So I am continuing to love Instagram as it allows me to post shrine sale finds and other interesting items on a real-time basis which is just so satisfying. For those of you who have not taken the leap, I’ve been finding some great treasures for myself recently and I’d love to share them. My blue-green glass addiction is unabated and I found this chubby sake bottle last week. The two “ears” on either side of the bottle neck would have had a handle running through them originally. I think this one is perfectly shaped to be a lamp, but in the meantime, I will allow him to just hang out with his friends.
Speaking of lamps, this sake jug with its flowers, unusual in that most rustic jugs just have a manufacturer’s name or mark painted on them like these, is also a wonderful shape for a lamp.
I love its implied relation to an American classic, the stoneware jug. It took the floral decoration on it to make me see it that way.
Actual lamps have been another find, although I know I paid more than I should have for this purpley-indigo beauty. I have wanted a tiny task lamp for my desk at the beach house and looked everywhere the last two summers for one with no luck.
It will be absolutely perfect up here, so I had to have it.
I also couldn’t resist this minty green metal storage box. Don’t know what it is for or where exactly it will go, but I am sure I will find a place!
My lavender and blue dreams continue, with the markets fully supporting them. Lavender is not a typical color in Japanese textiles – it really is rare to see it – but I found an extraordinary lavender and blue tsutusgaki furoshiki (a traditional wrapping cloth made with a hand drawn rice paste resist technique) with a soft shibori faded background. I was having trouble convincing myself to buy it (“Do I really need it?”) when I realized I had an item stalker. You know what that is, someone who has spotted something you are looking at and decided they want it, so they follow you around the booth hoping you will put it down so they can grab it. An item stalker always helps to force a purchase!
Since then I’ve found a length of typical shibori (Japanese tie-dye), but in lavender and blue.
While I’m at it, here’s another really pretty and detailed piece…
…and did someone say pop of color? Obviously May Daouk‘s living room is still on my mind when you look at these colors together.
My spate of finding incredible Japanese prints – impeccably framed no less – at Kawagoe continues unabated. These small lithographs aren’t stand out pieces alone, but as part of a larger gallery wall, I know they will be fantastic.
I am not familiar with the artist and haven’t had time yet to research it, but I do love them.
So have you made any great finds recently? I’d love to hear about them!
Related Posts:
Shrine Sale Stories…Yamamoto’s Steamer Trunk
Shrine Sale Stories…My French Moderne Bar Cart
Shrine Sale Stories…Vintage Matchboxes, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel and The 1948 London Olympics
Great finds!!! I say leave the sake glass bottle as just that- I love it!
You never know, I may be too lazy to do anything about it. But it would be so pretty in the TV room at the beach!
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talk about hitting a home run.. ! Lavender and Blue shibori? Cant wait to hear more about those prints too!
Interesting that you don’t see many lavender type of furoshiki in Japan – In Korea, I found that a lot of them are in pinky lavendery that are used for sweets from Grandma’s house. But I do adore the print ones.
Let me clarify, there are plenty of new furoshiki in lavender and all the colors of the rainbow. It is antique hand dyed pieces you never see in that color, or most others. 90% are indigo.
It’s fun to see the en mass buying that’s happening Jacqueline, it reminds me of my own ‘panic’ buying prior to our leaving Japan and I sure can relate to the ‘item stalker’, funny how it really spurs on indecision over an item! Love everything but most of all the lithographs.
Wow, you do know how to find treasures. I like the blue saki floral jugs and the lightly blue ones as well. Their lovely!