COLLECTED LATELY
September 2026
A few fragments from the studio — things I've made, found, noticed and wanted to remember.
Lately I've been thinking about collecting.
Not necessarily in the traditional sense, although I've been collecting old things for a long time.
I've been thinking about collecting little pieces of everything — photographs, objects, colors, ideas, places, memories, things I'm making, things I'm finding.
Maybe that's what most of my creative work has always been in some way.
peep the little Currituck Beach Lighthouse in the background :)
This summer I started filming little pieces of everyday life without really knowing what I would do with them. A walk by the water. A day at the beach. Work. Vintage things. Making things. Bits of nature. Small moments that probably wouldn't make much sense on their own.
Eventually they became Summer, in fragments: work + life, a visual diary.
Watch Summer, in fragments on YouTube
I like the idea of leaving some things as fragments rather than explaining everything.
There's something nice about simply keeping a record. Just documenting life and time going by.
OLD THINGS
I've also been thinking more about the vintage things I've collected over the years.
Some have passed through my shop. Some I've kept. Some are simply things I found interesting enough to photograph before they moved on.
I've started experimenting with a new way of documenting them through The Museum of Beautiful Old Things.
The first collection is a small group of objects — things with beautiful shapes, details, materials and traces of another time.
THE ARCHIVE — Collection No. 01 on YouTube
I wanted the video to feel a little like looking through a collection rather than watching a traditional product video.
hand carved wood sailor
painted ceramic container
copper fish mold
art deco vanity mirror
No talking. No music. Just the objects, their details and the natural sounds that happen along the way. With a little text of observations and details worth noticing.
I've been calling it natural ASMR.
MAKING THINGS
At the same time, I've been making things.
Painting little mushrooms and plants. Working with color. Making jewelry. Photographing things. Working on the shop. Finding old pieces to bring home or send somewhere new.
Some of these things become finished products.
Some become photographs or videos.
Some are just experiments.
I don't always know which is which when I start.
And I'm increasingly okay with that.
A GROWING COLLECTION
I think that's probably what I'm interested in right now — building a collection of things without needing to decide exactly what the collection is.
Old objects.
New work.
Photographs.
Paintings.
Jewelry.
Books.
Places.
Summer memories.
Things I notice.
Things I make.
Things I find.
Things I want to remember.
The website and everything around it is slowly becoming a place to hold all of those things together.
Not really a portfolio. Not exactly a shop. Not exactly a blog.
More like a studio, archive and collection of things I'm interested in.
I'm still figuring out what that looks like.
For now, I'm just collecting.
A few things from lately
Summer, in fragments
A visual diary of work + life.
THE ARCHIVE — Collection No. 01
The beginning of an ongoing collection of beautiful old things.
Recent making
Painting, jewelry, vintage finds and other little projects from the studio.
More fragments + finds on Instagram
Pauline Stanley Studio on Instagram
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As always, thanks for being here,
Pauline Stanley
Founder/Designer
therarebirdco.com
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