Host Bex Scott talks with another Pyrex collector in today’s episode, but this time it’s a conversation with her first Canadian guest! She welcomes Ruth from Periwinkle Collectibles to the show and they talk all about Pyrex, thrifting, and the life cycle of secondhand items. Ruth also shares her greatest Pyrex finds with Bex, finds from out in the wild.
Host Bex Scott talks with another Pyrex collector in today’s episode, but this time it’s a conversation with her first Canadian guest! She welcomes Ruth from Periwinkle Collectibles to the show and they talk all about Pyrex, thrifting, and the life cycle of secondhand items. Ruth also shares her greatest Pyrex finds with Bex, finds from out in the wild.
Ruth has been an avid thrifter for years but her “gateway Pyrex” happened in 2012 or 2013 when she discovered a 404 Poinsettia bowl in a church thrift store for $10. That led her into what she calls “Pyrexia” and she became a knowledgeable avid collector. Ruth tells Bex what the local market is like in her part of Canada, how thrifting prices have changed, and how she enjoys bringing dishes to family potlucks in some of her treasured Pyrex pieces. Ruth collects a lot of vintage items aside from Pyrex and Bex learns what they are. She also identifies which ones she needs to research because Ruth’s many passions include names that aren’t known even to Bex. Ruth has words of advice for all collectors about passion and joy.
Resources discussed in this episode:
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Contact Rebecca Scott | Pyrex With Bex:
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Transcript
Bex Scott: [00:00:02] Hey everybody, it's Bex Scott and welcome to the Pyrex with Bex podcast where, you guessed it, I talk about vintage Pyrex, but also all things vintage housewares. I'll take you on my latest thrifting adventures, talk about reselling, chat with other enthusiasts about their collections, and learn about a bunch of really awesome items from the past. Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you love listening to podcasts so you don't miss a beat.
Bex Scott: [00:00:30] Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Pyrex with Bex podcast. And I'm very excited because today I have my first Canadian guest on the show. We have Ruth with Periwinkle Collectibles. You can find Ruth on Instagram at Periwinkle Collectibles as well. Welcome, Ruth.
Ruth: [00:00:49] Hey, thanks for having me.
Bex Scott: [00:00:51] Thanks for joining me. It's awesome to have another fellow Canadian on the show.
Ruth: [00:00:56] Yay! Go go, Canada! Yeah.
Bex Scott: [00:00:58] Yeah. The snowy Canadian weather we have now, it's cold.
Ruth: [00:01:05] And the place where when people complain about the cold, you just go, but I live in Canada.
Bex Scott: [00:01:12] Yeah. So I wanted to start off today with how you got into Pyrex and vintage collecting.
Ruth: [00:01:20] That's a great question. I've been thrifting for a very long time, and so I was buying vintage things before they were vintage. But I'd say that my real gateway piece of Pyrex was a 404 Poinsettia bowl with lid and cradle that I found at a local church thrift store. It was behind the glass. It had a $10 price tag on it, which at the time - I think it was about 2012, 2013, you know, somewhere in there - and I literally did not have $10 cash in my pocket because at that point, that thrift store was super cheap, and I would often go with a $5 bill and buy things on my lunch hour from the day job. So they had this $10 piece of Pyrex behind the glass. I thought it was really pretty and that I could use it for Christmas serving. And so I ran across the street to the ATM, paid a ridiculous fee to get $10 out - I think it was at the time, I think it was like $2 or something, and I thought it was crazy - and ran back and bought that piece of Pyrex, took it home and started researching it because I bought it because it was pretty, it was a nice shape. And I had been buying, you know, like I said, vintage and thrifted goods for several decades before that. But that was the piece that really led me down the rabbit hole of Pyrex, was that $10 purchase. Little did I know what that, you know, I'm complaining about the $2 ATM charge. Little did I know what it was really going to cost me.
Bex Scott: [00:03:02] That's amazing. I wish that would have been my first Pyrex find because I love the Poinsettia. It's so beautiful.
Ruth: [00:03:11] Something about the gold on the red is just so pretty. And since then I have found the large casserole, the 045 with the designed lid. You know, the Christmas one also, I think some people call it Poinsettia as well. I can't remember off the top of my head what the name for it is. And I actually have the box. That's one of the few pieces that I have a box for. I'm not as much of a cradle and box collector as some people are, but I have found that one with the box and the cradle, paid a little more than $10 for it, but I think I paid like, I don't know, $30 for it back in like 2014. And I thought that was a lot of money. That progression of what I think is a lot of money for Pyrex has slightly changed since those days.
Bex Scott: [00:04:02] Oh no kidding, I would have loved to find it for 10 or 30. Now that would be a steal.
Ruth: [00:04:08] That was back in the day when I could go on Kijiji, for the non-Canadian listeners is like what Craigslist used to be. But you would go on Kijiji and I would hunt for Pyrex. And of course, you know, you find a lot of things labeled Pyrex that weren't, but you know, there would be a lot of things listed for $10, $20 that wow, you know, if I had a crystal ball, there's a few more things I would have bought back then.
Bex Scott: [00:04:35] No kidding. I was looking through Facebook the other day in a city close to me, and there was a collector that was liquidating his whole collection of Pyrex. He had everything, and I messaged him and he said, oh, I have got probably 380 messages to get through. And there were a few pieces that I really wanted that he had, but it ended up that he was asking for like $450 for a set of pink bowls and turquoise bowls, and it's like, sorry, I can't pay that much for them.
Ruth: [00:05:08] Yeah, it's funny when people want online world market prices on a local marketplace.
Bex Scott: [00:05:18] Yeah, yeah.
Ruth: [00:05:20] People don't necessarily drive those things, you know. Or they go, oh, but I found that on Chairish it's worth yadda yadda yadda. But that's like the highest level of where designers go to buy things like don't ever base any price on Chairish. And so many people who don't even know how to look up an eBay sold or look and see what did it actually sell for on Etsy. Oh, but it's on Etsy for $682. Yes, it's listed for that.
Bex Scott: [00:05:51] Yeah. My favorite is when you go into some of the smaller thrift shops and they have the printout of the eBay listing and not the sold, and then they've priced their item based on that little printout that they have. I just want to go up to them and be like, no, this isn't the price.
Ruth: [00:06:08] Have you been to garage sales where they do that?
Bex Scott: [00:06:10] No.
