A Dreamy ’80s Deco Still Life Shoot

Today I’m sharing a few snapshots from my latest photo shoot. The subjects of these still life pics are ’80s Deco ceramics! If you caught Mirror80’s latest post on the set design of the 1982 film Tootsie, you saw plenty of sleek ceramics in shades of lavender and pink. The movie inspired me to line up my ’80s vases and swans and photograph them. The flowers you see above are peonies, and once the petals started falling, the shoot took on kind of a dreamy quality, so I went with it. Here are a few more images…enjoy!

Most of the ceramics in today’s shoot are from thrift stores such as Goodwill and Savers. Yes, that means I didn’t pay more than a few dollars for any of them. I began amassing my collection in 2010, and you can see more of the pieces in this photo shoot by photographer Ben Aqua (ah, the blog was so young back then)! By the way, the ceramic swans you see below were used as washcloth holders in the ’80s. People would roll up rags and small towels and rest them on the swans’ backs. See more colorful ceramic swans here.

The pyramid mirror box below is from Urban Outfitters. I filled it with a rose quartz specimen. Would anything else do for this pastel shoot?…

I had about an hour to snap these photos, because Austin was getting only a little bit of sun before Tropical Storm Bill was projected to move through the area, squelching any sunlight for days. It turns out this tropical storm wasn’t nearly as big of a threat to us as predicted, but the rest of the day was certainly gloomy, so it’s good I got these photos in the morning. Here are the last few…

Do you have any collections of retro items from the ’80s or another favorite decade? Leave me a comment below–I love hearing about what inspires people to start collecting…