Snake Q&A 011: Alix Vollum
Snake Q&A 011: Alix Vollum
Scavo, Margiela, Prada, 2004 BMWs, oil paintings of horses and hares, bliss in the wild
Snake is a weekly newsletter covering severe deals and knowledge, mostly in furniture. For a representative sample, click here for the most recent auction rundown, and here for the most recent designer rundown.
Now at Snake: Every other Friday or so an interview with a person in good standing of the newsletter whose taste in vintage, furniture, collectibles and adjacent fields is worth celebrating and learning from. Sellers, buyers, set decorators, artists, adjacents, etc…
Here’ the 11th…
Alix Jean Vollum / IG / Oxford NY/Hood River OR / Artist, rural land developer / Website
Alix has better taste than just about anyone I know, or have seen. She’s on a plane that is hard to articulate, much less reach; I learn more from her than most. I was pleased to see some of the theory behind how she operates in the interview below.
Q&A 011
Fav flea market?
I’m not a flea market shopper really. Though if someone wants to take me I’ll go.
Best flea market day ever—what did you get?
See previous, but one time I found an iMac G3 at the Goodwill bins in Los Angeles with someone’s iTunes library of Limewire downloads circa 1999.
Best eBay purchase?
Bootleg Snoopy plush I bought as a gift for my mom, or lot of 51 Cat Fanciers Association show ribbons from the 1980s (pictured). Church’s loafers for pretty cheap. Often I search by material and region of manufacture, looking for pieces that feel “sci fi,” a quality I can’t define. But examples include silver calf-height lace up boots, an arced lucite necklace on a silk cord, lamb leather jacket with beaded cuffs, butter yellow ankle boots (flat), sheer white silk base layers, silver satin bag shaped like an egg, lab coat-style high neck dresses.
Best Craigslist find?
My car, a 2004 BMW 330xi 6-speed.
Best LiveAuctioneers find?
There was this floor lamp I was obsessed with, described as “ascending in a skyscraper form from a conical base suspended on torch-cut devil’s tail legs,” which sold for the starting price of $500. Why didn’t I bid? I don't understand my own mind sometimes. Occasionally when I miss out on an auction or otherwise don't buy something that calls to me I get it in my head that I should just remake it, my own bootleg version. This happened recently with a needlepoint pillow I saw at a consignment store. A few days later I ordered a kit on eBay that, while completely unlike the one I had decided not to buy, captures the same feeling. I started making my own beeswax candles for this reason. Clothing, newspapers, Dutch golden age still life paintings— same idea. There's obviously hubris in trying to recreate something, so it's humbling and funny, a good joke to play on myself. Anyone who has tried to arrive at understanding by copying realizes it's a time-intensive and expensive approach, but the results can be entertaining and illuminating. I admit the lamp is an ambitious example of this thinking.
To answer your question, the one thing I've actually won on LiveAuctioneers so far was a three-part tansu cabinet from an auction house in Pennsylvania. My car only fits two parts at a time so it's funny that I've had to move it twice already and need to move it again soon. I’m trying not to buy furniture until I start building my house, but I have a wishlist.
IG seller account you hang out on/look at their stuff the most?
@jamesveloria—I think you turned me on to them. I also love @sacredestate [since deleted— or banned? Etsy shop here], @the___zoo, and my friend Kait @darlingtonia_vtg.
Thing you most regret passing on?
I try not to dwell on this but I can’t get over an early 19th century mousetrap I saw at Sotheby’s, I think about it all the time. Also there was a lacquered wood deco furniture suite on LA that I let slip by, which illustrated to me the consequences of allowing practical considerations (like money, or space) to override the emotional pull of something like moss green mohair upholstery. Totally could have lived with both of those impulsive purchases. I have to trust my instincts.
Period photo from LA of one of the pieces in the original owner’s home—good lighting.
Best thing you got for insanely cheap?
Miele vacuum I found on the street in Cobble Hill (free, obviously), followed by Prada skirt suit from the best thrift store in Portland ($20).
Best thing you overpaid for?
My Craigslist car, but I’m sure I overpay for things all the time. I do a lot of sketchy consumerist math to delude myself into thinking that I’m not overpaying, e.g. I spent $75 on two forks from replacements.com to fill out a set I bought for $2 at a thrift store (not by a notable designer or special in any widely legible way, I just liked it), so, all told, a reasonable price for flatware to my mind.
Favorite piece of furniture you own?
My desk/dining table, a slab with tapered legs—it’s heavy and basic (some would say rustic) and it’s the only table I own.
What’s one thing you own that you won’t ever sell?
