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What do you collect other than miniatures?


Guest Happy Heart

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  • 6 months later...

I love to collect small charms such as keychains, mobile phone straps, resin cabochons, etc. This collection renewed my fascination with miniatures! I also unconsciously collect coin purses it seems, since whenever I see a cute and inexpensive one I struggle to resist buying it. By now I have quite a collection of all sorts of tiny bags and pouches! I'm only just beginning to collect lovely bone china teacups as well. I've been lucky about finding them in pristine condition for only a few cents to a couple dollars at thrift stores or yard sales. I adore the lovely colours and patterns and would love to have more!

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Unfortunately I collect everything and anything that could possibly come under the headings of Fine art, Arts & Crafts, Photography, Sculpture, Sewing - all kinds, Needlework, Yarn, Woodworking, Beading, and Miniatures. My workshop, studio and sewing rooms are all bursting with supplies. Some day my children will snarl and grumble as they have to sift through it all. But it keeps me busy and out of their hair or so I tell them.

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  • 5 months later...

Hmm...let me think...I have always been a "gatherer" of old things. I'm like that show "Pickers" but far less organized and purposeful. Things just follow me home. Most of what I find, I sell. Some of it I hang on to, however. The rustic and obscure hand made types of things are what most appeal to me. Midcentury and earlier amateur oil paintings, Ozark roadside tourist pottery from the 1930s, antique glass Japanese fishing floats, old books that have no collector value (I just like their looks), sculptures made from tree roots, hand made "make do" wood furniture that shows a lot of wear, lamps made from chunks of twisted trees, worn out Persian rugs, hand woven blankets and throws in any natural fiber, especially alpaca and mohair, French porcelain bake ware, hand hammered copper and sterling pieces, Navajo turquoise jewelry...and now, forgotten and neglected dollhouses.

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Absolutely anything and everything butterfly!-a butterfly themed house is on my 'wannadosomeday' list. I also want to collect windchimes,but so far can only afford a few little inexpensive dollar store finds. Anyone else love the sound of chimes tinkling in a breeze?

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Just bought a music box today for my collection and I believe I got an extremely rare song! It is 9 to 5 and the figure is a secretary typing. I have never heard or even seen any music box that plays that song, not even on eBay. I snatched it up right away because I knew I may never find the song as a music box again.

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...Anyone else love the sound of chimes tinkling in a breeze?

Me! DS#1 gave us a set of lovely windchimes as a housewarming gift for our Havana house's back porch. Now they hang from a corner of the garage roof and we can hear them when the wind blows; but as soon as we have a back porch, that's where they'll go.

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Yeah,Stacey,those would be awesome to have! But,I know what you mean about expensive. I have several cheapies on my front porch and will get a couple more pretty soon. I had a neighbor at my previous home who had every size and kind imaginable and between us we kept the wind pretty busy!! :)

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It's fun to see this topic resurface because I love hearing about what people collect. I have a theory that it is a great indicator about one's personality. Have you ever noticed that even when you collect things that don't seem to have any relationship at all, in some odd way they still go together in your home?

My collections? <cackle> It's a rather long list but here we go:

Asian cork carvings (everything from free standing sculptures under glass to folding screens to wall hangings. Ditto Asian mother of pearl carvings)

Tiffany lamps (I have a special fondness for reverse painted porcelain and anything with glass bead fringe. I went thru a phase collecting Meyda Tiffany art nouveau pieces, especially the bronze nudes.)

Brass inkwells

Tibetan temple artifacts (most came to me covered in soot from temples that were burned out during the Chinese occupation)

Rocks (oh boy, do I EVER collect rocks!)

Tarot cards and Ouija Boards (my prize is one of the early original William Fuld boards)

Porcelain masks

Antique crystal lamps and candle holders

Boxes. I adore cool boxes.

Of course there are the dollhouses. I downsized to just 14 of my own now.

And then there's Bruce who collects antique firearms, guitars, swords, historical military items, and Japanese amour and weaponry. We have more swords than I can count and there are half a dozen "Boy's Day" helmets plus three life size Samurai helmets representing the 12th thru the 15th centuries......and then there's Oda Nobanaga who is a full life size museum replica of that Saumrai's 16th century suit of armor. (Bruce was not only in the army signal corp for 12 years but he was also a black belt so his collections are totally true to his passions in life.) The living room is where I put all the Asian collections and it's a lot of fun to wander thru and just look at things. I try to take along a duster every time I get the urge to do that and multi task but despite the constant dusting required, it's still a very cool room.

Mostly I love our collections because they honor the things we enjoy most in life altho I have to admit that during this last move, I swore we'd either quit collecting or we'd never move again. Obviously the choice is easy and we'll just live in this house forever. LOL!

Deb

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My sweet DH would prefer I collect nothing at all - HOWEVER - I collect spoons. Have one from every U.S. state and many from other countries. Four of them are antiques, handed down to me by my great-grandmother. One is a carved wooden spoon made by an Indian Tribe in South America.

I also collect creches - have about 29 at last count. Those range in size from 14" tall to one that's inside a walnut shell.

I have been to all 50 states, so I have plenty of spoons too; however, I don't think I have all 50 of them. I used to hang them on the rack in alphabetical order - that is Alabama first, then Alaska, etc. - leaving a space for each missing state. However, I got tired of putting them back in their proper spot every time I dropped one or two or three while dusting them, so they are in no particular order now.

