Market Report — Be Creative!

A Saturday journey to a store featuring décor created from architectural and hardware salvage in Amherst, Ohio, was a lesson in repurposing old into new. The eco-friendly trend of using old hardware, crystal door knobs, salvaged wood planks and architectural elements to express style and creativity was on display. The owner said people come in to take pictures of her creations, hoping to recreate them. Others come to buy the originals.

Walking in, you see a concrete-floored space filled with benches, shelves, wire containers, lamps and signs, all made from salvaged materials. A focus in the main room is a bench created from two old doors, specs of blue paint from their previous life still clinging to the roughly worn wood. Nearby, bookshelves made with old wooden planks and rusted hardware are used to display for-sale books stripped of their jackets, bleached white and tied together with raffia.

Displayed on a door a few steps away are two shelves, each supported by two corbels salvaged from an 1820s ranch house. A nearby etagere requires a closer look. Two white doors (still with their door knobs) flank metal springs of an old twin bed. Two thin strips of white-painted wood crown the top. Four shelves display for-sale books, old metal baskets and a lamp made from pipes. The springs provide “hook” space for artwork or décor.

The wooden bases of old lamps are placed on a low table off to one side. Wiring was removed, and the bases were repainted blue, green and orange. Metal trays were attached to the tops, creating a platform for knick-knacks.

Wood scrap also was used as the base of a sconce made with metal pipes, a Mason jar and an old-style light bulb.

Repurposing is national. At a Miami flower show, a vintage cup and saucer was used as a vase for a flower arrangement.

A former sliding wall divider with 24 open panels originally covered with rice paper was repurposed as a backdrop for hanging art.

Across the room, white wood scraps, two hinges and latches came together to create a picture frame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bottle Tree

We put our first bottle tree in the yard more than 30 years ago – a “trunk” and “branches” made of iron rods, with wine bottles slipped over the “branches” to mimic foliage. Today there are bottle trees, bushes, and planters made of iron or copper rods and bottles of different sizes and colors. Latest improvements: painted flowers and leaves on the bottles. We first saw it in the Wind and Weather catalog. The metal “tree” costs about $69 and the set of 14 painted bottles about $90. Why not personalize the decoration by having family paint the bottles? Many restaurants and bars are happy to give away empty bottles.

 

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Flower Sculpture

Do you have a dinnerware set you’re not using? Every winter we go to Design Miami/Basel to see what’s new in the contemporary art world. I stopped by a booth that had flower sculptures made with vintage dishes.

Want to try to make your own? Find a piece of plywood and cut a square base. Drill three holes and insert a wooden post for the stem of each flower. Shape hoops of metal tubing to form a “nest” to hold the plates in your dinner set. The plates can rest on the frame, no glue needed, and the dishes can be used if they are removed.

 

 

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Tennis Racket Mirror

Don’t throw away those old tennis rackets in your attic or basement. Wooden rackets made up until the 1980s are the perfect frames for mirrors on your walls. A pair looks the best! Take your racket to a glass or frame shop, and ask for a custom-cut beveled edge mirror. Then place the mirror on top of the strings and secure it with Liquid Nails Mirror Adhesive. Let the mirror dry overnight and hang it from a nail.

 

 

 

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Silver Rethought

We always enjoy spotting objects repurposed for other uses. Every year thousands of art collectors gather in Miami for Design Miami show. Ornamentum Gallery had a booth at the fair. They had sculptural art, jewelry and decorative pieces made with plastic antique silver-plated trays, flatware, and tea sets. The pieces were very clever and very expensive.

Everything silver in the booth was once used in the home. Rectangular and oval trays in a variety of sizes were cut apart and soldered together to create larger pieces. The artist also moved parts of objects around to make humorous narratives — tray handles were cut and reapplied to create unfamiliar shapes. It wasn’t all wall art. On a table we found a pyramid sculpture made from a large collection of melted spoons. Silver-plated domestic wares are selling for very little today, so anyone can repurpose them. Think twice before you sell that old tea set you inherited. You might be able to turn it into a wall plaque.

