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Posted on 13/09/26 3:09:54 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6497 Reply  |
Another quirky side of David Mac
The cherubs in my challenge submission this week were created from photographs of brooches from my collection ……. 
….. thereby hangs a tale........ I hope it may amuse you to catch a glimpse of another, very different, side of David Mac. When Ingrid and I got married, thirty five years ago, we had a small private wedding but held a large party a few days later. We wanted our guests to go away with some kind of memento. We decided on brooches for the ladies. Nothing valuable, just something a little bit unusual or amusing. We went to one of London’s weekend flea markets and let it be known that we wanted to buy sixty brooches in the region of three to five pounds each. That’s about £7 - 12 (12 - 20€ or 9 - 16$) at today’s values. So not so much about jewellery as amusement - a token. At the party Ingrid appeared wearing a long jacket with all sixty brooches pinned to it. She circulated among the guests and each lady was invited to unpin one for herself. It was amazing how often they managed to find something that suited what they were wearing. Obviously we couldn’t have the last one’s left with no choice so the sixty brooches we bought were for fifty women guests. At the we had ten left over. A few days later when I was on my way to work Ingrid pinned one onto my waistcoat. To my surprise nobody found the idea of a man wearing a brooch odd and I got a lot of compliments. Over the next couple of weeks I did this a few time with the different brooches and people loved it. So then, when we went to markets, we started looking for more. And so it began …………. !! Every day now I wear a different brooch. Sometimes a different one day and evening. Simple and plain pinned to a T shirt for work or home, or more elaborate for smarter occasions and some very special ones for evening wear. It has become a signature and now people look out for it. Here’s a much, much younger David wearing glitzy and plain. 
Over the years the collection grew ………. ………….. and grew ………. .......…… and grew ………. ………….. and grew ………. .......…… and grew ………. Thirty five years on it has reached over a thousand brooches. I have had to have special furniture built to house them. Here’s just a few ………. 
To begin with I bought because I was simply intrigued, without really knowing what I was buying. I just bought what I loved and found pleasing. A huge quantity of the collection is just entertaining nonsense but, over the years, I have come to learn more about them and to recognise the designers and have become a discerning buyer. It’s been a fascinating journey. I bought this fellow thirty years ago simply because he was so unusual. I later discovered he was designed by a lady called Lea Stein who started making plastic broaches in 1969. She is considered by many to be “the most notable and innovative designer of plastic jewellery of the 20th century”. I now have many of her creations. They are hugely collectible now. 
These three wonderful ladies were bought years apart - one in a village schoolroom market in England, one in a huge street market In Milan, and the last in a collectors shop in New York. They all obviously shared a common ancestry but, for years, I couldn't find out more.  [
It was only recently, thanks to the introduction of reverse picture search, that I discovered they are Elzac jewellery made in California in the nineteen forties. One of the designers went on to design the Barbie Doll. Many years ago, in the Testaccio district of Rome, I stumbled across a tiny little shop. In the back was an elderly man in a workshop the size of a large cupboard. From this he produced the most wonderful flights of fancy. Very kitsch but such fun to wear. (I’ve included an AA battery to give you a scale as they are not small! Every time I have been to Rome I have made a pilgrimage to his shop. Here's just a couple of them ................ 
On another level entirely, many simple broaches are made by me. I love to cook so, for example, I have ‘foodie’ broaches which I can pin to my apron. These are made from miniature kitchen utensils made for doll’s houses. I just glue pins to the bottom of them to make broaches. 
Over the years, some of the collection have become valuable sought after collector’s items. I couldn’t even contemplate buying my own collection now. But that’s not my purpose. I have no interest in that. It’s not about value at all …….. it’s about fun and interest! It's full of memories of places I found them or, sometimes, people who gave them to me. This isn’t a dry dead collection housed in glass cases to be looked at …… it’s a constantly evolving living thing that’s there to be used ………… and therein lies the absolute delight! _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 14/09/26 12:35:20 PM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3745 Reply  |
Re: Another quirky side of David Mac
When I first started reading this, I thought of forty maybe fifty or so in your collection............. but more than a thousand. Amazing!!!! 
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Posted on 14/09/26 1:17:09 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6497 Reply |
Re: Another quirky side of David Mac
The first couple of years I bought quite a lot to build up a good selection. Now I only buy if something really grabs me. It's completely unpredictable. Sometimes months go by without acquiring a thing and then I'll find myself somewhere new with new things and get several at a time. It sounds enormous but it's been going on a very long time .......... if you average it out it's an acquisition rate of a little over one every two weeks.  _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |