I've listed these cool antique hand made wood clamps yesterday, these are cool pieces for collectors but I thought it would be fun to show actual fun decor ideas that can be done with them.
These are numbered and signed by the maker, these days they are usually metal with plastic, made in the thousands.
They are super cool as a shelf to display small items.
I would have liked this with a thicker shelf but I like the idea.
Did you think 'why on earth would someone want old wood clamps?' and do you now think 'I want some of those too!' ? :)
And while we're busy with old carpenter tools, how about this super cool steampunk lamp made out of a carpenter plane.
For the past few months I have been listing vintage and antique items in our home decor shop, StarHomeStudio. A few of those items are antique cradles from Turkey. These baby beds are for most culture extremely weird and exotic.
This one is entirely made out of wood and even have hand carved rings, most likely to distract the child with.
You might have thought where and how babies sleep in these, as it has hardly and depth, and when you add a mattress it has no depth at all and a baby would fall off. These cribs were used with a swaddled baby which would then be bound to the bed, making movement impossible.
This custom is not how I personally would raise a baby, swaddling is loved by many but binding them to a bed is pretty claustrophobic (we wrote years ago a funny blogpost about swaddling in case you are interested). I have not seen this custom done here anymore but I sometimes I see an adult with the back of the head flat, I've only seen this with men I suppose as woman usually have long hair you can not see it. The flat back head happens when the person as a baby was swaddled and bound to the bed for a too long period of time, lying in the same position when the bones are still soft makes the skull flat on the back, sounds pretty horrible doesn't it?
The cradles however are gorgeous and come in many shapes and motives. Mostly done in wood this iron wrought one is rare.
The handles on top are to rock the crib but you can also carry the bed including the baby.
These cradles are still used in some Eastern countries also in East Turkey, in the same way these old ones were used.
It is believed that as the baby can not move it stays calm and sleeps better, I think that the fact that in these regions women often have 8 or more children that the cradles makes it easier for the mothers to do their house chores without having to worry about the baby.
This picture was recently taken in a camp with Kurdish refugees. The beads are against the evil eye, you can also see fabric which is used to cover the crib when the child sleeps, often protection for again the evil eye but also against mosquitoes.
We even have a doll version one, this one is tiny and completely crooked and rusty, I think it needs some tender loving care :) The other 3 cribs are available in the Vintage section of our shop. These would be beautiful to showcase special dolls.
The first illustration is from this blogpost about baby sleeping believes and rituals, the second illustration is from here and the photograph from DailyMail.
Here a video of someone who still makes these cribs today in Turkey, according to the video he is the last person in Turkey who still makes them, but I doubt that :).
I know, I know, it is thursday, but this week somewhere we lost a day. I'm pretty sure that our week here had no tuesday, I don't know about yours.
Nevertheless we wanted to share some button prettiness with you. We are no button collectors, what is a good thing since it could easily lead to bankrupcy, but once in a while we just cannot resist, or I can't.
This cool, groovy pouch is a recent ebay score.
And these funny, handpainted wooden horse buttons I bought in a bric-a-brac shop in Amsterdam, some forty years ago. They were already vintage by then, only at that time they were simply called old :)
See more button facts at Kraplap.
It all begun with this bag, that I have showed you before. It is an adorable pouch portreting a dutch peasant family and all the little heads, including the cat!, are made with buttons.
I had never seen such buttons before, but I started looking for them, and they appear to have been quite popular in the States around 1900.
And like this goes with buttons, it is addictive, and I got myself a small collection :)
This one left is part of a series, I've seen them on Ebay for high prices, but I got mine for much less! I would love to know where this button family thing comes from. Searching on Google only brings up family trees of real Button families!
These are bridge tally cards, probably picturing the actual players.
This one is very different , but I love it too: Missis, will yer please sew me a shirt on this button?
Well of course, the beginning is already there !!
This bunch I bought on Etsy very recently: several cats and dogs, people and blank ones to make my own button family!!
Hop over to Kraplap's blog to enjoy even more button facts!
Don't we all love to collect 'things' during the years? Beside the regular things as stamps and foreign money there are many with interesting collections. Mum and I are both collectors of all kind of things, mums latest passion is vintage French beaded flowers. The old ones are so fine and sweet. I would love to see one of your collections! Send me a picture through Etsy's conversations or email with your story about how it started or whatever you would like to tell about your collection!
