Collecting Vintage – An Interview with TheVintaquarian 14

We enjoying talking to people who collect vintage treasures.  In this interview, we find out more about Gia, the owner of the vintage shop TheVintaquarian on Etsy.

Why and when did you start collecting?

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t collect. Nature finds, sticks, bones and pods. And then books. When I was 7 or 8 my best friend and I collected animal figurines. We would hop on our bikes, head for the local dime store and come back with new additions for our collections. It didn’t take long for a parade of small animals to fill up my windowsill. The defining moment was probably when I was about 9 and dug up an old ink bottle in the corner of one of the outbuildings on my grandfather’s ranch. It was literally buried treasure and I was hooked.

Who or what was your influence for collecting?

My grandparents each had about 10 brothers and sisters so I grew up around several handfuls of Great Aunties and Great Uncles and some very cool Grandparents. Visiting with family was like a ticket to time travel; Great Aunt Bev had an antique furnished drawing room in the heart of San Francisco, Great Aunt Jo had a rustic fishing lodge on a wild northern river, Uncle Pete’s favorite place was his log cabin getaway in the north pine woods where he made his own furniture, and my Grandpa Sid ran an old second generation cattle ranch in the Cascade mountains of Northern California.

Back home my Mom didn’t want old, she wanted new. For her that was a house full of mid century Danish modern furniture, but it was blended with some great old antiques and the craftsman style kitchen table my Dad built in the 1950s. Mixing styles, antique and modern, rustic and refined, was how we lived.

When rooms were rearranged and reinvented at any of these places, certain objects cycled into closets and storerooms to show back up later in another part of the family.

What is one of your favorite pieces and why?

I have an huge old amoire and a dresser of my Mom’s that I love. Both of them are super heavy and tricky to move, but they’ve been coming along with me for awhile now. Every now and again I’ll think about what to grab in case of fire and it’s always this metal statue of a woman called “Pensive”. When my Mom was a little kid my Grandmother would leave a dime under it as a test to see if she was dusting properly.

My favorite piece in the shop at the moment is a wood curio shelf, repurposed from two salvaged table legs.

And one of my favorites that sold was a simple beige colored Replogle globe with no stand. I was playing around with how to photograph it and happened to have a naturally shed deer antler nearby. I can still feel the whoosh of joy that came from the inspiration to combine the two by turning the antler into the globe stand.

But then there was that taxidermy weasel, it was so hard to part with that guy!

A wide variety of things catch my eye, but natural finds and rusty things have the greatest appeal to me.

What tips can you give us about collecting?

Collect things that set off that little spark of joy in your heart. Things to keep, things to sell, they all need to give you that little spark.

Also, I read something years ago that stuck with me; if you want to be a seller you must always be looking. Be looking wherever you are, for the thing, the opportunity, that certain something. You’ll know it when you see it.

What would be your holy grail piece and why?

Holy grail to me is architectural salvage. Wood, metal, concrete. I want it all.

Where do you look for new items to add to your shop/collection?

Thrift shops, friends and family are my two biggest sources right now. I look for the dusty junk shops, where things are still in a jumble. If there’s an outside yard with rusty stuff, so much the better. I do love a good flea market. And if you have a garage you are cleaning out I will take ALL the boxes! Then I sort through and head on over to the thrift shops with the leftovers. While I’m at the thrift shop my eyes are in constant scan for anything that might be calling to me.

I have two kids, but I had them twenty years apart so I spent close to 40 years getting up early. These days I get up slow and take my mornings easy. I haven’t made it to very many early morning garage sales.

How has collecting changed or affected your life?

I can’t say collecting has changed or affected my life, as much as I can say it is my life. My grandmother, who was an artist, came to visit every summer and my world turned into an everyday art class. She taught me to look for shape, line, color and style. After that, all I ever wanted to be was an artist. Every medium I have ever worked in was about collecting stuff, adding it to something and turning it into some sort of art. My last 25 years were filled with designing and making custom stained glass windows, a daily practice of seeing every line and curve of an object. Collecting antique and vintage pieces fit so naturally with the rest of my life I didn’t really think about it until I had to pack up and move. Things I loved and kept with me for years were now just too much to keep taking along, which was when The Vintaquarian was born.

Where can we find you? 

Instagram sees me just about every day. The others I check in with frequently, still trying to figure out Twitter though!

Instagram:  www.instagram.com/thevintaquarian/
Pinterest:  www.pinterest.com/thevintaquarian/
Tumblr:  thevintaquarian.tumblr.com/
Flickr:  www.flickr.com/photos/thevintaquarian/
Twitter:  twitter.com/TheVintaquarian
Wanelo:  wanelo.com/thevintaquarian