So Much For Saturday Morning.....

I went into town for some groceries that we needed this morning. On the way home, I Only stopped at one garage sale. I drove by a couple of other ones, but from the car, I could see that they weren't worth stopping.

The one that I did stop at was not bad at all.
I found two key cupboards that had never been opened. I use those for mini displays in various places in the house. They are a nice size for hanging on the wall with just a couple of minis in them.

These are nice because they have never been either painted or stained. I get to make the choice. At a dollar a piece, I couldn't pass them up.

The only other thing that I bought was a plate rack. The guy wanted two dollars for it. It was very black, so I was taking a chance on whether or not it was salvageable. It almost looked like silver plate with the plating wearing through. I offered him a dollar....He took it.

Tessie immediately decided it would make a good jungle gym. Now her dress is all black in spots from the tarnish. Hey! If she keeps at it long enough, I won't have to polish it!

It is going to take a lot of elbow grease and silver cleaner, but it was worth every penny of the dollar. I started messing with it and the piece right above Tessie's head in the photo is bright and shinny now. Like new. The other surprise was....on the inside of the bottom band were 5 tiny hallmarks! I am going to have to see if I can find out what they are. I am thinking that it is worth lots more than a dollar. I am a happy camper.

I stopped cleaning the plate rack and my mind wandered to some of the little glass pebbles that go in the bottom of vases. I found some that were smaller than usual the other day at Walmart.

There were three colors in the sack, so I thought that they would be fun to play with. Remember the bottles that Nikki of Witch and Wizard Miniatures http://nikkinikkinikki72.blogspot.com/ and Debie Lyons of Piskies and Poppetshttp://piskies-and-poppets.blogspot.com/2010/07/am-i-going-barmy-or-do-these-look.html made with marbles? I decided to try some with these. Different shaped bottle.

Of course, Tessie was all for making bottles. She figures that bottles are all for her. I didn't tell her that Zar might have to have some too....I don't want to start anything this morning.

I have had a couple of ideas rattling around in my weird little brain since I got the pebbles. In order of appearance from left to right. Kind of a Hershey's Kiss shape. A bird bottle with the beak as the opening on a gold pebble. A plain bottle on a gold pebble, awaiting decoration of some kind. One of those twisted ones on a clear base. A really twisted one with a knot in the neck, in red.

The last two are pretty off the wall and I don't know if they will work. I started fooling around with embedding beads in the clay. I am not sure what is going to happen. I used liquid poly to stick the beads on/in, but they don't seem all that secure.

These are only silly experiments. If they work, I will keep going. I like the idea of adding things to the clay before baking.

One thing that I tried years ago was adding ground spices to the clay. It gives a rough texture more like raku pottery. I didn't do that yet. I think that I will go do some more experimenting now.

See you tomorrow.