Thursday, May 24, 2007

The Dining Table

My boyfriend found this table, so it's in his apartment. I would LOVE to have it. But alas, it was his find... Don't really know what else to say about it, let the picture speak for itself:

Well, if you want, you can read on to learn about the story of the find. He came back from an errand one Sunday afternoon, ran into my house (he lives upstairs of me) yelling he needed the cart for the most amazing table he'd ever seen. But just having a young fashion designer visiting me whom I was going to help out on a crocheted piece, I felt a bit awkward at his excitement. But I excused myself and helped him get the cart from the yard. Then when he came back twenty minutes later or so, we were all amazed indeed. The piece seemed totally unused with it's thick layer of undamaged shiny varnish and I really like the thick log, lumberjack style of it. The only reason I can think of people discarded it is that the planks on the top aren't even everywhere (so your plates wobble a bit), but it doesn't bother us at all. It's a year on now, and sometimes while having dinner we're still amazed.

By the way on top you see a crocheted tea cosy (by me) made from a trash (unravelled) sweater. There's next to nothing in the picture that was bought in a shop. Though I helped cleaning up a bit for the photo, it looks like a neat cosy dining corner for a man living on his own, don't you think?

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Display Materials

Being a crafter/designer I need good photo's to present my work on the internet. Good display materials are a vital help for this. I would love to have a real shop-window dummy and even though I know a place where I could buy one second hand, this is way out of my reach. But so far I've been able to get by with some pretty good finds.



This cardboard torso came from our (only) local men's fashion store. Unfortunately the boy's neck is to thick to use it as a display for my necklaces, but for my still to put in practice plan to shoot all my old knit sweater designs, that will be no problem. In the meantime it serves fine as a hang-up for my crocheted bags and purses. If you want to see more, take a look in my Etsy shop.

This strange-only half a lady-dummy needed some work first. A lick of leftover beige latex wallpaint made her look a lot better already. She has a ring with a screw attached to her back side, with which I hung her up on the pole of a broken floor lamp (took of all the wiring and sawed off the top part). She now stands free and with some pinning at the back I will be able to show skirts and tops on her.
In the meantime, with a counterweight at the back, she is a solution for the necklaces.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Crazy or lucky?

If you see the list of May third, you may think I spend hours scavinging going all over town (that's crazy!) or I must be just downright lucky. None of this is true. All these items were found in the vicinity of my home and we usually spend no longer than 30 minutes on an average evening scavenging stroll. Sometimes, when I put out my own trash I find stuff my own next door neighbours have put out (as in the case of the sewing machine). Sometimes, when I'm up and awake that early, I take a quick tour around the block in the morning. And of course I always keep my eyes wide open when cycling through streets where the garbage truck hasn't passed yet. But that's all.

All this sort of items are being put out on the streets regularly all over the city of Amsterdam. While writing this my boyfriend just came back from bringing his waste paper and glass to the special containers for that and presented me with an unpacked IKEA picture frame, the screws and wire to hang it up included. And it's not even trash night yet. That's tomorrow.


Here's the photo, just to prove that not every road side pick is old, used or to be recuperated.

Monday, May 07, 2007

The Cupboard


I particularly love this cupboard (or is it a rack?), because it was obviously lovingly hand-made by someone and it's very old, like some 40-50 years at least. My boyfriend took it home first. I didn't like it at first because I thought it looked more like a thing that had housed pigeons or so. Then when he didn't want it anymore I took it home any way. I painted it in a nice dark brown (probably close to it's original color).
Now it holds all my small tools and other stuff that you want to have at hand, but usually lies around on your desk or work table because all your drawers are already full.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Just a Sum-up


Here's a random selection of great finds I did over the years:

Many, many books, good books not pulp
Picture frames (sometimes with interesting pictures in it)
Curtains
Stereo equipment
Pots, pans, cups, cutlery, plates, bowls etc.
Electric kitchen equipment
A vacuum cleaner in mint condition
An practically unused electric shaver (still in it's original casette)
Numerous fashionable and undamaged clothing items and shoes
Teddy bears and stuffed puppets
Fashion dolls
Slat blinds (not even unpacked an with the shop price still on it)
Garden tools
Garden furniture
Chairs, tables, cupboards etc.
A printer (old fashioned and slow, but perfect for prints I don't want to waste my expensive bubble jet ink on)
Lamps and lamp shades
Paint, wood and other crafting materials
Plants (see below for photo's)
A Samsonite trolley suitcase
Various mirrors

In short, almost everything you need in and around the house. Why would I spend money in shops?