Sunday, February 5, 2012

Displaying Mom's Old Camera

As far back as I can remember, Mom just about always had a camera in her hand.
She loved taking pictures, though we sometimes kidded her about the pictures she took.
They often came back blurry or with the top of someone's head cut off.
But that was okay, she loved taking pictures.

I have her old SPARTUS camera with the flash attachment.
You held this camera in both hands and looked down into the opening. You did not hold it up to your eye to look into it.

It has been sitting on my shelf in the living room for the longest time. I thought it looked like a face with two eyes and a nose looking back at me.

I have a collection of craft books, called From Trash to Treasure, that I picked up at a yard sale a while back. They have some of the neatest ideas in them. I got this idea from one of those books.

Gather together wire (I used 22 ga. but you could use 18 ga.), wire cutters, pictures and an old camera.

(Don't you think it looks like a little square face staring back at you?)

Cut the wire into 15" lengths (more or less) and shape the ends in order to hold pictures. 


Now in the book they tell you to hot glue the ends of the wires onto the camera, which you can do. But, I didn't do this because I wasn't sure whether or not it would hurt Mom's camera. I gathered the ends of the wires together and took one of them and coiled it tightly around all the others. I did this to the bottom inch or so of the wire. Then I tied a thin black ribbon around the coiled wire, tied the ribbon  around and around the back of the flash attachment, and voila. . .  it holds it nicely in place.

from l. to r. -  me in the middle surrounded by two of  my cousins, my 5th grade school picture, 
Mom and Dad as sweethearts in August 1945, 
Mom sitting on a stump holding me, and my two sisters standing beside of her.


I like how it turned out.
You can change your display of pictures any time you want.
I was thinking, if you don't have an old camera, you could also put 'stems' of photos in bud vases.
Make the wires different heights and display a bouquet of photos.

13 comments:

  1. It looks a lot like the German camera my mom had when I was a kid, including the old flash bulbs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've been taking pictures since I was a teen and received a Kodak Instamatic camera for a gift, and my love for pictures began. Now I always, always have a camera in my purse, and the photos I take are all inspiration for my blog. Whoever would've thought that long ago Instamatic would spark the inspiration for my writing today ...

    What a perfect way to display your photographs here, and a tribute to your Mom too :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love those old cameras; I could actually see what I was taking a picture of ~ now it's usually a guess with the digital camera. We have several old cameras and rolls and rolls of film! I bet there's no place to develop film anymore unless one did it at home; we used to have a darkroom set up in the bathroom and the girls developed pictures for the school year book.

    Excellent way to display your photos!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love that old camera..I remember when I was a teenager, getting a black and white instamatic camera..like your mom, I could never take good pics..I always cut people's head off and still do today..lol..

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love the camera and the photo idea. Very cute. Good use of the camera. Yes, it looks like a face, I who see faces in the wood grain of a door!
    I carried a camera for years too and everyone teased me that I cut off heads etc. I'm much better now. Love my digital cam. I no longer cut off heads and even think, my own opinion, I am pretty good at taking pics.
    Thanks for sharing this. Great post.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is absolutely cool, Janet! What a great idea. (and you're so cute in your school picture!)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh I love it! It looks so cool-and pretty easy to make-now if I just had an old camera : )

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Janet,
    I haven't been here in a very long time but picked a perfect day to visit. I love this idea!
    My Mom recently gave me her old Brownie camera I have sitting on a pie safe in my dining room. I wish I had the old flash so I'll have to make do but this is such a cool idea.
    So glad you didn't use glue.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've seen the wire picture holders before but not with a camera. Great idea!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. How creative....I love what you've done!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh, I love the way you displayed her camera and the photos with it! Great idea!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by. I love comments! Leave one and brighten my day. If you are signing as Anonymous, please sign your name, so I will know who you are.