Sunday, January 30, 2011

Borrowed Inspiration


"When was the last time you paid attention to the bread tag on your sliced bread? The sticker on your fruit? The tag in your dry-cleaned shirt? These artifacts are at once familiar, yet hardly noticed. But even though these ephemera of life are so basic, each was designed by someone who actually thought about how that little object ought to look.

Abbey (from Aesthetic Outburst) collected these bread tags under a decorative glass cloche. By bringing together these bits of functional plastic, one can't help but notice the collective beauty of these mundane scraps. I notice colors - just four. Sizes - there are two. The little apple-shaped cutout that keeps the bags closed - there are slight differences. Wow. It really makes you think and notice."
Sometimes the oddest things can make me stop and say; "Hmmmmmmm....."
  1. Am I a bread tag that ought to be clumped together with a thousand other bread tags so that we collectively make a statement?
  2. Should I save my bread tags?
  3. How long will it take before we are all buried alive in bread tags. (Imagine if you count the wire twisty ones... or even more insidious- the bread bags?!)
  4. If I'm a bread tag, and I'm not in a cloched bread tag collective; will I get tossed without a second thought?
  5. In another fifty years when the bread tag becomes obsolete, will this cloche be infinitely valuable?
  6. Would the little blue rings from the tops of four litre milk jugs look equally eloquent bequeathed in glass?
  7. Do I need to get out more?

This discourse is entirely off course, to be perfectly honest. I'm quite enamoured with the photo that I borrowed from ReubenMiller. I find the mass amount of ordinary objects beautiful, and profound on some inexplicable level. It makes me curious about what the next era of "collectibles" will contain.

We'll probably find ourselves wishing that we'd hoarded our paper clips, or toilet paper rolls, or Tim Horton paper cups. They'll likely make great ordinary art in a decade or two.

I can't wait.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh My Goodness!! seeing all those breadtags, in fact every time I see a bread tag, it reminds me of a craft I made once - think it was at VBS a long time ago... Anyway, I made a bread tag cross - can't remember exactly how it went together, but vaguely remember some ribbon and maybe some popsicle sticks involved too?? Does anyone else remember making these?

I "Googled" Bread tag crafts and didn't find any crosses, but did find some nifty jewellry... here is the link. Actually, to be precise, Bread Tag Jazzy Jewellry!!

http://www.favecrafts.com/Green-Crafting/Bread-Tag-Jazzy-Jewelry#

(verification word - weedme) ha ha!!

The Naked Chef

Judy said...

I save the red covers from Jif peanut butter.

Please tell me that it makes me a better person. Please?

PamJ said...

6. yes - as well as buttons & other random kitchen items. hmm i guess buttons aren't a kitchen item but somehow they end up there in my house...

Anonymous said...

oh oh.
i save bags..bread bags... all bags.. some day..
also, once upon a time, a very beautiful person made me a necklace that was made from hole punching circles from bread tags. these small cirlces were then pierced, and strung. can you imagine the thrift, the time.
it looked like puka shells?, but was plastic. and it was lovely as was the giver.
you better save everything...and cluster for beauty...
new agenda for your beautiful vignettes!
more babe than boler?! (well who would camp in January)

joyce said...

naked chef- did you google under "images"? I always have better success finding random things that way. I followed your link to the jewellery and I was flooded with cynical thoughts about how labour intensive! and imagining some well-intentioned person painting, glueing, hardware-ing all these bread tags into a necklace, and then gifting it to grandma... who of course pretends to LOVE IT! But then, Boler Babe does have a legit bread tag necklace. And she does genuinely love it. So, maybe this bread tag artist is onto something.

Judy, if you were an even better person, the rest of us would just have to pack up and quit. Some day you'll be able to send all your grandchildren to college on the money you'll make off of those red jiff lids. Just you wait, henry higgins, just you wait.

pam, I also have billions of buttons, wooden spools, odd retro kitchen gadgets... and they always look beautiful to me in some ordinary way.

Have you ALL looked at the light bulb lately? Now that these twisty bulbs are the new norm, I've noticed how lovely the regular light bulb is. I've already envisioned suspending them from the ceiling in some corner as a- you guessed it BB- A VIGNETTE of sorts.

Ah, in ways I do love winter. Time to putter and ponder...

Anonymous said...

Love that picture.

I'm currently hoarding toilet paper rolls, but I do have a purpose! I'll be using them for seed starters instead of spending a bundle of money for store bought things. Being thrifty is so rewarding!

-{bria}

joyce said...

I guess so... I"m on the thrifty page too- nearly 3K on van repairs.......
How come it's so EASY to SPEND THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS and so boring and painstaking to SAVE IT??!!
(note the excessive exclamation marks)

OH! seed starters. I get it now. I like this idea! so, you're going to start your own garden plants indoors and save in the bedding plant dpt come spring. I always mean to do this... can you be my inspiration? The only thing is that I don't want to take up all my available sunny horizontal surfaces with boring bits of dirt. I prefer collections of bread tags, wooden spools, thimbles, and buttons.

Anonymous said...

Putter and Ponder
can we quote you on that fab line.?
Ilove it.
putter and ponder the winter away.
almost sounds bloody fun.
BB