On
feedly I follow an art, design, and visual culture blog called
Colossal. Some posts are interesting to me, others not so much.
One of their posts focused on photos from the book
Things Organized Neatly, curated by Austin Radcliffe. What fun! And definitely interesting to me.
I don't know about you but I enjoy looking at collections of similar but different objects and I especially enjoy seeing them arranged on a flat surface where I can see each one individually and compare the differences, or look at the contents of a container, or the equipment someone uses at work, etc.
I thought this sewing machine created from sewing notions was a bit of fun. See a better, clearer photo
here.
In the parlance of photographers and designers the process of arranging objects in systematic ways is called knolling.
I don't know about you but I love seeing objects arranged neatly. Most of the time. But it's not something I, personally, would do with objects except to take photographs of them. For some people I suppose this is just too much. But think of it. We like the shelves of grocery stores to be organized neatly. What if the cans of peas and beans and corn were all randomly placed on shelves, all mixed together? We like the thread in a store to be arranged so we don't have to search through all the spools for the color we want. And books at the library or the bookstore are so much easier to find when shelved properly. There are a lot of ways that are lives are simpler when things are organized neatly.
When I think about it, perhaps some quilts are the ultimate things organized neatly.
See more things organized neatly at Tumbler,
here or
here.
I saw a
blog post a few days ago in which the author suggested that this much organization might be over the top, obsessive/ compulsive for some people but she color coded her Smarties when she was a child.
What about you? Do you enjoy photos of things organized neatly?
--Nancy.
P.S. You can tell that I'm feeling at least a little better because I'm reading blogs and books and feel well enough to write a post. Perhaps one day soon I'll pull out a quilt to sew or un-sew or create. I hope you are staying well.
I guess I favor functional organization especially in the kitchen, but I'd never waste my time arranging my buttons by color/size. Priorities! But I live with a pack rat so disorganized clutter is far more evident than organization around here.
ReplyDeleteYes, me, too, for functional organization, Pat, though I do love to look at the photos of organized things. I think I am more the pack rat than my husband (when it comes to books, fabric, and notions), though it's easy for him to just leave things lying around. Our kitchen has benches around two sides of the table and both are mostly taken up by his stuff.
Deletei used to sort my m&ms by color and then eat each color inidividually...LOL..interesting post!
ReplyDeleteAnd I used to sort them so I has one of every color to eat for my snack, then repeat till I had had enough! Or ran out of colors... thus finding out which they made more of.
DeleteI used to sort M&Ms when I was young, Grace. I loved the red best and I think I ate those last. (Save the best for last, you know.) Later, in my early teens, it didn't matter so much to sort my M&Ms. I just ate them....
DeleteThat's funny, QuiltGranma. So which color did they make more of, can you remember?
I'm glad you're feeling better! This post made me think...I do like things neatly organized and it drives me bananas when I go to stores where they are either intentionally not very organized (like thrift stores) or customers have gotten ahead of the employees (lately that seems everywhere!). I guess I'm not alone. But your train of thought to quilts really got me thinking. Traditional quilts, with consistent color and pattern and such, really are quite organized. Modern quilts, with random placement of shapes and colors and quilting lines, are not. And I guess that explains to me why I prefer traditional quilts but marvel at the modern ones and how could someone do that so well? (I've tried, but struggle with every step and never feel I've done the project justice.) As a side note, I'm pretty sure my hubby does not care if things are neatly organized. Until he can't find his (insert any object here), then he is all for it!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Katie. I think I should have specified "traditional quilts" when I wrote about organization. As you say, modern quilts are much more random.
DeleteIsn't that the way--organization doesn't matter so much until someone can't find something. We are fairly organized here but we're not always picture-perfect neat.
What a fun and interesting post. Things organized neatly - I think I like it! Like Citi quilter Grace above, as a kid I used to separate my m&ms and eat them until each pile had the same number. Mmmm.... lol.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Cynthia. And when the color piles of M&Ms had the same number, did you scoop up one color and pop them in your mouth together, or continue eating them one by one?
DeleteI enjoy the arrangements, or---really to me, collages. I always organize my beach finds in rows or by color/ size, for their blog pictures. And I used to make small collage pages in my nature journal in a similar way. Instagram has many such photos, called on IG, ''flat lays''. And they remind me of the children's books called I Spy.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you feel better, sending lots of healing and good wishes.
lizzy
I think photos of organized arrangements, like your beach finds, are fun and interesting to look at. Yes, I saw that photographers call them "flat lays" when I was searching for more information online about knolling.
DeleteI'm so glad I'm beginning to feel better, too, Lizzy, and I appreciate your healing and good wishes. I'm sending the same for your for your surgery tomorrow.
There's nothing I like better than going to a yarn store and seeing all that yarn organized by brand and color. I don't buy the yarn. . . I just like to look at it. I don't remember seeing that star quilt you have pictured, it's lovely. I think everyone is compulsive in some area of their life don't you? So glad you're feeling better.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, Robin, that's lots of fun seeing all the yarn in color order.
DeleteI started the star quilt in 2015 and finished it in 2016. And now, as seems my norm, I'm reconsidering the finish. It's the size and the border that concern me. I call it Stars on Scrappy Backgrounds and you can look at posts about it at https://joyforgrace.blogspot.com/search?q=Stars+on+Scrappy+Backgrounds. It's the uneven strips of color around the border that don't seem to work.
I suppose you're right about everyone being compulsive in some area. Most people I know are, I think.
I'm glad to be feeling a little better, too. One of these days I hope to be back to normal.
Those are fun photos to study.
ReplyDeleteIt hadn't occurred to me that not everyone sorted their Smarties and M&M's by color. I thought that was just how people ate them. ;)
Glad you are feeling improvement.
Thank you, Janet. One of these days I hope to be back to "normal."
DeleteYes, they are fun photos. I'm enchanted by some of them.
I sorted M&Ms when I was little but by the time I was a teen that had gone out the window.
I'm so very happy you are on the mend as they say. I wonder what "mild" covid would feel like for someone my age, 70 or Tony's 82. I really hope to not ever find out.
ReplyDeleteThis made me think...I like some things well organized but not obsessively so. Though I do enjoy the look of things beautifully arranged. And traditional quilts are definitely well organized generally speaking and very pleasing to my eye. Anyway, you continue to take good care of yourself!
Anyway, thanks for that little "think about" today.
Thank you, Jocelyn. I'm just a few years older than you so maybe covid at 70 would feel like my covid at 72. I can't guess what it would be like for Tony. I, too, hope neither of you ever have to experience it.
DeleteI like things organized enough for me to be able to find what I want. When something has a place I put it back in that place (usually) so I can find it next time. But nothing in my home is ever organized like in the photos (except if I'm taking a photograph).