Search Results for: glass bottles

Recently Spotted…Slag Glass

So both the summer issues of House Beautiful and Elle Decor feature a styling accessory that will be dear to my glass obsessed readers hearts – slag glass, lumps of leftovers from the glass blower’s furnace at the end of the day. Like Japanese glass fishing floats and bottles, they are essentially found objects that brings in that translucent watery blue-green color just perfect for beach house interiors.

Both spaces feature a ton of interesting details, like the knotted rope window treatments and the upside down industrial baskets-turned coffee tables in the Marin County, California house below. This space is full of fabulous re-purposing! The rest of the house is no less fascinating – a must view – including a fabulous bunk room and kitchen window-deck pass through. You’ll be seeing more of it here on the blog in coming weeks.

The Amagansett home in Elle Decor is the very best kind of casual warm modern, but it is the slag glass on the table that pulls this room together and links the inside to the exterior. The soft shimmery colors and rustic curiosities lift the house out of an ordinary mid-century modern design – be sure to see the rest of it here.

What is it about water colored glass that speaks to us so strongly? And why am I so sure there are going to be lots of google, eBay and Etsy searches for it in the coming months?

Image credits: 1. House Beautiful July/August 2012, photo credit: Alec Hemer, 2. Elle Decor July/August 2012, photo credit: Jason Schmidt

Jul 11, 2012 By tokyojinja in Glass, Interior Design Tags: beach house, fishing floats, glass, slag glass

Sheer Simplicity…More Japanese Glass Fishing Float Displays

My posts on Japanese glass fishing floats are some of my most popular posts. Lately I haven’t had to look far for photos featuring them as readers have been sending me their own displays or those they have seen elsewhere. Hawaii seems to be a common place to find them, which makes sense as they wash up on the beaches. This photo was taken at the historic Shipman House Bed & Breakfast in Hilo, a gorgeous Victorian house on the Big Island.

I also had a mention of the float display behind the bar at the Monkeypod Restaurant in Maui. Impressive!

Most of the recent examples have been charming in their simplicity, with a few floats grouped in a spare interior to great effect. This reader has placed hers under the simplest of lucite tables.

Glass floats and fuzzy sheepskin in the same space – kind of an oxymoron, don’t you think? But so lovely, nonetheless…

…reminding me of this reader’s simple modern arrangement.

South African designer John Jacob has used a few floats in this gorgeous project. I have only pulled the photos that highlight the floats but his entire portfolio is drool-worthy and well worth perusing.

All stand out in contrast to the only floats I saw over the holidays – these in the gift shop window at Universal Studios (remember those family commitments that kept me from antiquing in Florida?) Ahoy matey!

Image credits: 1. L. Rogers, 2. via Monkeypod Restaurant, 3. S. Bloomer, 4. Moda Bagno & Interni Store by K-Studio via Design Milk, 5. M. Smith, 6-7 John Jacobs Interiors, 8. me.

Jan 13, 2012 By tokyojinja in Glass, Interior Design, Shrine Sales and Flea Markets Tags: fishing floats, Japanese glass floats, John Jacobs

A Few (Glass) Jewels For My One Year Anniversary

Gasp! I thought September 16th was my one year blogging anniversary, but I was wrong. It was the 12th of September and I missed it! I guess I could cheat and back date this post, but to keep my journalistic integrity, I won’t. We’ll just have to celebrate a few days late!

Since I started out at Nogi Shrine, what better way than to commemorate with a few sparkling jewels seen there this past Sunday? Some of my favorite finds are the humblest of objects, like these Taisho era shoyu (soy sauce) bottles. The disposables of their day, they had no particular value and were simply a method for delivering a product. Fast forward 80-90 years and now they are collectible!

A favorite dealer had basically assembled a complete collection and had I wanted one instantaneously, it was there for the purchasing. While I am often featuring glass in all forms on the blog, what makes these bottles particularly special is their rare glass screw tops. I had bought a huge green bottle at Kawagoe last spring simply because I was so in love with that screw top. It seems amazing to me that they have lasted in perfect working condition. These two blue-green ones were my favorites – I love the art deco detailing.

Making beauty from everyday objects like these is something Amy Merrick does particularly well. In addition to drooling over her spectacular flower arrangements, I have followed her posts about found glass and ceramics from Dead Horse Bay in New York. I would love to go junk collecting there but never have the time when I am back in the US. Her collection of found bottles on an antique spool thread display shelf is stunning. To see more of her work, you must go take a look at Amy’s gorgeous new website.

Dealers in Tokyo do a great job of presenting their glass wares, often grouping them by color like these at the Azabu Juban Saturday market.

