Upcycled Bracelets

Upcycled Necklaces

Upcycled Typewriter Bracelets

Upcycled Typewriter Jewelry

Hotel Utah Salvage Bulletin Board

My neighbor rescued door frames and window frames from the Hotel Utah from a salvage yard several years ago.  We are combining forces to make exquisite bulletin boards.  Quantities are very limited (less than 10).  Only my favorite grain sacks will go into these beauties.  Price $200-$250.

Aprons

Aprons anyone?  How about a Hostess Apron for your next Christmas party?  Love, Love, Love, mid-century tablecloths. 

For everyday use linen is a smart choice.  The apron on the right is from a German mangle cloth ca. 1900.  Heavy linen was used in laundry mangles because it could withstand the abuse, repeated washings and high temperatures.  Delicate items were sandwiched between the mangle cloth.  The stripes were used to line up the cloth while inserting in the mangle.  Linen withstands high temperatures, repeated washings and resists stains more than most fabrics.  Price?  $35.  Great gift for yourself or the chef in your life. 

Jewelry from Vintage Treasures

The jewelry making has begun.  The typewriter necklaces will be only $15.  The bracelets average $35.  Bracelets pictured are from typewriter keys with bakelite buttons, a vintage enamel clockface from France with vintage button and sari silk, and a vintage button bracelet.  My mother sent me a box of vintage jewelry yesterday and I already used a chain to make the button bracelet.  The buttons were an inheritance.  My birthmother's great-great-grandmother started the collection before the Civil War.  The selection is fantastic.  Bakelite buttons were used for the rings, rings will be $10-$15.  Would you believe the optical lens necklace is from Paris ca. 1850?  It is by the best optical lens maker in the world at the time (they did microscopes and telescopes as well).  I have added a vintage image onto the back of the lens and attached a few findings.  I plan on doing necklaces with themes like holidays, sewing and quilts, religious, and monograms.  Let me know if you have a special request.  The lenses also look fantastic clear.  Prices on these will be around $35. 

This is what greeted me on my workbench this morning.  Does it make you feel creative?  It sure does to me.  What would you do with brass tags, doll heads, French enamel numbers, buttons, and keys?



German Snow Baby House

German Snow Baby House by Linda Hales

I finished this replica of a German Snow Baby House this morning.  What an all-consuming joy it has been to make this.  I saw an antique one on Pinterest over Thanksgiving and absolutely had to make one for Swiss Days and have been working on it non-stop since Thanksgiving.  I love all antique Christmas items and some of the best ones come from Germany as they were the first country to decorate for Christmas much like we do today.  Doll Houses in Europe are called Baby Houses and this is a snow baby house because it is covered with cotton snow inside and out and shimmers with mica and German glass glitter.  Let me show you what the original looks like for comparison.

As I studied this image I knew I needed some composition animals, a sleigh, lots of vintage and antique millenary, tinsel, ornaments, trees, scrap (antique Victorian images), and dolls.  The dolls seemed to be the hard part as 19th c. dolls cost hundreds of dollars.  After researching my options, I stumbled upon doll heads for sale from a man in Germany who excavates them outside old doll factories.  He had doll heads and broken dolls from 1860 through the 1930s.  He even had snow babies excavated from outside the Hertwig & Co doll factory in Germany. These dolls were tossed into a pit because of imperfections.  Some were painted and some were just bisque.  The sweet expressions on the faces captured my heart.  I knew I could make them into something resembling Heubach spun-cotton ornaments.  I ordered some dolls and lengths of cotton used by spinners and tried to make one.  Some wire, bottles of glue, German glass glitter, cotton batting, cardboard, gesso, paint, cotton pipe cleaners, and Dresden buttons turned into an authentic-looking 1900 porcelain-headed spun-cotton doll.

Here are four of the five spun cotton dolls in the Snow Baby House.  I made the doll heads into a skier, skater, sledder, snow ball thrower, and a lovely lady on a swing. 

One of my other favorite items are the two antique German snow babies.  You can see one in the image above half-way up the stairs.  The other is outside the fence making a snow man in the first photo.  Another favorite item is the Bliss sleigh.  I crafted it from a photocopy of the original sleigh.  This is smaller than the original, which is highly collectible.  I have always wanted a Bliss dollhouse as I love old lithograph images and collect children books from the Victorian times to the 1940s.  The glass ornaments and feather tree garland come from my vintage Christmas collection.  The plaster and composition animals are from Germany and Italy.  The German erzgebirge house is taken from my husband's childhood toys (thanks honey).  There are four reproduction candy boxes that I have filled with toys, tinsel, millinery items, and ornaments.  Here's some more images to peruse.

The bottle brush tree with spun cotton fruit on the sideboard in the back right corner is vintage 1950 and as found.  The enamel clock face next to the door is from my collection of French enamel clock faces (I use them in my jewelry and to decorate my Christmas tree).  The little penny doll in the sleigh is excavated from the Limbach Porzellanfabrik in Germany ca. 1890.  The frozen Charlotte doll next to the fence is from Japan (the only non-European item, but doesn't she match the house?)

I love German Putz animals and would love to have a large Putz under my feather tree, but my Italian nativity diorama with 12 large scenes trumps it every year.

Here's the fifth spun cotton doll on a swing.  Don't you love the spun glass rosette with vintage scrap angel?

I changed a couple of important things from the original.  Lights and Texture!  The lights are from an LED string that turns on via a button in the back next to the front door.  The roof is textured cotton shingles instead of flat cotton snow.  I custom mixed the paint and gesso and painted the house four times to get the color just right;  not too bright or dark, not too green, not too blue.  The walls are textured with gesso as well, imitating the alpine stucco homes.

I've been struggling with what to price this at.  The original was several thousand dollars at auction.  Each item is expensive to purchase separately.  Today, after I finished I found two for sale at Fortnum and Mason's in London.  I don't know why they didn't come up in my search before and was surprised at some of the similarities.  Here's what F&M has:

I am assuming that theirs is a new item copied from the originals like mine.  The one on the left is priced at 2,700 pounds which is $4,500.  I would like to sell mine for $1000.  I will make a total of four snow baby houses over the next two years.  If someone wants a color other than the aqua (like pink, red, or off white) let me know.  I am willing to sell one before Swiss Days but need to bring the second one (to be made later this year) to the show.