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What makes something an heirloom?

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Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#51

Post by KineticLensman »

>> An heirloom does not have to be expensive; it simply needs to be made well enough to last. What truly distinguishes an heirloom is the accumulation of stories, memories, and wear.

Going by these criteria, the main heirlooms that I've inherited and still have are some of my father's tools. I still use them when I can, even when they aren't always the most convenient. Back in the early 90s, I also inherited a Vauxhall Victor [0] as my first car from an uncle who died young. It was 17 years old and amazingly had less than 5000 miles on the clock. It was quickly christened 'Old Vic' and kept me going until I got a job with a long commute that required something more reliable. Old Vic had some interesting quirks: i.e. windscreen demister, windscreen wipers, headlights, choose two. But it also had a 2.3 litre engine so once it got up to speed it was quite pokey.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_Victor

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#52

Post by water9 »

Beyond the physical value, an heirloom requires a multi-generational dedication to family because if your a bad parent and all your kids want nothing to do with you it doesn't matter how many valuable objects you posses.

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#53

Post by swader999 »

I've got a prism that I gave to my daughter when she was three or four. I made two round wooden discs for each end so she could position it just so on her window and put a rainbow in her room. The kid never got one mark wrong her last year in grade nine. She won every science fair too.

I have a giant 40 pound ball of elastics she made. It was an extended dad joke as she asked me if I could get her some elastics one day and I didn't look up from my work and just said yeah sure. Mom wasn't impressed when she found out what was in the beaten up heavy box that was dropped shipped all the way to our post office. She kept it in her locker at school and lovingly tormented her teachers by 'bouncing' it in the hall from time to time.

With her gone now it doesn't feel like these are heirlooms, it actually hurts a bit to have things like this around that are returned back to the previous generation. Same thing with her race skis that fit me and I used one day last season.

The stories these tell remind me of her best times but also tell me they weren't enough. So there's bittersweetness in all of it that's left behind.

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#54

Post by swores »

matthewfcarlson wrote: post #14

For someone who wants to create heirlooms today, how would you go about it? Something sturdy and well made, but not so valuable that it’s tucked away into a box (like the Rolex in the article). The watch that I rock today (a smart watch) is well made but I don’t see it being useful in 50 years much less 20.

A wall clock would be my suggestion, having inherited a couple of lovely ones myself.

Even though one of them is worth quite a lot of money, it's not like a watch where using it risks easily damaging it - it's mounted high enough on the wall that any visiting kids can't reach it, and while it's not quite as convenient as modern clocks I quite enjoy winding it every couple of weeks, and remembering to put it forward/back an hour a couple of times a year. Though it did cost a few hundred pounds to get it repaired a couple of years ago (which came with a side benefit of being shown around a local clock specialist's workrooms that must've had >100 clocks, some being built by him and his intern, some being repaired, some just being clocks).

And actually, I'm growing to slightly prefer the other clock which is the one my mum learned the time on as a kid - it's a cuckoo clock with two chains and removable weights, one chain needs daily pulling to power it, the other chain is usually not in use but when you hang the weight on it the cuckoo is powered and comes out / makes a noise once on the half hour, and on the hour it does as many as the value of the hour. Shame it runs about 5mins fast per day, but I'm too lazy to think about fixing it and it's a quirk that I don't mind.

A similar heirloom is a painting, which again has the benefit of being enjoyed (it's on the wall I face at my home PC desk) with minimal chance of damage. I'm lucky enough that it's got some real family history to it - my great, great grandfather (or was it 3x great, I forget) had it commissioned and it shows the ship he owned, at sea. Was very relieved a couple of years ago when a relative doing family research was able to finally confirm that the ship was never used in the slave trade which had always been a worry in the back of our minds (though given the world back then, it wouldn't be a huge surprise if some of the spices it transported between various parts of the world and the UK had involved slavery / other immoral acts to acquire, but still pleased my family were never involved in nor 'owned' any slaves.)

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#55

Post by femto »

arjvik wrote: post #20
jkrubin wrote: post #16

I cast a tomato in table top epoxy. It is in my will and will go to possible kids or my brother. It will then be an heirloom tomato.

Does the epoxy prevent any kind of rotting?

One of my friends used to tell the story of the exploding hedgehog.

It was an epoxy encased hedgehog that sat on a mantleshelf. Unbeknownst the owners it was slowly rotting and the gas pressure was building inside the block of resin. Eventually the pressure got too much and the resin block exploded, covering the room in bits of hedgehog and resin.

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#56

Post by pif »

swader999 wrote: post #53

I've got a prism that I gave to my daughter when she was three or four. I made two round wooden discs for each end so she could position it just so on her window and put a rainbow in her room. The kid never got one mark wrong her last year in grade nine. She won every science fair too. I have a giant 40 pound ball of elastics she made. It was an extended dad joke as she asked me if I could get her some elastics one d…

> With her gone now...

Oh, I'm so sorry...

In the last few years, I've lost my sister and my mom, and very recently my dad. We all miss him so much, it hasn't been a week yet; nevertheless, I can't be too sorry that he left, because he has stopped feeling the constant pain of the missing daughter and the departed adored wife.

Losing one's parent is painful, but losing one's children is so unnatural that nobody should ever know such a deep horror.

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#57

Post by boondoggle16 »

swader999 wrote: post #53

I've got a prism that I gave to my daughter when she was three or four. I made two round wooden discs for each end so she could position it just so on her window and put a rainbow in her room. The kid never got one mark wrong her last year in grade nine. She won every science fair too. I have a giant 40 pound ball of elastics she made. It was an extended dad joke as she asked me if I could get her some elastics one d…

edit: I'm bad at reading things, best wishes to you :)

I do find mementos from lost people to be quite sad. But also kinda fun.

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#58

Post by boondoggle16 »

Animats wrote: post #19

Somehow, this seems too much like a Rolex ad. Bloomberg: "Rolex Prices to Drop Further as Supply Surges: Morgan Stanley. Pre-owned watch market flooded with Rolex, Patek and AP"[1] Rolex is a strange business. One of their CEOs once said "we are not in the watch business, we are in the luxury business." The price of Rolex watches has increased 5x over inflation since the 1950s, for much the same models. Rolex was at…

I'm not material at all, and for the first time in my (long) life, I thought: "A Rolex looks like a nice piece of Geneva craftsmanship, what would it be like to have one?"

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#59

Post by boondoggle16 »

arjvik wrote: post #20
jkrubin wrote: post #16

I cast a tomato in table top epoxy. It is in my will and will go to possible kids or my brother. It will then be an heirloom tomato.

Does the epoxy prevent any kind of rotting?

Check out some videos on youtube, you can see people casing lots of cool stuff including food :)

look for resin casting or similar

Re: What makes something an heirloom?

#60

Post by ginko »

buildbot wrote: post #32
Aloha wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you can, or feel up to it, try some Kodak Ektar. You'll like it, its much less grainy than the Portra with better color registration.

Ektar is awesome film. E100 Slide film is fun too!

I'd recommend shooting slide film with the F4 though, since that one has a matrix meter and slide film is quite finicky if you don't get the exposure right.
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