All posts for the month July, 2013

Exploring Close to Home

I’ve been so busy exploring the area around my new hometown I have neglected to look for the vintage opportunities closer to home.

Newark does well for antique shops – which may be something to do with the famous Antiques Fair I blogged about here – but it’s not so easy to find vintage. Anyway, as I didn’t want to stray too far from home in this gorgeous weather, I decided to stay close and explore what Newark had to offer.

Tucked around the back of a tattoo parlour, I found a decommissioned church which is now home to the Newark Antiques Centre. This varied centre rents a series of ‘booths’ to independent traders, guaranteeing a wide range of items over the two floors.

Here are a few of the vintage items I found:

Tin tubs

A nice collection of galvanised tin washtubs.

Painted Sledge

Completely the wrong subject for our current baking hot weather, but I love the painted detail on this sledge. Because of the steering mechanism and the painting, I am guessing that this is probably from Austria.

Shelving Unit

I really liked this idea of a shelving unit made from vintage wooden boxes. Just the thing to display your vintage treasures – although maybe not these novelty corn cob vases!

Corn cob vases

I liked these enamel jugs – I could have a serious enamel habit if my purse was deep enough, and I thought that the set of drawers (made of cardboard covered with vintage wallpaper) were also cute.

Enamel jugs

This lovely child’s rocking chair has seen a lot of use:

Childs rocking chair

I like the contrast of the metal jelly mould on an old set of wooden steps.

Jelly mould

It would be fair to say that although there wasn’t any dedicated vintage stands, there was enough vintage items spread across the stalls to make a vintage visit worthwhile. There is also an interesting looking café that I didn’t have time to explore, so now I have found it, I shall certainly be back to visit on a regular basis.

Indulging my weakness for sewing

It’s no secret that I have been keen on sewing related crafts since my Mum taught me to sew a long long time ago. As a result I have a major weakness for vintage fabric and all things sewing related. Left to my own devices at a recent auction, I took a punt at a large box of mixed vintage sewing things. I paid a bit more than I was comfortable with as I didn’t have a lot of time to delve deeply into the contents, but I’d spotted a few interesting looking things from (I reckoned) the fifties and so I gritted my teeth and raised my paddle……..

My Mixed Lot of Vintage Sewing Kit

So, when I got it home I had a fun time separating the good from the dross.

Digging deeper into the box

The woman who had originally owned it was obviously keen on all sorts of fibre based crafts. I found examples of hand woven fabrics:

The handwritten labels make me think they may have been entered in a show.

Tatting and rug making tools:

Tatting and Rugmaking Tools

I have never seen these rug wool measures before, they must pre date pre-cut packs of rug wool.

Rug Wool Measures

As far as I can tell, you wrap your rug wool around the measure and then cut, running your scissors down a groove on the long side to give lots of wool strands of the same length.

There were also half finished pieces of embroidery and unusual embroidery hoops: