You can't have everything; where would you put it?
--Steven Wright
Okay, I know I shouldn't worship objects, but I have to admit that I do. Not many, but a few. Don't get me wrong, I buy things--mostly flea market objets--and have been known to cheerily rescue a chair or a lamp from someone's sidewalk trash. I love having beautiful things, but I rarely worship them. In fact, I regularly purge my stuff in order to make way for new goodies. Basically, when it comes to material stuff, I am fickle and unfaithful.
I do, however, worship a few items: the letter holder my father made; Todd's Babci's rolling pin; the small, achingly beautiful landscape by my friend Nancy; the wooden bowl where I store garlic; and a few other, mostly small things. Included on this list would have to be the little change purse, pictured above, that I bought a couple of years ago at Camden Lock market in London. The purse was designed and made by
Sophia Afxentiou, and back when I purchased it, she was still making all her own wares and selling them at Camden Lock and the Greenwich craft market. I think she was fresh out of design school at the time, and I remember talking with her and thinking, she is going to do really well.
And she has. Hooray! She and her partner, Matt Savage, have moved to a space of their own at Trinity Buoy Wharf so they can concentrate more on design, while a family-owned London company is making most of their inventory. This cheerful, unassuming little bag I bought for a few pounds is so wonderful. It is made from laminated fabric, the only kind of material they use at Afxentiou, and I stuff everything in it, from change, of course, to receipts, bobby pins, and fabric swatches. It's indestructible. I wish I'd bought one in every print. At the time I snapped up this one, she was also selling huge, brightly colored buttons that looked good enough to eat. I bought some for a good friend plus a few bags for other friends, but now I need some of those buttons! She doesn't feature them on her website, so I'm hoping that she carries them at the shop.
Todd and I are going to be back in London for a little while this summer, and a visit to Afxentiou is high on my list of things to do. Who knows what triggers one's lust for or attachments to a particular object? For me, with this little purse, I'm guessing it has everything to do with color and shine. I told you I was a magpie.
