New Booth!

The past two days have seen us as busy as two beavers building a new lodge. We've opened a new booth at Riverbend Antique Mall!

This booth will have a different look and feel from our other spaces as it will concentrate on what some people call "rusty gold"--rustic, primitive items. Here's a look:

Rustic table, crocks, vintage fan, older Coleman camp stove, tabletop ironing board, chick waterer,

Window shutters, suitcases, a wood star, buckets, outdoor metal table, old metal bed...

doors, windows, primitive shelf, hanging scale, coal mine shower basket..

watering cans, buckets, primitive cabinets,

a close-up of the shower basket...

 and the primitive shelf, along with a small stepladder and a Coke crate...

porch swing, old bike, vintage oak swivel chair, doll strollers, wood ladders,

and lots more. I'm curious to see how this new space does. We have more to bring in, so my fingers are crossed that these items will prove to be good sellers. Wish us luck!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

More Marietta Booth Updates

I took a lot of pictures at Marietta--it's been a while since I've done that, usually just grabbing a few as we left. So here's the second installment. Marietta is actually 5 spaces, scattered around the same general area so we have a lot of stuff there.

I don't have a great deal of Christmas items in my booths, and what I've had at Marietta has sold pretty quickly. This little candle tree is by Avon, but cute as can be.

Wexford crystal is a steady seller--not fast, but steady. It's a great go-to for parties because it's plentifyl and if one breaks it's not a great loss. It's also quite sturdy, making it doubly attractive for parties. And at the prices it brings, it's not much more expensive than plastic.

I've been bringing in blue jars as I get them washed up. We found two totes full of them in the cellar when we cleaned it up last month. I've also been bringing in half-gallon jars because we just don't need that size these days with just two of us here.

A little Fiesta, anyone? I don't carry a great deal of it, but it's very popular with buyers. These pitchers might be due for a price reduction as I've had them for a while.

What Blenko I have in the booth is on the bottom shelf in the above photo. A few candleholders, a Blenko plaque, an ashtray--I tend to keep Blenko for my own collection 😉

Below, a shelf full of various collectible glass.

A Fenton lamp, "married" pitcher and bowl set, a pink milk glass vase, two wall pockets, and a lot of et cetera--which is really the lifeblood of a booth.

 Mugs, measuring cups, Jumbo peanut butter jars, polka dot bowls and more.

I added a lot of tumblers to these shelves--some Boscul, some Kentucky Derby mint julep glasses, some tulip juice glasses, and others.

Mixing bowls, which I hope find a home during the holiday baking season.

I kept this checkerboard table for a while, but finally decided to sell it. It's handmade, around 1930-1940 and probably chestnut as gthe ma who made it seemed to use a good bit of that wood in his work.

Pretty glass--I can't resist it! The green and yellow bowls have matching ladles, proably for mayonnaise. People made their own mayo and served it in pretty dishes like this. Nice!

Cranberry etched shade lamps that Larry rewired, along with more pretty glass. What can I say, I'm an addict!

Another recent addition is the wall-mounted coffee grinder. This was an eBay find--needed the lid and the catch cup which I also found on eBay, to make it complete.

 More bowls! And all sizes. My own cabinets are full of bowls too--apparently another addiction.

Tea cups were a good seller, but have been slow lately, Maybe they'll pick up again in spring, for tea parties.

 Uniforms are regular sellers too, so we pick them up whenever we find them. Even newer ones will sell, probably for hunters?

And the shelf of amberina! I do love amberina glass, and have a good bit at my house (all Blenko, which is called tangerine by that company). These are West Virginia glass makers Kanawha and Fenton, along with some Mosser and Moon & Star glass by L.E. Smith.

Well that's the tour for today! The booths are full to bursting, and I hope sales are good during the holiday season. Things tend to slow down in January and February, so we look for a good December to carry us through. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

A Table and Tung Oil

A project we can call done!

When I saw this table, I told Larry,"Look! All we will have to do to it is clean it up and haul it to our Marietta booth. Leave it exactly as it is, it's a primitive. We can just flip it and make some easy money."

Yeah, right. He looked dubious. That's because he knows me too well. I will think a thing needs no work, but then...

So we bought the green primitive table, carried it up a long flight of stairs out of the basement of the antique mall where we found it and got it into the van along with the two chairs, kitchen table, and other totes and boxes already in there. We might start a trip with an empty van but seldom does it return that way.

It's waited a month for us to get around to it.

