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Vintage Curiosities & Quiet Oddities

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Closeup of the head and part of the body of a dried Alligator Fish on vintage cards from an old card catalog.
Vintage library card catalog cards scattered across a warm wood surface with a carved scarab paperweight, small key tag, aged envelope and paper knife, handwritten ledger page, amber-encased scorpion, and an air plant set in a tooth mold.

A Collection of Vintage Curiosities

Things made, found, examined, and quietly tucked away.

Beetle in black ink printed one half on a vintage catalog card and the other half on a second vintage card catalog card photographed on slate board.
Assorted vintage found objects arranged on a dark slate surface, including a carved wooden ornament filigree, shoe last, large military safety pin, tarnished spoon, metal mold fragment, gridded wood block, antique lock plate, ceramic insulator, and a rusted bottle opener.

Along the Way

Small details collected while wandering antique stores and everyday places.

An Egyptian sarcophagus standing in an antique store booth. The booth is about 10 feet wide and filled with cabinets, antiques and curiosities like enamelware kettles, large stone jugs, crates, a vintage meat scale, deorative birdhouse and chair perched on the hightest shelf top and a cabinet filled with collectable vintage ale mugs and glass pieces.
I turned around, and there it was.
Assemblage art of a masked knight looking metal man found at an antique store and made of metal pieces and parts that have been welded together. It has a metal face mask with three vertical bolts in the center and two rectangles cut for eyes. Metal threaded rods extending from the head. A metal pipe rod supporting the shoulders. Show here is the figure from the chest upward.
Built from whatever someone had on hand.
A horizontal shot of a worn, aged and keys from an old organ in disrepair at a thrift store. It has black vintage round pull knobs above the keys that give sound options like Base Coupler and Echo Horn. The writing on the round knobs is in faded white caligraphy as well as the name of the organ manufacturing company.
Time has its own color palette.
A closeup of a faded gray stone gargoyle with a large black beetle on it's head. Photo taken in my garden.
An unexpected visitor in the garden.

Still in a Fall mood?

Find more cozy crafts, decorating ideas, recipes, and inspiration for the season.

EXPLORE FALL

Menagerie On A Work Table

Oddities on work table and wall including a set of judging owls, a wood cog, vintage babies, feathers, stone mortar and pestle, glass jars and vintage elixir bottles, rusty tin of nails, vintage scisors and old yellowed polaroids hanging.
Photo 1: Vintage glass medicine bottles, rusted metal scissors, and an old medicine bottle arranged on a worktable with doll parts, feathers, and other collected curiosities in the background. Photo 2: Vintage flocked tiger head figurine resting on stacked books beside aged paper and wooden shelves, photographed as part of a collection of quiet curiosities.
Closeup of two owls a vintage ceramic with a white stone mortar and pestle in front and a hint of a doll upside down with one eye staring in the background.

Free Printable Keepsake Cards

A small study to print and keep—download the printable here.

Oddities cards - two shown pinned to a wooden typesetting tray with a 'taken in inventory' stamp below. There is a scorpion card and an alligator skull with vines in a cloche. These are hand drawn illustrations in black ink on ivory card stock - two out of a set of three available to download and print.

Fragments

Quiet remnants from another time.

Half of a white ceramic doll mold of a dolls head with shadow areas for the nose, eyes and ears. The white mold has a gritty texture.
Reaching hand from a white mannequin in shadow against a stone wall.
Star divider used has two hand drawn lines with a star in the center, used as a content break and signals new or different content below. This doodle style illustration is in a medium charcoal gray.

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