What do you get when you combine a group of artists, a library card catalog, and an exhibit at Burning Man?  A Curiosity Cabinet of the Collective Unconscious, of course!  About two dozen artists were each given a drawer to explore the collective unconscious, and the results are quite intriguing.  I would have loved to discover this creation at Burning Man, opening each creatively labeled drawer to discover the world inside.  I’ve picked two of my favorite drawers to share with you, but there are many more photos on the CCCU website.

Artist Treiops Treyfid aptly named his drawer “overwhelmed.”

The Zymoglyphic Museum curator created a “traveling crustacean mini-diorama.”

(P.S.  Thank you for your patience as Library Card Catalog Week turned into a two-week affair and now a month-long extravaganza.  I’ll be wrapping up the posts this week with a plethora of ideas for how you can repurpose library card catalogs, and I believe it will be worth the wait!)

I recently began to indulge my naturalist side and started collecting butterflies (only ones that are allowed to live out their full complete lifespans).  However, I quickly realize that there was much more to butterflies than a beautiful bright turquoise color or symmetrical patterns.  Instead, I began to see owls, foxes, snakes, hawks, spiders, and more on the wings of these beautiful insects!

My small collection of South American butterflies currently consists, from left to right, of an owl butterfly, a “hawk” butterfly, and a “leaf” butterfly (these are their scientific names, of course!).  If you look on the top left and right wings of the owl butterfly, you will see two snake heads, as well as a spider in the middle.  When I first saw the owl butterfly, I had to ask if it was real or painted, but this is indeed how they exist in nature!  The butterfly in the middle has a hawk face on its top two wings, while the leaf butterfly truly looks like two fallen leaves.

I’m slowly adding to my collection with butterflies my husband affectionately calls “transformers.”  Are you a butterfly collector?

Please forgive my sporadic posting!  While I do have internet now, I have been spending time away from the computer….admiring my talented mother in law’s cabinet of curiosities and vintage vignettes!  She has graciously allowed me to photograph some of the vignettes in her home that I am excited to share with you.  I did not even have to “style” any of the photos — they were beautiful just as she had creatively displayed them!  Can you tell she previously worked as a shop window decorator and designer?

An antique jelly jar becomes a beautiful cabinet of curiosities — if you are curious about vintage lanterns, artisan pottery pieces, and an array of bobbins from many eras.

This cabinet of curiosities holds an array of vintage treasures, including wood bobbins repurposed into candle holders, as well as a study of mining artifacts.

Bundles of candles are wrapped in antique music sheets, and as you gaze at the cabinet of curiosity at different angles, even more treasures reveal themselves — such as an antique miner’s candle snuffer.

Letterpress blocks adorn a vignette above a desk.  It’s wonderful how two simple card stock pieces can make a display really pop.

I really love how she has repurposed antique wooden bobbins of different shapes and sizes into candleholders.  Respinning the bobbins with different colors of yarn adds wonderful sprays of color in a room.

Touches of spring burst into bloom indoors amidst aged terra cotta pots and vintage seed jars.

Feel free to ask any questions about the items in the cabinet of curiosities — as well as leave a kind comment or two for my lovely mother in law!

Cabinets of Curiosities, or Wunderkammers, have always piqued…well, my curiosity!   It’s quite easy to see how these Cabinets were the predecessors of our museums.  I would like to one day have my own Wunderkammer in my home, sans natural history items that scare me, such as bones and bugs.  Instead, I think my Wunderkammers would be akin to the one below, comprised of shells, gems, pressed plants, and perhaps even Cabinets of Curiosities filled with antique typewriters and vintage cameras!

As captured by astropop, Teylers Museum’s impressive Wunderkammer — which truly is a Room of Curiosities in every sense — displays magnificent collections of fossils and gems.

This wunderkammer showcases a beautiful collection and examination of shells and coral.  I especially like how the red stands tie the exhibit together.

I particularly like Real Simple’s interpretation of Cabinets of Curiosities!  While the naturalalist elements are clearly not involved, it is a fun vintage twist on an antiquarian concept.

Maissa Toulet, a French artist, combines the allure of Wunderkammers with an artistic aesthetic.  Instead of grouping items solely by species, Maissa Toulet considers color pallate as well.

Are you on your way to creating your own cabinet of curiosities?