As you may know, I prefer to assemble my collages with my own photos.
For ‘Julia and the Blank Pages’, that worked out fine. Even for the smallest detail (the nail). I hammered a nail into the wall and took a photograph of it.

And then the monocle. It is made from my father’s army glasses. Near-sighted conscript boys in his time all got the same kind of glasses from the Ministry of Defence. They have a solid design, do not fall off the nose easily, and fit under a gas mask.
My wife and I now have the glasses of both our fathers lying cosily side by side in ‘The Cabinet, where we display the Beautiful and Important Things’.

I have reading glasses myself. Unfortunately. I find them very impractical, but without glasses, I can’t read much anymore.
I remember when I was about 20, how much fun we had then about our mother who couldn’t get the thread into the needle anymore, reading got more difficult, and so on. She had to have glasses. My brother, my sister, and I laughed immensely then. (Sorry, Mom!)

Anyway, my reading glasses didn’t have the right frame to make into a monocle in Photoshop. Therefore, Julia proudly wears (part of) my father’s army glasses.