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My father collects frogs.
No, not real frogs. Like, ceramic frogs. Glass frogs. Frogs made by famous crystal designers, like Lalique and Waterford. Intricately-made frogs fashioned by friends with great detail out of discarded aluminum foil. And these frogs are all over the house. It's done tastefully-enough -- it's not like he's a hoarder -- in fact, you barely realize the frogs are there, until you look. But once you notice, you realize it's like a Plague of Egypt up in there. Of course, when your name is "Kermitt," you're sort of forgiven for having the Largest Frog Collection in the World.
My mother hates all the frogs; however, she does love birds. So she has birds all over the house. Crystal birds, wooden birds, ceramic birds, all kinds of birds. I think she's hoping they'll peck the frogs' eyes out. But they're there, frogs and birds.
As a result, I'm pretty sure I inherited a collector's gene from them. In the past, I've collected Buddhas. I've collected crosses. I've collected little ceramic figurines that look like the typical homes of my country. I still collect antique cameras (and some not-so-antique ones as well). Oh, I'm very good at collecting.
What I'm afraid I may not have inherited is the displaying gene. I try to display my collections around my home, and while I think I've figured the trick with the cameras, for the life of me, I have no idea what to do with the house figurines -- so now, they live in the attic. But I'm always intrigued by people who have quirky collections (like my parents) and actually know what to do with them. Like, say, for example, Kelly Rae Roberts, and her collection of letters. Or, say, Andrea Jenkins, and her globe collection. Or even every home featured in this post on Bliss ...
... *sigh*.
Tell me: do you collect anything? What? And how do you display it? Bonus points if you can share a link to a photograph of your collection in the comments below.
Seriously, people -- I need all the inspiration I can get.
Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can read/see more of her work at Chookooloonks.