Ruth: [00:06:11] Yeah, I've been to a few where they do that. And it's just, I'm just like, well, good luck. You're still going to have it all at the end of the day. Not necessarily a well received comment. That's usually when my garage saling partner pulls me by the hand and goes, Quiet, let's just leave.
Bex Scott: [00:06:31] Not today.
Ruth: [00:06:33] Not today, not today. I've been known to tell a thrift store manager or two what I thought about certain prices, and what the difference is between an online worldwide market and their little thrift store in the corner of Darkville, southern Manitoba. But anyhow.
Bex Scott: [00:06:53] Oh that's great. I wish we lived closer so I could take you with me. I need someone like that.
Ruth: [00:06:59] Oh, I've been known to embarrass people, but, I mean, in reality, if they don't get the appropriate customer feedback, if everybody just shakes their head and goes, no way and walks away, how do they know?
Bex Scott: [00:07:13] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:07:14] The sad part is there's almost always, in the end, somebody who will pay that price. I mean, not always. Sometimes you see it sitting on the shelf or in the cabinet for weeks or months on end. And then what happens? It goes in the trash.
Bex Scott: [00:07:27] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:07:28] When nobody buys it, I don't know.
Bex Scott: [00:07:30] That's sad.
Ruth: [00:07:32] Yeah. Really sad. Really, really sad.
Bex Scott: [00:07:36] Do you have any family members that collect as well?
Ruth: [00:07:40] Not that collect Pyrex. No. I am the one that they humor when it comes to Pyrex, I have other family members that collect other items, but I'm definitely the person with the Pyrexia. The person that loves the vintage bowls and the vintage casseroles more. And I joyfully like to bring dishes to family gatherings, you know, if appropriate. You know, I won't bring one of my treasured bowls to a cement picnic table lot in the middle of the park. But I love to, you know, use them to bring things to family potlucks or wherever when possible. When possible. Because it's nice to share when people go, oh, that's a pretty bowl. Oh yeah.
Bex Scott: [00:08:33] Yeah. Let me tell you about this bowl. Yeah.
Ruth: [00:08:40] Yeah, yeah. They're like don't comment or she'll tell you all about it.
Bex Scott: [00:08:43] Yeah. They whisper in the background of the family events, Don't bring up the Pyrex bowl.
Ruth: [00:08:49] Yeah. So no, no one else in the family collects it. Do I gift certain patterns and things to people where I'm like, oh, I don't like this pattern quite as much. It's not a super, you know, in the collecting world it has a different perspective than to someone that's going to use it. They're always like, well, if I take this, am I allowed to put it in the dishwasher? Like they all know that. It's like, yeah, there's things you put in the dishwasher and things you can't put in the dishwasher.
Bex Scott: [00:09:23] Absolutely. And what have been your best Pyrex finds to date that you've had?
Ruth: [00:09:32] Oh boy. I have been very fortunate and been gifted to find a lot of great Pyrex out in the wild. Especially, like I said, I've been really looking for it for a dozen years and you know, over ten years ago it was much, much an easier story. I have found Gooseberry, pink Gooseberry at the thrift. I have found the yellow and black Gooseberry at the thrift. I have found almost every refrigerator dish that is commonly found at the thrift. What was my best? I think the one I was most excited about was when I found the yellow and black Gooseberry set way back at the beginning. One of my kids was with me, they were a kid at the time, you know, a child at the time, and they spotted it like they were learning to spot Pyrex for me.
Bex Scott: [00:10:21] That's fun.
Ruth: [00:10:23] She spotted it and she was so excited. And I remember it was $14.99 for the full set of all four, yellow and black, in good shape on the thrift store sell. Like that one really sticks out in my mind. But there's lots of other pieces of primary. I found the Turquoise bowl set at the thrift. I have found Butterprint dozens of times. There's an awful lot of Butterprint where I live. I don't know if it's one of the old department stores used to carry it, but it used to show up almost, I wouldn't say weekly, but monthly for sure, I could find Butterprint. Yeah. I mean, not the pink or the orange, but the regular Butterprint. It was pretty common to find a piece of it. Now, generally all I find of that is the dishwasher pieces of Pyrex that in my family we have a tradition when you find a, my tradition, when you see a dishwasher piece of Pyrex on the shelf, you hum Taps. You thank it for its service.
Bex Scott: [00:11:33] Oh, I love that. I'm gonna have to start doing that. Yeah.
Ruth: [00:11:37] Yeah.
Bex Scott: [00:11:38] In memory of this Pyrex dish, what it used to be.
Ruth: [00:11:42] Yes, exactly. Oh, isn't there nothing sadder than finding, oh, my gosh, I have found a Pink Daisy at the thrift store. Like the casseroles, the space savers, not so much the space savers, but the 043s and the 045s, have found those a couple of times at the thrift. Actually found an 045 on the thrift store shelf two, three years ago? I think that's about as recent as I can remember finding that. The good old days. The good old days when nobody knew what it was.
Bex Scott: [00:12:18] Yeah. Now it's so hard to find anything that's not dishwasher damaged. Or I find Old Orchard all the time. It's always hanging around, lurking.
Ruth: [00:12:28] And Homestead. Yeah.
Bex Scott: [00:12:32] Yeah, Homestead. And the primaries that are always just destroyed. Yeah.
Ruth: [00:12:38] That have, yeah, yeah, that have given their shine in the service of many a batch cookies. Oh yeah. Yeah. There's lots of lots of that out there. Though, I mean,to be honest, I did find the 444 Friendship and the 443 Friendship at the thrift store just a couple of months ago.
Bex Scott: [00:13:04] Oh. Awesome.
Ruth: [00:13:06] It wasn't inexpensive but it was senior day. So, you know, in Canada, one of the big thrift chains on Tuesdays has 30% off for anyone over 60. So I just, I've just outed myself there. But yeah, but with the discount it was okay. And they were really nice and they were shiny. And I'm like, you know, yeah, I've never had these. And really in 12 years I've had the 442 a couple of times, but I'd never had the two larger ones. So I thought what the heck? And I bought them for myself and now I'm going, what am I going to, yeah, because sometimes when they're in really good shape and you're like, oh, I know this is, you know something I can enjoy for a while. And when I'm done enjoying it, I can pass it on at a decent enough price point to make someone else happy.
Bex Scott: [00:14:05] Exactly. Yeah. So what would you say thrifting and Facebook Marketplace are like where you live? Are prices high, is there a good selection?