 

 

Purses Made from Vinyl Records

Creative collectors are making new treasures from what many think is trash. At a recent flea market we saw a booth filled with purses made from vinyl records and record albums from the 1950s and after. Patti and Rocky Bosley of RPM Treasures used both the record and the empty record case to make something new from old. One purse was made with a vinyl record as each side. A little was trimmed off the top and bottom to make room for an opening and a flat base. Sale price $50. Another was made from an album, the front of the purse from the cover with an attractive picture and the back with the list of songs. It sells for $40. There are other purses with added bling from studs and beads. Shipping for each bag is $6. The couple has no website but will take orders by phone at 330-692-3356 or email, pjstroh77@gmail.com. Unique purses and clever T-shirts that tell dealers and collectors at flea markets what you want often lead to bargains in unexpected places.

 

 

Watering Can Birdhouse

This birdhouse was for sale at an art show for $35. Take an old metal watering can, cut a piece of wood to close the top of the can, and drill a hole in the middle of the wood so the birds can enter. To add flair, string beads from the spout to mimic a shower of water. The birdhouse can then be attached to a fence or post in the yard. You not only have a creative piece for your yard, but you’re providing a safe home for the feathered friends in your neighborhood.

 

 

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Antique-Inspired Bike Racks

The Larchmere district is a Cleveland neighborhood with historic buildings. It is occupied by design studios, art galleries, quirky gift shops, and antiques businesses. In 2014, funds from the City of Cleveland’s Public Art Program paid for an artist to contribute to street improvements. The LAND (Landscape Art Neighborhood Development) Studio put out a call for artists with input from local shop owners and city staff to make benches, bike racks, and street furniture to be incorporated in the streetscape.

Local artist Tom Hubbard submitted a design for 25 bike racks in the form of five (three shown) historical chair shapes. The classic wooden chair-back styles include: Shaker ladder back, Queen Anne, Sheraton, and bentwood. The metal bike racks are a reminder that this is an antiques district. The idea may have inspired local collectors to make their own racks from 3 vintage chair backs. You can find old chairs and make your own racks too.

 

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Create Your Own Artwork

The contemporary design pieces at the famous Design Miami show gave us an idea. Become a curator and create an installation for your yard. Be inspired by the great works at the show that sell for thousands of dollars to knowledgeable collectors and investors.

Pop art is still popular so create a usable icon. The green Campbell’s Tomato Soup (pictured on the left) can inspired by Andy Warhol’s work was at Design Miami priced at $40,000. It is a 2015 creation by Studio Simon. The can has an upholstered seat. I found this vintage 18-inch high Pepsi-Cola can (pictured on the right) that held syrup for restaurants, and added a round cushion to make a Pop-Art advertising stool. Maybe I should give a curatorial explanation that pop-art merges popular and mass culture with fine art while injecting humor, irony and recognizable imagery in the mix. Or just say “Looks great in the hall.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mason Jars

Like a lot of collectors, I’m a gardener and flower arranger. I look for unusual flower containers and holders (flower frogs). At the Burton flea market, there was a strange top for a Mason jar at a booth filled with bottles. Instead of a flat round piece inserted into the screw-on rim to seal the jar, it had a wire mesh. It was used to convert a canning jar into a flower vase. I bought it for $2.95. A few weeks later, I saw the same idea in a gift catalog labeled “Flower Arranging Made Simple. Price, $9.95 plus shipping.” Old Masons and other canning jars have many uses and many adaptations. I gave a party with centerpieces of Mason jars filled with bundles of dry spaghetti. A friend freezes margaritas in an ordinary Mason jar. When you take it out of the freezer, it is slushy and just right to stir with a spoon. Online you can find 3 1/2 inch Mason jar salt and pepper shakers, tiny jars to use as shot glasses, and jars with added handles to use as 16-ounce mugs.

 

 The last few geraniums from the garden look fine held in place by the new Mason jar flower frog in an old jar.

 

 

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