Other than plants, which I'm sure many of you do, what is something you like to collect? Do you have anything on your wishlist right now? I've always been curious about what others like to collect and would love to know what piques your interest

I'm a collector of beads, toys, desk ornaments, Richard Scarry books, masks, art, vintage photographs, just to name a few..
I love maximalism so my craft room is covered with all sorts of goodies. And while others may think it's chaos, it brings me much inner peace and inspires me to create. Besides, I like to think of it as organized chaos.

Current wishlist: More Rushton rubber faced dolls, glass beads and there's always room for more vintage photographs...

I like stained glass...need to find someplace to have a couple of old leaded pieces repaired.

Ooh those are all lovely! I really like the seahorse

Thanks...no clue how old it is. Was my mother's..antique when she got it...been mine since 1997. I also got an antique rooster from her...one in need of repair.

Wow how unique I've always wanted to make stained glass art, it looks like it would be very fun to do

I think I it would be fun too!! Living in the boonies though doesn't give many opportunities and I hate driving into town.

There's a lot of fun art studios here in Austin but because of the pandemic everything is a little different. I've definitely seen some cute diy kits on Etsy though, might be worth looking into given the circumstances thank goodness for the internet

No photos to share at the moment, but...

- Seashells and other natural aquatic items.

- Coins.

- Art supplies (used to do a ton of painting and drawing. Still trying to get back into it. But for whatever reason, I seem to like collecting more supplies despite. I like fresh new pencils and paint colors).

- Tarantulas. I find it quite enjoyable to raise them and see them grow.

Nothing wrong with having art supplies just in case the situation arises that you may need them
And wow! Tarantulas... they are fascinating and interesting to observe, when they're behind glass They're very intimidating to me because of their size. I've had friends who liked them too. I've always wondered though, just how big do they get? Would you say they have individual personalities?

Depends what species they are. Some stay quite small, some get much larger.

I have a baby Pelinobius muticus that's going to be quite large one day. They're one of the larger species, and I can expect around an 8" diagonal legspan at maturity. (Diagonal legspan is the measurement from the foot on a front leg, to the foot on the opposite back leg, with legs stretched out).
She's also female, so she'll be bulkier. The males of most species tend to be lankier, while females are bulkier. She just molted again last night, so I'm excited to see her growth once her exoskeleton hardens.

My other species are a decent size as well, but the Pelinobius will be the largest of them. You can also get dwarf species that have a 2-4" diagonal legspan. There's all kinds out there.

As for personalities, in my experience, they totally do. Others might argue with me on that... But once I've had them for a while, I get a pretty good idea of their personalites, temperaments, etc.
All of my current ones have different personalities. Several years ago, I had three rescued spiderlings of the same species. It didn't take long to get to know them, and each of the three was different.

Wow! Fascinating. And how cool about them each having their own personalities... I'd love to see pics of them!

Cleo, my Brachypelma boehmei (Mexican Rustleg)


Heteroscodra maculata (Togo Starburst). This one doesn't have a name cause I'm not sure if it's male or female yet. Still a baby. It has roughly a 3.5" diagonal legspan now. It's the largest of my spiderlings.


Pelinobius muticus (King Baboon). Haven't picked out a name for her yet. This is an old photo, as she's tucked away in her burrow recovering from her molt last night. She's also since been upgraded to a larger enclosure.


I have a Monocentropus balfouri (Socotra Island Blue) as well. It's my smallest spiderling. Really hard to get a picture of though. It turned it's entire enclosure into a maze of web tunnels, so it's tough to get a picture through the sides, or even dig the spider out without wrecking it's webs.

I've also had three Avicularia avicularia (Pink-Toe) spiderlings, and an adult Grammastola pulchripes (Chaco Golden-Knee). I miss the Chaco. She'll forever be my favorite. She passed away last year and I still miss her. She was at least 6-7 years old, and was actually a teaching spider at a University for a few years before she was given to a friend who then passed her onto me. I have some pictures of her on my computer. I'll look for them later.

Those are some fine looking spiders you've got there! So cool. 6-7 years old!! How long do they usually live in captivity?

Also dependent on the species, but generally, males tend to live around 5-10 years, while females 20-30.

Holy cow, I'd no idea they lived that long.. I learned a lot about tarantulas today!

Here are some of the masks from my collection

Cor , I like your first post of collection shelves
Collecting is fun to do as long as you are willing to let some things go or at my age you tend to run out of room

I collect:
small nature things
sticks and stones, shells , feathers and bones



small ceramic houses



Tea , cups... pots... tins ...




I am not sure I am actively collecting things , things I like just seem to accumulate

Thank you! And what a spectacular collection you have I love the way you have everything set up.
I too accumulate a lot of the things I like, ever since I was a little one and I'm not sure I ever see that changing .
I sure do miss going to thrift stores and garage sales to sift through all of the goodies, I could do that for hours

I don't exactly collect anything now. Did have a lot of salt and pepper shakers and cream jugs, mostly of barnyard animals, but I gave them away when we moved to this house.
I still gather potential craft supplies, both from outdoors and the disposal bins at Home Depot (cool packaging materials) and magazine pictures (sorted by subject in many folders) for the decoupage I never actually started. But I used quite a lot of them for emotive boxes. I also have - by pure chance - a bunch of old watches that have been pleading to be incorporated in something.

(I should take some more pictures to post, but they have to be processed through SO's computer, so I need to earn some indulgences before i ask him for yet another techno favour.)

Gingin, i live in the boonies, too, and one of the really fun things we have around here is art tours. Several stained glass artists on the local one, and at least one i know takes on restoration and repair work. You might do worse than look around your own neighbourhood for independent artisans. They're likely to have websites - now, if they didn't before.

Thanks for the suggestion, Vera....might have to check it out