Ruth: [00:14:16] I would say things are fairly moderate. I mean, some of the stores think they have gold every time grandma donates her Butterprint bowl, but then the items frequently don't get purchased. So there's a few of the chains are bad at high pricing things, the thrift stores, but overall it's moderate. Facebook marketplace is a, we don't have the time to discuss, pricing is all over the place because, you know, people can list things for whatever they feel is an appropriate price. And some people think Chairish is where you get your pricing, and other people just want to get rid of the old bowls that they're having to clean up. So it's, uh, it's a very mixed bag. If people ever post anything that's good at a reasonable price, though, you can bet it is snapped up faster than you can say, I'm in my car and on my way to go pick it up so it can be quite competitive. If you're trying to find some pieces for yourself that are reasonably priced, or if you're a full time reseller who's trying to pay the bills with what you're making on flipping the treasures that you find. So I would say moderate to ridiculous, depending upon the sort of store and/or the person listing the item. So there's still some treasures to be found out there, but it's quite, quite competitive. And as you know, over the pandemic, the amount of people that are resellers increased exponentially. For the people who have been doing it for a long time and making a living at it, it certainly made their lives, I have a lot of, I know there's a lot of people that have disparaging things to say about resellers. Sorry, that's the word we use now. Used to always be pickers, you know, antique dealers. There was different terms for it. I have a lot of sympathy for them, their lives are not, not that their lives are ever easy, but it's definitely a lot more challenging than it used to be.
Bex Scott: [00:16:23] Right. Yeah, I agree, and I kind of feel like I contributed to some of that unhappiness because I started in the pandemic and I started reselling. So I always feel guilty. I'm like, oh no, look what I've done, I've contributed to the people who are making people's lives harder.
Ruth: [00:16:41] But you're still doing it. There's a lot of people who started during the pandemic and have already bowed out, like the attrition rate, at least, you know, by the amount of local vintage seller Instagram accounts that I follow, there's been a fairly high attrition rate. I'd say 40, maybe 50% of them are still going. Maybe, that's likely closer to 40%. So it's like anything, it's becomes either a necessity because, you know, our options for making money during that time were more difficult. So I mean, people are having, doing what they have to do or, you know, learning things because they had time. And then as other opportunities opened up again, they moved on. And that's cool. You know, everybody has the right to earn a living in the way that they feel is appropriate, and of course, legal and ethical, legal, of course, you know, no question there. And then the ethics of reselling, I mean, obviously, as someone who resells to help fund my collecting habits, I find it ethical and a great way to keep things out of the landfill because there is such a abundance of items. I know you say like, how is the thrift store and how is Facebook Marketplace, and yes, there's competition over certain items, but as a whole, the amount of goods that are available to us within the recycling cycle of, you know, post-consumer items, it's so huge.
Ruth: [00:18:22] There is so much stuff that anyone that says that resellers are driving up the prices is looking at the big picture through a toilet paper tube, like they're looking at one little section, a few portions of items, you know, a few select, more what is in fad or what is popular right now for collecting. Are those prices up a little bit because more people are looking for it? Yeah, but that is 2% of what is out there. There is so much stuff that, you know, your number one choice, you know, of course, always is use what you have. Your number two choice is buy secondhand. And then of course number three is buy new. Unless you're talking about underwear, you know, I'm sorry but underwear, always buy new. Underwear, mattresses. But just about anything else, you know secondhand is the way to go if you have to buy it. But that's not the question that you asked. So I'll rein myself in once again.
Bex Scott: [00:19:31] No, that's good. And I've heard there's so much stuff out there that's being donated and I guess trying to be donated that they're just redirecting stuff to the landfills. So the secondhand stores, they can't keep up. So if we can help with that in any way, then I think it's worth it.
Ruth: [00:19:51] Absolutely, absolutely. And I think the whole collecting of vintage items from the past is one, it's earth friendly to continue to enjoy items that have already been made, but it's also a great way to appreciate the quality goods that used to be made on our continent. And this is, again, not disparaging to a lot, there's a lot of great quality made goods being made all across the world, and I 100% support that people have the right to buy anything from wherever they want, as long as it's legal. But, you know, the things that travel the least amount of miles is always the best thing to buy if you can afford it. You know, not saying because the 100 mile diet is not practical when you live in the climates that we live in. And that's a whole nother topic too, right? I'm just saying shop secondhand. It's good for the earth.
Bex Scott: [00:21:00] Yeah. I posted on my Instagram story a couple days ago, it was an old department store photo. And I got into a bit of a conversation with somebody in direct messages, and we were talking about how it would have been so cool to go back and shop in a department store with all of the awesome items that we now collect as vintage items. And she mentioned, I don't know if you guys have HomeSense in Winnipeg. It's like the home side of Winners, do you have Winners?
Ruth: [00:21:28] Oh yeah, yeah.
Bex Scott: [00:21:29] Where you can buy all the cheaper decor for your house. But she said, wouldn't it be weird down the road if our kids or their kids say, I want to go look at what was at HomeSense, like, that's considered vintage. And then you're looking for the Live Laugh Love posters that everybody has in their house and...
Ruth: [00:21:50] Really? You think those are... I mean, there was a lot of things that came out in the 50s and 60s and 70s that nobody is collecting now.
Bex Scott: [00:22:01] True.
Ruth: [00:22:01] You know, not everything stands the test of time.
Bex Scott: [00:22:04] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:22:04] And I really hope Live Laugh Love is one of those things.
Bex Scott: [00:22:08] Yeah. That one better die off because that... yeah.
Ruth: [00:22:14] You know, there's just things that, but all the dollar store stuff that is just made to self-destruct in such a short amount of time is sad, but is that what people will be collecting? There's a lot of toys for my childhood in the 60s and 70s that at the time were considered not super great quality because they were made in, you know, whatever offshore country. And at the time, they were just the toys that we enjoyed that now people are collecting and are gaga over it. So it's not always, it's not always the quality. I thought at first, is it the quality of the item or is it the nostalgia of the item? Like what will we be, what will people be pining for in 30, 40 years? What will your kids be looking back with great fondness in 30 years and will be the collector things? It won't be, it's just like, you know, the oil lamps and the things that my parents generation collected that no one has any interest in today.
Bex Scott: [00:23:22] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:23:23] Because no one remembers them. No one has memories of their grandparents using it. They didn't grow up with it. You know, it's the silent generation. They're almost all gone. And so that stuff is just, there's a lot of it, but people aren't collecting it. And that's how things kind of cycle. Cycle in and out, you know, your mom had it, she threw it out. You know, your grandma - what was it? Your grandma had it, she threw it out, now you want it?
