Rethinking Trinkets

As a kid, I would always collect little rocks, sticks, leafs and whatever I found lying on the ground, and it would fill up my room in no time.  I really thought I grew out of that habit through learning to compulsorily declutter my belongings every few weeks/months, but I started to realize that I still do it.

1)  

I love collages, and I make so many freehand out of just lil snippets of magazines or trash that I've got in my bag, and glue it all into my sketchbook. The left-over scraps with their own collage-potential I keep in a separate box that I pull out whenever I'm having a super intensive snipping and glueing session. I'd say this is trinkets in a flat, physical format as opposed to bags and boxes full of 3D objects.

2)  

Whenever I watch an animated show (right now it's primarily One Piece), I screenshot frames that look cool/have cool composition/have my faves drawn especially well. My screenshots folder is filled with random ass OP screencaps. I remember in the Baroque Works arc I really really loved Mr 5 and I did like 20 screenies of different adjacent frames just of him.

3)  

I really love web-weaving or web weaves! It's such a cool artform? medium? I gotta say I don't know much about it, but I love the communal aspect of it, and arranging different creative products together into one rickety but cohesive structure. I also love how web weaving can adress a certain topic without the maker having to directly state their personal opinion. I love implications and thinking "what does this mean? what does this statement entail?"

4)  

Tying into this, is me saving random images onto my camera roll. I think of this as collecting trinkets as well, because the motif behind saving those images for me is always  a sort of primal: "omg, this is so cool! I can't stop looking at it! I really want whatever this is"

5)

This one I haven't quite figured out on how to categorize, but it's impulsive entries into my notes app. I've started regularily using my notes app in 2022, and so far I've got 512 separate entries in it. Yes it's laggy.

My notes app contains different things from simple to-do lists for the week, so reminders, to me journaling, to quote-books of friends and siblings, to short phrases that I happened to like the rhythm of, to ideas for art concepts, to lists of movies and television, to whatever else is brewing in my head that I wanna jot down on the go.

I really apprechiate the notes app for holding so many of my mental trinkets, and being an infinite little notepad.

Conclusion

I think that collecting little interesting bits and bobs is totally inherent and necessary to humans, and that we can't go without it. At least I can't. 

There is a joy that comes with collecting trinkets, and reviewing your collection with the feeling that "yes, this is mine, and it means something to me". I think having little collections in any shape or form and of anything just brings a joy to living your day to day life, and makes the quality of it rise.

To me, it's a simple and childish way of finding meaning in the mundane, I guess. 

We all could go about feeling like being a kid again :]

Do you collect anything? Have you got a physical collection or a digital one? Maybe it is in a different format altogether? Feel free to share in the comments :]