Collections and obsessions

I almost started this off by saying, "I'm not much of a collector" but that would be sort of a lie.  It would be more accurate to say that I'm not a collector of traditional, collectible type things.  Antiques are great, but only if they're useful.  I love old china and dishes but why anyone would hang a plate on a wall is beyond me.  How you gonna eat your cake off that thing??  And I never met a Hummel figurine that I didn't want to throw up against a wall.

I guess you could say I have a...sizable collection of art supplies, collage doodads and ephemera.  But the goal with those is not just to accumulate more, I do actually use the stuff.  Occasionally.

The only thing I have that I would consider a collectible where I actually seek out more of them just to have them, is my small assortment of dutch Delft pottery.  This is not the traditional blue and white pottery that you might think of when you hear Delft.  This stuff has a funky turquoise and gold swirly pattern on it and usually has some brass on it somewhere.  I think this was made sometime between the 1940s and 1970s and evidently it didn't go over too well.  There's not a whole lot of it so it's hard to find but it's not valuable or expensive or anything.   

The first piece I got was from my Grandmother when she died and it's the tall skinny ewer on the far left in this picture.  That's your free scrabble word for the day.  "Ewer".  It's a small pitcher.  I'm not sure why we need another word for pitcher but ewer certainly is easier to play in a scrabble game.  My sister and I used this piece when we would play I Dream of Jeannie at my Grandmother's house.  It was the bottle that we would blink ourselves into.  Good times.

All of the other pieces I've found on eBay.  Today I got the small ewer and the little covered dish in the front of the picture.  I'm really excited about the covered dish!  The little ewers and vases I can find on eBay pretty easily but I think I already have at least one of every shape and size.  It's the little dishes and bowls without any brass on them that don't show up every often.  So when you're out shopping or junquing keep your eyes peeled and report back if you see any of these.

My niece, Kaelei, has a collection of paint chips that might just lean a little more toward the obsession side.  I'm sure not one to judge since on more than one occasion I have walked out of Lowe's with one of every single paint sample available on their shelves.







I got an idea to make some kind of collection book for Kaelei where she could store her paint chips and use them to make little crafty things if she wants to.  I made a few little mini notebooks for her and a couple of bookmarks.  Then I took some of the textured samples and put a small piece inside some slide mounts.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with those yet.

So now I'm trying to figure out how to make the collection book.  I've decided I'm going to use a binder I got from Susan Malcolm.  She sells these really cute personalized notecards and wedding invitations.  She has sample books you can look through and when the companies put out new sample books she has no use for the old ones.  I think one of her old sample books will make an awesome collection binder for Kaelei's paint chips!

I'm still working out the details for how this is going to look but the process sure is fun!  I'll post updates as I continue to work on it.