Nostalgia is a longing for the past. I have a friend who is nostalgic for all things from the 1800s. I laughed the first time he told me that. I didn’t realize how old he was. In reality we can be nostalgic for past times that came before us but it still sounds funny to me.
I have an aunt who collects vintage items like dishware, clothing, and furniture. I’m not sure what she does with it all. She is an interior decorator but she keeps some of the things she finds. She has spent her life browsing antique stores and visiting estate sales. I wouldn’t call that a glamorous lifestyle but it sure sounds better than sitting in an office or a factory all day. It’s not the kind of work I would do, because I have no taste in art. I’m no good at interior decorating.
People are in love with the past. If you can sell old oil paintings you will find quite a market for it. But what if you cannot sell the paintings? There might be another way to make money from them. After all, these paintings are in the public domain, right?
It seems there are people who visit art galleries and take pictures of famous paintings. They sell those photos online, or prints of them. This is another way of turning one of your hobbies into a business. It is time-consuming but it’s a way to defray your travel costs.
If you can sell prints you can sell printed items. Imagine taking your picture of an old oil painting and upload it to CafePress. How many coffee mugs and t-shirts could you design with artwork by the great masters? Why is no one doing this already? Is there a legal catch I’m not aware of?
The Past Is All Around Us
If you have ever eaten in a Cracker Barrel restaurant you’ve studied the old objects hanging on the walls. That is what modern interior decoration looks like: it’s packaged and commercialized. Mass produced, I guess you could say.
But Cracker Barrel has tapped into a high demand industry. When you browse their stores you find a lot of retro-designed merchandise. It’s manufactured in the latest factories but looks like it was made in the 1800s. The quilts are pretty good.
What would it take to turn a daily experience into a lifetime work-from-home business? Are there old buildings in your city? That’s a picture book you can sell on Amazon. Are there national parks in your area? That’s a history book.
I don’t know what all the rights laws are like. If you decide to turn the past into a business you should do some research. These pictures may be subject to trademarks or copyrights that I don’t know about. I’m just assuming that if you take the pictures yourself you should be okay.
Making Replica Vintage Clothes Is a Business
I’ve stumbled across Websites where they sell vintage clothing made at home. Maybe they used modern sewing machines but at least the stuff was hand-made, in the sense it didn’t come from a factory.
And in addition to vintage clothing it’s possible to make almost anything in a vintage style. All you need are the tools, a design, and the right skills.
And there I go again – you need some skills and talent to do this stuff. I wish I had a “vintage dish stamping” machine that would just pop them out on one side for me to sell.
I guess with 3-D printers coming along everyone will be able to make their own replica vintage stuff at home. If you’re thinking about doing this as a business, you’d better start it up sooner rather than later. In about 10 years everyone will be able to print their own replicas.
The clothing may not come out of 3-D printers for a while. But if you haven’t taken a sewing class then you won’t be selling any dresses. Well, unless you start browsing estate sales. Say “hi” to my aunt if you run into her, will you?
The picture by Plum leaves is used under Creative Commons license 2.0.
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