A Dream for a Crafty

These days, there comes a time in every crafty’s life that something beautiful happens. It’s one thing to have your own blog, and write about all the lame/awesome/crazy things that fascinate you. It’s one more thing to have a friend write about you in their blog, because, well, they’re your friend and they probably really like you. But it’s something else entirely when someone random likes what you do enough to put you on their blog.

Today is that day for me, ladies and gentlemen.

http://100layercake.com/blog/

It’s a great blog, and it’s an honor having even one or two pictures up there. The feature is Megan + Chris, a super-nice couple that had me calligraph their addresses for their invites (not on the blog)and also the place cards (which you can see when you click on the link).

A small victory, but one that definitely made my day.

The Glass Egg

The Glass Egg

A couple of weekends ago, I was tipped off to the wonderful event known as the Oakland Museum Swap Meet/Flea Market/Everyone’s Getting Rid of Their Stuff (that’s not the actual name, I forget what the actual event is called, sorry!).  It’s a warehouse sale the Oakland Museum puts on. They get people to donate all of their awesome/lame stuff, and then they sell it to support the museum. Apparently it’s very popular and anticipated, but I just heard about it. They even have a preview sale where all the best stuff gets snapped up before all the late-arrivers. Wish I could have been there to see what else they had, because even when I arrived, there were still some amazing things.

The warehouse is divided into sections for furniture, electronics, books (some amazing old books! and they were priced to sell), homewares, appliances, jewelry, clothing, etc. I tried to make it through to the jewelry section, but the crowd was so dense I would have needed a chisel and hammer. That’s okay, I have enough jewelry. But what I didn’t have enough of was purses! All right, I have plenty of those too, so I didn’t buy a purse. I did get an old door-to-door salesperson case for use as a portfolio for all my handmade books. Score! It has super cute lining too.

After glancing over the book section (I just didn’t have the stamina, I knew I would be in there for forever and a day, and we got there a bit late. We had an hour to look around before they kicked everyone out), I headed over to the homewares. I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking for. I was hoping they would have a decent selection of milk glass, but I must have come too late to catch any of the good stuff. There was an adorable milk glass bud vase for 75 cents that I grabbed, but I quickly put it down when I saw what I had come for. I couldn’t quite see the whole thing as it was hidden behind some tacky candlesticks, but once I pushed those aside, I almost heard a chorus of excited crafties singing  in my head along with me. I was looking at an old terrarium, housed inside a gorgeous, mint condition glass egg. I could not believe it was still there, that someone hadn’t seen it’s glory from yards away and taken it home before I could even know of its existence. I took it to the pay counter in awe, handed over my $7.50, and gleefully, but respectfully, took my treasure home. Nothing else could get my attention for the next hour as I marveled at my good luck. It seemed as though this glass egg was why I had been at that sale. No one else could have found it but me, because if they had, there’s no way it would be in my home at this moment.

The Fox Himself

And the best part? Not only is it a terrarium (which is just a fascinating concept, don’t you think? A little world in a contained space for everyone to look into, without much movement, a frozen piece of nature), but it’s a terrarium in a glass egg. If you thought I was obsessed with bowls, don’t get me started on eggs.  And one of the most darling features of this treasure is that amidst the dry grass and earth, there is a miniature fox poking out of the nature. He looks up at the viewer as if he has been discovered for the first time in a thousand years, and he wants nothing but to enjoy his environment along with you.

If it weren’t for the fox, I would have no trouble ripping out the contents of this glass egg and creating my own little world.  But he stares up at me, so innocently. I wonder if I will ever have the heart to destroy his home. I could create him a new home, one where I would want to live. Something green and lush, so he can roam around and run freely.

A Bowl for all Seasons

The hutch post-red paint job

Ever since I can remember, I’ve had a fascination for things that have a certain beauty and functionality. Sure, there are beautiful sculptures and paintings that do a wonderful job of sitting there and looking pretty. I admire those too. But in my mind, nothing can compare to a perfectly executed object that has exquisite lines, and actually does something! To me, this is very well demonstrated in the object commonly known as the bowl. If I didn’t obsess over letterpress printing, this blog would be about bowls.

