antiques/junking

The mall is decked out in patriotic tones for 4th of July decorating.  Of course, since this is retail, we need to be ahead of the season so you can have a chance to gather up our finds to use for yourself.

That is the same reason I am making brooms and painting ravens now, so they will be set and ready to go in August and September for Halloween.

Our July sale will be on the 5th and 6th, so now is the time to display these colors.

My garage is filled with stacks of clear storage tubs and throughout the year as I find treasures, I  coordinate them into those.  Some containers are themed by holiday, others by season, the rest by colors.  So my red tub of goodies is ready to delve into for the 4th, Christmas, and for Valentines.

It’s good to have items in a shade that goes well with the holiday without being only for that date.  You can see here that there are very few flag pieces, I’m suggesting the theme just with the colors of the day.

The space was done and ready to go when I realized, I’d almost missed out on another important holiday.  Father’s Day was just around the corner, so I squeezed in a few tidbits for the dads and topped it off with a Moose Lodge hat on the bust I had repainted.  The statue was previously flat brown, with beat up marks showing the white plaster underneath.  

Typically, I am all about messed up areas that show age, but this one was all wrong. The white starkly glared through the dark brown, in places it shouldn’t, like his nipples.

Nope.

So I repainted it to look like cement, and added it to my garden area before turning him into my Father’s Day spokesperson. In front of him is a basket with dad friendly items, keys, pipes, money clips, etc.  Hopefully there is something there that will make a thoughtful gift for pops.

I’ll have more pictures of the girlier side of the booth in my next post.

Speaking of important men in our lives, this guy turns 64 today on 6/4. Happy birthday, my love!

Remember the outlandishly beautiful violin I recently found that was appraised for thousands- IF I put thousands into repairing it?  I thought I might have come across another rare, old piece, this time a clock.

But you might notice, I’m showing you pieces of it, not an entire clock.

Well, there was a bit more to the tale.   I’d spied it on a dismal day of garage sailing, when this is all I came home with.  It was in a free pile! I was very excited to see the gorgeous wooden case, and didn’t even look closely.  I knew that if the clock itself wasn’t fixable, I could part it out and transform the case into a cabinet.  Still, I could see at a glance that it was very old, and high quality.

(Pictured upside down)

My first step in the process of not hitting a jack pot? Letting the 7lb brass weight roll around and break the glass on the drive home.

But I knew glass could be replaced, so I spent some time researching online (where we all think we become experts) and discovered it was made in the late 1800s by a good name in clocks and could also be worth a lot, like my 1800s violin almost was.

Almost.

Third step, which shoulda been the first one, was examining the piece.  And finding it was riddled with holes.  Then seeing little beetles crawling out of those holes.  It had an active infestation.  And some parts of the wood were so eaten away, they were crumbling.  

Fourth step was demo, salvaging the lovely brass, then disposing of the case and all of its friends, and treating everywhere it had been with diatomaceous earth so none of those critters stayed behind as souvenirs.   Then I took a shower.

Okay, so now I am two for two on lucky seeming finds that are very pretty, but not worth what they could’ve been.  I don’t consider either a loss, both were  cool to come across whether they were valuable or not.  

This was a fun adventure, even with the creepy crawlies.

This is a violin I found at a garage sale a couple weeks ago, and I was drawn to the beautiful inlays on the back.

With a quick, online search, I found a translation.  But it took Sugarwings to explain to me that it meant the tree itself was silent til its wood was used to create this instrument.  That part went right over my head.

The case it came in is also lovely.  

To find out more info, I took the pretty piece into a local music store.  I knew it was not in very good condition, but could also tell it was very old and well made.  They agreed that the shape it was in was pretty bad, and said it would take thousands of  dollars to restore it.

Which wasn’t in my game plan at all.  I’m not a musician, I bought it for its delightful looks. And the appraiser agreed it was worth a few hundred as is, just for its antiquity and style.

He said it was made in the late 1800s in Germany by Neuner & Hornsteiner.  If in playing condition, it would be a $10,000 violin.

I gather things for their beauty, not their worth, and have been lucky to be given a couple of old violins to Foof up with Guncle Randy. And now, here I find one so gorgeous, it needs nothing but admiration as is.

As a spectacular bonus, I found out that the music store often has old, trashed violins they want to get rid of!  I might have a source for more that I can decorate! I am thrilled, because they make such an inviting basis for reinvention.

At present, I have one beat up, cracked fiddle to remake.  I’d love to have a few more to do a holiday display with at Juju, along with white trees and angels.  I cannot part with the two I already redid, so I need to have a few more to create with to complete the display.  I will be bringing the fabulously vintage one in then also, as the star of the show.

 It’s much too nice for me to keep, it should go to a true music lover.