more thrift shop goodies

Several days ago I photographed a bunch of Sally Ann treasures that I had picked up over time. I had quite a few images so I decided break the images into three groups. This is the second group of goodies. These three blog posts are by no means showing all of the stuff I have gathered but some of the items that are nudging my creative juices at the moment.

You no doubt have seen from previous posts seen that I like brassy golden metals with some patina on them. I picked up the three tiered picture frame about a month ago and then immediately set to taking it apart. Each frame is about 3" high with convex glass. Most likely I won't be using the glass. I kept the fabric covered cardboard for possible use later.

I love the vintage Italian picture frames and buy them whenever I find them unless they are overpriced that is. There were three 5 1/2" picture frames at Saint Vincent de Paul last week They were asking $8.00 each for them, I declined telling them that I buy them for half that price elsewhere. The cashier said that they go online to see what they are selling for and then price them. I am sure that someone bought them for their inflated price.

The large necklace/bracelet thingy I am going to take apart. It is made from small hemispheres of metal. I thought that I could sew them on to a background cloth with a seed bead in the centre to hold the metal piece on to the cloth. They will also work for visual texture if I decide to make an elaborate bead tassel.

The three rings are perfect for a small figure performing "The Chinese Linking Rings". The magician shows 5 or 8 single rings that link and unlink at the magician's will. This figure will perform with 3 rings!

The tiny pen knife is about 1 1/8" long. I have had it for quite a while and have not used it; there will be the perfect sculpture to use it with one day.

The bracelet was in the preceding picture but this is a much better look at it. The colour is perfect for a watch chain or to use for a necklace, belt or turban accent on an Oriental figure. The chain drapes beautifully.

The tiny broom is not for use with a figure but as an instruction guide on how to make a small broom of this style. It was bought many years ago and I have never seen another.

The bracelet was bought several months ago and has some wonderful exotic "Jewels" for an Oriental maiden or magician's assistant. Hmmmm... more brassy gold, I do love that colour.

I bought the vintage striped silk scarf last week, it is perfect for Hallowe'en costumes.

These two wood picture frames were bought last year. I don't buy wooden picture frames too often because the scale and detail just don't look right. These two frames I thought would be good for snowmen portraits. I love doing 3D portraits with the figure popping out of the frame towards the viewer. When I was photographing these the other day I noticed that there is gold paint under the creme paint. I may just leave them in the slightly battered condition, we shall see.

I am getting more images ready for my Etsy shop and should have them up next week.

General Salvage at Jacklin Trading Post

Remember this photograph from my last post, well here is my tour of General Salvage as promised.

What can I say, I love General Salvage. There is so much in this place to look at. When I go there I try to keep an open mind, forget what the items are used for because anything can be turned into something else. Before I forget, General Salvage is in the basement of Jacklin Trading Post. The upstairs is crammed with antiques. If you plan to visit, spend an entire day or do it over several days so that you don't go into overload shock mode!

I must apologize for some of the out of focus photos. I have tried to bring them into focus as much as possible with my image editor program but a bad photo is just a bad photo.

There are small alcoves that have items for specific needs. This alcove has vintage and antique plumbing fixtures and bathroom accessories.

The variety of lamp fixtures is amazing. Once the fellow wouldn't sell me an embossed die-cut brass ring for holding a glass oil lamp shade because I said that I was going to cut it apart to be used in some of my sculptural pieces, evidently they are hard to find. I appreciate that very much, I have some items that I just cannot cannibalize for that reason.

This aisle is a real treat to browse through. On the right side of the picture are metal parts from vintage and antique lamps to be reassembled into your own creation. Some of those lamp parts are from gas lighting fixtures. There are cabinets with thin sliding trays that are filled with hinges and anything else that you may or may not be looking for.

On the top shelf there are glass panels from damaged glass lamp shades, pastel frosted glass boudoir shades and Art Deco wall sconce shades. The middle shelf has all kinds of vintage lamp base parts.

This area has banister spindles and salvaged pieces from broken chairs. On the right hand side of this photo you can see some of those thin drawers that I mentioned earlier, filled with all kinds of treasures. There are lots of cabinets and drawers filled with treasures all around the shop.

Here is a sample of antique door hardware. The etched designs on some of the old brass plates are quite beautiful.

Here is another very old showcase filled with vintage glass door knobs, metal door knobs and a wide variety door hard ware. Some of the hardware could be framed and treated as art work.

More glass shades and wall sconces as well as the metal bases for attaching the sconces to the wall. He has several glass cabinets filled with antique glass shades.

I don't go into this area very much, it is mainly electrical parts. My son and I found a porcelain light bulb socket and a button light switch that he used to turn a brass light cage into a table lamp. I want that table lamp, he did a beautiful job.

This photograph of a portion of the kitchen/household area has antique crockery, pastry molds and old scales. There are boxes and baskets of items to browse through.

Here is another view of the kitchen/household area. The shelves on the wall have old bottles and tins of all sorts.

This old fireplace would be quite wonderful in a very contemporary shop. He has fireplace fenders, fireplace tongs, brushes and shovels of all sorts.

There are tins, boxes, baskets, bottles and... stuff. The place is crammed with lots of very interesting STUFF!

The bedroom/boudoir area has side tables, bed frames, lamps, and chairs of all sorts. I think that I have said "of all sorts", "treasures", and "stuff" or something very similar quite a lot in this post. There is another area with disassembled metal bed frames in the shop.

Now we are going out the back door and up the back walk to the less valuable and more weather proof merchandise.

If you are interested in recreating a 1920's garden there is some galvanized wire fencing just behind that wood stove insert. He has door frames, window frames with most of the glass in them, and a few farm implements.

Inside the big arched tent like structure are doors and banister parts, and some interesting hanging lamps.

This section shows the variety of sinks, bathtubs, and faucets available.

Here are more sinks, some medicine cabinets, mirrors, and farther down windows that are in better repair than the ones outside.

Rows of assorted solid wood doors all minus there hardware, you can purchase that inside.

There are shelves of assorted vintage and not so vintage glass lamp shades.

This last picture of the tented area shows assorted tools, windows, and even some old crates down at the very end.

The upstairs shop called "Memories" as I said has antiques but the downstairs is filled the bits and pieces of daily living from bygone eras. I go there fairly often and love every minute of it.

Busy as a beaver and other tidbits

I am not be as regular with my blog postings as I had hoped to be. This last month's posts have been a little erratic. I have a ton of work to get ready for later on in the year. And as I mentioned before, that is all that I will say for now. On top of that we will be having company for about three weeks in July. I am looking forward to seeing our daughter as well as seeing our son Mike's girl friend. In the meantime the house has to be tidied, cleaned and a few areas painted.

Two weeks ago I sold some of my vintage items at a collectables and antiques show. I did well with my sales. I had my eyes on two pairs of Victorian walking boots and fortunately bought them at the end of the show. They are going to be used in two separate pieces.

This is the black pair. Resting on the boots are two spindles that I purchased from an antiques and collectables shop close by. I have plans for these beautiful spindles. I must be off. I will post when I can.