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April 6, 2013 By Dru Cortez

Spring Cleaning: 3 Ideas for Craft Storage and Organization

spring-garment-tag2

Well, this has been a busy week with the Easter holiday having passed just short of a week ago and all the hustle and bustle of spending time with family and friends. 

With the rapidly improving sunny weather, here in Southern California, I have also spent a lot of my spare time this week doing a few “spring cleaning” activities.

I  began organizing my craft tools and supplies (the physical and tangible ones) and shopping for either new tools or filling in what was missing or on my wish list. 

While I don’t have a huge amount of craft supplies or a dedicated room for crafting, it just seems that once you start acquiring more than a few tools that you’ll need to find ways to organize them.

I have a board on Pinterest dedicated to just this purpose and I enjoy finding pins that showcase craft rooms or craft organizing ideas that incorporate a vintage touch. 

However, creative vintage inspired craft storage and organization pins, just like many vintage items themselves, are a little more difficult to find.

The following are a few of my favorite pins.  Hopefully, they inspire you to organize your craft tools and supplies and get encouraged to do some spring cleaning. (Clicking on the links will take you directly to my Pinterest account’s pin. Click on it to go to the original blog post.)

 Shabby Chic Book Print or Antique Map Crafting Boxes With Bookplates

Print-craft-boxes

Chipboard Dress Forms for Organizing Ribbon or Twine

Dress-forms

Wire Baskets For Frequently Used Rubber Stamp  and Ink Pad Storage

Wire-basket-rubber-stamps

Hopefully , in the near future,  I’ll be able to create a  blog post that showcases some of the great craft finds  I found this week (for awesome prices as well)  following a tip I have always used  when I shop for other household goods and that is to shop off season for huge discounts.

January 23, 2013 By Dru Cortez

Vintage Circus Collectibles – Collectibles Worthy of A Smile

 

Clown figurines  and other vintage circus collectibles are a popular collecting area for many antique and vintage collectors.  Here’s a little history on the origin of clowns…Clowns have always been a part of many cultures, and the art of clowning has existed for many centuries.

Although clowns in the past, were usually found in the courts of kings and queens ( I imagine everybody needed a laugh from the important matters of state that were part of daily court life) clowns can be traced as far back as the courts of Pharoah.  A pygmy clown performed as a jester in the court of Pharaoh Dadkeri-Assi during Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty about 2500 B.C.  and court jesters have performed in China since 1818 B.C.

When the Spanish Conqueror, Cortez , conquered the Aztecs in what is now the state of Mexico, Cortez was surprised to discover clowns in the court of Montezuma.  It is said that dwarf clowns, and hunchbacked buffoons were among the “wonders” that Cortez took back to Europe and presented to Pope Clement VII.

However, these clowns and other clowns of that time period, with their outrageous dress and crazy antics often wielded power and influence in royal courts, and their role varied from the clowns we know today.

Our modern day clowns can give credit to Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837) who elevated the art of clowning to a theatrical fine art.  He is credited for moving away from the harlequin type of clown of that day and was the first to use whiteface in his performances.  A superb and engaging entertainer, he developed elaborate tricks and special effects.

Around 1874, two entertainers James McIntyre and Tom Heath developed the tramp characterization with which most people are familiar with.

Although, there is controversy over the exact origins of the tramp clown some say they represented  the traveling “hoe boys,” or itinerant farm workers, who rode the rails from one town to another, often in rag tag clothing and covered with soot. They were known as hoe boys (or hobos).  Famous clowns among this type of character are Emmett Kelly Jr. as “Weary Willie” the son of an equally famous clown Emmett Kelly Sr.

Emmett Kelly was a clown whose fame had become so notable, he was known throughout the world and was designated as one of the World’s most famous clowns.  In 1972 Emmett Kelly, Jr., with help from his manager, established his own national circus.   His circus was the only circus to perform at the White House, not just once but twice—once in 1972 and again in 1973 during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

Emmet Kelly, Jr.’s image and the image of other notable clowns are often available in prints, figurines and circus playbills and there is an active collecting community in this hugely popular genre.