And this summer I snapped this photo at Lakeview Antiques in Bolton Landing, NY, where they arranged their glass by color and style. I think Ball canning jars like those on the second shelf are some of the most multi-functional and inexpensive vintage glass around. They come in different sizes and colors, display beautifully and have many uses. My friend K used them as vases for a summer night party – nothing simpler or prettier! I just wish I had a photo to show…

…kinda like this.

And Joni just posted this kitchen by Susie Bohnsack over at Cote de Texas. Note how the old turqouise seltzer bottles positively glow like jewels in the backlit cabinet!

If you are interested in glass bottle collecting, Martha Stewart Living recently featured an outstanding article naming and dating different bottle types.

Photo credits: 1-2, 4-5. me, 3. Amy Merrick via An Apple a Day, 6. via Covet Living, 7. Susie Bohnsack/Pearhouse Design via Cote de Texas

Sep 14, 2011 By tokyojinja in Glass, Shrine Sales and Flea Markets Tags: Ball jars, blue glass, flea market, glass bottles, shrine sale, soy sauce, vintage glass

Glass Insulators Can’t Protect Me From Jet Lag

Jet lag and general reorientation (disorientation?) have kept me from posting this past week, but not of course, from antiquing. I have managed to visit most of my usual haunts here on the northern New Jersey shore before even making it to the supermarket, which luckily for my children, I finally did today. The sad news for me is that I have not managed to find anything on my “need” list for the beach house, nor anything on my “just want” list, which means I will have to cast my net further afield. Hopefully that will yield some good posts too.

One item that did catch my eye at many of the shops I visited were antique/vintage glass insulators. I know I have a strong following of blue-green glass and fishing float junkies, so I thought these might satisfy an itch. I have seen them on occasion, but not particularly noticed them until I saw this group lying in a trunk amidst vintage rolling pins at the Point Pleasant Antique Emporium.

Once I noticed them, I saw them all over the Emporium…

…as well as other places, such as the Point Pavillion Antiques Center.

Historically used to insulate telegraph wires (glass does not conduct electricity well), these glass insulators are no longer in use and have become collectible. As you might expect, there are entire websites devoted to their study and sale. At The Insulator Store, some of the rarer pieces are described in language that makes them sound like diamonds or champagne; “An absolutely dazzling Roman Helmet, in a brilliant shade of green. This particular piece has loads of charm – a few faint amber wisps, great color variation and some light fizz in the ears.”

The beauty shown and described above is $173 at the Insulator Store, one of many unusual ones stocked there, including a Mickey Mouse shape! Most of the insulators I saw were basic blue or clear and quite simple, priced in the $3-$5 range.

What should you do with them, you ask? Well, one of the simplest ways to display them is along a window ledge, allowing the sun to shine through.

Turning them into small pendant lights seems to be popular too.

And another version with the insulator hanging upside down.

The Lamp Shop sells a conversion kit for glass insulators which I found in a post on Katy Elliot’s blog. There is also a link for cork sockets, perfect for turning glass jugs into lamps, so I plan on doing that to one of my great finds back in Tokyo.

And since I am now in New Jersey, why not show you how weird and wonderful it can be? Stanley Hammell has been collecting glass insulators for the past 15 or so years, but more importantly, he has been displaying them around his property in Pomona.

Trumps the windowsill display…

Image credits: 1-3 & 5. me, 4. via The Insulator Store, 6. available at Railroadware, photo via Remodelista, 7. via Retro Renovation, 8. via Weird N.J.

Jun 17, 2011 By tokyojinja in Glass, Lighting, Shop Talk Tags: glass insulators, New Jersey Antiques

Everyone Loves Japanese Glass Fishing Floats…A Follow Up

Move over Tom Scheerer and Steven Gambrel, Tokyo Jinja readers are collecting glass floats and displaying them in their homes. I’ve given up on getting mine back to the US right now so I have combined it with my ever-growing collection of Japanese glass bottles.

One Tokyo reader got lucky at the Oedo Antique Market just a week or so ago. She scored a medium size float with its original net and a handful of small ones. I just love the way she displays them on the shelves, with her books organized by color – it makes for such a soothing composition.

The husband of a reader in Singapore knew how obsessed his wife was with floats that for Christmas he bought her a group from a dealer in Alaska. Simultaneously, a friend gave her a bowl from Core Bamboo. She’s combined the two and displays them on a woven Laotian textile in her living room.

Blue & White’s Amy Katoh displays her floats in a senbei (rice cracker) canister on her window overlooking the Sumida River.

And for the most unusual placement, this float joins sea glass on the bathroom wall at Amy’s Tokiwa house.

Elsewhere in the internet, Brooke Giannetti of Velvet & Linen has just posted photos of the Gilt Home Showhouse room she and her husband designed in support of the Demi and Ashton Kutcher Foundation, which raises money to combat human trafficking. Using paintings by her husband Steve and items from her shop Giannetti Home, they created an artist’s studio.