Bex Scott: [00:23:55] Yeah. Exactly.
Ruth: [00:23:57] All of that. All of that.
Bex Scott: [00:24:00] And what else do you love collecting other than Pyrex?
Ruth: [00:24:07] Well, it's not a short list, but to summarize, of course, Pyrex was my gateway drug for really collecting vintage items, and a lot of that had to do with where I was in my life and not raising kids anymore and having the time and the resources to do it. But I also collect Delfite glass, which is like the blue milk glass as opposed to--
Bex Scott: [00:24:35] I love Delfite--
Ruth: [00:24:35] -- gray green, which is called Jadeite. So I have quite an extensive collection of it. I have some of the Made in Canada Pyrex. Some of you may know there was a Canadian Pyrex factory for a little under ten years outside of Toronto, and they made a couple of beautiful patterns in Delfite, and also in some other beautiful blue milk glass that I'm quite fond of. And the Jeanettes, and the McKee, you know, the slightly older than that late 40s to early 50s stuff that Pyrex made from the 30s and 40s. That's when most of that Delfite came out. I can't so much afford the blue milk glass that came out in the previous century, like before 1900 and the 19th century. I admire it, but a lot of it has become so pricey I can't collect it. But anyhow, okay, what I like. I have a fairly extensive Fenton Cake plate cake stand collection.
Bex Scott: [00:25:37] Ooh, I like those.
Ruth: [00:25:38] I have some yeah, they're, I love pink, I love pink and turquoise and ruffly and girly and I just like that kind of stuff, you know, which is kind of Pyrex is a real gateway to that with the pink and the turquoise. I have quite an extensive Federal glass collection. I think I have over, yeah, over 100 pieces of that, mostly because I really like the colored dots that they released a lot of them. A lot of the Federal glass was only, the patterns were only released in Canada, so it's a little bit easier to find here. So I'm quite drawn to those patterns, like the, okay, I won't start listing them all, but Federal glass and I have a bit of Hazel-Atlas and some Fire-King, some Cathrineholm, some George Briard enamel. You know, the Cathrineholm leads you down the enamel path, and then you start picking up some fennel, you know, and some George Briard and some, I really love the balloons, the George Briard balloons pattern. It's just blue and turquoise. It's just beautiful. I love it. That's dishes. I have a weakness for vintage handmade items, very particularly in all the different types of embroidery that are out there. My mother was a prolific creator of fiber items, from quilting to many different types of embroidery to crochet and that, well, she was also a product of her generation, right? Silent generation.
Ruth: [00:27:17] She was, she grew up and was taught how to sew and crochet and tat and can and pickle and butcher and, you know, all those kinds of things. And so I, you know, grew up with all of that, did not appreciate it when I was a child, did not appreciate it when I when I was a young adult. But as I grew older, I learned to appreciate it more as I tried to do things myself that appeared very easy because my mother so seamlessly in my mind, you know, because she had decades of practice, would whip off. Oh, you want a bag for your gym clothes? You know, sat down at her sewing machine, whip, whip, here it was. Oh, you didn't like that color blouse? You want it in this color instead? Okay. And she'd whip it up for me, you know, it seemed so seamless. And then I tried doing those things myself. Not quite as seamless, but, I mean, I did, yeah. Yeah, I, you know, I like sewing, but I love vintage embroidery, vintage cruels, needlepoint, petit point. Not a huge fan of cross-stitch because it's more of a math endeavor. You just have to count and keep all your x's the same size, whereas the other ones, wow, there's a hierarchy, there's a snobbery on the embroidery scale. But anyhow, in my mind, you know, no, there's just ones I like more than others.
Ruth: [00:28:42] What else? I have collection of chalkware fish in one of my rooms. I also have a collection of wood plates. I also have a collection of ceramic deer. Being retired has its privileges because it also means I collect things and sometimes they stay with me and other times the art of acquiring the collection, of finding it, of thrifting it, you know, I'm a very regular thrifter, is the part that I really enjoyed. And at the end I decide that the enjoyment of that collection needs to move on to someone else. And so I will part with, I will part with the collection because I have collected another couple of dozen other things that I collected until it wasn't enjoyable, or it got to the point where the things I wanted were no longer easy to acquire and I moved on. Which is interesting because Pyrex is one of those things that I got to the point where the things I kind of wanted were no longer easy to acquire, but I kept, I've probably kept about 20, 25% of all the Pyrex I've ever owned, and I have a couple of hundred pieces. So I've moved on and shared a lot of Pyrex in my life. My kids will say otherwise, but I have. I have!
Bex Scott: [00:30:09] I swear I have.
Ruth: [00:30:11] I swear I have, I swear I have, I swear I have. I no longer do the three things in and one thing out. Now I'm trying to change that ratio the other way. But it's hard when you've collected things and really enjoyed them. So yeah, wow. Simple question and I went on for a while. Sorry about that.
Bex Scott: [00:30:32] No, I feel like we could do another episode on just what you collect, and I would love to hear more about it because some of the names you said I don't even recognize, so I have lots of learning to do still.
Ruth: [00:30:46] Yeah. Oh, I've had the luxury of having had a little bit more time to learn about those things. And when they're interesting and you go down the rabbit hole of learning about them and now information is so readily available compared to... You know, I remember thrifting and finding things back in the, you know, a couple of decades ago and to figure out what things were meant going to the library, trying to figure out what it was so you could even look for the right book if the book existed. Or talking to the antique dealers at the time who were not always very willing to share information. You know, that was a different generation and a different time, where people were much more protectionist to the information that they had, because that was how they made a living, and that was how they fed their families better than the next person, because they had that information. Like it's not a wanting of the Boomer, the previous generations to withhold information because they're being mean or insightful, regardless of the memes that are out there. It's because that information was what enabled them to make a living. And okay, whatever. You know, again, another topic. What were we really talking about here? Circle me back. Circle me back.
Bex Scott: [00:32:27] No, that was a perfect reply. Perfect response. So in closing, what would you say to a new collector, or what's one piece of advice that you would give them? Could be for Pyrex, could be for vintage.
Ruth: [00:32:43] Collect what you love with a caveat of 'and that your budget can support'.
Bex Scott: [00:32:49] Yes.
Ruth: [00:32:50] Right. Because it's not a passion project or a project of love if you're spending money on it that keeps a roof over your head and food on the table. But you have to love it first. To collect something because you perceive it as valuable or other people perceive it of value is a very sad way to live your life. Life is about love and passion and sharing and joy and being kind to other people, and if you're a collector, it has to be what you love.
