The Annual Summer Flea Market in Rorschach, Switzerland.

In my last post I mentioned the annual flea market in Rorschach, Switzerland. We arrived there in the early afternoon. Rorschach is a lakeside town. It shares the Bodensee, see means lake, with Austria, Germany, and obviously the rest of Switzerland that rests on its shoreline.

The market is part garage sale and part antique/vintage market. I was in heaven.

This dealer had lots of patio furniture. It looked to be fairly new but he did have vintage pieces as well. Germany is in the background.

Here is another look at his booth. I love that yellow van.

I think this may be the fellow that owned the yellow van, but I am not certain. He was very friendly and was interested to know that I was from Canada.

There were lots of vintage toys to be had.

On the other side of the restaurant in the background was an ice cream stand. I bought 2 scoops of the most amazing ice cream in a waffle cone. One was chestnut and meringue, the other I think was mocha. The scoops were about 3" across. The cone cost me 8 Swiss francs, which is about $8.75 Canadian. Ice cream in Switzerland is not inexpensive but it is better than anything that I have had in Canada!

I had to photograph this snow globe. It is so silly. I have seen life size fibreglass cows around Switzerland, each with a unique paint job.

By now I had totally lost everyone else and just decided to not worry about it and just nose about on my own.

There was lots to look at. Most of the stuff I wasn't interested in. I did have my luggage to think about though when deciding to purchase anything.

Like I mentioned before it was a mix of vintage and antique dealers and garage sale merchandise.

And now we are at the end. It doesn't look to be that big but it took several hours to walk the length of the market. There were many areas that were adjacent to the walkway that had a dozen or more dealers in a group. I did have to take into account the price of items I was interested in, the cost would have been too high once taking in the exchange rate.

Well, I had better get on to listing more merchandise for my Etsy shop. I have more pictures of our Swiss trip to share with you, there was inspiration all around us.

Goodies From Switzerland

I was on the lookout for interesting items that I could use in my work once we came back home. I also collect interesting bits and pieces just because they are... interesting. That isn't a great sentence but that sort of sums it up.

The brass knob and the iron pull were going to be tossed out into the recycling at our son's house. They updated the brass knobs to a much nicer contemporary handle. I figured that I could alter it and use it as a curtain tie-back or something similar. The iron drawer pull has great possibilities but they haven't come to the surface yet!

I tore this logo from the side of a cardboard box, I liked the design; it also reminded me of Josephine Baker, an American singer, dancer, and actress who lived in Paris and later became a French citizen.

This is a beer coaster promoting an open air concert in St. Gallen, another Swiss town about 20 minutes away. The graphic is interesting but the back side of the coaster advertising Shutzengarten beer, the concert's sponsor, is fun. Have a look at the photo of beer cap on the grass.

I picked up this hammered copper pot at a Salvation Army store in Rorschach, at least that is where I think it was. If my son reads this he'll correct me! It stands 2 3/4" high and measures 2 3/4" across the top, a nice small size to be used in a sculpture.

I will be doing a post about the annual Rorschach flea market but in the mean time here is what I came away with. Unfortunately weight, space, fragility, and price curtailed many purchases. This trim was only 5 Swiss francs; that works out to around $5.65 in Canadian dollars. It is 1" wide and about 5 feet long, a very good buy indeed.

I love vintage graphics and when I saw this matchbox my heart leapt, it really did! It was close to the end of the market day and everyone was packing up. I asked the woman how much it was and she just said to take it. I was ecstatic!

I follow a blog called Agence ereuka from France. Occasionally she posts vintage match boxes and this particular box was in a group that she had posted during our stay in Switzerland.

I know, a wooden splint basket... I liked it. This had small white potatoes in it. Other vegetables and fruit would also come in cardboard baskets but did not have the same personality. Sabine, (pronounced Sahbeenaye) Rob's wife, bought these but when I go grocery shopping I will buy for packaging sometimes or get fruit and veggies that are the most interesting to look at. Trish loves to draw them as well.

I bought these playing cards at a Coop store. Coop is pronounced kope NOT co-op.

The cards are from Belgium and are used in some sort of card game.

There are only 9 of each suit, 36 cards in total. I have two sets of these cards.

I have 2 very ornate gold lamps from Spain and have been considering using the cards in place of fabric on the lamp shade.

Well, there are the treasures that I brought back with me, nothing earth shattering but each special in its own unique way.

Don't forget to check out my Etsy shop, I have just added some new items.

Thrift Stores, Dollar Stores, And Flea Markets, Oh My!

I have shopped at thrift stores, dollar stores, garage sales, and flea markets, for as long as I can remember. There is always something there that I can turn into something else. I have never thought in terms of recycling, but I suppose that is what I do. I like the idea of getting something cheap as well. I also like to shop the clearance area at design stores.

Most of the time I don’t design an item and then make it. Usually I see an item that sparks an idea and then the work progresses from there. Once in a while I may make a small sketch as a reminder but that is all. I generally find drawing limits my designing. I will start making the item and then let it tell me what it wants to become. I will step in and make certain that the design is balanced, the colours are working, and the details all work together as a whole. It is like a dance, first I lead then the item leads and so forth. It is a lot more fun working this way and I also get more interesting finished pieces. I have come up with pieces that I would never have thought of if I had sat down and designed it on paper. I have also come up with some things that should never have seen the light of day! Those are the pieces that are more fun to talk about though.

The church down the road had their annual garage sale today. Every year I make certain to go to it. Last year all I found was a 1940’s green sprinkler for 50 cents. It doesn’t work very well but it looks great. Today I picked up three necklaces of glass and stone beads - $1.50, 2 bouquets of vintage milliner’s flowers - 50 cents, a very ugly chandelier that will be cannibalized for parts - $2.00, and three vintage plants from China made out of glass - $5.00. So for a grand total of $9.00 I have some great finds that will inspire some interesting ideas.

A few years ago I had to provide a backdrop at a wedding where people could be photographed. The wedding was on January 3. We decided against doing a Christmas tree and instead I opted for lit topiaries, rosemary wreathes, and a profusion of fruits, vegetables, bread, and beautiful full blown red roses. All of this cascaded out of wire baskets and around a candelabrum. The trees, wire baskets and candelabra were clearance items bought at a fraction of the retail price. Hooray for post-Christmas sales. I forgot to mention that I had a 2 week time period to shop design and build all of this.

Here is a close-up of the fruit and veggies.

Our oldest son married a very charming and beautiful Swiss girl. When they came to Canada 3 days after the wedding we had a big party here for everyone that didn't make it to the wedding. I was going to do traditional flowers for the party but when we went to Paboom, one of our favourite dollar stores. I saw a garland of floral minilights. That is where the idea for giant electric roses came from.

Here is a close-up of the electric roses.

Each of the tables had a small version of the giant urn.

Here is Paboom, not your traditional dollar store but more of a designer dollar store.

They always have interesting displays in their windows.

They sell all sorts of neat stuff.

Another interior shot of Paboom. They have everything needed for the well presented home at great prices. When you come to Victoria visit them. Paboom Home Imports Limited – 641 Fort Street, telephone 380-0020.