Day 22 of The {31} Purge and I just couldn't believe it when I started pulling out all of the BOXES of wood and papier-mâché crafts...all six of them! For years I did a lot of tole painting and my Dad use to cut out all of the shapes for me that I needed when we lived in New Hampshire. Then we moved down here to North Carolina and it was like hitting the "mother lode" with all the fantastic craft stores. Whenever one of the local stores closed in the Charlotte area...I pretty much stocked up on all of the great deals. AND for the past 8-10 years all of the deals have been stored in boxes that have moved with us for the past four moves. Beginning from the garage at our Concord home...to the garage in our Mint Hill home...to the storage unit in our Charlotte apartment...and finally...to our storage unit here in Raleigh! So here are four boxes of un-finished wood crafts just waiting to be transformed ;}
Then as I kept taking boxes off the shelves in my storage unit...I found that I had TWO more boxes of papier-mâché as well...oh my!
When we first moved here over 16 years ago, I was not working full-time so I had time to paint and really enjoyed creating special gifts for my family. I even had an art journal {of sorts ;} that I used to keep track of all my projects...I still have it...and it's wonderful to reflect back on.
Here's a scan of one of the pages in my book where I had a pattern and color key for the utility brushes that I use to paint on {you can see a bunch of these in the first photo of the boxes of wood crafts ;} It was a cute way of making an everyday item decorative. My Dad use to love these hanging up on his front porch where he could grab them to brush off the sawdust from his cover-alls before coming into the house {all though I think my Mom appreciated this even more ;}
Next up is a scan of a cow that I had painted onto a cookie jar cover for my sister...at the time she was into cows...not so much anymore...lol
Before long, tole painting and folk-art crafts were being replaced with all the cheap, imitation imports and it was really hard to justify buying the instruction books, the paints and then the TIME required to create anything personal...so I stopped painting all-together. But not before I whipped up a couple of party pots...an alternative to a gift basket that I could paint on ;}
Like this clown pot that I filled with all sorts of baby items for my niece. In the above photo, my Dad holding it up in the hospital since we couldn't be there when she was born. My Dad was the most upset over me not painting anymore...he always wanted me to make money at it...lol
The other thing that happened was that I started scrapbooking and began making albums as gifts for my family in New Hampshire so that they could see how we were living and spending our time here in NC. Soon after that I returned to work full time and as they say...the rest is history!
Way in the back of my storage unit are two four-drawer file cabinets FULL of tole-painting books that I am trying to clear out during this purge as well. I'm thinking about selling them in groups of ten on ebay for like $15.00 (plus shipping). What do you think...will they sell? I'd like to try it since many of them cost ten to fifteen dollars a piece and some of them have never been used. Please advise ;}
Fondly, Roberta
How fun to look back on previous projects. I was just doing that yesterday (I have a notebook of scanned pics of previous projects too!)
Tell Deb I used to be really into cows; not so much anymore. I purged the cutesy/country ones a year ago when we updated our kitchen. I kept a few, but I wanted a more sophisticated feel to my new kitchen.
I don't have any idea how well the books would sell. Have you checked to see how similar items have sold recently? I have run into a similar issue as I have purged. I have kept a detailed list of items that I think won't sell (or too troublesome to mail), donated them, and I'm gonna write them off on my taxes. I still have ~2 boxes of stuff I may try to sell, but I am putting Doug in charge of sales :)
My craft room purge got put on hold…we went to Florida for a week to visit my grandmother and the girls' Autism specialist. I think I needed a purge break anyway. The past two days have been a flurry of playing "catch up." Hopefully I will resume the purge by Monday…next up: the CLOSET.
Posted by: June Houck | November 12, 2011 at 06:07 AM
Wow... all kinds of fun goodies! I love that you painted on the brushes... too cute! I love that you kept track of your projects in a book. You are so organized! I think the books would sell. People sell everything on ebay... worth a shot! :)
Posted by: Jennifer | November 11, 2011 at 06:53 PM
Oh gosh, these pictures bring back so many memories...yes I remember the cow ! and all the other stuff too - loved it when I received something hand painted!
I also remember the boo boo jars - they were fun too!
Posted by: Deb | November 11, 2011 at 02:25 PM