Bex Scott: [00:33:33] I agree, especially because so much of our lives now is determined by what we see other people have or what they're doing, and it shouldn't be that way. So collecting what you love is a perfect example of how we should be living our lives. So I think that's wonderful advice.
Ruth: [00:33:52] Thank you. It's been a real pleasure speaking with you, Bex.
Bex Scott: [00:33:56] Well, thank you so much for joining me today. You gave me a whole new perspective on Pyrex and collecting, and I learned so much from you. So everybody can find Ruth at Periwinkle Collectibles on Instagram. Thank you so much, Ruth.
Transcript
Bex Scott: [00:00:02] Hey everybody, it's Bex Scott and welcome to the Pyrex with Bex podcast where, you guessed it, I talk about vintage Pyrex, but also all things vintage housewares. I'll take you on my latest thrifting adventures, talk about reselling, chat with other enthusiasts about their collections, and learn about a bunch of really awesome items from the past. Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you love listening to podcasts so you don't miss a beat.
Bex Scott: [00:00:30] Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Pyrex with Bex podcast. And I'm very excited because today I have my first Canadian guest on the show. We have Ruth with Periwinkle Collectibles. You can find Ruth on Instagram at Periwinkle Collectibles as well. Welcome, Ruth.
Ruth: [00:00:49] Hey, thanks for having me.
Bex Scott: [00:00:51] Thanks for joining me. It's awesome to have another fellow Canadian on the show.
Ruth: [00:00:56] Yay! Go go, Canada! Yeah.
Bex Scott: [00:00:58] Yeah. The snowy Canadian weather we have now, it's cold.
Ruth: [00:01:05] And the place where when people complain about the cold, you just go, but I live in Canada.
Bex Scott: [00:01:12] Yeah. So I wanted to start off today with how you got into Pyrex and vintage collecting.
Ruth: [00:01:20] That's a great question. I've been thrifting for a very long time, and so I was buying vintage things before they were vintage. But I'd say that my real gateway piece of Pyrex was a 404 Poinsettia bowl with lid and cradle that I found at a local church thrift store. It was behind the glass. It had a $10 price tag on it, which at the time - I think it was about 2012, 2013, you know, somewhere in there - and I literally did not have $10 cash in my pocket because at that point, that thrift store was super cheap, and I would often go with a $5 bill and buy things on my lunch hour from the day job. So they had this $10 piece of Pyrex behind the glass. I thought it was really pretty and that I could use it for Christmas serving. And so I ran across the street to the ATM, paid a ridiculous fee to get $10 out - I think it was at the time, I think it was like $2 or something, and I thought it was crazy - and ran back and bought that piece of Pyrex, took it home and started researching it because I bought it because it was pretty, it was a nice shape. And I had been buying, you know, like I said, vintage and thrifted goods for several decades before that. But that was the piece that really led me down the rabbit hole of Pyrex, was that $10 purchase. Little did I know what that, you know, I'm complaining about the $2 ATM charge. Little did I know what it was really going to cost me.
Bex Scott: [00:03:02] That's amazing. I wish that would have been my first Pyrex find because I love the Poinsettia. It's so beautiful.
Ruth: [00:03:11] Something about the gold on the red is just so pretty. And since then I have found the large casserole, the 045 with the designed lid. You know, the Christmas one also, I think some people call it Poinsettia as well. I can't remember off the top of my head what the name for it is. And I actually have the box. That's one of the few pieces that I have a box for. I'm not as much of a cradle and box collector as some people are, but I have found that one with the box and the cradle, paid a little more than $10 for it, but I think I paid like, I don't know, $30 for it back in like 2014. And I thought that was a lot of money. That progression of what I think is a lot of money for Pyrex has slightly changed since those days.
Bex Scott: [00:04:02] Oh no kidding, I would have loved to find it for 10 or 30. Now that would be a steal.
Ruth: [00:04:08] That was back in the day when I could go on Kijiji, for the non-Canadian listeners is like what Craigslist used to be. But you would go on Kijiji and I would hunt for Pyrex. And of course, you know, you find a lot of things labeled Pyrex that weren't, but you know, there would be a lot of things listed for $10, $20 that wow, you know, if I had a crystal ball, there's a few more things I would have bought back then.
Bex Scott: [00:04:35] No kidding. I was looking through Facebook the other day in a city close to me, and there was a collector that was liquidating his whole collection of Pyrex. He had everything, and I messaged him and he said, oh, I have got probably 380 messages to get through. And there were a few pieces that I really wanted that he had, but it ended up that he was asking for like $450 for a set of pink bowls and turquoise bowls, and it's like, sorry, I can't pay that much for them.
Ruth: [00:05:08] Yeah, it's funny when people want online world market prices on a local marketplace.
Bex Scott: [00:05:18] Yeah, yeah.
Ruth: [00:05:20] People don't necessarily drive those things, you know. Or they go, oh, but I found that on Chairish it's worth yadda yadda yadda. But that's like the highest level of where designers go to buy things like don't ever base any price on Chairish. And so many people who don't even know how to look up an eBay sold or look and see what did it actually sell for on Etsy. Oh, but it's on Etsy for $682. Yes, it's listed for that.
Bex Scott: [00:05:51] Yeah. My favorite is when you go into some of the smaller thrift shops and they have the printout of the eBay listing and not the sold, and then they've priced their item based on that little printout that they have. I just want to go up to them and be like, no, this isn't the price.
Ruth: [00:06:08] Have you been to garage sales where they do that?
Bex Scott: [00:06:10] No.
Ruth: [00:06:11] Yeah, I've been to a few where they do that. And it's just, I'm just like, well, good luck. You're still going to have it all at the end of the day. Not necessarily a well received comment. That's usually when my garage saling partner pulls me by the hand and goes, Quiet, let's just leave.
Bex Scott: [00:06:31] Not today.
Ruth: [00:06:33] Not today, not today. I've been known to tell a thrift store manager or two what I thought about certain prices, and what the difference is between an online worldwide market and their little thrift store in the corner of Darkville, southern Manitoba. But anyhow.
Bex Scott: [00:06:53] Oh that's great. I wish we lived closer so I could take you with me. I need someone like that.
Ruth: [00:06:59] Oh, I've been known to embarrass people, but, I mean, in reality, if they don't get the appropriate customer feedback, if everybody just shakes their head and goes, no way and walks away, how do they know?
