Junk Drawer
an exploration of odds & ends
Junk Drawer is a zine and project inspired by objects,
seeking out ephemera and overlooked odds & ends.
It's a place to belong for things with no place to belong to.
It’s an exploration into the histories, stories, and imagined backgrounds
of things, all ready to be discovered, pondered and shared.
Excerpts from Junk Drawer zines
From Junk Drawer Landscape Part 2
Garagemaster Bookmark
I found this old bookmark in an old book, and it has a picture of a wise old owl reading a book. You can’t get much more bookish than that. So I couldn’t quite associate it with the business listed underneath. This bookmark is from Garagemaster, and Victory Builder’s and Lumber Company. I figure this place had a lumber yard and specialized in building garages- in fact, they were evidently known as the Garagemaster. One word for master of the garage.
As far as the bookmark goes, perhaps the owner of Victory was an avid reader. He may have wanted his fellow readers to keep him in mind for their lumber needs whenever they opened their books.
I half expected the old lumber yard to be a bookshop now, the owner having been successful with lumber, and finally establishing the business he’d always dreamt of having.
From Album of Lost Moments
Conquering The Darkness
Bringing light into darkness was evidence of great power. But power was needed to illuminate, to electrify these heavenly ceiling constellations. When he was born, electricity was a miracle, a wonder, mystical in its dangerous spark, beyond the control of an ordinary hand. Electricians had since harnessed the energy to turn the gears of machinery like seasons, to escalate the steps of automatic stairways, and make horses invisible on city streetcars. Perhaps most impressive was the replication of the ultimate celestial force, giving life to all. The lights glowed like tiny suns, nestled inside glass spheres, replacing the fire that once hung in lanterns along night roads, and inside welcoming homes. The introduction of light into shops expanded time, so that goods from the general store were available past dark, and entertainment at theaters knew no end.
The man decided to have a photograph taken of his humble shop. His goal was to provide electric lighting for the average home dweller or shopkeeper. Everyone could enter into this newly lit world. There, one could entertain guests with a music recital after dinner, engage in parlour games late into the night, and paint an enchanted scene of moonlight in the wee small hours. The man chose to bring simple elegance to these lighted structures, these lamps and chandeliers, floating palaces of eternal day, the ceilings now a vast sky above a lost hemisphere, with the electric lamps making up its constellations.