The Museum fo Objects of Vertu

The Museum for Objects of Vertu is possibly the smallest museum in the world ! and it's in my studio. The museum is 2m square and holds my collection of other peoples' memories and possesions . It is candle-lit , mysterious and not everything can be seen properly. This is exactly how a museum should be.
I have been collecting objects which were once loved or well used for a long time now. It is the intimacy of some of these objects which I find compelling ;the bits and bobs that get pushed to the back of a dressing table drawer, that then find their way to a flea market (still in the drawer) ,or small lengths of thread carefully wrapped around paper for when they might be useful. All the seemingly unimportant bits of ephemera that we keep , and the reasons we keep it , form a framework to our lives which is hidden to the rest of the world. The museum is like a modern Memento Hominem ,a collection of objects that remember us.


The Powdered Dress
poison bottle,textile fragments,childs spoon

from "Sweetest Tongue "
jewellery box,wasps nest,pen nibs,pins

"we will find it , we will bind it..."

I have been making cards for several years now using all the lovely old bits of jewellery and trimmings that are too small for my other work. Much of the decoration is antique or at least fifty years old ! I spend hours at fairs and markets collecting my treasure together , some of it I can't bear to part with but most goes onto cards. Up until now I have only sold them to friends but now they are on Etsy.
Today in my shop window are some new ones.These are from a particularly lovely haul I got at the weekend from a lady who brings stuff over from France. Old lace motifs , handmade silver stars, scraps of beading and lots of little beauties !! I've decided to make some really special 'large' cards which would look wonderful framed..... Each one is ,of course, unique .

'Here's a pin and here's a pingle......'

Ever since I was a little girl I have wanted my own small shop , bow fronted with a window display of curious objects. Since then I have also been to art college , developed an obsesssion with anything from 1870 to 1937 , become a corset maker and maintained a passion for small interesting objects. And now I want the shop !!! so a virtual one will suffice.



The first item in the shop window is a corset......

This detail is from the Faerie Corset , inspired by the Yeats poem 'The Stolen Child'. It is an organdie corset , Edwardian in shape , and decorated with the remains of a gold embroidered Victorian mat. The satin background had all shredded so I carefully remounted the trimmings and metal embroidery onto the corset along with some 1920's glass bubble beads, ribbon and feathers. I'm thinking of putting something inside as a half lining , possibly in paper .
The full size images can be seen on my website http://www.fleuroakes.com