Tag: collections

Poor Little Discarded Orphans

In my last post, New Studio? Almost . . . ., I wrote about revamping my studio and the need to clear out a long shelf of my creepy, vintage, broken, disheveled dolls (and doll heads). I wasn’t ready to get rid of them, but it didn’t make sense to put them in bins and store them in the shed. The dolls are my thing, not Howard’s, so I decided to live with them a while longer and the best place to do that was in my office. I began the arduous task of going through all of the dolls that I had removed from the shelves (okay, maybe I played with them for a little bit). 

I found some low profile shelves and ordered two sets. Howard got them installed pretty quickly, and I began deciding which dolls would make the cut. My favorite dolls are the ones with movable eyes and little teeth, and I had collected plenty of those over the years.

 

If you are creeped out by cracked, crazy-eyed, and overly loved dolls, you might not want to continue, but if you are intrigued by such a motley cast of characters, here are some of my favorites.

 

 

 

If anyone had ever told me I would get to the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market . . . .

. . . . I would not have believed them. But it happened last Sunday.

 

We were on vacation in Los Angles last week to see an uncle, visit museums, art galleries, and just do some general tromping about. The sites we wanted to visit were divided by neighborhoods to minimize the time spent in the car. On a whim, right before we left for the airport, I googled “flea markets.” The Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market, of course, popped up. It is held one Sunday of the month. Guess which Sunday it was being held? (Insert gasping and hyperventilating.)

We arrived early (they have different entrance times and prices, we were there by 8:00 am), got our bearings, and set off for the Orange Area: Antiques and Collectibles. This was important because there are 2,500 booths, so we needed to narrow our focus.

My focus for the market was black and white photos, paper debris, and any sort of ephemera; I rounded up a smattering of everything.But the mother lode was a scrapbook I saw, walked away, then had to go back and purchase.

The scrapbook belonged to Virginia Anita Bugg, and chronicled her early 1930s high school experience on through getting engaged and married. The scrapbook was crammed and crumbly, so when I got home I carefully deconstructed each page into categories: letters, photos, gum wrappers, menus, ticket stubs, dance cards . . . . I even discovered a smashed celluloid doll toward the back. Take a look:

The deconstruction:

I’ve already integrated the pieces into my studio and I’m looking forward to creating new lives with the remnants of Virginia’s life.

Back to the Flea Market, some photos of roaming about.

And the rest of my bounty:

 

Transition Time: Hello New Blog

Studio View

I’ve been blogging since October, 2007. Since that time I’ve written 905 posts and shared thousands of photographs. I plan to continue blogging, but I’ve migrated to a new platform and with that change, it means starting fresh with a new blog. My old site has been archived and is still available for reading. I’ve added a link on my sidebar to make it easy to hop over there. From now on, I’ll document my art adventures  right here. I’ll continue to post about the classes I take and teach, the art I make, the shows I’m in, and the goodies I gather when I’m out junking.