Meet Magpie Ethel: The G.O.A.T. of Classic Collectors

In terms of collections, most individuals concentrate on a couple of issues to obtain through the years. The sky is the restrict for Magpie Ethel— actual title: Laurie Romanaggi. If it’s classic, it’s snapped up by the Portland native—a self-described “vintage-style crafter, collector, and estate-sale hunter.” She is such a spectacular amasser of seemingly each tchotchke, knick-knack, and bauble—typically proudly owning multiples of every merchandise—that she is known throughout the accumulating world, domestically, and even nationally. Periodicals like Flea Market Décor, Higher Houses and Gardens, and Nation Residing have featured her superb home, chock-full of her mega-collections. One would possibly assume that this many antiques would appear overwhelming or cluttered, however one look inside her shiny turquoise seashore home proves that’s removed from the case.

From her dwelling’s under-the-sea exterior to her collections of classic marriage ceremony decorations, seashore towels, wallpaper, ephemera, clocks, fowl cages, and meals packaging, Magpie Ethel is the definition of “dedication.” Different classic collections displayed prominently embrace life jackets, bathing caps, seashore pails, inflatable seashore toys, science kits, dish-soap bottles, meals packaging/containers, buttons, child rattles, flower frogs, watering cans, Dixie cups, ingesting straws, birthday napkins, vacation décor, bubble tub bottles, tin trays, plastic storks, kids’s scissors, play ironing boards, and so on., and so on. The record goes on and on.

Meet Magpie Ethel, whose house is a classic collector’s dream!

Q&A with Classic Collector Magpie Ethel

Q. What’s the story behind your deal with “Magpie Ethel?”

A. I selected the title Magpie Ethel years in the past once I began a weblog and my crafting enterprise. Magpies are birds that acquire shiny issues (like I do), and Ethel was my grandmother’s title.

Q. When did you begin accumulating?

A. I collected as a child however very minimally, as we moved each three years or so. My first assortment was postmarks, as they solely took up a small binder. I began accumulating extra after I used to be married and had a home I might fill with classic.

Q. What had been your preliminary pursuits collecting-wise?

A. Initially, I began accumulating for classic vacation décor. I collected issues for my classic crafting. I collected issues to brighten my home. I collected issues that simply made me pleased to take a look at. I simply began accumulating and accumulating! 

Q. What are your favourite items to gather?

A. In all probability classic vacation. I acquire and enhance for all the vacations in a BIG method. Every vacation, my home turns into a magical show of classic issues. I really like to brighten my massive entrance window as if it’s a retailer window, and my neighborhood appears to be like for a brand new show as the vacations come and go.

Q. The place do you discover most of your gadgets? Is there a selected place that’s your favourite—property gross sales? Storage gross sales? Different?

A. I do most of my accumulating from property gross sales. I used to go every weekend to a number of property gross sales. I additionally love flea markets and a superb classic present. One in every of my favourite varieties of holidays is touring to an enormous flea market. I’ve been to a few of the biggies like Spherical Prime (Texas), Alameda and Sacramento Vintage Faire (California), Brimfield (Massachusetts), Springfield Extravaganza (Ohio), and Elkhorn Flea Market (Wisconsin).

Q. You appear to flock to aquatic themes—i.e., your outside decorations, indoor seashore stuff, and so on. What’s it about “underneath the ocean” antiques and decorations that attraction to you?

A. I’m fortunate to have a seashore home the place I can embrace the classic seashore theme. I acquire classic swim caps, classic ceramic fish, beach-related indicators, sand buckets, pool inflatables, fish rattles … the record goes on and on. I additionally acquire previous seashore towels (with nice designs) and cling them as “artwork” on my partitions.

Q. What number of collections do you suppose you’ve gotten amassed through the years?

A. Over 277 collections final time I counted.

Q. What’s your oddest piece general?

A. My oddest piece I personal might be an previous swim model from an area division retailer. She hangs from my ceiling in a swimming place—full with swimsuit and swim cap.  I even have an enormous fiberglass swan that’s about three toes tall that lives in my front room.

Q. What’s the holy grail piece(s) you’ve gotten at all times needed however can’t discover?

A. I might like to discover a specific municipal ornament Santa. My likelihood is slim!

Q. Why do you purchase multiples of all the things? Is that this a deep-seated have to personal all of 1 factor? Or is it one thing much less psychological?

A. I like issues in multiples as a result of issues have extra affect when in a bunch. I acquire previous mothball tins with actually nice graphics. One doesn’t do a lot, however when you’ve gotten a row of them in numerous colours, they’re much extra eye-catching!

Q. You create and promote decorations. Are you able to inform me extra about this?

A. A part of my Magpie Ethel enterprise is crafting. I’ve had an Etsy retailer for years and have additionally carried out reveals domestically for years in the course of the holidays. I’ve a studio I work from that’s chock-full of classic eye sweet in addition to my classic craft provides. I primarily make vacation decorations. Half the enjoyable of my property sale buying is trying to find the little bits and items I take advantage of in my crafts.

