As we focus this month on the collections that enrich our lives, the question inevitably arises of when a random accumulation of like goods crosses the line to become a collection. Is it a number that forms the tipping point, or perhaps the active desire to accumulate more? Is there a strict dividing line, or just a shifting spectrum? When does a collection become a collection?
Many of my collections seem to grow organically when I'm not focused on their development. I have a tendency to pick up items just because I like them — especially when I'm traveling — and it is only after I get home that I realize either how well a particular piece fits into my existing collections or how well my new pieces fit together to form a new collection.
For me, collections aren't a product of numbers, they are a really more a state of mind. When I see the connections between items or decide to display a group together, that is when they become a collection. Three tapestries, seven Turkish lamps, sixty shot glasses — each is a collection to me, less because of anything tangible and more just because of how I think and feel about them.
What do you think makes a collection a collection? If you have a collection, did it develop accidentally or is it the result of deliberate acquisitions? Have you ever found yourself wondering how on earth you you ended up with the collections you have?
Image: Naotake Murayama licensed for use under Creative Commons.
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If you go by the picture above a collection becomes a collection when you get three of each item.
My stuff becomes a "collection" when I reach the point that I have to think about and plan their organization, display and/or storage (rather than just unthinkingly putting them somewhere.)
3 or more is a collection.
10 or more is hoarding.
LOL
I think this is an interesting wikipedia entry on the topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collecting
I like shoes and buy a lot of them, but I don't feel as if I collect them with the deliberate intention to increase the number of shoes I have, or to add to a display of my footwear (though my husband might argue that point). I don't think members of a set are a collection in the sense we're considering (again, my mathemetician husband would make this very point).
I assume there is pleasure associated with a collection that goes well beyond aesthetics or function (I have a collection of towels and dishes in the mathematical sense). But what is that pleasure exactly?
Perhaps that's the point of this topic. For some it may be an interest in the object's history or rarity; for others it may be an interest in the variety, or in the precise duplication of the object. But what about the collector who is both interested in creating a larger set for practical reasons, like collecting a bone china pattern from the 19th C?
Here's a nice essay on the topic. http://www.nypress.com/article-6296-even-animals-collect-things.html
The author closes by saying collecting brings order to chaos. I think this is just a lazy way to end the article because that can't possibly be true for all collectors.
I think I like this idea best: there is poetry in the nuances of repetition. I think the creative mind enjoys the paradox of symmetry that can't ever be identical -- even with a mass produced object, the atoms in object 1 are not the atoms in object 2 (quantum physicists reading this can just close your pie-holes).
thanks for the article we love design blogs some of the coolest and most inspirational reads online for sure! if you are looking to expand this topic further here are two we have been working on past year:
Taste
http://www.toast-jam.com/taste
Branch
http://www.olivestudio.com/branch
Maybe once it rises to the level of conversation topic. Because then other people become aware of your predilection and think of you whenever they see a shot glass, thimble, tea towel, bathtub ducky, or owl...and you potentially have to deal with adding to your "collection" at every gift giving opportunity and wish you'd kept your mouth shut about loving frogs or whatever. Sigh.
When your collection overflows your ability to display it tastefully, or to adequately store it (only done UNTILL you can display it), then it becomes an obsession.
I like that my friends know about my salt and pepper shaker collection, and that they make efforts to add to it. I still have room to display them, and they look better as a mass anyway.
I have a small collection of antique thimbles, because my grandmother decided to randomly start sending them to me in college. (And not for birthdays and Christmas, but just every few months for no particular occasion.) And at one point, she just stopped sending them, as randomly as she started. I kept them because they were small and pretty, but I haven't had time/money/inclination to add to it. I suppose if I ever do, it will really become a collection, but it's got and interesting story for it's beginning already.
When your insurance agent walks in, spins around, points to a bunch of whatever you collect and admonishes, "You don't have a rider for THAT! Why don't you have a rider for that??"
I only really think I collect two things, magnets from travels and monogram letters. But, if you go by numbers, I also collect shoes and books. I don't consider those collections though. You have to consider WHY you're getting an item. If it's to add to what you already have, then it's a collection. If it's for the item itself, then it's not. Though I guess it could be both. I buy shoes to wear because I like them, not to simply increase the number of shoes I own. I buy magnets not because I love that particular magnet necessarily, but because it represents a place I've been and I want to add it to my collection of other magnets.
I think most collections evolve organically. As you said, you bring home things and realize that they fit in with other things you already have -perhaps you unsconsciously connect the dots? But for me a true collection has some form of distinct identity So a lot of books, or shoes, or mugs become a collection when something sets them apart, perhaps a theme (antique, Italian, handmade, from all over the world) or some form of value (difficult to obtain, very expensive, very unusual).
I think it starts with the desire to gather like items, things that perinially catch your attention, that are usually not of tremendous value. It evolves when those items get to the point that they can no longer be be practically used or stored My favorite aspect of collecting was finding my collectable as a souvineer of a trip. I collected ornithological prints (the more scientific variety) for rougly 20 years. I still love them dearly, they have a spiritual nature and hold sentiment, but the fear of having my entire home look like an aviary, I had to stop.
@tasterspoon - I'm dying laughing. you're so right! I curse the day I ever told my mom I loved cows. My teenage bedroom looked like a dairy farm. Then in college I got into listening to Elvis - next thing you know, my dorm room looked like a cinderblock addition to Graceland. And don't get me started on elephants. I should have learned my lesson by then and just shut my mouth.
I have a lot of books and DVD's but I'd never consider those "collections".
I actually don't like clutter so I've never been much of a collector but I do have small collections like my camera collection (about 6 vintage cameras) all displayed on bookshelves, and I have a small collection of art that hangs on my walsl. I do have some toys or figures but not enough to call a collection in my opinion.