If you asked my brother Tim if I'd rather get something new or be given something old, he'd immediately sigh and choose the older option. He has never understood my fascination with things from the past. I wouldn't call them antiques because that will give them a certain air of value or quality. I appreciate worthless crap too.
When my Great Aunt Mae died earlier this year and our family started cleaning up her house, I jumped at the chance to take things no one else wanted. Specifically crafty things. Sewing, knitting, that kinda stuff. I knew my aunt shared my love of crafting, so I figured I might get a few pieces. Little did I know...
...I'd inherited an entire closet worth of stuff. And yes, since you asked, my grandmother IS holding an alphabet stencil ruler. Aren't I lucky to be the proud owner of that priceless gem now?
But in all seriousness, I gained quite a few things that I am more than excited about.
These cameos belonged to my Great Great Aunt Hannah. (Pure coincidence that we share a name. It was not intentional of my parents.) The sticker says genuine cameo and I have no idea what that means, but these are just beautiful.
This is a shoebox full of nothing but zippers. I don't know what I'll do with them, but they're way too great to not hold on to. The zipper lying on top with the orange sticker on it was originally 19 cents. That sale sticker says its reduced to 10 cents. Talk about a bargin!
This cardboard cutting board is 6 feet wide. You can still find these, and fairly inexpensively, but the logo on it is the best part.
PieceGoods was my mom's first job. I'm fairly certain they don't exist anymore. I tried to do some Google research and found nothing. There's a facebook group for it, but the last anyone mentions seeing one was in 1997.
This is one of my most prized additions. I just can't handle how cute this instruction manual is. I want to frame it. But seriously.
I've saved the best for (almost) last. This was what I was most excited about. A dress form. She'll need a name, so if you have a suggestion, I'd love to hear it. That dress she's wearing comes off and I can adjust her a million different ways until her shape almost identically matches mine. I haven't figured out how to use her yet, but once I do, she'll be my new best friend.
This bucket was another exciting acquisiton. (I think I've said that about every one of them now.) It's from my grandmother, not my great aunt. It's a large tin, filled to the top with buttons. Hundreds of buttons. Years and years of saving those extra buttons that come with clothes. I've always thought that jars of buttons are about as perfect as crafting life comes, so when I saw this bucket, I fell in love and started planning.
Someday...
I knew I needed to divide them, so I grabbed cups and labeled.
I started with 12 different colors, thinking that would be enough, but by the time I finished, I'd expanded to 16 categories.
Black, silver, gold, brown, red, orange, yellow, white, green, blue, navy, cream, purple, pink, wood, and clear. There are some truly amazing buttons in there. And I learned a lot about how organized my aunt was by sorting them.
A lot of the buttons were still inside these paper envelopes and she had written the corresponding outfit on the paper. I have no idea if that was the original intention of the paper envelope, but I think it's pretty brilliant.
Some of the buttons that were still attached to their original boards I left alone. 29 cents for 6 buttons? How times have changed...
For those of you who have held on through that trip back in time... I have a future project to share.
This Christmas tree hangs on my grandmother's wall all year. I am so in love with the idea. The entire tree is made of old jewelry. Good jewelry that has seen better days. An earring without a mate. A pin missing a few stones. Beautiful pieces.
It's so fun to look at. You always see something new. In the lower corner of this picture you can see an owl. When I first joined Kappa and noticed the owls, I tried to count all the owls on the tree, but every time I came up with a different number because I'd find a new one, or forget where one was hidden. If you look, you can made out a telephone pin. My grandmother worked for a telephone company for years. There are at least 4 telephone in the tree. It's just such a unique piece.
When I told my grandmother that I wanted to start collecting pieces for my own, she gave me about half a sandwich bag of old jewelry to start with. She said I'll need more than a shoebox worth before I'm done, but it's a good start! She also said that people donated a lot of the pieces when they heard what she was doing. They'd rather it go to her art than to a garage sale.
So I'm sending out the same plea. If you have any old, lonely, broken jewelry that would otherwise find it's way to the nearest Goodwill, send it my way. I'm thinking of making a big crown instead of a tree. The whole thing will sparkle. It will be glorious.
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