Collections & Collecting

I was going through all my Greece photographs and I realised that a lot of my still-life shots had a recurring theme—collections, groupings and repeating patterns. I think it’s human nature to find or enforce some kind of order in groups of objects and I guess I respond to these instances of visual order strongly due to my innate O&M personality!

That got me thinking about the collections in my own home and once I started itemising, I found quite a few different things that I consciously and unconsciously put together in similar groupings.

My oldest (15 years and going strong), and most conscious collection is my “Piggy Pack” as I call it—small pig figurines made from various materials and hailing from all over the world. Me being me, it isn’t any ordinary piggy pack, but one with stringent entry rules. My initial requirements were that the pigs be small in size and pink in colour. The colour rule went the way of the dodo fairly soon but I still enforce the size parameter strictly. Rule number 2—the “eerie” factor. Pigs in general have a tendency to look either scary and grotesque (i.e., “eerie”) or adorably cute and congenial. I naturally prefer the latter variety, and hubby and I put every new potential member to the “eerie” test, which is quite subjective mind you, before it is purchased. And finally, the last rule, established to prevent a quick descent to freakish “pig-ladydome,” is that the pig has to strictly be a figurine and not a pig-shaped object or item with pig motifs; i.e., no pig-shaped bowls or pig hand towels. I present my loving and ever expanding Piggy Pack.

Moving down the ladder are my collections of coloured glass bottles; vintage chemistry beakers; miscellaneous kitchenware with spouts (I know, I’m odd, I like spouts!); and white ironstone and porcelain serving dishes. And don't even get me started on my “minor” textile and shoe hobbies! 

Not to be left behind, hubby, in the past seven years, has started his own collection of Ganesh figurines. His goal is to collect one from each region and state in India in as many different materials as possible. So far he’s covered 10 Indian states, 3 countries and 8 different materials.

So there you have it, a window into my obsessions and compulsions—some impractical, others improbable, and all addictive. Each and every one giving me immeasurable joy and unending pleasure.