Bex Scott: [00:07:13] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:07:14] The sad part is there's almost always, in the end, somebody who will pay that price. I mean, not always. Sometimes you see it sitting on the shelf or in the cabinet for weeks or months on end. And then what happens? It goes in the trash.
Bex Scott: [00:07:27] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:07:28] When nobody buys it, I don't know.
Bex Scott: [00:07:30] That's sad.
Ruth: [00:07:32] Yeah. Really sad. Really, really sad.
Bex Scott: [00:07:36] Do you have any family members that collect as well?
Ruth: [00:07:40] Not that collect Pyrex. No. I am the one that they humor when it comes to Pyrex, I have other family members that collect other items, but I'm definitely the person with the Pyrexia. The person that loves the vintage bowls and the vintage casseroles more. And I joyfully like to bring dishes to family gatherings, you know, if appropriate. You know, I won't bring one of my treasured bowls to a cement picnic table lot in the middle of the park. But I love to, you know, use them to bring things to family potlucks or wherever when possible. When possible. Because it's nice to share when people go, oh, that's a pretty bowl. Oh yeah.
Bex Scott: [00:08:33] Yeah. Let me tell you about this bowl. Yeah.
Ruth: [00:08:40] Yeah, yeah. They're like don't comment or she'll tell you all about it.
Bex Scott: [00:08:43] Yeah. They whisper in the background of the family events, Don't bring up the Pyrex bowl.
Ruth: [00:08:49] Yeah. So no, no one else in the family collects it. Do I gift certain patterns and things to people where I'm like, oh, I don't like this pattern quite as much. It's not a super, you know, in the collecting world it has a different perspective than to someone that's going to use it. They're always like, well, if I take this, am I allowed to put it in the dishwasher? Like they all know that. It's like, yeah, there's things you put in the dishwasher and things you can't put in the dishwasher.
Bex Scott: [00:09:23] Absolutely. And what have been your best Pyrex finds to date that you've had?
Ruth: [00:09:32] Oh boy. I have been very fortunate and been gifted to find a lot of great Pyrex out in the wild. Especially, like I said, I've been really looking for it for a dozen years and you know, over ten years ago it was much, much an easier story. I have found Gooseberry, pink Gooseberry at the thrift. I have found the yellow and black Gooseberry at the thrift. I have found almost every refrigerator dish that is commonly found at the thrift. What was my best? I think the one I was most excited about was when I found the yellow and black Gooseberry set way back at the beginning. One of my kids was with me, they were a kid at the time, you know, a child at the time, and they spotted it like they were learning to spot Pyrex for me.
Bex Scott: [00:10:21] That's fun.
Ruth: [00:10:23] She spotted it and she was so excited. And I remember it was $14.99 for the full set of all four, yellow and black, in good shape on the thrift store sell. Like that one really sticks out in my mind. But there's lots of other pieces of primary. I found the Turquoise bowl set at the thrift. I have found Butterprint dozens of times. There's an awful lot of Butterprint where I live. I don't know if it's one of the old department stores used to carry it, but it used to show up almost, I wouldn't say weekly, but monthly for sure, I could find Butterprint. Yeah. I mean, not the pink or the orange, but the regular Butterprint. It was pretty common to find a piece of it. Now, generally all I find of that is the dishwasher pieces of Pyrex that in my family we have a tradition when you find a, my tradition, when you see a dishwasher piece of Pyrex on the shelf, you hum Taps. You thank it for its service.
Bex Scott: [00:11:33] Oh, I love that. I'm gonna have to start doing that. Yeah.
Ruth: [00:11:37] Yeah.
Bex Scott: [00:11:38] In memory of this Pyrex dish, what it used to be.
Ruth: [00:11:42] Yes, exactly. Oh, isn't there nothing sadder than finding, oh, my gosh, I have found a Pink Daisy at the thrift store. Like the casseroles, the space savers, not so much the space savers, but the 043s and the 045s, have found those a couple of times at the thrift. Actually found an 045 on the thrift store shelf two, three years ago? I think that's about as recent as I can remember finding that. The good old days. The good old days when nobody knew what it was.
Bex Scott: [00:12:18] Yeah. Now it's so hard to find anything that's not dishwasher damaged. Or I find Old Orchard all the time. It's always hanging around, lurking.
Ruth: [00:12:28] And Homestead. Yeah.
Bex Scott: [00:12:32] Yeah, Homestead. And the primaries that are always just destroyed. Yeah.
Ruth: [00:12:38] That have, yeah, yeah, that have given their shine in the service of many a batch cookies. Oh yeah. Yeah. There's lots of lots of that out there. Though, I mean,to be honest, I did find the 444 Friendship and the 443 Friendship at the thrift store just a couple of months ago.
Bex Scott: [00:13:04] Oh. Awesome.
Ruth: [00:13:06] It wasn't inexpensive but it was senior day. So, you know, in Canada, one of the big thrift chains on Tuesdays has 30% off for anyone over 60. So I just, I've just outed myself there. But yeah, but with the discount it was okay. And they were really nice and they were shiny. And I'm like, you know, yeah, I've never had these. And really in 12 years I've had the 442 a couple of times, but I'd never had the two larger ones. So I thought what the heck? And I bought them for myself and now I'm going, what am I going to, yeah, because sometimes when they're in really good shape and you're like, oh, I know this is, you know something I can enjoy for a while. And when I'm done enjoying it, I can pass it on at a decent enough price point to make someone else happy.
Bex Scott: [00:14:05] Exactly. Yeah. So what would you say thrifting and Facebook Marketplace are like where you live? Are prices high, is there a good selection?
Ruth: [00:14:16] I would say things are fairly moderate. I mean, some of the stores think they have gold every time grandma donates her Butterprint bowl, but then the items frequently don't get purchased. So there's a few of the chains are bad at high pricing things, the thrift stores, but overall it's moderate. Facebook marketplace is a, we don't have the time to discuss, pricing is all over the place because, you know, people can list things for whatever they feel is an appropriate price. And some people think Chairish is where you get your pricing, and other people just want to get rid of the old bowls that they're having to clean up. So it's, uh, it's a very mixed bag. If people ever post anything that's good at a reasonable price, though, you can bet it is snapped up faster than you can say, I'm in my car and on my way to go pick it up so it can be quite competitive. If you're trying to find some pieces for yourself that are reasonably priced, or if you're a full time reseller who's trying to pay the bills with what you're making on flipping the treasures that you find. So I would say moderate to ridiculous, depending upon the sort of store and/or the person listing the item. So there's still some treasures to be found out there, but it's quite, quite competitive. And as you know, over the pandemic, the amount of people that are resellers increased exponentially. For the people who have been doing it for a long time and making a living at it, it certainly made their lives, I have a lot of, I know there's a lot of people that have disparaging things to say about resellers. Sorry, that's the word we use now. Used to always be pickers, you know, antique dealers. There was different terms for it. I have a lot of sympathy for them, their lives are not, not that their lives are ever easy, but it's definitely a lot more challenging than it used to be.
