Gewgaws, Knickknacks, Tchotchkes, etc.

September 10, 2016 7:04 AM

Found & Chosen is a blog from a collector of small toys, trinkets, charms, junk, baubles, whatnots, curios (and so on). Often arranged and presented as visually pleasing displays.
posted by codacorolla (21 comments total)

This is totally I, Spy for hipsters. Walter Wick is not pleased.
posted by robotmachine at 7:37 AM on September 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh, I was going to say, this is totally I Spy, and if I had kids, I'd love to show them this. I like it.
posted by limeonaire at 8:06 AM on September 10, 2016

And yeah, maker of this blog, you are not alone in picking up little bits of sparkly things you find on the ground. I just unpacked my own little boxes of stuff like this. Treasure!
posted by limeonaire at 8:17 AM on September 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

Right in my wheelhouse! Yay! (I am a magpie, myself.)
posted by 41swans at 8:43 AM on September 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

This needs to be a T-shirt.

Haven't finished seeing all of the stuff but I like this collection. I'm doing a similar mural theme on the living room. I placed a library discard of Graves work on Troy on the wall. Held by a plate hanger, the front binding is held with two faded brass clips.
Nice find.
posted by clavdivs at 8:45 AM on September 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

My kids loved I Spy books when they were little, and I have tons of small things at my work bench and in my dresser drawers and just all over.

For a while I toyed with the notion of making my own I Spy-type book, using all things that I owned, but I never got around to it. Despite how awesome it would be to know the story of every single item in every page, I think I knew that seeing them all spread out would reveal I am a hoarder.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:22 AM on September 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

If you like that I have a rabbit hole for you.
posted by lagomorphius at 9:22 AM on September 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Also, the magpie in me thrilled at the scene in the start of the Disney mid-80s movie "The Black Stallion" where a poker game is going on and the players use exotic coins and small items to bet. I wanted everything in that pot!!
posted by wenestvedt at 9:23 AM on September 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

That is very satisfying. I'd kind of like to send this person all my little bits & pieces.
posted by theora55 at 9:29 AM on September 10, 2016

Lovely! I wonder how much of this stuff is detritus from the charm fad of the '80s, which I had almost totally forgotten. Little girls wanted bracelets and barrettes with tiny plastic charms that were exact replicas of everyday objects.

And the toy compasses! Were they ever even supposed to work? Has a more pointless object ever been handed out at a funfair?
posted by Countess Elena at 9:56 AM on September 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

<3 !!!

Here's her Etsy shop. I might get one of her Alphabet prints, if she will ship to Greece. It looks like she also has a book (unrelated to the fun-teeny-things collection) coming out in November.
posted by taz at 10:03 AM on September 10, 2016

Oh, and what I really want to see is her house and/or work space, and how they (her husband is also a collector) organize all this stuff. Color? Subject? Size? Age? Material? Do they have spreadsheets full of info to keep track of it all? My head spins!
posted by taz at 10:09 AM on September 10, 2016 [4 favorites]

This is just... great.
posted by Don Pepino at 10:26 AM on September 10, 2016

I think I also like this blog because of its I-Spy-ness. Those were always some of my favorite books as a kid.
posted by codacorolla at 10:38 AM on September 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Heh. Trouble in the village! (I love the guy who has Taken Command, and the people who've decided to get naked on rooftops for the end times. And, oh yeah – the giant man-eating walrus, the bane of villages everywhere. (larger image)
posted by taz at 11:04 AM on September 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

The collector, Jane Housham - she's amazing! She writes books, publishes books, and is an artist.
posted by 41swans at 2:44 PM on September 10, 2016

wenestvedt, that's cool. I have a 'Guide to Codes and Cipers, 1942. Slim and narrow. That's also mounted in a slim black frame. But yes, I'm sorta doing that taking space and adding paper stuff, sometimes just using a craft glue like this old Xerox from an old microfilm machine- an FBI cable to Hoover from a Dr. at Yale worried about the dude who had a heart attack and died during H.U.A.C.
Dick Tracey bubblegum card. Old leaf from some Latin Codex- looks 1599 but no doubt 1799. (Has the 42' water seal so someone knew thier stuff) a nice noir cartoon from a 38' Doc Savage. An embalmers licence from 1928. A Baedecker Map of Munich. Postcard from Mockba, 1981.
And my Max Weber that cost of 35 cents to look good on the wall. (Frame included)
Well, thats half a wall.
posted by clavdivs at 4:33 PM on September 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

For those of you who collect these types of things, you should try using them to play The Game of Infinite Possibilities! I've been collecting stuff like this for years for exactly that purpose.
posted by lollymccatburglar at 12:40 AM on September 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

lolly, I LOVE the idea of that game! Just as a creative exercise, it would be fun. Thanks for pointing it out!
posted by wenestvedt at 8:43 AM on September 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

This is cool and I like the arrangements but I realized that everything on this page is something I would throw away if I found it floating around my house, despite the emotional connection some of you are feeling.

I think I'm turning into my mother.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 2:12 PM on September 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

This reminds me so much of the experience of shopping at Seattle's Archie McPhee back in the '90s, back when they had their wonderfully weird Aladdin's cave of a storefront on Stone Way. They still had their wind-up sparking Godzilla toys, their punching nun puppets, and so forth, but you were as likely to find a stack of REAL MANHOLE COVERS topped with a sign reading "Make us an offer!" And the tiny trinkets, oh the tiny trinkets. The tiddlywink frogs and the tiny plastic slot machines. They still have some of this stuff at their brightly lit store in Wallingford, but a part of me misses the thrill of discovery of the old days, that labyrinthine shop with the faint danger of tetanus.
posted by duffell at 8:18 AM on September 12, 2016 [1 favorite]