Seems all I do lately is polish silver!

Not that I'm complaining - but my shoulder is :-( Not the arm doing the rubbing, but the one that's doing the bracing. I decided to dose up with some ibuprofen and forge onwards. I'm still working through that box of silver and brass that Bob brought home a few weekends ago. Thinking that if I rub long enough, a Djini (that would be a Genie to us modern folks) would bubble out in a cloud of smoke - but, no. I have to content myself instead with the inherent beauty of the piece that is revealed by the effort of applying paste, over time, to a heavily tarnished piece of silver plate.

The favored paste I like to use is still Goddards, which I order directly on the internet. I can't say enough about their products, as the shine comes up quickly and stays for a long time.

I'm not planning to put these items on the website, but only because they get snapped up so quickly at the shows that we do. (Well, also because I find them to be dastardly difficult to photograph, but that's not reason enough!) But a nicely polished piece of silver is pretty easy to maintain. Keep it wrapped up when not in use - that is, away from the effects of oxygen in creating more tarnish on it - and it will stay shiny and lovely. The best way to stay lovely looking, though, is to USE IT. There is something wonderful about the dining experience when silver is involved. A meal prepared with love and care becomes memorable when you are using utensils that have heft to them. I know that I treasure my own set of silver cutlery when I bring it out for holiday get togethers. (Never mind that my mother gave it to me after my parents divorced! I can handle that sentiment...)

Even the brass candle holders have polished up very satisfyingly - they become so warm and gleaming. I'd be likely to cover them up with a hurricane glass cover to prevent spattering if I was to use them myself, but they too are likely to find welcome homes this year.

Just checking in

Nothing's really doing, but I thought I should write *something* to keep my hand in. It's a long stretch until the next show - at the end of September in Dade City. We're confirmed as having the same spot in the parking lot, under some beautiful Live Oak trees with Spanish Moss draped from the branches, as we had when we were there this past spring. If the weather cooperates (we're just now expecting our first major storm of the season to bear down in the next couple of days), it will be lovely. Hot, most likely, but a good show.

Bob came home from his foraging last weekend with a big box of "silver" - was it silver or not? We spent a few days digging in and marveling at the beauties that we've adopted. Silver (plate and sterling) items are always in demand at our shows, so it's wonderful to have an inventory from which to choose. Also in the lot were some brass candlesticks, some German Silver wine goblets - which is not silver at all, but an alloy similar to what coins are made of, and which came clean easily with brass polish. Most of the items were really heavily tarnished, so I've been taking my time with each piece, really giving them a workover with the ol' silver paste and sponge. Somehow uncovering the beauty of an elegantly executed piece of silver gives me great satisfaction, and I don't mind the elbow grease required to discover them. (Though I did manage to do something to my shoulder in the process - it hasn't felt right since I spent the afternoon polishing a bunch of silver items several weeks ago!)

We went through most of the boxes brought home from the last show, and repacked them. We hadn't run out of wraps at all - there were unused ones in virtually each box we repacked, which means that they were in a hurry at the time, and that Bob's help was inexperienced. Um, and maybe didn't relish the thought of ever being asked to help us out again? Clearly Bob and I have evolved in our works patterns so that we've become fairly efficient in the packing process. It was easy enough to recover the "lost" wraps and economically repack the boxes, so everything had a home again.

We're a better team than we give ourselves credit for, undoubtedly.

Next in the pipeline is to put more glass on to the website - we picked out a box full of suitable items. I've got a huge box of jewelry from Steve Cope that needs to be priced up - that will take quite some time to do it correctly. So I think the stretch to the next show is going to feel pretty small.

Quite a nice bunch of stuff

The estate sale we went to couldn't have been better. Close to home, and just overflowing with lovely, well cared for items that had seen a lifetime of love. We whizzed through the home and quickly built up a pile of some very special things to take away with us.

I took a quick photo of what we found. Briefly - some Wedgwood Jasperware ashtrays, including a Winston Churchill, and, to my delight, a Canadian 1967 Confederation one (which you had to know what it was just by the abstracted symbol of a maple leaf on it - no mention of Canada or 1967 at all). I was tickled pink to find it, because I'm a closet 1967 memorabilia collector. Also a covered trinket box, and a horse and chariot ashtray, both in the classical Grecian relief that you often see on the Jasperware pieces.