I am constantly searching for the perfect 10 bowl. It has to have clean lines that curve just so, and must be a good size for it’s purpose. There are the little bowls that I use for drinking tea and putting mustard into for dipping; there are the medium sized bowls that I love to use for snacks and sides, and then there are the larger bowls for noodle soup and serving. All of them have their place, and I love each of them for doing exactly what they claim to do.

Confuscious is credited with the philosophy that a vessel is most useful when empty, because it has so much potential. He claimed that a full vessel was useless, it had no room for more, no desire to be more or hold more than it already is holding. I believe he was talking about bowls. Vessels in general are a delight to behold, but my vessel of choice is the bowl.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, the whole reason for this very personal confession is that I just acquired a lovely new hutch, to hold my beautiful (and functional) vessel collection. Do you want to see? Of course you do! You’ve come this far!

My vessels

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I started out with a brown stained cabinet, painted it red, and then put in my favorite vessels (which all fit into a color scheme of blues, greens, and whites). I love how they look in the cabinet with the warm and cool colors interacting with each other. I also put on some knobs from, yes, Anthropologie. Why can’t other shops have interesting hardware? I’m sure they’re out there, I just haven’t found them yet.

 

The Joy of Furniture

hutch before any paint touches it

There’s something joyful about acquiring new furniture, especially when your workspace really needs it. I’ve been scouring craigslist for something extraordinary, and after weeks and weeks (okay, just weeks) of looking for something cute, but not too cute, and functional, but still cute, I decided to do something crafty. This might have occurred to someone else a bit sooner, but I decided I was going to find the desk I’d been dreaming of in a desk that didn’t look quite right; well, that didn’t look right at first.

So here I am, sifting through hundreds of pictures (when the poster even bothers to post pictures) of desks, trying to think of another way to say “shabby chic” or “distressed”. If you ever need to know ten synonyms for “country”, I’m your gal. Finally, I happened upon this amazingly quaint table in the Mission for $50. It was a kitchen table, but very easily converted to a desk. I was sold. A speedy email to the poster and I awaited anxiously. I decided to keep looking, just in case. Weirdly, I came upon another table, just like the one I had inquired about, strangely identical in fact, in my area for $40. I quickly sent off an email to that poster, hoping one of them would pan out. Three days later, and no response from either. I cut my losses and assumed they were gone or dead. The search continues.

I was an Ikea trip away from my desk, but I wasn’t quite ready to pack it in. One more look through the postings on craigslist, I said to myself. Just give it one more shot, maybe something amazing will happen. Well, nothing amazing happened, but something kind of nice and pleasant did. I found a semi-adorable desk and hutch, that could be absolutely liveable once I got my hands on it. A sedan trip and a terrifying van trip later, my desk and hutch set sat quietly in my work area, waiting to be paid some attention with a paint roller and some mint green paint.
I got to work.

desk with a coat of primer

So now I have a lovely desk and hutch set that cost $40 from a lovely lady in the Mission district, and it’s just the color I wanted. I got the drawer pulls from Anthropologie (on sale for $2.95 apiece). I’m still looking for some handles for the drawers that are 2.5″ wide at the center of the screw holes. 3″ seems to be the average these days. Maybe the desk is older than I originally thought. Who knows, maybe I got a very rare, valuable antique for $40. And then painted it.

hutch with mint green paint

All set up and loaded with stuff (minus the pulls for the lower drawers)

close-up of the silver coral drawer pulls on the heirloom white drawers

And so it begins…

A tabletop press

Who loves letterpress? Ooh, ooh, I do!

I think it’s about time I introduced myself. I’m Liz, and I have a lovely little letterpress outfit called Cut Thread Press. I run it out of Oakland, California. I love letterpress printing as I’m sure many of you do, and my goal is to keep you all up to date on what I’m doing and how I’m doing it. Also, I can assure you there will be digressions into baking at some point. It’s just inevitable. So welcome to my home. I hope you come by and visit every once in while. If you like what you see or read, let me know. Appreciation is always a nice thing.