Things I have collected

I have been thinking about what Sarah Cheang says in her essay about the collection providing a material encoding of the collectors desired identity. Displaying a collection is a way of communicating your personal preferences, an instant way of representing yourself. You can portray anything you want through your collection.


Things I collected as a child:

• Stamps - kept in albums, my Uncle Graham would send 1st day covers, some of the stamps were old, my prized stamp was a Penny Red.


• Postcards - kept in a photo album. I would buy at least one everywhere I visited.


• Rubbers (erasers) - kept in an ice cream tub, brought out, counted, arranged, re-arranged, sniffed, put back in box.
  

Things collected as a teenager:

• Parrots - earrings, brooches, ornaments, pictures etc. displayed in my bedroom, gifts mainly and all new.


• Vintage Handbags - started buying them when I was about 15 and I started to buy my clothes in secondhand shops. Kept in a box.

Things I collect now:

• Coffee pots - dispalyed in kitchen, all brought at jumble sales or secondhand shops. All practical and I have used them.


• Jugs - as above.


• Necklaces - all worn, vintage and cheap plastic, kept in jewelery boxes and dishes in bed room.


• Vintage haberhashery - most brought, some gifts, some displayed, most in tins and boxes, brought out, counted, arranged, re-arranged, sniffed and put back in boxes.
  

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.