Judith Kimber has such a beautiful and vast collection of images in her photography shop on Etsy, from soft, airy, colorless feathers to animals and landscapes. What drew me to her work immediately, though, is the image above. She calls it Vintage Cotton Reels, which I also love because I’d never heard the term before. Here in the US I’ve only ever called them thread spools, but Judith lives in Ireland. I think cotton reels sounds much nicer, personally!
I asked Judith about the creative process behind the picture, and I just love her answer!
“I have quite an extensive collection of vintage cotton reels, from which I chose for this still life. I was setting them up inside an old drawer, to give the dark background, as though they were in a little theatre.”
One of the things that drew me into this image immediately was the shimmery, almost jewel-like threads catching the scarce bit of light. Evidently, Judith had the same thought: “I picked out a range of jewel-like tones and spent a while arranging them in different combinations. It struck me that the teal-coloured one at the left looked a bit like a woman in a one-shouldered dress, and that they all had a kind of ballgown/evening dress flavour to them in their little theatre…
And then I thought, no, I’m overthinking, just shoot the pretty cotton reels. :)”
I think I’d get along quite nicely with Judith were we ever to meet in person. Between the overthinking and the wonderful imagination, I find her incredibly endearing!
Lindsay, thank you so much for this lovely feature! The colour scheme is so cool when you display it like this. Much appreciated.
I’m so glad you like it, Judith. You’ve been a pleasure to chat with!!