Found Objects

I have to brag on my friend Stacy for a moment.  She found the cutest way to display a collection of vintage buttons given to her by her mother.

Rather than collecting these treasures in a jar or worse, a junk drawer, she brought them out, organized them and turned them into art.  With a few organic touches of twine and orchids, they've been elevated to something beautiful and meaningful, a little piece of family history hanging on her wall.

It's so easy to go wrong with collections.  There's a fine line between "art" and "hoarding."  I think a good rule of thumb is: If you can display it artfully, with some sort of defining border (such as a frame or on a decorative ledge) then it's a collection.  When it starts piling up in a drawer, a corner of the garage, or your kitchen counter-top, then you may have a problem.  (By "you" I might mean me.)  If you really want to make an impact with the treasures you're displaying, first you need to creatively edit them.  This means getting rid of (or just putting away) the pieces that don't work visually with the others.  Then find a way to unify the collection.  Here, Stacy used identical frames to tie everything together.  Finally, hang or display it intentionally.  By this I mean group the items together so they relate to each other, rather than just scattering them around randomly.  Especially when dealing with small items such as buttons, they make more of a statement if you group them together.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to see what kind of collections I have that might need a little editing...