitious feat. 

I collect: Many, many things, but my largest collection is vintage elementary school books from the 1930s-1960s.  I also collect vintage toys.

Its been going on for: I got my first school book in 1984, but I've really been collecting them seriously for maybe 10-12 years. I have somewhere around 500 school books. As far as my toys go, I've been a toy collector for nearly 30 years. I am a toy designer by profession, so this sort of goes with the territory.

I look for additions to my collections at: Mostly antique malls/ flea markets. Although I've bought things on eBay from time to time, it sort of feels like cheating to me. I prefer the joy of the hunt!

When I find one I feel: Excited! But I have to keep photos of my various collections on my iPhone, because I can't tell you how many times I've bought duplicate books- it's so hard to keep them straight, and there are so many! Now, it makes it easier to look at my photos to tell what I have.

The star of my collection is: My near-mint set of Scott, Foresman Dick and Jane books from 1951 & 1956. (There is actually one I don't have, but it's a 6th grade reader, which isn't as desirable, so I haven't been in a huge hurry to finish the collection)

The oddest piece in my collection is: If you count all of my collections, I think I'd have to either go with my 1867 wooden patent model of a steam valve, or perhaps my diddley-bow... that's a little one-stringed musical instrument.

A way my collection has gotten me into a tight situation:  I guess the tightest situation my collections have gotten me into is my blog. A year ago, I came across a fellow collector who posted one of her collections every day for a year. Although it was a fun blog, and she had some cool stuff, I thought my collections were more interesting, and I decided I could do a similar blog. I decided to post one of my collections every day, Monday through Friday, and then feature another collector each weekend. I'll tell you, it's been a tough year. I've decided to suspend my blog on June 30, when my blog reaches one year old. It's been really stressful (but fun!) to document my various collections because I tend to do it one day at a time instead of all at once. So, nearly every morning, I'm setting up stuff, taking pictures, editing the photos, and then putting together the blog entry. As the year has progressed,  I have created  'special days', like Toy Tuesday, and School Book Friday, and I also added Orphan Wednesday, where I feature my 'unique items' that don't fall into the 3 or more rule. 

I'm really glad I did it. It's given me a chance to document the extent of my collections, photograph everything, share it with the world, and learn a few things to boot. But doing a daily collector blog is not for the faint of heart. I plan on putting everything into a book when I'm done. I also am thinking seriously of thinning my collections out substantially too. I'll definitely keep my books and musical instruments, but I'm willing to part with many of my other collections.

Some other things that I like to collect are: vintage toys and games, musical instruments (mostly stringed), ephemera, books. You'll just have to look at my blog to see the different kinds of things I collect!

My family and friends think my collection is: My husband wishes I'd dust a bit more, my kids roll their eyes (they are all grown, and none of them are collectors), but my friends think it's awesome.

I've received a couple of honors for my collections: in 2000 I won the Judges Trophy at the Ventura County Fair in California for the best collection (school books). I was also featured in 2004 in Playthings Magazine (a trade publication for the toy industry) as their collector of the month, again, for my school books. 

My collector blog: http://copycatcollector.blogspot.com/

My creative blog: http://stefstyleblog.blogspot.com/

My gallery on Collector's Weekly: http://www.collectorsweekly.com/user/stefdesign

 

 

Thank you so much for sharing Stefanie!

Collecting Vintage Valentines

Boy and Dog $6.00

I have a killer sweet tooth. I mean that. Its really, really bad-always has been. I spent a lot of time at the dentist growing up. My dentist was about 275 years old. He had been my mom's dentist her whole life. He was tall and lanky, wore glasses, and was sweet as apple pie. I remember his office vividly (probably because I spent so much time there). He had 70's looking avocado green dental equipment and the walls were covered in wood paneling. There were windows you could look out but the chair usually faced a large cartoon style map of Minneapolis. Sometimes when I close my eyes I can still see that drawing. It was very detailed and interesting to look at, but by the 7th cavity fill of that quarter it got pretty boring. Luckily every February the whole office would transform. My dentist had a passion for collecting vintage Valentines and would cover the walls and doors with his collection. I loved that time of year. Sometimes he would even take Valentines down and let me hold them while he told me where he found them. A true collector, he was thrilled with the hunt. I always think of him whenever I see an old Valentine. 

