~PLASTIC SANTA . . .
this year, I really got into ‘seeking’ out vintage / plastic Christmas tree ornaments.
if living in Jersey City Heights has a silver lining, the thrift shops are . . the cake.
most of these came in small $1.50 baggies – of assorted finds. usually 5 or 6 to a bag.
try to find that – in Brooklyn, or Manhattan now – no way, those days are long gone.
you’d be paying a pretty penny, and maybe even up to $25 a piece.
besides the thrill of the hunt, the locals are clueless . . the crazy wonderful tactile sense of these crazy old kind of hard plastic (vinyl ?) is beyond tactile-in-words description.
they have a magic, and a luminosity . .
you wouldn’t . . expect.
not to forget history, graphic narrative & design / re: beginning mass consumerism – charm.
plus the . . colors. colored plastic is the best, whether opaque or transparent.
file under:
endless fascination for the visually – skewered / hammered ?
and, a sheer delight for all us, retro graphics – nerds.
vintage plastic ‘lace’ doily, a softer plastic. but strangely, more . . actually: VERY opaque.
somewhat pliable, too.
very strangely shifting shape to the heat, or the cold / coming in from the window.
almost . . alive, I tell ya !!
so vintage, the ‘red’ dye is not permanently ‘set’.
lol, try finding that – in a contemporary place mat.
traveling ‘red’ – a sure of age, whether it be vintage quilts, or vintage ‘faux’ plastic lace.
vintage plastic Santa Christmas tree ornaments, these are so wild – they defy the imagination.
whoever thought this up ?
what can we do with plastic – that we can’t do with . . glass ?!!
the luminosity – is wicked.
and, the ‘skirts’. well, trying making that out of glass. shards ?
design-wise, really – blew me away.
what planet did these toy makers come from ?
well, whatever happened to plastic – it sure ain’t the same, today.
I don’t think these were made in Va-China, either.
faux ‘stained glass’ Cardinal.
my new totem. it used to be a crow, for decades: advance wave, publicity-hounds, talkers to dead people, storytellers, first greeters / ghost messengers, bloggers etc etc, but ever since I saw one, a beautiful red male Cardinal in my recently located from Lower East Side, after 30 years . . Jersey backyard 3 years ago: I’ve stepped up the evolutionary ladder.
not for better or worse, just for: new (self-knowledge). (& not completely attained, yet.)
these hard plastic lanterns must have been very popular at one time. the 40s. 50s. 60s ?
who knows. time is passing by so fleetly, the 70s are the new 40s. if you follow vintage stuff, you know what I mean.
this one has a tiny candy cane, tell me about: luminosity.
I’m such a retro freak – it must have something to do with contemporary art / guess I just like living life . . on the extremes: the old & the . . cutting edge.
nothing in-between.
besides: there’s a lot of luminosity in the digital realm. computer images, graphics & filters, etc etc / digital photography . . is incredibly luminous vs old stock film.
‘acid’ tonality . . sharp, sleek, fleet or what !!
this one has a tiny rocking horse inside.
collective cultural memories of sailors putting DIY miniature ships in bottles.
even though they are plastic, it’s a pretty brittle kind of hard plastic, if you drop them, and they land hard – they can chip or break.
didn’t quite catch the light, here.
luminosity . . is in the hands of the photographer.
these looked more like Japanese hanging lanterns.
this one has a ‘lit’ candle.
great violent . . blue.
this one echoed the traditional glass globe Christmas tree ornaments, with a tiny deer scenario.
Bambi.
these round ones had some kind of ‘spackle’ on their exteriors.
snowballs !!
cut in half.
they had various miniature trinkets inside, too.
they were take-offs on these kind of older, traditional glass ball Christmas ornaments.
riff, riff, riff. the jazz of Christmas past.
the only glass one I bought, I fumbled and broke. I thought it was . . plastic !!
oh lord, the glass vs plastic wars.
and, it was such a find: SNOOPY !!
from the 70s.
the dreaded treasure . . drop. heart-broken is not the word.
but, then I found this, a kind of mid-century modern, faux stained glass . . suburban house ornament, really magic in the light dept. other years, I would have completely overlooked this as: tacky.
now it’s . . treasure above all.
also the colors are so . . pastel-ly.
here comes Santa, also looks so . . suburban !!
hey, lose a SNOOPY, gain a . . GOOFY !!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH