Thimbles

Wow! I have 249 thimbles! And one thimble memory stick.  It sure doesn't take long to accumulate a lot of "stuff" or should I say, "wonderful collections".  I sure am enjoying collecting and learning.  There are many antique thimbles that came in handy while working on my projects.

Then there was the "where am I going to store them or show them off"!  Looking for thimble displays in a small town does not work.  So, we got inventive or should I say my wonderful husband did.  He took a shadow box and made shelves according to the measurements we wanted and had me paint them to match the box.  As the collection grew and we needed more display boxes we found coin collection boxes that would work great and they open in the front.  The shadow boxes are hell to work with, especially keeping everything in place between arranging and getting it hung on the wall!

It is amazing the numerous materials thimbles are made of.  I even found a club for thimble collectors and a thimble museum.  There are a lot of books regarding thimbles, manufactures of thimbles, and places to purchase them.  There are endless categories of designs, pictures, slogans, etc., to style them in.

TYPES OF MATERIAL

Pewter, China, Porcelain, Stone, (semi-precious, gem stones and rock), Ivory, Horn, Bone, Leather, Leather over wood, Fabric, Steel, Brass, Aluminum, Silver, Glass (etched, cut glass) Cloisonné, Wood, Plastic, Resin, and Rubber.

I have added some of my favorite thimbles and two of my thimble cases.

I have added some of my favorite thimbles and two of my thimble cases.

This is a recent addition to my collection and is sterling silver.

 My aunt gave each of us an antique thimble in a leather case.  This one belonged to my mother.

This is the antique thimble my aunt gave me.  I belive I was in elementary school at the time which would really qualify this as an authentic antique.

 The beautiful hand painted glass makes for a nice addition to the collection.

 Spring time in Paris!

One always has to have a Singer thimble to go with all the other wonderful collectable Singer products.  There will be more on the Singer antiques at a later date.







This appears to be silk thread.  I am looking forward to investigating the back ground of hand sewn, woven and crocheted thimbles.  I have just won some on Ebay and can't wait for them to arrive.

Below is the shadow box my husband made for me (size is 12"x15") and I probably purchased it at Michaels using my coupon.  The last box is for coin collectors.  However it really works much better than the shadow box and it opens from the front for easy access and arranging.

The last two pictures are of my memory stick thimble. I forget how much memory it has but it really sentimental and lives on the shelf in my office.

Below are the places I perused that you may find interesting.
Check out the web and learn all about thimbles and their wonderful history!

CLUB:  Thimble Collectors Club (England, US and Germany)
Wikipedia - you can go there but I was not impressed with their information.
www.thimbleselect.com   Sue Gowan, sales, collector, author
www.antiquequiltdating.com/The_History_of_the_Thimble.html
www.pioneerthinking.com/the-history-of-thimbles   article source: www.articlesbase.com
www.fingerhutmuseum.de/showpage.php?SiteID=3&lang=2

Enjoy!

Sandy