Goodwill Goods::Art Glass

Hi everyone! It's been a while, but I have another installment of my Goodwill Goods series. Remember the post I did about my Goodwill finds here? I could probably do a whole years worth of posts just on the stuff I find at thrift stores! I am waaaay behind in sharing all my discoveries, so this is just my 'latest' find.

I love Art Glass and all my drinking glasses were/are collected over time, not bought as a set. Some Art Glass can be soooo expensive though, so I am always looking for 'friendlier on my budget' versions. I wrote about that here. I use art glasses as my everyday drinking glasses, so inevitably one gets broken here and there, but that's okay because I always seem to find one or two whenever I'm out and not really looking for them. This is one of my favorites so far, found at Goodwill.

 For only $1.99!

So hard to capture in a photograph, the different colors each have their own iridescent shift which change colors as you tilt the glass. Soooo pretty!

Can't read the signature, but the date is 1997. I go to the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach every year and there are a few glass artists there whose booths I make sure to visit. I occasionally will splurge and buy one of their glasses, which look exactly like this one, signed and dated by the artist, and generally cost anywhere from $35 to $50 per glass! Very well worth it for the skill that goes into it, just not in *MY* budget very often!

It's not like finding a Picasso at a garage sale, but I'll take a buck .99 art glass signed and dated any day of the week! It's finding joy in those little things :-) What have you found lately?

Angel Food Cake and Soccer

EVERY time I go to Goodwill (which is often) I always see angel food cake pans in the pots, pans and dishes section, and they are ALWAYS missing their bottoms. Some people call them tarte pans, some quich pans, but Ima go with angel food, cause it's my favorite. I love the way these pans look, all gleaming silver and fluted, so I wondered if there was any way I could use them without the bottom (ALWAYS missing!)

Only .99 cents each, I picked up a couple.

 I just love the shape and finish of this and knew I had to find a way to re use it!

Then I spotted this cheap, plastic soccer theme mirror and got an idea!

The round mirror in this baby was *exactly* the same size as the bottom of my cake pan! Ding ding ding!!

SO................(you probably see where I'm going with this)

I turned it over, undid the four small screws and sports theme printed cardboard (cause it IS a soccer mirror after all) that held the mirror in AND...........

Covered the cardboard with some wrapping paper and spray glue. I wasn't too concerned about being neat here, because the mirror will be covering everything up.THEN.......

 

Added a few spots of hot glue to the back lip of the cake pan,

glued the prettied up cardboard to the lip........

 turned it over AND...........

This is what it looks like so far, UNTIL........

another couple of dabs of glue, and Voila! A beautiful little mirror.

It has the look of a starburst mirror, and you could use this for all sorts of things. I would probably use it on my vanity to hold bracelets or perfume bottles, but you could also hang it just by attaching a piece of ribbon to the back, like so.......

And the grand total? .99 cents for the cake pan, $2.99 for the soccer mirror (can you believe that thing cost more than the beautiful, fluted, silver cake pan....oh, I know why....NO BOTTOM!)

I would love the hear what you've re-purposed lately. 

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Bling it On!

A cheap-o goodwill mirror....

Some dollar store glass cube gems........

An inexpensive can of colorful spray paint....

And.........

PRETTY!

 A lovely bling-y thing for around $5.  Yes, bling it on!

Big Blue

As is my usual habit, I was one day last week browsing through the craigslist ads when I noticed an unusual post.  It said " very large chandelier."  Chandeliers are not hard to come by on craigslist, but they are usually standard, run of the mill, normal sized fixtures.  The measurements listed in the post were " 36" high and 42" wide."  I got out my measuring tape and tried to get an idea of how big this thing really was, because in the picture posted with the add, it did not seem that big.  My thought was to get it and re-sell it since it was ridiculously low priced, which was another thing that caught my eye in the ad.  Very large and low priced?  I was all over it!!  I called within 10 minutes of the owner posting and he said I was the 4th caller already.  But, as luck would have it, none of the other callers were able to come see the "very large chandelier" right away.  I was.  Within 30 minutes, I was standing before it with mixed thoughts on whether or not to purchase it.  It was kind of ugly brown and beige eighties looking and indeed VERY large ( the picture did not do it justice as it was bigger in person than I had imagined.) Would anybody buy it from me? Would I get stuck with this huge monstrosity?  How would it fit in my car?  Am I crazy to buy a huge chandelier?!  What am I doing here?  I finally decided to just bite the bullet and purchase the beast!  With some help from the seller, we got it strapped in to my trunk and I made it home.  I brought it inside and put it on my dining room table.  It was then that I decided I would be keeping it.  It made such a statement in it's size, I thought it would be the perfect over-the-top light fixture in my dining room.

