How do collections start?

Are you a collector? Of anything?

To me, it seems like collecting starts innocently enough.  You see a magazine article, a segment on TV, an item catches your eye at a store, a flea market.  Maybe you watch American Pickers or The Antique Roadshow.  Or maybe, just maybe it's a family heirloom or item of sentimental value.  Whatever the beginning, the idea, the desire grows.  You find your first piece and then you're off to the races, the hunt.  Searching thrift stores, antiques stores, Etsy, EBay.  You're hooked. Line. And. Sinker.

As a child, I collected stuffed animals.  Not sure where it started but I remember, every night lining them up and down my bed on each side of me.  I was afraid of the dark and more so of whatever might be lurking under my bed, just waiting for a foot or a hand to get too close to the edge.  My stuffed animal collection protected me.  Nothing could get past my trusty lions, dogs, cats, rabbits or babies.

I think nostalgia plays a large part in the start of a collection.  One of my first "adult" collections was, and still is, jadite.  Back in the day when Martha was only on PBS or her magazine was still just 10 issues a year, well she got me hooked on that lovely shade of green glass.  My first ever purchase on EBay was a large, bowl type measuring cup in jadite.  I think I was drawn to it because I had a white Fire King one that had been my grandmother's bowl.  It was the first item in my growing collection.

Nowadays, the things I'm on the hunt for is an ever growing list.  I especially like...

milk glass vases, found cheaply at thrift stores - vintage Gurley candles like my mom used to have

vintage party goods, cake decorations or wrapping paper

vintage holiday items, especially Christmas

old galvanized items for the garden

vintage/old silverplate

To name just a few.

So do you?  Do you collect?

Enjoying the halfway point of the week,
Chris at Red Gate Farm