Q. Do you ever suppose to your self, “I gotta decelerate and cease accumulating a lot,” or is it simply a lot enjoyable you see no have to sluggish your roll?

A. My accumulating has in all probability slowed down a bit through the years, and I’ve turn out to be extra selective. I rotate LOTS of stuff out and in. I additionally do a HUGE classic storage sale annually that pulls an enormous crowd.

Q. How do you provide you with your décor concepts—like papering a wall with a collage of classic wallpaper or making seashore towels into curtains?

A. I’ve at all times been very artful and actually take pleasure in doing uncommon tasks. With the curtains I produced from seashore towels, I had {a magazine} shoot developing and wanted curtains for a sliding glass door. I knew seashore towels would work effectively, so I sewed three collectively. The seashore towel curtains had been too brief for the sliding door, so I wanted further size, and grass hula skirts sewed to the underside was the reply.

Q. Does it provide you with a thrill to attain issues most individuals wouldn’t even suppose to gather, like packing containers of straws or chalk? Most individuals would go by these at an property sale, however not you.

A. I actually like to gather the quirky issues that individuals wouldn’t suppose to gather. Youngsters’s shoe packing containers (nice graphics), anthropomorphic child rattles, mothball tins, kids’s celebration invitations, previous jar lids, peanut butter jars (nice labels), straw packing containers (graphics), tin tape dispensers, ribbon bundles, celluloid swans, birthday candle packages (graphics), previous Christmas hanger packing containers (graphics) … the record goes on and on.

Q. Why the curiosity in classic packaging—whether or not cardboard ice cream packing containers, plastic margarine containers, or cookie tins?

A. I’m positively interested in previous packaging. They’ve improbable graphics and are nice to combine right into a show. One in every of my favourite previous meals containers is previous cottage cheese containers from the Fifties–Nineteen Sixties that had been manufactured to be reused as Easter baskets. I’ve seen a lot saved packaging at property gross sales—in all probability a mindset leftover from the Nice Despair. A complete drawer of previous plastic bread ties. Unused Dixie cups. Stacks of previous berry baskets. I’m grateful for the individuals who saved issues!

Q. What do you search for graphics-wise when shopping for something, particularly the packaging talked about above?

A. Usually, it’s the colour or kind type used. Typically, it’s some nice character that may be a spokesperson for a model. I positively just like the kitsch and the anthropomorphic relating to packaging, however there are many different methods packaging catches my eye, too.

Q. Any enjoyable tales about shopping for and transferring a few of your odder items?

A. I used to be with my mother at a present once I purchased the swim model I discussed. As a result of the model got here aside on the waist, I carried half of her and my mother the opposite half as we walked via the present to our automotive. There have been positively a number of feedback as we walked by carrying a unadorned gal!

Q. What’s the farthest you’ve gotten traveled to purchase one thing? And what was it?

A. The farthest I’ve ever traveled for a selected merchandise was a seven-hour drive to choose up an previous dolphin playground spring journey. I made a five-hour journey to get a whale spring journey.

Q. Has anybody ever given you grief about how a lot you acquire?

A. I do get grief often about accumulating. It’s what it’s. It’s my home and what I take pleasure in doing, and to every his personal! I additionally get requested what my husband thinks about all of it. We’ve been married for thirty-four years, and he’s tremendous superb with what I do.

Q. Any particular hints for individuals who need to go “all in” such as you?

A. I might counsel accumulating one thing that YOU take pleasure in. Don’t acquire the fashionable stuff everybody collects. There are such a lot of issues on the market which can be fascinating.

Q. Describe your self as a collector.

A. I’ve discovered my pleased area of interest in life with classic accumulating and crafting. I’ve actually loved all of the connections I’ve produced from my weblog and Instagram. Going to an property sale is a social occasion. I’ve met superior, like-minded individuals from throughout. My vibe is pleased, joyful, colourful, and eccentric, and hopefully, all of it brings a smile to your face. My favourite remark from different collectors is, “I need to be Magpie Ethel once I develop up.”   

To take a look at all of Magpie Ethel’s collections or to buy one among her vacation crafts, go to her Instagram web page (@magpieethel) and her Etsy account.

Jenna Girard has been a contract author and replica editor for over 25 years, with a concentrate on characteristic writing. A lifelong collector of antiques and collectibles, Jenna has amassed a outstanding assortment of leisure ephemera, classic materials, head vases, and mid-century artwork and residential décor. After 16 years of residing in Los Angeles and dealing within the leisure business, Jenna now resides in her dwelling state of Michigan, the place she continues to write down/copy edit for LA-based media shops.

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