Things collected as a teenager:
Things I collect now:
So what's to made of that? The collections as a child were kept private, probably not my choice, I'm sure my mum made me put them away, but they were taken out and viewed, worked on/added to and then put away.
As a teen the parrots were displayed, more of a way of rebelling, they were bright and bold in a house of beige and brown, my room was very 80's, pink and grey. I then started collecting and coverting vintage practical things again as a rebellion to the new plastic that was all around. I had also started working as a Stage Manger having to buy and find props, so I was becoming more aware of these items. All the things I started to buy would be used, they had to be practical again the opposite of my mum's ornaments that would sit on the side, even practical things she brought couldn't be used straight away, they had to be washed up, put back in the box and put in the cupboard.
The vintage haberdashery is a fairly new collection but I feel it's a mission to save it from being thrown away or unappreciated. I think that's the thing that distresses me most, the idea that things can be dismissed as rubbish and thrown out, this idea makes my blood run cold.
I have been reading a selection of essays called Collectors, Expressions of Self and Others, edited byAnthony Shelton who is the Head of Collections at the Horniman Museum.
In Sarah Cheangs essay 'The Dogs of Fo: Gender, Identity and Collecting' she say's at 'the Collection is the self, created by the will of the collector in response to both conscious and subconscious desires.
It represents the desired self: an ideal self. Whatever longing has produced the collection, it can be seen as a way of providing a controlled cohesion of identlity which is otherwise fractured and unstable.
This self possession through possessions is so strong that the loss of the collection can be likened to loss of self. The collection also offers an opportunity for immortality, as the materiality of the collection, of preserved intact can insure continuing integrity of the collector's identity after his/her death.
Collections provide a material encoding of the collectors desired identity.'
I have some LED lights that I want to put in the cabinet but they are very dim, I've tried wiring them up to a 9v battery but it doesn't seem to make much difference, my Dad said I might need a transformer.
Not sure what's going in it yet but after talking with Rachel about the Victorians fascination with collecting and labeling I'm thinking that I'll label and number all the objects, then I'll do a key and have a display/info board with an explanation to what they all are. I might even do a paper leaflet/info sheet, maybe a word search or quiz...............................Don't know why but I thought the cabinet opened the other way??? I've had it for ages, years and I used to use it as a bathroom cabinet but it's been hidden in the loft and shed since we moved to this house. I've had to hide it because every time Peter finds it he tries to get rid of it asking me what I want it for? I've not known what I wanted it for until now, hurray for not getting rid of things, I knew there was a reason I kept it, didn't know it at the time but I do now.
Our trip to the Natural History Museum was primarily to see the butterflies. The kids found the case with them hatching fascinating. When one feel off, because it's wings were to heavy and wet, they frantically called the keeper to rescue it and put it back on the shelf where it would hang to dry out it's wings.