Companies such as Lladro, Murano Glass , Flambro and other porcelain companies sell clown and harlequin figurines and other items that range in price from several dollars to a couple of thousand. In addition, there are many groups that collect paper and other circus collectibles from all around the world, some of these groups can be located on Flickr.

However, figurines are not the only objects that circus collectors purchase.  According to Kovels, an antique price guide and collectibles publisher, circus collectors  “look for posters, programs, popcorn bags, paper fans, toys, food tickets and pennants, the older or more unusual the better.

A Barnum & Bailey’s  circus toy (circa 1900s)  is a tin wind-up truck made by Strauss Toys of Germany.  It’s 9 inches long and sold for $360 at a Morphy auction in Pennsylvania.

vintage-circus-performer

In my opinion, I find clown and circus collectibles beautiful and fun as they bring back fond memories of going to the circus when I was a child.  However, there are some people who fear clowns perhaps as a result of so many horror movies that have typified clowns as scary and repulsive.

In addition, not only are clown figurines popular but clown or circus ephemera collectibles are  also very popular, either for party decor, altered art or other DIY craft projects.

In any case, whatever your wallet size may be, you’ll be sure to find a clown figurine suitable to your pocketbook and budget– a memory of a clown or an event that made you laugh!

 

Credits:

Images via Flickr = Double M ~ Mary Margret

Font via Dafont

October 22, 2012 By Dru Cortez

Vintage Halloween Postcards: A Popular Halloween Ephemera Collectible

Halloween-Vintage-Postcard

As the days get shorter and you feel the chill in the air, it’s not hard to notice that all around you the leaves begin to turn red and gold.  All these changes, usually signals that the fall season and all its wonderful holidays are quickly approaching and will soon be upon us.  And who can forget Halloween as you begin to prepare for all the treats you’ll be giving out to the ghouls and ghosts that will be appearing at your door!

This is the best time to get out those Halloween collectibles and that doesn’t mean that your vintage collecting can’t display your mix of vintage finds with your modern tastes.  However,  this type of  collecting is especially a challenge, when you are looking for vintage Halloween collectibles which is as rare a find as seeing the proverbial ghost!

Source: a820.g.akamai.net via Dena on Pinterest

But don’t despair one of the most accessible Halloween collectible that is available on Ebay and other auctions sites are vintage Halloween postcards or greeting cards and at reasonable prices.

kids-halloween

Since the late 1800s, the year that marked the “golden age” of postcards there have been a variety of Halloween themed postcards that were sent to family and friends.  However, what makes them difficult to find is that the holiday was not celebrated to the extent it is today and many housewives’ threw out their Halloween decorations along with holiday greetings.

Around the turn of the century, postcards were a popular way of sending greetings to friends and family. It was a popular way of communicating with loved ones in the “snail mail”, pre-internet days. The most beautiful and most collected Halloween postcards were published by John O. Winsch of New York between the years of 1911 and 1915.  Winsch used rich inks and embossing on his cards, and sent them to Germany to be printed.  At the time, Winsch sold his postcards two for a nickel, while postcards in America were charging one cent.

Popular Vintage Postcard Designers

The most popular designers for postcards at the time were:

Ellen H. Clapsaddle – She was one America’s well known and  most prolific designer who created her designs  for Raphael Tuck and Sons, International Art Publishing Company, and Wolf Publishing Company, a subsidiary of Inter-Art that Clapsaddle launched herself.

H.B. Griggs – Griggs, using the signature H.B.G., published almost exclusively for Leubrie and Elkus of New York. So little is known about the identity of the designer, that it’s not even know if the designer was a man or a woman.

Gracie Debbie Drayton – She designed or made Halloween cards for Raphael Tuck and Sons showing the similar big-eyed chubby-cheeked kids , that she created for Campbell’s Kids branding.

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Image Credit: Flickr – Creative Commons

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