Silverplate - some serving pieces, like a large ladle, a small lade, a cake server, a sauce boat, and a sugar and creamer set. All terribly tarnished, but with TLC, some time and my favorite silver polish, they will all soon be gleaming, and will command decent prices.

A very pretty hand painted teapot in a soft teal color with gold handle and spout. So pretty and a practical size.

A covered cheese dish - something you just don't see any more. Very old, most definitely antique. It's lightly crazed all over and does have some staining from age, but I don't think it's a detraction. It's a special piece and in great condition.

A Stangl 1960's flower vase. I'm just starting to learn about and appreciate American pottery, and I'm glad I spotted this tucked away in a china hutch at the sale. It's in some very "Florida" colors - turquoise and gold - and still has the label on it from the factory. Mint condition.

A Venetian glass decanter set. Something special for company in a deep turquoise glass with gold lace decoration. It has all 6 glasses present in the set.

We also picked up a covered casserole dish that caught our eye, cream with green relief decoration. It just looked like something that people might like.

So that's the shopping for today. We are really pleased with what we found!

So THAT'S what "Trash to Treasures" means!

Yesterday we were at the "Trash to Treasures" show in Tarpon Springs - I never did find a suitable link to put up - and now we know that it means you bring your trash to the show, and people find their treasures in them. (Cue dope slap to self's head.) Instead, we brought our usual array of inventory, set it all up on our tables, and were dumbfounded when we walked around the show to find a load of junk for sale.

Well, almost. I did find 2 treasures - a Crown Staffordshire hand painted teacup and saucer in a lovely yellow with sprigs of forsythias on it, and for childhood memories' sake, 4 small Beatrix Potter books. But most of the stuff for sale was truly awful.

So our booth, and several others, were rather like diamonds glinting in the garbage heaps. We didn't hear any deprecating remarks about our prices, or our selections. It wasn't a great show for us, and in the future we'll be certain to bring our less wonderful items. Things that, at other shows, sometimes I'll unwrap to put on the table, then think twice about having it out, and wrap it back up as being unworthy for an antique and collectible show. Items such as these would have been perfectly suitable and might have found a home, at the right price.

People are really on the look out for silver these days. Sterling, plate, just about anything will go - and I'm always looking to add these items to our inventory. It's quite incredible what you'll find at a rummage sale, covered in tarnish; and it really isn't until you've spent some time with polishing paste and some elbow grease before you can find out what shape the item is actually in. So there's a certain amount of risk there, but quite often the initial investment is not too terribly great. It's the cleaning time and materials that are the true investment. I do admit to feeling a wonderful little rush when the gleam of a piece of silver starts to show as a result of a little bit of effort!

The only drawback to yesterday's show was really the capriciousness of the weather. It was sunny; it was warm; but there was a constant breeze that would build up to some 25 mph gusts (which I think were the tail end of a violent system that the day before had swept through Georgia, with tornadoes in its wake there), and we lost 2 pieces to the wind. I think every single vendor there suffered breakages as we did. Of course, we had also just received our shade canopy, which can really be a godsend as the springtime quickly moves into summer weather down here. Unfortunately, we found ourselves having to hang on to the frame as it promised to take off like some kite across the municipal parking lot several times. We were able to inch it a bit closer to a patch of grass in order to bungee cord it down to some stakes, but ultimately, we were forced to take the whole thing down before the heat of the day was in full force. Some passers by were kind enough to help us lift up and carry the whole frame and canopy over our the tables off to where we were able to take it down in relative safety. Nonetheless, for the entire day, I was on edge every time a gust of wind would come up, and we kept on having to take one thing after another off the tables and stow it away in the storage tubs, to keep it from blowing away.

Packing up at the end of the day was tortuous, as the lids of the storage tubs were liable to fly across the parking lot, as were the wrapping materials. It just felt like it took twice as long and four times as much effort to safely pack up and stow everything away. By the time we got home, ate some take away Thai food (I don't ever attempt to cook on a day when we've done a show), I showered my wind-burnt body, took a bunch of ibuprofen, and fell into bed, where I slept for 11 hours. Whew!

So for now, it's back to the Teapot Project, as I've come to think of my latest TIAS fling. I'm halfway done with the addition of the various teapots on to the website, and I'm increasingly pleased with the acquisition, as it's such a great variety.

Here's a picture of a wonderful pot in the shape of a dragon, being ridden by a wizard. It was made by the Clay Art Company of San Francisco, which was known primarily for their cookie jars and masks. Just beautifully made in very rich colors, with great details.