Retro vignettes

I've been having fun with the Jo bounty. Retro vignettes are cropping up everywhere!

 Pomona Arabia stoneware jars designed by Raija Uosikkinen sitting on the kitchen bench. 

Three West German pottery vases in the study. The baby vase will house the biros which keep getting lost.

Also, I hope everyone has been reading the latest online Australian design magazine called est which has just launched. It is very, very good - I wouldn't mention it if it weren't.

It has an interesting feature regarding Real or Replica. I've also discovered the world of Wonki Ware from a random photograph.

Read est mag here.

Ipswich thrift

I have been initiated into the world of Ipswich op shops. Why did I not know that this was the place to go for some mid-century goodness?

Guided by the grand dame of interior design blogging, Jo from Desire to Inspire and the queen of boathouse vintage, Katherine from theoldboathouse, I felt quite the amateur fossicker.

These eagle-eye women can spot a West German pottery vase, tribal Polynesian artifact and highly collectable piece of modernist design within seconds of entering an op-shop. If you must op-shop with someone, it's good to op-shop with the best. They have an uncanny sixth sense for thrift.

Our area of op-shop concentration was on Brisbane Street - there is the Hospice Bargain Centre, Animal Welfare league, Lifeline and a few other op/antique shops.

Apparently, Vintage Advantage is quite good too but it was closed on the Monday we visited because of a weekend antique show in Brisbane.

Aida Stagen iron candle holder, West German pottery jug, white Japanese planter

At the Hospice shop, I purchased a West German pottery jug, vintage Japanese planter and small Danish iron candle holder. All in excellent condition and all for the total sum of $8.

Jason is being sent on a mission to the Cathedral shop to find 12 thin taper candles. I hope he will find some.

More goodies from Jo

The image above includes some more Jo treasures -  Midwinter Stonehenge Moon plate, West German pottery, Japanese jar, Pyrex bowl, Crown Lynn dish and funky black and white trough vase. There was also a groovy Grecian horse cushion cover for Son #1 which he loves.

Everything I will use and enjoy. For example, the large Crown Lynn casserole dish is currently in the oven with a hearty beef stew for tonight's dinner and I have three funky West German vases sitting on the desk in the study as I type.

Thanks again Jo!!

A car boot load of vintage

My word! The amount of excellent vintage ceramics and glassware which Jo, from Desire to Inspire, gave me yesterday is almost embarassing.

Luckily, I got over the embarrassment!

Jo is incredibly generous. The fact that I took that much from Jo and she could not have been happier is actually quite funny (as well as heart warming).

Katherine's (from theoldboathouse) eyes, popped out of her head when Jo kept pulling out collectable piece after collectable piece from her cupboards. As a matter of fact, my eye balls nearly fell out of their sockets too!

Jo has an eye for mid-century vintage - she says everything she's bought has been a couple of dollars here and there at op shops. She's been collecting for years in anticipation for when she and her husband bought their dream house.

Well, they've got the house but they've got more things than what they need. She's in the process of decluttering. And she's moving on from her Scandinavian phase.

I feel like the chosen one. Jo's op shop treasures have found a grateful home. I will be swapping out some of my other things and donating it to charity - things which are no longer to my taste, to make room for the booty. After all, we really don't need so many tea mugs!

Feast your eyes on this:

Two West German pottery vases and an Arabia glass plate called Kastehelmi designed by Oiva Toikka. Jason's bedside table will be home for these lovely items. The book is on loan  from Mr Rooney, our well-read builder. 

Le Creuset vintage cast iron saucepan and fry pans. I have turfed my old not so non-stick Teflon fry pan.  Jo, you have made all my frittata and omelette dreams come true...

Iittala glassware, Arabia stoneware, Danish teak candle sticks and a Stavangerflint Kon Tiki casserole dish. The mother-load of Scandinavian homewares given away so readily and happily. 

But wait! There's still more. And they're not even steak knives. (Sorry for the Tim Shore line from the old Demtel ads. You'd know it if you were a daytime TV addict in the 90s...like me)

I will show you the rest tomorrow and you can see where the booty will live in the Sow's Ear.

P.S
Jo, I have had so much fun sorting through the goodies today and finding the perfect place for them. x

E S Traders at Ipswich

I had the best day today.

Katherine, from theoldboathouse, and I went to visit Jo, from Desire to Inspire, in her new home in Ipswich (40 minutes west of Brisbane).

Wow! Jo lives in an amazing 1860s stone cottage in a lovely part of the world. She gave us the grand tour of her home in its pre-renovation state. It is an incredible space made even more incredible with her art, designer furniture and various collections of glass, ceramics and tribal artifacts.

Her home drips with style, even with the walls in its scraped back state ready for painting. I should have taken photos but we were too busy chatting to bother with the camera.

I was also the beneficiary of a car boot load of Scandinavian goodies, because Jo was doing a cupboard cleanse. Thanks Jo!!!!

Later in the day we hit the shops and Jo introduced us to Kerry who owns a design boutique called ES Traders tucked in a lane way in Ellenborough Street. Again wow!

I thought we were in a lane way in Melbourne, rather than in Ipswich. Who knew Ipswich was so edgy?

The shop, which is housed in an industrial shed, has only been open for a couple of weeks, but I tell you, it has excellent one-off furniture and architectural pieces, exquisite white-on-white hand embroidered bed linen, 1950s woolen Japanese kimonos and fabulous religious iconography and more.

Here are a few photos of the what we saw in ES Traders:

Vintage woolen kimonos

antique chaise 

Icons

Enormous Venetian mirror

French lucky dip prizes

Wrought iron candelabras and vintage lanterns

Vintage Apothecary bottles

Vintage clock faces

Although I like a mod aesthetic, I was still blown away by this beautifully curated shop. It is definitely worth a look if you love beautiful things.

After taking in a few excellent op-shops (more on that in another post), drinking great coffee and visiting ES Traders, Ipswich is top of the list for a fun day out.

P.S
ES Trader's website is not online yet.
The shop is at 17C Ellenborough St, Ipswich. Email is info@estraders.com.au
It is at the end of a lane way near the coffee shop. There are no signs.

Getting butterfly chair covers made

I've taken a leaf from Jason's book and will not put off spending what I can spend today.

We have two butterfly chairs which need to be refurbished. It has been on the to-do list for quite a while. There was never the right time to organise it...until now.

I have two chair frames which are slightly different in size (probably DIY backyard jobs from the 1960s).

You can buy ready-made butterfly chair covers at quite a few places. I've done the maths and sadly, as our chairs are not standard sizes, the covers need to be tailored to the frame. This is a job for someone other than me!

My friend Chris said that he would help me make a pattern. Yesterday, he came around with one of his butterfly chair covers which fitted quite well on one of our frames. He's kindly going to lend it to us for a while so it can be used as a template.

Butterfly chairs

Chris' cover is made from thick, super heavy-duty outdoor canvas. I will probably use a similar quality canvas so we can use the chairs outdoors.

I haven't decided on the colours yet, although I am leaning towards a mod orange or sunny yellow with a contrasting white trim.

Chris also made adjustments on the old green chair cover. It was never a perfect fit on the frame as it had sagged and stretched over time. With the magic of a few pins, masking tape and carefully marked instructions, we have another good template to take to the upholsterer.

The butterfly chair frames will also need attention, but I can certainly do that myself. It is nothing that a little steel wool, elbow grease and a few cans of metal spray paint can't handle.

I'll keep you posted on our butterfly chair progress!