Can I tell you about the things I do regret selling? A bleach-stained Todd Oldham shift dress, Y’s knee-length black skirt with exterior pockets I bought in Tokyo in 2015, a handmade gold silk dress with a paisley pattern, 1950s magician’s assistant sequined leotard that I bought in college (not sure if I sold this actually but I can’t find it anywhere), cream color raw silk trench coat, Yohji Yamamoto sleeveless dress, Comme des Garçons skirt suit from I want to say 2001 but I’m too dispirited by my idiotic choices to fully investigate… so on the basis of past experience I’m hesitant to sell any of my clothes. If I do let something go I’ll give it to a friend or donate it to a thrift store. The clothes I’ve listed on eBay are priced stupidly high, except for some Prada pants that don’t fit me.
Piece you have now that you despise and want to replace?
I don’t feel that way about anything, I can’t imagine having animosity towards the things in my home. I’d rather have no furniture than furniture I despise. Same with clothing. That said I’m drawn to pieces where I’m unable to discern whether they are good or bad, but contempt never enters into it. If something calls to me, even if it repulses me, I’m confident that the reason I’m attracted will be revealed eventually (i.e. the process by which I come to trust my instincts).
Who do you think sold more records: Nelly Furtado or Three 6 Mafia?
No idea.
Secret spot that you love but won’t tell anyone about? (please describe as judiciously as possible while omitting any identifiable characteristics)
I like the thrift store in the town where I live upstate both for its convenience and proximity and because most things cost 25 cents or a dollar. Good selection of acetate ribbon, candlesticks, hand-knit sweaters, coveralls from the forklift manufacturing plant, discontinued lightbulbs—it’s difficult to spend $20 there but I did it once and everyone was incredulous.
There’s a thrift store somewhere on Long Island that’s very important to me; last time I was there I bought a glass vitrine. There are two thrift stores in Portland where I shopped when I was a teenager, both long gone, and those are my secret and most-loved spots, probably because they only exist through the vaselined lens of my memory. It was a time of crazy abundance, when high quality items were more widely available and cheaper, obviously I didn’t know how lucky I was at the time… so these stores represent an idealized version of thrift shopping with unlimited potential, and also act as a proxy for what’s been lost when I go off on one of my bitter denunciations of the declining quality of consumer goods and the sorry state of contemporary merchandising. Weirdly I’ve dreamt about both of those stores recently.
Rarest/most canon vintage thing you have but never wear?
I don’t think anything I have is particularly rare or valuable. I’m not strategic like that. Right now I live in the woods, so most of my clothes are in storage and I only wear things that are practical, durable, and warm.
Most jealousy-inducing thing you’ve seen?
Women with narrow size 7 feet.
Favorite Russian novelist?
I started reading Russian literature when I entered my 30s so I’m just starting out. Ask me again in eight years.
Is there a field of collecting are you looking to get into in the near future? (Furniture era/paper/autographs/stamps/model trains/computer shirts/90sHarley shirts/digital watches/lighters/slot cars/faberge eggs/Amish quilts etc)
Without really intending to I started collecting scavo glass. If you’re not familiar, it’s a technique for creating a weathered texture to make glass look ancient, like an excavated artifact. Affordably priced fake antiquities, art and clothes made by friends, early 2000s sedans, perfume (email me if you want to talk about fragrance), bootleg Snoopy items, Marc Jacobs runway pieces, discontinued candy I remember from childhood, amateur oil paintings of hares and horses, 80s-90s issues of World of Interiors, deadstock vintage pantyhose.
Scavo vase from Goodwill; Bruce High Quality Foundation inscribed marble fragment from The Met’s Roman antiquities collection, reproduced in Play-Doh; Greek Orthodox icons from eBay.
What’s the item that’s been on your watchlist the longest without you having pulled the trigger?
This silver lamp base, shaped like a boot (perfect object), MM6 sequin shorts (delightful concept, weird length), asymmetrical Jil Sander skirt (only $40 but boring).
Is the best vintage/furniture online or in the wild?
Looking at things online helps me clarify my vision when I’m shopping irl. But finding something good online is just whatever compared to coming across it in the world… total euphoria, bliss.
Has all the cool shit been discovered? (Yes or no answer only)
Never. And that doesn’t even touch on the tacky, confusing, bizarre, obscene, cute, unsettling, beautiful etc. (richer aesthetic categories)
Any more unknown vintage accounts you want to rep or boost? Furniture? (feel free to include local spots)
This eBay account that sells antique clock parts, Zoe B’s radio show on WFMU, Natalia who has a way of dressing/living that discloses extreme care towards materials and sublime attention to detail (IG; NTS show), and my mom who is a lifelong garage sale shopper and eBay early adopter with impeccable wide-ranging taste and an unparalleled eye (you can only follow her on Instagram if you know her, though).
Follow Alix on Instagram.
Snake is a weekly newsletter covering severe furniture deals. Want a representative sample? Click here for the most recent auction rundown, and here for the most recent designer rundown.