W.A.A.C. Paper Doll Valentine $12.00

Valentines Day falls on February 14th each year. It is a holiday in which lovers express said love for each other, traditionally with flowers, candle lit dinners, heart shaped things, chocolate and greeting cards. The first Valentines cards were hand written but over time have made way for more mass produced greetings. These cards, for the most part, depict images of hearts, cupids and love struck victims.

 

Love Sick Valentine $12.00

Early Valentines were much more elaborate. At the start of the 1800's, mechanical Valentines were in vogue. With a opening and closing or the pulling of a tab, the Valentines would come to life. These tended to be on the bigger side and would sometimes increase the cost of mailing. But boy were they interesting! 

Girl and The Goat Mechanical Valentine $15.50

By the 19th century sending valentines was such a popular thing to do, Valentines were being mass produced in factories. The postal rate had gone down which also spiked an interest in Valentine exchanging. The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that 190 million Valentines are sent each year. 

I've Got A Secret Valentine $6.00

If you are interested in collecting vintage Valentines the best starting place for resources would be The Ephemera Society of America. Through them you can been connected to a network of other Valentines collectors. You can sign up to receive their newsletter and you can learn about upcoming ephemera conventions. (Which BTW the Antiquarian Book And Paper Show is happening this weekend at the Concourse Center in SF-check it out if you are in the Bay Area). 

These titles are available on Amazon.com; "One Hundred Years of Valentines,"  or "Greetings With Love: The Book of Valentines." If it is prices or values you are interested in check out "Valentines With Values," or "Romantic Valentines: A Price Guide."

Flapper Girl Mechanical Valentine $4.50

Want more? Check out the Vintage Valentine Museum, a blog with pages and pages of Valentines. The British Postal Museum has a collection online also! And did you know there is an app? Vintage Valentines for your IPhone for only $1.99.

All of the amazing Valentines you see here are available for purchase on Etsy. Thank you so much Etsy sellers for the use of your great images!

Collecting Frozen Charlottes and Bisque Dolls

Thuringen Recovered Doll Head $6.00

A handful of years ago, I was browsing the shelves at my most favorite natural history store "The Bone Room" (Albany, CA) when I noticed the very friendly sales girl unwrapping some peculiar broken dolls. My friend and I were immediately drawn in and the sales girl was so excited to tell us all about them. I bought two dolls after the girl explained that they had been excavated from a former bisque factory in Thuringia Germany. She told us that when it rained these old doll fragments would pop out of the moist ground after having been buried in the dirt for quite a while. I knew then that I had to have them.

Sitting Bisque Twins $9.00

Bisque dolls were popular between 1860 and 1900. They were favored because of their realistic looking features made of unglazed porcelain with a matte finish. These dolls were predominately made in Germany factories. The first dolls were made in the likeness of adults. After a few decades they were made to resemble children. The earlier ones referred to as "dolly-faced dolls." Many of these child-like dolls, produced between 1890-1930, were made in factories in Thurngia, Germany, the region rich in natural clay deposits used in the production.

Painted Frozen Charlotte Head $8.00

Frozen Charlotte is a term to describe a particular china or bisque doll. These dolls were moulded in one solid piece-essentially "frozen" in one place. The theory goes that their name was derived from the poem "Young Charlotte" by Seba Smith, a sad Victorian story of a young girl freezing to death. 

Set of 2 Recovered Doll Heads $9.00

To this day enthusiasts and collectors are still excavating dolls and doll pieces from the old factory sites in Thurngia. 

