Plastic
Because you never know when you might need a plastic goldfish.
This guy I found is now in command of this shoe.
I am attached to little shoes. Children’s feet are hopeful, whimsical, and full of energy. I love these slippers. I particularly love the little black one in the center that is entirely handmade.
When we stayed all summer in Newfoundland, we walked the beaches every day. Newfoundland is absolutely magnificent; in the summer the whole landscape is so pretty that it takes my breath away. On the beaches, you find these plastic strips. Each one has a kind of fish and then a CONTINUE >
I always find dolls, but these ones keep one another company above my altar. My favorite is the one with the wild hair. One of the most compelling things about the dolls I find here is that they ALWAYS have braids in their hair. Every single doll I find has CONTINUE >
One of the things I dislike about dolls here is that they are all white babies with blonde hair. When a medicine woman made me pregnant on the tiny island of Rota, I became her first white-girl patient. When I gave birth to my boy and brought him back to CONTINUE >
I love high heels at the beach. If I find them, I take them home. Then the cowboy below keeps it company with this wooden cup from my family on Guam, half a truck I found in a gutter, a black feather boa from my friend Karen who left us CONTINUE >
In the Qatari desert, I found an entire foosball team. It was really, really hard to get these guys off of that metal bar that impales them, but I was so offended by it that eventually, I prevailed. I have used some of them in bigger projects, but I mostly CONTINUE >
This is one of my favorite all-time possessions. I found it on Palm Beach here in Dar. The man who wore it sewed it up with many different kinds of line on numerous occasions. There is a tear on the edge of the shoe that is sewn in fishing line. CONTINUE >
The US Embassy staff has a great rummage sale once a year. I bought this from a US Expat here in Dar. It hangs in my office.
There is a little beachfront bar on a remote beach on Koh Tao. The guy who owns it walks around in a Ghandhi diaper most of the time. He made his bar entirely out of stuff that washed up out of the ocean. There are several beached wooden boats he CONTINUE >
Qatari people love animals. In the souq you can find flying foxes, parrots, fish, cats, turtles, and all manner of rabbits. But it’s their big animals that they dress up in finery. These tiny little animals I bought in the airport, and I keep them as a wee pack.
These are handmade by women in Nepal. They stuff the rings with straw and plastic bags and then sew on the designs so they can use them to balance the cargo they carry on their heads. I bought all these in a really, really dirty, tiny little shop run by CONTINUE >