Bex Scott: [00:16:23] Right. Yeah, I agree, and I kind of feel like I contributed to some of that unhappiness because I started in the pandemic and I started reselling. So I always feel guilty. I'm like, oh no, look what I've done, I've contributed to the people who are making people's lives harder.
Ruth: [00:16:41] But you're still doing it. There's a lot of people who started during the pandemic and have already bowed out, like the attrition rate, at least, you know, by the amount of local vintage seller Instagram accounts that I follow, there's been a fairly high attrition rate. I'd say 40, maybe 50% of them are still going. Maybe, that's likely closer to 40%. So it's like anything, it's becomes either a necessity because, you know, our options for making money during that time were more difficult. So I mean, people are having, doing what they have to do or, you know, learning things because they had time. And then as other opportunities opened up again, they moved on. And that's cool. You know, everybody has the right to earn a living in the way that they feel is appropriate, and of course, legal and ethical, legal, of course, you know, no question there. And then the ethics of reselling, I mean, obviously, as someone who resells to help fund my collecting habits, I find it ethical and a great way to keep things out of the landfill because there is such a abundance of items. I know you say like, how is the thrift store and how is Facebook Marketplace, and yes, there's competition over certain items, but as a whole, the amount of goods that are available to us within the recycling cycle of, you know, post-consumer items, it's so huge.
Ruth: [00:18:22] There is so much stuff that anyone that says that resellers are driving up the prices is looking at the big picture through a toilet paper tube, like they're looking at one little section, a few portions of items, you know, a few select, more what is in fad or what is popular right now for collecting. Are those prices up a little bit because more people are looking for it? Yeah, but that is 2% of what is out there. There is so much stuff that, you know, your number one choice, you know, of course, always is use what you have. Your number two choice is buy secondhand. And then of course number three is buy new. Unless you're talking about underwear, you know, I'm sorry but underwear, always buy new. Underwear, mattresses. But just about anything else, you know secondhand is the way to go if you have to buy it. But that's not the question that you asked. So I'll rein myself in once again.
Bex Scott: [00:19:31] No, that's good. And I've heard there's so much stuff out there that's being donated and I guess trying to be donated that they're just redirecting stuff to the landfills. So the secondhand stores, they can't keep up. So if we can help with that in any way, then I think it's worth it.
Ruth: [00:19:51] Absolutely, absolutely. And I think the whole collecting of vintage items from the past is one, it's earth friendly to continue to enjoy items that have already been made, but it's also a great way to appreciate the quality goods that used to be made on our continent. And this is, again, not disparaging to a lot, there's a lot of great quality made goods being made all across the world, and I 100% support that people have the right to buy anything from wherever they want, as long as it's legal. But, you know, the things that travel the least amount of miles is always the best thing to buy if you can afford it. You know, not saying because the 100 mile diet is not practical when you live in the climates that we live in. And that's a whole nother topic too, right? I'm just saying shop secondhand. It's good for the earth.
Bex Scott: [00:21:00] Yeah. I posted on my Instagram story a couple days ago, it was an old department store photo. And I got into a bit of a conversation with somebody in direct messages, and we were talking about how it would have been so cool to go back and shop in a department store with all of the awesome items that we now collect as vintage items. And she mentioned, I don't know if you guys have HomeSense in Winnipeg. It's like the home side of Winners, do you have Winners?
Ruth: [00:21:28] Oh yeah, yeah.
Bex Scott: [00:21:29] Where you can buy all the cheaper decor for your house. But she said, wouldn't it be weird down the road if our kids or their kids say, I want to go look at what was at HomeSense, like, that's considered vintage. And then you're looking for the Live Laugh Love posters that everybody has in their house and...
Ruth: [00:21:50] Really? You think those are... I mean, there was a lot of things that came out in the 50s and 60s and 70s that nobody is collecting now.
Bex Scott: [00:22:01] True.
Ruth: [00:22:01] You know, not everything stands the test of time.
Bex Scott: [00:22:04] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:22:04] And I really hope Live Laugh Love is one of those things.
Bex Scott: [00:22:08] Yeah. That one better die off because that... yeah.
Ruth: [00:22:14] You know, there's just things that, but all the dollar store stuff that is just made to self-destruct in such a short amount of time is sad, but is that what people will be collecting? There's a lot of toys for my childhood in the 60s and 70s that at the time were considered not super great quality because they were made in, you know, whatever offshore country. And at the time, they were just the toys that we enjoyed that now people are collecting and are gaga over it. So it's not always, it's not always the quality. I thought at first, is it the quality of the item or is it the nostalgia of the item? Like what will we be, what will people be pining for in 30, 40 years? What will your kids be looking back with great fondness in 30 years and will be the collector things? It won't be, it's just like, you know, the oil lamps and the things that my parents generation collected that no one has any interest in today.
Bex Scott: [00:23:22] Yeah.
Ruth: [00:23:23] Because no one remembers them. No one has memories of their grandparents using it. They didn't grow up with it. You know, it's the silent generation. They're almost all gone. And so that stuff is just, there's a lot of it, but people aren't collecting it. And that's how things kind of cycle. Cycle in and out, you know, your mom had it, she threw it out. You know, your grandma - what was it? Your grandma had it, she threw it out, now you want it?
Bex Scott: [00:23:55] Yeah. Exactly.
Ruth: [00:23:57] All of that. All of that.
Bex Scott: [00:24:00] And what else do you love collecting other than Pyrex?