If you are interested collecting bisque dolls and Frozen Charlottes I suggest asking your local librarian for directions to the antique and collection section. A good library should have a few books on doll collecting. Amazon.com com offers a few helpful titles; China, Parian & Bisque German Dolls, A Pictorial Reference Guide To German Chinas, and In The Palm Of One's Hands: Small Bisque Dolls, 1877-1920. If you are wondering about values, check a Blue Book Doll book, Amazon has those too. 

Gifting a Collection

A few years back my family started a new Holiday tradition. We all seemed to be lacking in funds for gifts. The three of us decided, my mom dad and I, to give each other gifts that we'd either found, or already had. It made for quite the interesting Christmas. I think I received the best gifts ever that year. Now we try to continue to bring an element of up-cycling to every Christmas. 

Some of the strange, heartfelt and special gifts I received on that fateful holiday included letters written by my grandfather to my grandmother while he was in the war, my great grandmother's lamps (which had flanked my parents bed for two decades) and a tiny vinyl box-pictured above. 

I was used to my parents sending me odd things in the mail. Ever since I had moved to California, every few months a package would arrive and surprise me. My roommates and I would gather around and see what treasures were hiding. Once there was an old barbie phone that really rang. One time there was a shrink wrapped cookie-just one-because my mom wanted to show me that she'd just purchased a shrink wrapper. One year my dad sent me a box of 17 knives, 3 rolls of duct tape and a bottle of carpet cleaner. I asked him what he thought it was that I did in my spare time. 

The vinyl box was amazing. Not only did it have that sweet gold design on the front, but it folded out on all four sides. I opened it slowly. I was totally amazed. Inside of this fantastic wrapping was three little sea horse skeletons. 

These were not just any old sea horse skeletons. They had been my dad's pets. When I was a little girl my dad used to breed fish. Our entire basement was fish tanks-floor to ceiling. I used to go down there with my boom box and dance in front of the tanks, illuminated by the wavy light. I'd pretend I was in an MTV music video, dancing to Stevie Nick's milky voice singing on my moms Fleetwood Mac tape. And it all came back to me. 

It was a beautiful thing, this gift from my dad. Not only did it bring back happy memories from my childhood, but I now have my very own sea horse skeleton collection. 

Give the Gift of Collecting!

Collecting: Pyrex

 Butterprint + Butterfly Gold 3 Pieces $33.00

Collecting vintage Pyrex is a thing. There is a whole world out there of avid Pyrex collectors. Blogs like Pyrex Collective and Pyrex Love are great examples of the vintage Pyrex network that exists. (Pyrex Collective became so big it had to split into two Pyrex gossiping websites!)  Even Paula Deen gives props to Pyrex collecting. As someone who loves to throw/attend dinner parties, I can tell you, no matter what you make, it looks better in Pyrex.

Butterfly Gold Mixing Bowl and Refridgerator Dish $21.00

I started my Pyrex collection the first year I settled in California. I had very few belongings, having relocated halfway accross the country with only a suitcase and a cat. When I finally signed my first lease I went to the thrift store and bought a spoon, a fork, a salmon colored Fiestaware plate, a frying pan and a Pyrex coffee mug.

Set of Three Pyrex Picnic Mugs $20.00

The next few years I picked up every single Pyrex piece I came across. Thirft stores are a wonderful resource for Pyrex. And garage sales, espically suburban garage sales, where the American Dream is out in full force. Living in the East Bay I scavanged a number of wonderful finds at Urban Ore.

Autum Harvest Mixing Bowl $11.00

I wasn't the only person back then, I knew that collected Pyrex too. My roomate also had a good stash. An better culumination than me! And when I got married she gifted me a full set of Spring Blossom dinner plates and tea/coffee set. She even got me a matching butter dish. 

Spring Blossom Butter Dish $10.50

If you are interested in collecting Pyrex and want more information, I strongly suggest checking out (as linked above) The Pyrex Collective and Pyrex Love. There are books availabe on the subject. Your librarian can tell you if your library carries them. Here are two that are available on Amazon.com Pyrex: The Unauthorized Collectors Guide or Pyrex By Corning: A Collectors Guide. 