At first glance it sure looked like the table didn't need much. Then I noticed a long chip out of the top. No worries, we can cut that part off the board and rearrange the top boards to make it look fine.

Then there was the drawer. It didn't slide right. After some thought and hunting for some pieces to make it work properly, much banging and false starts, the fix was in.

There were these random nails sticking out here and there too. The piece was made with leftovers, I think, reassembled to make a table that must have been in a garage to judge by the amount of dirt in and on it. So we pulled nails. And pulled nails.

Finally it was time to sand it down and get the loose paint knocked off. A LOT of loose paint. Most of the green left. Which made me a little sad because I liked it, but I can't sell it with loose paint.

This afternoon I put the tung oil finish on it.

That stuff is awesome but it stinks to high heaven and it is so sticky!

Yesterday afternoon I scrubbed almost all the paint off of my hands and arms and now? Back to scrubbing.

But the table is done, and I'm happy. Larry is happy too--happy to be done with it. There's nothing quite like pulling nails out of well-aged oak.

Tomorrow it will get a buffing up, then another coat of tung oil, then buffed again, and it will be ready for the booth.

The "it doesn't need anything other than cleaning up" table took us a good 6 hours or more.

Worth it? Totally. I'm just sad that there is no room for it in our house or it would be staying here. This small house can be a blessing, you know, because I say that about a lot of the things we buy for resale.

Tomorrow, those desks I promised to show you. They're done, really they are, but this table just wanted to be bragged on. It's rough, primitive and absolutely a one-of-a-kind find.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Projects

We've been working hard on a wide variety of projects the past few days. The weekend brought us a break in the weather that allowed us to work outside in the afternoons and that was perfect for getting some items sanded and ready for paint or stain. Here's a few things we've been doing:

 This table is almost done. A little touch-up on the base, then wax and it will be ready for a booth--as soon as I get the two chairs painted to go with it. Haven't started on those yet, because I got sidetracked on little things like this:

The lamp was white with green bands; I found the shade on eBay and waited until I found a lamp to paint to go with it.

I've had this box for quite a while and it didn't sell. It was painted gold with flowers decaled on it. I thought maybe a white chalk paint would give it more appeal.

 It's hard to see in the photo but the top has embossed strips, very pretty.

I think I wasted my time on this. The frames on the pair were ugly. I tried white with gold glaze, distressed and waxed. Not lovin' it.

Here's a corner detail:

I painted this brass frame white; the glass was broken so this will sell as it is, as a wall accent.

The other painting in the pair. I am thinking those frames will need to be redone. What do you think?

This is another piece I've had for a long time with no sale. It was green with flowers on the drawers; I went with black and white for a more primitive look. We'll see if I guessed right.

A small rack that was pretty beat up for a new primitive look.

 Chalkboard! I'm playing with this technique, with mixed results. This one came out well. It has a silverplate frame, so it's an upscale chalkboard :)

This little desk is a "married" piece. We found the rolltop section, then added the base from a table we had that had a bad top. The pigeonholes inside the desk were missing, but we found some at an antique mall and with just a little cutting, they will fit. It also needs is for one piece of the webbing that holds the rolltop together to be repaired. I think it will be pretty cute when we're done with it. I think we've invested too much but it's neat to make something useful again.

This poor little thing was a mess! It had been in a basement and was covered with mildew and dirt. It took a lot of scrubbing to clean it up, but look at it now! I'm sealing the top today, then wax and it will be ready to go.

I love the way the top came out; I used General Finishes Java Gel Stain on the top, and GF's Antique White on the base.

Larry has put a lot of time into this medicine cabinet, stripping away years and layers of paint. It's ready to go.

Still has the original latch;  love the way it looks.

This round mirror was painted orange! Getting a new look with black.

This one is going to take me a while. I've just started priming it; Larry did some repair work on the base and I hope it will look as cool when it's finished as it does in my mind right now. Fingers crossed! I'm thinking aqua and yellow, with an ochre glaze and white wash, floral transfer on the door to give it a French country look.

One last thing is the wood chest under the medicine cabinet. Larry stripped, sanded and stained this old wood tool box to bring it back to its original look. (The chair is one of the two that will go with the table in the first picture.)

So that's what we've been up to--that and quite a few more things. It's been a busy week, but we have lots more to do to feel like we're getting ahead of the game. Right now storytelling is quiet and I can let myself sink into this work. It's amazing how relaxing I find it, and how often I find myself with a paintbrush in my hand at midnight. Working for yourself is cool, but there's no one to tell you it's quittin' time!


Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.