The Leif Bakka Artefacts Collection is a series of several smaller collections and individual pieces collected from around the world. Most items was collected in the USA, Norway and Thailand.
Norway and Rose Painting
The items collected in Norway are paintings, picture frames, sculptures, utensils, toys, plates, souvenirs, books, woodcarvings, ceramics, knifes, clothing, skates and tools. Many items are hand made in Norway. Rosemaling or rose painting is a decorative ornamental painting style from the Norwegian countryside. It had its start around 1740 lasted until 1860. The style uses free flowing leaves and flowers on a single colour background. The different valleys or regions in Norway have style variations. Rose painting was painted on doors, walls, beds, ceilings, chairs, plates, bowls, containers and spoons. It is today popular among the arts and craft communities. The Rogaland style has large flowers and less leaves. The flowers are Tulips or Roses, with 4 or 6 leaves. The backgrounds are dark colours (often black.) The items in my collection are cake plates, plates, beer bowls (ψlbolle) and some souvenir containers.
The American West
The American West collection includes tomahawks, saddles, chaps, moccasins, cowboy boots, holsters, hats and more. Also collected in USA are tennis racquets and various other sports equipment. I sold etchings and mini posters at Powwows (Indian dances) in Louisiana. I sometimes traded for small beadwork jewellery and other Native American artefacts. The arts and craft vendors are an important element at the dance. At the end of the weekend the vendors tend to trade between themselves.
The Hill Tribes of Thailand
The Thailand collection includes a large collection of crossbows, and smaller amount of shirts and headdresses, from the Karen, Hmong, Lisu, Lahu and Aka tribes.
Ski Collection
When I started collecting skis it started with a coincidence. I had recently moved to Seattle and had little money to spend on furniture, so I went looking at yard sales in the neighbourhood. I found the furnitures I needed and 5 pairs of vintage downhill skis. Seattle has a lot of ski resorts and many Thrift stores that I could collect from. I found that the less organized the store was the more fun it was to rummage. Often the skis was not brought into the store, so sometimes they let you look in the backyard for it. Skis take a lot of space, so I had to be selective. I was looking for skis and boots from the 1940`s, 1950`s and 1960`s. I was collecting from Seattle, SeaTac, Tukwilla, Kent, Tacoma, Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Ballard, Lynnwood and other suburbs areas.
Eventually the collection got expanded to include vintage ski clothing and ski books. I also started looking in antique malls and antique stores. But the prices at this places was often higher than at the thrift stores. During my stay in Colorado (Vail) I liked rummage sales and flee marked the best. I made many nice finds at these places. I created Ski World a website about my ski collection in 2006
Auctions
Internet auctions such as Ebay is a good alternative for collectors. I have also used Ebay and found some of my best pieces from that site. However shipping cost can get very high for overseas shipments. Still it is exiting when you open the package, and the content is just like you anticipated.
Storage
Space is often what the collectors are lacking most. I have used my basement, rented storage space and classrooms to house my collections. It is important that the storage is dry and secure. I have used banana boxes a lot, for storing clothing and boots. They are solid and can be stacked to the ceiling. Moving boxes is also an alternative. Try to keep the boxes the same size. It makes it more space efficient and it is easier to stack high. However the best is some form of shelves system. Then you can have a display and storage combination.
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