In it's original color.

But the color was completely wrong for my space and very dated looking, so it was off to the hardware store for my go-to problem solver: spray paint.  Before I went though, I had a few tubes of craft paint on hand and decided to test out some color possibilities.

Some of the color tests.

I eventually decided on royal blue to match the chairs at my dining table.  Silver was a very close second and for a while it looked like it might be shocking pink and hung in my daughters room.  The thought of her jumping from her bed to the chandelier and swinging from it quickly determined the fixtures place in the dining room!

In progress

Four cans of spray paint later, I had blue hair, blue skin, blue boogers and a BIG BLUE chandelier!

Now to hang it........I needed help since it is pretty heavy, so I recruited some friends.  After measuring from the ceiling to determine the best height, we adjusted the chain length and set about devising a plan on the best way to get it up there!  I should mention, at this point I still wasn't completely sold on having a light that big over my dining table.  I have 10' cielings, but even at that, this thing seemed HUGE!  My friends convinced me that it would be such a "wow" factor, I had to do it.  So back to hanging.  It took three of us to hoist it up, get it on the chain which was already attached to the ceiling plate and keep it balanced while I snaked the wires up through the collar to the ceiling box.  Finally, everything was wired, hung and ready to go.  I set about putting all the bulbs in (there are 24 bulbs in this sucker!)

You can get some idea of scale when I stand next to it!

 I went out to the breaker box, turned the circuit back on and...............

Taaaa- Daaaaa!!

I put it on a dimmer.  This is the lowest setting....

......and this is the highest at 600 watts!

Oh. My. Goodness. It. Is. So. Cool!  This was one of the riskier design choices I've made, but I think it really paid off in the end.  And if I do ever decide to move it, there is always spray paint!

Any guesses as to how much I paid for it?

I am really happy with the way it looks, the drama it gives the room and the pop of color it brings.  And I will always have plenty of light for dinner parties!  These pictures don't quite show just how big this thing really is, but trust me, it is BIG BLUE!!  The only thing I lament?  Not getting a picture of it strapped into the trunk of my VW Jetta!

I hope you enjoyed your visit, I appreciate you stopping by!  Won't you please consider following me on the right side bar?
xoxo,

Glass Grapes and Raindrops

Anyone that knows me knows I'm a Goodwill devotee. I'm usually in there twice a week because you just never know what you'll find.  Last Monday, there I was, cruising the aisles but not seeing much I had to have.  I was just getting ready to leave but decided to check the knick knack aisle again on the way out.  Something round and cobalt blue caught my eye.  I went over to check it out and discovered it was a cluster of glass grapes like the kind that used to be popular in the 70's.  They must be regaining popularity because I'm seeing them everywhere!  Anyway, there were two sets and I instantly picked them up and put them in my basket.  I had no idea where I would use them and they did not have a price tag so I thought if they were anything above $2.99 a piece, I would walk away without them.  I took them up front, pointed out that they were not priced and the cashier said "$1.99."  So.... each, or for the pair?  "$1.99 for the pair."  Cool!  So, I scored a pair of glass grape clusters, but still had no idea how I would use them.         

The blue just glows in the light!

I got home and started playing around with them and noticed they were strung together with wire and if cut apart, I would have a whole bunch of cobalt blue pendants to string up somewhere.  My first thought was out on the patio, where the sunlight would make the blue glass glow.  But for some reason I wanted to use them inside.  I looked around and decided over my kitchen island would be the best place.  I found a length of bamboo I had left over from some other project, some screw-eye hooks and some fishing line and got to work.  I wanted to have it look like giant raindrops falling indoors.  I really love the color it adds, the unexpected element, and the fun!  My kids have decided it is a giant Newton's Cradle and I will frequently catch them standing on the island playing with the hanging jewels.  I love the way it turned out and it goes to show....from glass grapes to giant raindrops, you just never know what you will find!

Happy Hunting,