Bags, Boxes, Blank Books, Baskets, and Bowls

When you're poking around in shops and galleries, are there certain objects that call your name and pull you like gravity to them?

My five things all start with a B,  an alliterative coincidence.

Carlene calls me the bag lady because I have so many different bags: oilcloth bags, leather bags, fabric bags, quilted bags. Bags hold our treasures and potential treasures.  Bags are soft little houses where our cameras, notebooks and pens live.  In my perfect world, everything would always be in the bag it's for and all the parts organized.  Nothing would be in a jumble.

The Big Mama of bags, the suitcase, suggests adventure, antiquity, exploration, and mystery.  These old hard-sided suitcases have way more allure (though not the convenience) than the way more manageable roller bags we all use.

It's hard to choose a bag for another person, but Day knows my taste to a tee. This Christmas she gave me two: a pocket book (aka purse) that looks like soft worn leather but is actually made in Tuscany out of paper, and a hand-quilted bag with beautiful birds appliquéd on the front and back--perfect for carrying an iPad, a journals or art supplies.

I have enough bags already to last me--as my Aunt Audrey, the preacher's wife, used to say of shoes, "enough to last me until Jesus comes."

Same with baskets and bowls--enough already!  But I love picking up a handwoven basket or a painted bowl that reminds me of where I was when I first spotted it and had to have it.

I love little boxes--decoupaged or decorated in mosaics.  Or boxes with locks on them.  Or tackle boxes--because they remind me of my daddy.

Blank books (especially handmade ones) may be my favorite container-of-potential at the moment--all those pristine blank pages!  Blank books are vessels for thoughts, lists, sketches, and lines.

My favorite "B" things are all containers and keepers--yet if they are antiques or hand-crafted, they go way beyond their practical functions and express the artistry of their makers.