Storytelling Saturday: Objects That Tell Tales

Here's another antique find, this time found inside a storage tub labeled "Sewing & Craft Items" that I stumbled  upon in a little local thrift store that specializes in storage locker finds. The box was full of great stuff: vintage patterns, old embroidery kits & even an old hair pin box, but one of the most interesting finds was this little squirrel pincushion, probably from the 30's. It's heavier than you would think, for it's size, more than likely filled with a sand type substance, rather than a newer fiberfill type toy. The squirrel design makes it look more like an old child's toy, pressed into service as a pincushion, than something that was deliberately made as a pincushion & this may be the case, given its age. Re-purposing was a hallmark of the 30's (& earlier), when clothes were passedd from child to child until they could no longer be worn & then cut into pieces to make quilts for winter. Anything that could be used, was used & re-used in a variety of forms & even art was done on & with re-purposed materials. The squirrel has pins in it, the stuffing material seems to be great at keeping the pins sharp, but it seems likely to have started out as a childs toy. What memories did this little sqirrel hold, for adult & child alike? Was it a favorite toy? Was it filled with memories of a child, long since grown up? Of a mother lovingly stitching away for that child? For her family? Of course, we'll never really know, but it's fun to think of all the stories this little creature holds...

Storytelling Saturday: Objects that Tell Tales...

I have always been interested in the way objects tell stories, how artists & craftsmen build, repurpose, recycle & take seemingly disparate & even discarded things & turn them into something new, something that tells a tale of the artists choosing, waiting to escape the confines of function & tell the world something new or something it had forgotten. I collected things, arranged themin different ways, covered my walls or just bits of paper. It comes from many different sources, from hearing of times past when things were not discarded, but used over & over again, in quilts of old clothes, repurposed dresses handed down from sister to sister, from the frugality of the 30's to the 60's hippie movement, 80's punk re-inventions & 90's thrift store grunge, each generation building on remnants of the past, using these blocks to tell their own story...

I recently stumbled upon a great example of such an object, an old door that tells the tale of a wedding...

Held in 1965, in Fiji

Presided over by the bishop of Polynesia...

And attended by quite a cast of characters...

The bride's attendants were all male...

Painted palm trees adorn the the door with tropical color...

I came upon this door in a local architectural salvage store (Earthwise). I wonder how it got there? Who was the couple? Who painted the door? The door tells their story, but it leaves as many questions as it answers, what an amazing piece & an amazing story!

I think just about any object tells a story, some more straightforward than others. What stories have you uncovered recently? SAM

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