Ruth: [00:24:07] Well, it's not a short list, but to summarize, of course, Pyrex was my gateway drug for really collecting vintage items, and a lot of that had to do with where I was in my life and not raising kids anymore and having the time and the resources to do it. But I also collect Delfite glass, which is like the blue milk glass as opposed to--
Bex Scott: [00:24:35] I love Delfite--
Ruth: [00:24:35] -- gray green, which is called Jadeite. So I have quite an extensive collection of it. I have some of the Made in Canada Pyrex. Some of you may know there was a Canadian Pyrex factory for a little under ten years outside of Toronto, and they made a couple of beautiful patterns in Delfite, and also in some other beautiful blue milk glass that I'm quite fond of. And the Jeanettes, and the McKee, you know, the slightly older than that late 40s to early 50s stuff that Pyrex made from the 30s and 40s. That's when most of that Delfite came out. I can't so much afford the blue milk glass that came out in the previous century, like before 1900 and the 19th century. I admire it, but a lot of it has become so pricey I can't collect it. But anyhow, okay, what I like. I have a fairly extensive Fenton Cake plate cake stand collection.
Bex Scott: [00:25:37] Ooh, I like those.
Ruth: [00:25:38] I have some yeah, they're, I love pink, I love pink and turquoise and ruffly and girly and I just like that kind of stuff, you know, which is kind of Pyrex is a real gateway to that with the pink and the turquoise. I have quite an extensive Federal glass collection. I think I have over, yeah, over 100 pieces of that, mostly because I really like the colored dots that they released a lot of them. A lot of the Federal glass was only, the patterns were only released in Canada, so it's a little bit easier to find here. So I'm quite drawn to those patterns, like the, okay, I won't start listing them all, but Federal glass and I have a bit of Hazel-Atlas and some Fire-King, some Cathrineholm, some George Briard enamel. You know, the Cathrineholm leads you down the enamel path, and then you start picking up some fennel, you know, and some George Briard and some, I really love the balloons, the George Briard balloons pattern. It's just blue and turquoise. It's just beautiful. I love it. That's dishes. I have a weakness for vintage handmade items, very particularly in all the different types of embroidery that are out there. My mother was a prolific creator of fiber items, from quilting to many different types of embroidery to crochet and that, well, she was also a product of her generation, right? Silent generation.
Ruth: [00:27:17] She was, she grew up and was taught how to sew and crochet and tat and can and pickle and butcher and, you know, all those kinds of things. And so I, you know, grew up with all of that, did not appreciate it when I was a child, did not appreciate it when I when I was a young adult. But as I grew older, I learned to appreciate it more as I tried to do things myself that appeared very easy because my mother so seamlessly in my mind, you know, because she had decades of practice, would whip off. Oh, you want a bag for your gym clothes? You know, sat down at her sewing machine, whip, whip, here it was. Oh, you didn't like that color blouse? You want it in this color instead? Okay. And she'd whip it up for me, you know, it seemed so seamless. And then I tried doing those things myself. Not quite as seamless, but, I mean, I did, yeah. Yeah, I, you know, I like sewing, but I love vintage embroidery, vintage cruels, needlepoint, petit point. Not a huge fan of cross-stitch because it's more of a math endeavor. You just have to count and keep all your x's the same size, whereas the other ones, wow, there's a hierarchy, there's a snobbery on the embroidery scale. But anyhow, in my mind, you know, no, there's just ones I like more than others.
Ruth: [00:28:42] What else? I have collection of chalkware fish in one of my rooms. I also have a collection of wood plates. I also have a collection of ceramic deer. Being retired has its privileges because it also means I collect things and sometimes they stay with me and other times the art of acquiring the collection, of finding it, of thrifting it, you know, I'm a very regular thrifter, is the part that I really enjoyed. And at the end I decide that the enjoyment of that collection needs to move on to someone else. And so I will part with, I will part with the collection because I have collected another couple of dozen other things that I collected until it wasn't enjoyable, or it got to the point where the things I wanted were no longer easy to acquire and I moved on. Which is interesting because Pyrex is one of those things that I got to the point where the things I kind of wanted were no longer easy to acquire, but I kept, I've probably kept about 20, 25% of all the Pyrex I've ever owned, and I have a couple of hundred pieces. So I've moved on and shared a lot of Pyrex in my life. My kids will say otherwise, but I have. I have!
Bex Scott: [00:30:09] I swear I have.
Ruth: [00:30:11] I swear I have, I swear I have, I swear I have. I no longer do the three things in and one thing out. Now I'm trying to change that ratio the other way. But it's hard when you've collected things and really enjoyed them. So yeah, wow. Simple question and I went on for a while. Sorry about that.
Bex Scott: [00:30:32] No, I feel like we could do another episode on just what you collect, and I would love to hear more about it because some of the names you said I don't even recognize, so I have lots of learning to do still.
Ruth: [00:30:46] Yeah. Oh, I've had the luxury of having had a little bit more time to learn about those things. And when they're interesting and you go down the rabbit hole of learning about them and now information is so readily available compared to... You know, I remember thrifting and finding things back in the, you know, a couple of decades ago and to figure out what things were meant going to the library, trying to figure out what it was so you could even look for the right book if the book existed. Or talking to the antique dealers at the time who were not always very willing to share information. You know, that was a different generation and a different time, where people were much more protectionist to the information that they had, because that was how they made a living, and that was how they fed their families better than the next person, because they had that information. Like it's not a wanting of the Boomer, the previous generations to withhold information because they're being mean or insightful, regardless of the memes that are out there. It's because that information was what enabled them to make a living. And okay, whatever. You know, again, another topic. What were we really talking about here? Circle me back. Circle me back.
Bex Scott: [00:32:27] No, that was a perfect reply. Perfect response. So in closing, what would you say to a new collector, or what's one piece of advice that you would give them? Could be for Pyrex, could be for vintage.
Ruth: [00:32:43] Collect what you love with a caveat of 'and that your budget can support'.
Bex Scott: [00:32:49] Yes.
Ruth: [00:32:50] Right. Because it's not a passion project or a project of love if you're spending money on it that keeps a roof over your head and food on the table. But you have to love it first. To collect something because you perceive it as valuable or other people perceive it of value is a very sad way to live your life. Life is about love and passion and sharing and joy and being kind to other people, and if you're a collector, it has to be what you love.
Bex Scott: [00:33:33] I agree, especially because so much of our lives now is determined by what we see other people have or what they're doing, and it shouldn't be that way. So collecting what you love is a perfect example of how we should be living our lives. So I think that's wonderful advice.
Ruth: [00:33:52] Thank you. It's been a real pleasure speaking with you, Bex.
Bex Scott: [00:33:56] Well, thank you so much for joining me today. You gave me a whole new perspective on Pyrex and collecting, and I learned so much from you. So everybody can find Ruth at Periwinkle Collectibles on Instagram. Thank you so much, Ruth.
