new stock

Even though I've been quiet on the blog front, I have been busy making new stock and hunting out vintage treasures! I had a good week in my studio-shed, printing, dyeing and sewing while Chris took time off to look after Hesper. Bliss. The result is a range of larger sized lampshades (30cm Diameter), some cushions with my "foxy" design that I had only used on kids clothes before and some dip-dyed cloud cushions. I also replenished my smaller cushions and tea towels. Most of this has been put into my space at My Little Vintage, with some left for the next fair.

Did I take any decent photos before I took them away? of course not. Have I got to rely on Facebook photos?...yep.

I have found a new fabric for my lampshades, I am now using an off-white medium-weight power loom cotton. Still organic and ethically made, it is a lighter, smoother fabric than the linen and heavier cottons I used before. It creates a better finish when rolled into a shade and lets more light through. 

I have used the last of my lovely linen for some small cushions. I printed this Foxy design and backed with a lovely woollen check - remnants from a Derbyshire mill. Sadly, this linen is no longer available, so I experimented with an organic cotton twill - I'm so-so about this. The next lot will be made with a heavier weight grainy cotton, hopefully in different colours.

I've also been accumulating lots of vintage pieces and furniture to restyle. I finally got the opportunity to photograph and list in my Etsy shop. My favourite is this Yellow Hornsea Jardiniere, which is not only stunning but apparently scarce.

  

Check out my Etsy shop here.

Thank you

x

ps: I will have a table at the My Little Vintage Fair at The Granary at Fawsley, 22nd June 11-4!

chippy shelves

The other day I went to our local YMCA shop & found just the thing I was looking for - a cheap, boring, bog-standard shelf unit to use as display at my next fair. Of course I wasn't to let it get away without being painted within an inch of its life... and of course, I haven't bothered with a before photo, but I'm sure "crappy flat pack pine unit" isn't too hard an image to conjure up.

I thought I'd experiment a bit as it's not for selling. I wanted to achieve a "chippy" paint look, like its been knocking about for years (insert your own joke). So it got two thick coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, first in "Florence" (dark green) and then "Provence" (French-style greeny-blue). After a layer of clear wax, I attacked the top layer of paint with a screwdriver. After that, there isn't much of a method, but I played around with dark wax, watered down white paint and generally building the layers up until I was happy-ish with the look. It was all sanded smooth, finished with a good layer of clear wax and finally buffed to add a smooth sheen.

I prefer this worn out look to just sanding the corners a bit, but I think it's worked better on the edges than anywhere else, but it will be fine for display.

latest finds

I just wanted to share my latest vintage finds. Purchased with the intention of selling, but as usual I have become rather attached to them:

First is this painting of roses, painted on a heavy piece of wood in oils. It is just old and charming enough to not be too twee. I think it is quite sweet, like an old biscuit tin lid from the fifties.

Then are these two wooden trugs. The smaller one caught my eye initially but I ended up getting them both! I think the larger one is for firewood and the smaller one possibly for gardening, but it could be used in so many ways in the home. 

This one is my favourite: simple, well-made and useful.

So... keep or sell?!

buy, keep, sell

A couple of recent purchases... one sold before I had got around to blogging about it!
Excuse the dismal photos of the first one, taken on a grey day in my dark little house, but if I hadn't taken these, I would have no pics at all:

I found this outside a charity shop, with a pile of manky old plant pots all collecting rain. This caught my eye, it was covered in soil but there was just something about it... and I was right! It has the name "Vetter" underneath and the mark of West German pottery.  I'm used to seeing West German pottery with rich coloured glazes - browns, reds oranges. This had a stone base with a mottled white glaze on top, so it still has the texture of the "Fat Lava" pottery but in clean, neutral colours. It has a lovely, contemporary shape too. It was a good spot, because it sold within days!

This one's the keeper:

I found this in the same shop for £5. I think the frame is plastic and I thought it might look a bit too Disney-ish, but once on the wall I think I get away with it. 

I was thinking about antiquing the glass... will I ruin it? we shall see....

vintage finds

Here are some of my latest purchases, waiting to be added to my Etsy shop. Coincidentally, they are all green and so will look good in a row of their own in my shop... I do try to group pieces that work together.

Ladybird Alphabet book

set of six Eastgate coffee cups

plant pot made in Norway

I might have to make an exception for this handsome chap though. I spotted him ages ago in a charity shop that I often go to. He was on a bookcase but was not for sale as he was used for display. He was on display on several occasions that I went back and on my last visit he had gone... only for me to find him in a differen spot with a price tag on! So I bought him home with the intention of selling.

I've become quite fond of brass paperweights since I found this lovely (which quickly sold)...  do I really want to see him ago?!

Chalk Paint Chair

This is a little bit of a "before" and "after" using Annie Sloan Chalk paint. I am a relative new beginner to this little joy, which has many enthusiastic users and now I understand why. I have painted a fair bit of furniture before but this chalk paint means no preparation and can be used in different ways to achieve different techniques. In this example, I used a chair from a charity shop which had thick layers of old gloss paint on it. With other paints, I would have sanded the white paint first to prepare a painting surface, but with this chalk paint there is no need!

So, above is the charity shop chair with its not-very-attractive thick gloss paint. The only prep I did was to wipe the chair with a clean cloth and then I just started painting. I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in "English Yellow'. I'm a bit obsessed with yellow at the moment. I painted a couple of layers of this stuff all over the chair, as Annie Sloan says in one of her YouTube demos the trick is to "just get on with it", so that's what I did!

This is the chair with its good coating of yellow paint - as you can see, there are brush strokes and texture in the paint. I painted quickly and in different directions to intentionally leave brush strokes in the paint. This is where the dark wax will sit to give a distressed effect.

Next, I applied Annie Sloan Clear Wax all over the chair, I used a lint-free cloth (my budget hasn't stretched to a £35 wax brush just yet) and again applied this fairly quickly, rubbing a layer of the wax all over. Next, I brushed in the Dark Wax, using circular movements and only working on a small section of the chair at a time. Excess dark wax was then wiped off with a cloth leaving it sitting in the textures of paint. Once completed, I used sandpaper in some areas to distress further and the whole chair was given a final layer of clear wax, to give it a smoother feel and durable finish.