Set of Three Mixing Bowls in Square Flowers $27.00

A wonderful digital resource for information on Pyrex patterns is available here on Pyrex Love. And don't forget to give Vintage Pyrex a shout-out on Facebook.

Set of Four Old Town Coffee Mugs $15.00

 

Paula Deen's advice on caring for your Pyrex:

Pyrex is a durable glass suitable for use in the oven, microwave, freezer and dishwasher. But there are a few steps to follow to ensure the lifespan of your piece:

• Never use on stove-top burner, under broiler, or in a toaster oven
• Avoid serious changes in hot and cold temperatures (i.e. immersing a hot dish in cold water)
• Always add a fraction of liquid before baking foods that release liquids while cooking
• Don’t use or repair a piece if it is chipped, cracked or scratched
• 
  

 Butterprint Caserole Dish $18.00

All of the Pyrex dishes you see here are availalbe for purchase on Etsy. Thank you Etsy sellers for the use of your lovely photographs.

I Collect: Nancy

My mom is so cool. Thats why she is being interviewed for The Collect Collective! About 5 years ago I was asked to participate in an art show involving dioramas. The idea was to create a"dream room" diorama. For some reason I thought my mom (who had always collected mini things) would like to make one too. I called her up and gave her the proposal. A few weeks later she shipped to Oakland the most beautiful shoe box "dream room." She's been making her own dollhouses and miniatures ever since. 

My Name is:  Nancy Willcox
 
I collect:  miniatures

Its been going on: since childhood
 
I look for additions to my collections at: Anywhere !!  Sometimes miniature collectors look at things differently. As an example, at a restaurant, I see the little container with cream in it for coffee and know that it would make a perfect miniature garbage can.  But mostly I  go to garage sales, holiday bizarres, stores and the Good Will.
 

When I find one I feel: thrilled!
 
The star of my collection is: a miniature Swarovski crystal perfume bottle that I got at a consignment store for $2.00.   

The oddest piece in my collection is: Dried grape twigs (from real grapes).  They make great miniature trees for a fall outdoor scene.

A way my collection has gotten me into a tight situation:  I sometimes run across something I REALLY have to have and end up paying more than I budgeted to spend.
 
Some other things I like to collect are:  crystal prisms, books by author Daphne du Maurier and antique glass doorknobs

My family and friends think my collection is:  AWESOME

 

 Thanks for sharing Nancy!

Collecting: Sea Glass

I moved to California after having spent almost 22 years (my entire life at that point) having never seen the ocean, or any body of water bigger than Lake Superior. I was amazed the first time I sat down in the sand and faced the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean. It seemed to go on forever, and the waves crashed and it was serene and beautiful. And after awhile I got bored. I started to dig around in the sand and see what I could find. Shells, rocks, and a cigarette butt, nothing too exciting, but I kept on digging. It wasn't long after that I found my very first piece of Sea Glass. It was as tiny as a pebble, smooth all around and kelly green. I'd never seen anything like it. I thought it was a rock and put it right into my pocket. A little while later I found another piece. Then I was hooked. 

I lived in the Bay Area for 6+ years. Not to far from where I stayed is an amazing stretch of water known as "Tepco Beach" or more formally as "Point Isabel." It's in Richmond, near the Central exit, accross from the big costco. You have to jump a little fence, but it's worth it. It is an extreamly polluted shore, mostly occupied with ceramic pieces dumped there by the Tepco china factory. The Tepco factory produced out of El Cerrito from 1930 until 1968. 

The broken, cracked and unwanted pieces dumped at the Point Isabel site have spent many years in water, washed over by tide and bathed in the suns rays. They are soft on the edges, and in their colors. I spent many a (low tide) afternoon here digging and picking. 

