The Art of Memory Collecting
15 Scrapbook, Collage, Trinket, and Zine Projects for Crafting Treasured Moments
by Martina Calvi
photos by Petrina Tinslay
2024
The Art of Memory Collecting is a craft book with advice for contemporary scrapbookers and other mementos, emphasizing collage and ephemera. Martina Calvi has a second book about 'junk journaling', and I feel like you can see her advice here already leading in that direction. I would contrast this way of documenting memory with an earlier style of scrapbooking that was mostly about displaying photographs and writing meaningful captions, although Calvi herself never makes this comparison.
Calvi given advice for journals, a few kinds of boxes (including time capsules), a few kinds of personal zines, and a few kinds of greeting cards (including advice for making letter-art pen pals). Because several of these projects are quite similar, just at different sizes or with different themes, Calvi has a couple chances each to teach the crafting techniques involved. Her broader vision of how to make any of these projects, however, remains consistent throughout. The projects in The Art of Memory Collecting are ultimately quite similar to the mail art in Good Mail Day.
Save any trinkets, scraps of paper, physical photos, or other odds and ends, especially (but not only) ones that have some sentimental value or look cool. Set them out along with any stamps, stickers, fabrics, prints, or washi tape you want to use. Pick a subset that go together based on person, place, event, or even just color. Try arranging them until you find a layout that pleases you, then cut, glue, layer, and embellish until whatever you're collaging is completely covered and your star objects are displayed to good effect.
In general, I think Calvi does a decent job steering her instructions between the two shores of 'simple enough to understand' and 'technical enough to be useful' without running aground on either side. I would've enjoyed a few more example photos of finished projects. And I think Calvi assumes her reader pretty much already has a collection of things to scrapbook with. She spends a little time giving examples of the kinds of things you might collect, and more to discussing how to choose from among your collection for a given project, but that's an area I might've liked a bit more advice.
Calvi mostly assumes her reader already wants to do these projects and already sees them as worth doing, but I found myself thinking about how I would justify them. My defense would be twofold. First, anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. If you are only willing to scrapbook when you can do everything right, you'll hardly ever do it at all. A finished page that's messy or ugly is still better than a blank page, or a perfect page that only exists in your head. Second, objects tell a story. They provide context and trigger memories. Whatever scraps of paper you've acquired recently tell the story of your life right now, even if they seem insignificant in themselves. You can make a perfectly curated page for an important occasion another day. For now, right now, use whatever you have on hand to commemorate your ordinary life at this moment.
Calvi and photographer Petrina Tinslay also deserve credit for how good all the photos look. I'm not really sure about the division of labor here. Calvi got a book deal because she has a popular Instagram, and I sort of assume she usually takes her own photos. And photographers usually set up their own shots, so I don't know if Calvi just provided the projects and materials to shoot, or if she helped pose them at all. Anyway, however they did it, the result is a book full of photos with almost supernaturally good composition. My personal shorthand for this look is 'Wes Anderson style', but what I mean is bright cheerful colors, eclectic mixes of materials, things arranged neatly with consistent spacing between objects, the use of negative space as a frame. The photos in a book like this are obviously supposed to look good, but these photos look really really good.
Calvi given advice for journals, a few kinds of boxes (including time capsules), a few kinds of personal zines, and a few kinds of greeting cards (including advice for making letter-art pen pals). Because several of these projects are quite similar, just at different sizes or with different themes, Calvi has a couple chances each to teach the crafting techniques involved. Her broader vision of how to make any of these projects, however, remains consistent throughout. The projects in The Art of Memory Collecting are ultimately quite similar to the mail art in Good Mail Day.
Save any trinkets, scraps of paper, physical photos, or other odds and ends, especially (but not only) ones that have some sentimental value or look cool. Set them out along with any stamps, stickers, fabrics, prints, or washi tape you want to use. Pick a subset that go together based on person, place, event, or even just color. Try arranging them until you find a layout that pleases you, then cut, glue, layer, and embellish until whatever you're collaging is completely covered and your star objects are displayed to good effect.
In general, I think Calvi does a decent job steering her instructions between the two shores of 'simple enough to understand' and 'technical enough to be useful' without running aground on either side. I would've enjoyed a few more example photos of finished projects. And I think Calvi assumes her reader pretty much already has a collection of things to scrapbook with. She spends a little time giving examples of the kinds of things you might collect, and more to discussing how to choose from among your collection for a given project, but that's an area I might've liked a bit more advice.
Calvi mostly assumes her reader already wants to do these projects and already sees them as worth doing, but I found myself thinking about how I would justify them. My defense would be twofold. First, anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. If you are only willing to scrapbook when you can do everything right, you'll hardly ever do it at all. A finished page that's messy or ugly is still better than a blank page, or a perfect page that only exists in your head. Second, objects tell a story. They provide context and trigger memories. Whatever scraps of paper you've acquired recently tell the story of your life right now, even if they seem insignificant in themselves. You can make a perfectly curated page for an important occasion another day. For now, right now, use whatever you have on hand to commemorate your ordinary life at this moment.
Calvi and photographer Petrina Tinslay also deserve credit for how good all the photos look. I'm not really sure about the division of labor here. Calvi got a book deal because she has a popular Instagram, and I sort of assume she usually takes her own photos. And photographers usually set up their own shots, so I don't know if Calvi just provided the projects and materials to shoot, or if she helped pose them at all. Anyway, however they did it, the result is a book full of photos with almost supernaturally good composition. My personal shorthand for this look is 'Wes Anderson style', but what I mean is bright cheerful colors, eclectic mixes of materials, things arranged neatly with consistent spacing between objects, the use of negative space as a frame. The photos in a book like this are obviously supposed to look good, but these photos look really really good.
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