A Collection a Day Book Summer Blog Tour + Giveaway!

Lisa Congdon's book, A Collection a Day launched this spring and as I mentioned last week in a post, publisher UPPERCASE is holding a mini summer blog tour for the book.  The book which I wrote about here and I'm sure in a few other posts this past year is a daily documentation of arrangements of Lisa's collected items she photographed (and some imagined and illustrated) everyday for one year last year.  The book comes in a fun tin too - perfect for holding your own collection.

Fun fact:  Check our collecting tag here which started back in 2008 where we featured Lisa's collections among with many other online artists' amazing collections!  It's a treasure trove if you like that kind of thing. (Be sure to go all the way back to 2008)!

And hey, we somehow managed to fandangle a copy of the book to giveaway here on the blog!  (Thanks Janine) - so one of you will be winning it!  Just leave a comment here at this post with a link to your favourite collections online.  Maybe it's at one of Lisa's or my posts here or maybe it's one of your own, or a friends, we'd love to see!  We'll announce a winner come Friday, July 29th/11!  (The giveaway will run till 9pm Thursday, July 28/11 )!  Good Luck!

In the meantime, check out the blog tour (check here for dates) if you will or buy the book,  it's a collector's item in itself!

 

Update:  It was a tough one to try and pick a winner for this.  At first I thought I would pick one that had a great link to a collecting post, and then it became really difficult after that (did you see all the great links)?.  So then I thought I'll do the random generator thing.  And funny - it picked the very last commenter - No. 38!  So congrats to Melanie of Inward Facing Girl.  And what's rather serendipitous is that she collects art books.  So really how fitting!  

Collecting Collections

Contributor post by Lisa Congdon

I'm back this month with an up close look at some of my kitchen collectables. As I mention in my book, A Collection a Day , my favorite collection is probably my mid-century kitchenware -- most of which is Scandinavian and Japanese. I love the colors, the designs, the simplicity.

photo by Philip Maisel

I started collecting kitchenware about 10 years ago. It began with a Catherineholm piece I found at an antique mall, and it grew from there. Much of my vintage kitchenware I don't use -- it's either too fragile or too precious to me, so I display it in my kitchen instead.

photos by Jen Siska for Dwell Magazine

Recently I did an interview with Drew of Kitsch Cafe about collecting. In that interview I talk a little bit there about taking good care of your collections, which in many cases means not using them (or at least not using them for every day use) to protect them from wear and tear.

But I do use several of my kitchen collectables! In fact, you can see many vintage things in my kitchen thrown in with every day spoons, pots and bowls.

When it comes to your collections, how do you make decisions about what to use versus what to display? Tell us what you think.

........................................

Lisa Congdon is an artist, author and prolific collector of old and unusual things, including bits of nature, and surrounds herself with these things in her home and studio. In 2010 she chronicled all of her collections in her Collection A Day 2010 Project. That project is now a book, published in March 2011.

Site: www.lisacongdon.com
Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/lisacongdon

A Collection A Day Blog Tour

Cafe Cartolina

Lisa Congdon's book, A Collection a Day launched this spring and for fun this summer, publisher UPPERCASE is holding a mini blog tour for the book.  It's launching today over at fellow Canadian blog, Cafe Cartolina where Fiona is showing off some of her own pretty amazing collections.  We're also included in the tour (visit here July 27th for a special post) along with design work life (July 20th) and sfgirlbybay (Aug. 3). A Collection a Day is available online here.

Rock Collecting

Loving Cori Kindred's brand new *rock collections* mixed media art that just went on sale Monday in her shop: http://corikindred.etsy.com.   Cori played off of vintage rock collections by using specially chosen gemstones as well as vintage boxes, paper and typewriters, but instead of labeling them by their proper name she picked words inspired by the shape and color of the stone.

A Collection a Day Book Launch & Exhibit

Today (Friday, March 18th/11) is the reception for Lisa Congdon's book, A Collection a Day. It will be held at The Curiosity Shoppe in San Francisco, from 6-9pm. See the exhibition (many of the collections and drawings she photographed during this past year) and celebrate Lisa's incredible project and book. Below sneak peek photos (taken by Lisa) from the exhibit.  The book can also be ordered online through UPPERCASE.

Collecting: Class Pictures

Love this collection of vintage class pictures that the folks over at Love It Alot recently hung in the stairwell of their home. Not only a great display but I'm drawn to the different shades of wooden frames along with their rectangular shapes. Usually one sees photo's hung in stairwells with the longer part of the frame going vertical (as most photo's are taken that way - portrait style I guess); but because these are class pictures, the "landscape" direction is a fresh alternative don't you think?

Weekend Project: Collecting

Apartment Therapy

I love this collection of drawers don't you? (You can read more about them here). They're inspiring me to collect some drawers of my own. I'm not sure how easy that is going to be, without buying heaps of dressers, but I'm thinking the process could be interesting. Are you collecting something? 

Photo credit: Anna Hoffman for Apartment Therapy.