Over the years I found many a interesting piece; A small green chunk washed down, which looked to me like the shape of Minnesota. A tea cup missing a handle, A fragement with a chickens head printed on it, The most marvelous pink sliver, A handful of (what seemed to be) clay buddah heads....and so on and so on. I found the best pieces of sea glass on this beach. Every visit I'd leave with 20 or so pieces, a whole poccet full. I'd add them to my collection as soon as I got home. I have green glass, white, clear, brown, amber, yellow, a tiny orange bit, and even a tiny red one too. But mostly it's green and clear. 

Though far from Tepco Beach, and California, I still keep my collection close to me. 

If you have any questions about sea glass, what certain colors signifiy, where good collecting spots are, etc. Or if you want to connect with other Sea Glass collectors check here: North American Sea Glass Association

Collecting: Natural History

The Bone Room. A dream come true for any natural history collector. Located North of Berkeley, in Albany, on Solano. If you're in the East Bay and you haven't been, believe me, you're missing out! The small space is fully stocked and neatly organized. You can find bones, fossils, insects, claws, horns, eggs, specimens of all types and many, many more amazing things! 

The Bone Room is where I purchased my first raccoon penis. 

 

 At The Bone Room I once bought my roommate a crazy long horse's tail for her birthday. And where I would always stock up on glassine envelopes, which I use for all kinds of art and package related things!

 

Where else can you find supplies for insect preservation, horns for a headdress, beautiful handcrafted jewelery, scientific themed games and toys for kids, pressed butterflies, taxidermy, and even actual Mexican jumping beans? The Bone Room And if you don't live in the Bay Area, you can order with them over the phone, or on their website. But if you can, stop in the shop and check out the llama skeleton, the taxidermy sloth, and the drawers and drawers of natural history!

(they also have a facebook, and a flickr)

Candy Jernigan "Collection Artist"

I've always liked to refer to Candy Jernigan as a “Collection Artist.” I just like the way it sounds. I was exposed to her work about 10 years ago, when a friends dad loaned me her book “Evidence.” By that time she'd been dead 10 years. She was a little known artist during her life, popular in the avant garde scene in Manhattan. She obsessively chronicled her life in scrapbooks, collecting any and all bits of her existence-ranging from subway tickets, package wrappers, soda pop tabs, to food smears, road kill, and drug viles. Nothing was off limits. She found beauty everywhere. I've read someone likening her work to a forensic pathologist. After contracting liver cancer she died at the young age of 39. At the time of her death she was married to Phil Glass. Two books of her work are available the aforementioned “Evidence” and “The Dead Bug Box.” 

Jernigan’s amazing ability to turn trash into artistic treasure with accents of beauty and humor became over time her signature way of creating.

 According to fellow artist Chuck Close, in a foreword of "Evidence: the Art of Candy Jernigan," "[Candy] took the old saying ‘Art history is to art what ornithology is to birds’ and stood it on its head. This is what Candy had to say about “Evidence:” “In 1980, as I set out on my first trip to Europe, I decided to make a book that would contain any and all physical proof that I had been there: ticket stubs, postcards, restaurant receipts, airplane and bus and railroad ephemera. On successive trips, these collections grew to include food smears, hotel keys, found litter, local news, pop tops, rocks, weather notations, leaves, bags of dirt--anything that would add information about a moment or a place, so that the viewer could make a new picture from the remnants. Objects emerged for me as ‘icons’ for particular cities and these objects became the material for EVIDENCE.” 

Ken Tisa, a friend and fellow artist, offered this comment in the book, "Everyone who wants to see art in New York looks up. Candy looked down."

She was defiantly an inspiration to me as an artist. Over the years I have felt her presence in my work. I would repeatedly check out "Evidence" from the Berkeley Library. One piece of hers that really struck me was her collection of dope vials that she found during a 16 day period around her neighborhood.

In 2004 I paid homage to Candy by creating a similar piece of weed bags I found around on my walk to the BART in Oakland. It ended up in a show at the Fake Cake Gallery. And like Candy's piece I included details as to when and where I found each bag. 

Candy Jernigan's work is magical.