I used to collect record albums, and by albums I mean the vinyl discs with the linear notes, lyric sheets, etc., but I don't play them anymore as the better ones were replaced with CDs. I packed them away last year, keeping only the ones that brought back the most memories from my teenage and young adult years, and the rest I donated to a consignment shop.

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I love anything old, shiny, and pretty, working in an auction barn for years helped my collections. Most of my furniture is antique, an oak round table,china cabinet and buffet, a mahogany sideboard and china cabinet, oak platform rocker ( my favorite chair ) right down to my old porcelain one bowl kitchen sink. My cabinets are filled with Fenton glass, dog figurines, angels, perfume bottles, glass animals, and salt & peppers displayed on my collection of cake plates. Porcelain dolls, music boxes, sewing machines & sewing boxes and wall pockets are a few of my other favorites. Oh and lamps/lighting , my motto is if I'm going to have to pay an arm and a leg for electric, it's going to look pretty. :) And now doll houses and anything that goes with them, like I needed to collect more things. :D

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I love antique furniture, but my house is too small for such wonderful pieces so now I just focus on the little things....agate/enamel ware, old bottles, crocks, vintage mason jars, vintage spice tins, vintage first aid/medicine related items and basically anything vintage that strikes my fancy regardless of its lack of value (anything my mother refers to as 'junk'). :)

oh- and Star Trek toys and Christmas ornaments. :)

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Right now my garage collects empty boxes. :(

:rofl: Debora That made me laugh right out loud!! I was out in the garage this morning trying to get rid of some boxes also. I think I collect boxes!!! I have had to move so often and finding boxes to pack in is always difficult so I have a hard time getting rid of them!!!

I got rid of most of my other collections but I have for some reason started collecting all kinds of ceramic birds. I never had any interest in them before and since I moved here I have been picking them up all over the place...usually at 2nd hand shops! Also, my doll collection was destroyed so I have started collecting a few Native American dolls. Well, I only have 2 so far. :)

I also collect a lot of dust!!!

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Unfortunately I collect everything and anything that could possibly come under the headings of Fine art, Arts & Crafts, Photography, Sculpture, Sewing - all kinds, Needlework, Yarn, Woodworking, Beading, and Miniatures. My workshop, studio and sewing rooms are all bursting with supplies. Some day my children will snarl and grumble as they have to sift through it all. But it keeps me busy and out of their hair or so I tell them.

Yup, the crafts keep me busy so I'm not calling my kids everyday. After some thirty years of dollhousing, I needed a break and went to Barbies and playscale dolls, made clothing and especially dioramas which I sold on ebay, but they take a long time and nobody wants to pay for my ten hours of work on a diorama, so I copied and printed them and sold them at an affordable price, but the printers would screw up the print jobs too often. I have about 24 or 25 dioramas I've made and I set them out two at a time to display my dolls. It's nice to be back in the swing of 1:12 again along with the Barbies.

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I sort of collect hobbies, I'm always looking for something new to learn - so far this year I've started learning to quilt, build dollhouses and speak french (the french isn't going so well...)

and I collect ABJDs (a type of resin doll) in fact I got interested in building Minis since my smallest dolls needed a house :) and I have a couple of Blythe doll customs and far to many Monster High dolls (I customize and sell them)

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Are we doing collections lists again? I wanna play. Deb - your Bruce and mine should get together. He has a bunch of civil war guns and swords (really long bayonets)

I collect breyer horses, barbies, clocks, dragons, music boxes, fairies, dollhouses, dvds, ducks, porceline dolls, furbys, paperweights, violets, ceramicraft fish, guns, and power tools. There's more, but that is a long enough list.

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. Deb - your Bruce and mine should get together. He has a bunch of civil war guns and swords (really long bayonets)

Methinks they are two Bruces of a feather. LOL!!! It's helpful to have a husband who collects things too because he can never really complain about your collections when he has so many of his own. That's one reason I highly encourage Bruce to build his own collections. Besides, it makes it a lot of fun for us to go out shopping together, especially when we spend a day hitting thrift and second hand stores.

Deb

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Methinks they are two Bruces of a feather. LOL!!! It's helpful to have a husband who collects things too because he can never really complain about your collections when he has so many of his own. That's one reason I highly encourage Bruce to build his own collections. Besides, it makes it a lot of fun for us to go out shopping together, especially when we spend a day hitting thrift and second hand stores.

Deb

Sort of like DH & I also in hobby shops and craft stores!

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Selkie and Holly, I'm very fortunate that Bruce converted to miniatures several years ago. He does military and fantasy gaming dioramas in 1:32 and 1:36. I don't know if I've ever shared his work with you guys or not. Here, take a look at what he does:

http://www.debsminis.com/bruce_roberts.htm

We also enjoy going to hobby stores together and the only discord we've ever had is when he doesn't put my EZ Cutter back after he uses it. I'm gonna get him one of his own for his birthday this year. LOL

Deb

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Wow Deb, tell him from me, that his work is wonderful. Glad I figured out to click on the top buttons to get the detail picutres. My grands will enjoy seeing these too. Thanks for sharing them.

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