PetitPlat: ''I started a tiny bjd (ball-joinded-doll) collection. I only have two right now, but I guess there will be more. They are quite expensive so I won't have 50 but 10 is possible lol! Here are my current two: Eleonore is the white skinned, a pukipuki lily from fairyland. Alice is the tanned girl a lati white sp gloomy from latidolls.'' You can see them having a lovely breakfast, made by PetitPlat herself:
Kreativlink: ''The most important things I collect are experiences and memories. Yeah - maybe that sounds a bit sniffy but, it’s the truth. Wonderful things I collect in my head. Just for me. Ha! But - the other things I collect are books. It’s not so much that I collect them, they just pile up here in the house. They are everywhere. In the living room, on the stairs, in the bedroom, in the bathroom (yes!)… but the biggest piles are in that little guestroom upstairs. No more emtpy shelves to fill. I think, soon we’ll really have a problem …''
ArtMind: ''I have a lot of stuff but I don't really collect anything franticly.What I've been buying lots of lately is yarn! :)''
SwiedeBie: ''I have the main CD-Rom back in 2004, and have a growing number of extension packs (which most are left in Singapore), these that I have now are the most commonly played ones by me. I am still investing in more extension packs for my Sim. As it may seem like a childish collection, but the total graphical simulations never fails to amaze child within any adult. As you can see my interest and love for designing, building, construction, manipulating and executing the way my Sims will want to live their lives. I will pass on this game knowledge to my daughter when she is older, oh well, of course I have to wait 9 more years for that... You never know...''
Kraplap: ''I am a real collector from almost everything, so it's a bit difficult to choose... But the most striking part to be seen in our house are the traditional costume prints that hang everywhere. The picture shows the wall along the stairs. It's part of my traditional costume collection on stamps, coins, postcards, and also books about ir, and costume parts like hats, skirts, jewelry etc....''
LaTouchables: ''I love to collect books and strange art objects--a skull from a cow (I think of it as art), a gold-leaf-painted box from Mexico, and this enameled silver and copper brooch from my old metalsmithing teacher. I love very few possessions, but the few I have are of significant sentimental weight. But I always keep in mind that I may lose them, and if so, I would be able to live without.''
Vadjutka: ''I „collect” two things – this means that if I have a chance I buy them, but I do not search them all the time. -Glass! I love vintage and/or colorful glasses. I collected quite a few throughout the years. I store them on my bookshelf: most of them are from the flea market in Budapest, but I have a few from Japan and Macau.
-Jewelry! I love traditional folk art jewelry and I always buy something when I am abroad – and I also get them as gifts. Ont he picture: Seed necklace from the Caribbean sea, Necklace made of African pressed beads (the pink one), Carved bone bead necklace with Buddhas from Tibet (in themiddle), Plastic necklace from Paris (black-orange one), Belt embellishment from Turkey (hanging on a string), Earrings from Tibet, Necklace from Afganistan (at the bottom).
IngerMaaike: ''I collect but one thing and that is life. Every day one day more in my collection of unique, happy, intriguing, exasperating, wonderful life.''
TortillaGirl: ''I collect many things but the one that I cherish the most is my rosary collection. I am a practicing Catholic and I pray the rosary so it has significance for me, but I also appreciate rosary beads for their handmade beauty which is why I am always on the lookout for a new rosary to add to my collection.''
RavenHill: ''My husband laughs at me as I am always collecting things. My present passion is threads of all kinds for embroidery. I am just dreaming of finding time to use them all!''
Vilte: ''I don't collect something on purpose, but when thinking about this subject I just had to admit I have a habit of collecting stones everywhere and bringing it home. If I am travelling somewhere or just going sight seeing, I usually pick up stones I like. We have found some bigger stones in the land we are building our house (1st and 4th photo), I also want to make a stone river on the land there. Our table with glass top is all filled with stones from Lithuanian and Italian coast lines (3d photo). And I have stones put in decorative vessels everywhere in our home (these are stones from Tuscany in Italy on the 2nd photo).!!''
Meltemsem: 'I recently started a bell collection, it started when I heard that bells bring luck. I try to buy an interesting bell in every country I go, for now there are 6 of them.'
Alatvian: "I collect almost nothing since I lost everything when our house burned down and I realized that I don't need most of the things I had collected. But it is difficult for me to throw away the school-reports, awards of my children and gifts made by them. So one may say I am collecting them. :D"
DeerLola: ''I'm not really the type to collect stuff (unless boots count ? ;) but was thinking of items we have in or around the house in high(er) numbers. That's when I realized, and quickly noticed sitting out on our terrace today, we are the only ones in our street with half a forest in our backyard. We don't have a lawn or a nicely landscaped garden, we have trees. Lots of them. We love them. They offer protection and shade and provide housing to the birds and numerous squirrels. Unfortunately, trees have become something of a rarity in our neighborhood since people prefer grass over trees. And that's okay. But we love trees. I once read somewhere that one mature tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year… So there you go. We're very proud of our collection.''
Martice: ''I was thinking of things that I collect, and I actually think that I don't collect anything...BUT I have some things that are present in our house in more then average numbers. ;-)I can take a few things (partly) on my account. The green stuff on the balcony is very addictive... especially when you use your own seeds! And well, the yarns don't need any explanation. Then the books... this picture captures only a part of the collection... :S I dream of a in-house-library with library stairs etc etc etc... maybe one day? And last but not least: my pictures! I like to fill walls with pictures in different frames.''
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