Some yardsale fun...

One of the things I find really fun in the summer is yardsales. I ended up at a couple this summer and scored some amazing things!

Candlestick, wind-up travel clock, mini teapot and pepper grind, from the sale in my laneway.

I really loved the painting on this candlestick, and I've got a beeswax candle that will look very nice on it in the wintertime. The clock too will come in very useful, I think. I like that it's small and folds up, and I've been looking for a windup clock for my room for a while. Yes, they're noisy and have to be wound every day, but it somehow seems easier than having to go out and buy replacement batteries after a year! As for the mini teapot and pepper grind, I thought they were really pretty! The kid gloves (in the picture below) I also picked up here. They seem to just fit, and although the embroidered pair is a little stained, they're both so beautiful.

Coral necklace, some really groovy clip-on earrings, an antique crochet hook, hair curler and glove stretcher,  from the Kensington Market street sale, and two sets of kid gloves from the laneway.

I also ended up going to the very first Kensington Market Pedestrian Sunday of the season. For anyone who doesn't know, this is where they close off the streets of the Kensington Market neighbourhood one Sunday of each month through the summer and fall, and there are often different things going on in the street, like buskers playing. On this particular Sunday, because it was the first, the residents had a whole bunch of yardsales on the street. From this sale I got jewellry (coral necklace and gold clip-on's in the photo above) and some really neat vintage textile/clothing-related bits!

A Châtelaine: HSM Challenge #1

 Challenge: Procrastination. I started this in the summer- and I finished it only about a week ago (ok, I guess not so bad, but still...).

Material: Metal (mostly brass with some gold-covered parts, I think)- more specifically, two old buttons, chain, some wire and some small metal bits for attaching pieces of jewellery to one another.

Period: Late 18th century/early 19th century

How historically accurate is it? I made it mostly to look good. While the design is inspired by one that I saw in a museum (see below), it's not particularly historically accurate. I used jewellery bits I already had, or could easily buy at the nearest beading store, and I have no actual metallurgy skills (that belt hook in the inspiration piece, pictured below, would certainly take metal forging skills, not to mention everything else). The accessories I have hanging on it aren't particularly historically accurate either, but are my very modern approximations of accessories someone could hang on one of these.

Hours to complete: About 4 or less for the actual assembly of the piece (figuring it out and trying to find parts was much longer, hence the procrastination)

First worn: January 10th, at Montgomery's Inn for the Twelfth Night Ball. Just saying though, these things are awesome (and convenient if you haven't got pockets) but are a heck to position right so they don't tangle as you walk!

Total cost: about $7 (Can.)

*****

The inspiration for this piece came from a wonderful little section in the European design gallery at the ROM which focussed on 18th century ladies' accessories. Although I don't have a photo of the entire set-up they had, I was able to take a photo of the châtelaine itself:

18th century châtelaine, in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum.

Unfortunately I don't think there are actually any good photos online of this artefact,
 and this was the best pic I could get with my camera

I decided to copy the general shape of this one (as well as the metal tongue- mine's just basically some twisted wire, but that part goes under the waistband and no one sees it, so it's ok). I also found the metal tassels a really cute detail. This detail appears on other châtelaines as well, like this gorgeous one in the Museum of London:

Gold Châtelaine, 18th century. Museum of London.
Picture source: http://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/141871/tawney-gold-chatelaine-and-case-watch-18th-century