Score! Mid-Century Sugar Bowl in 1948 Dove Gray “Ballerina” Pattern

 

Oooh, I’m so excited to have found this wonderful mid-century sugar bowl for my microgreens!

I love the fat round “coupe” shape of the bowl, the lacy ring-shaped handles and lid finial, and most of all, the beautiful dove gray color!

This piece is from the “Ballerina” pattern, union made in Cambridge, Ohio by Universal Potteries, designed by Alf Robson.

Universal Potteries introduced the Ballerina pattern in 1948, in four colors: Periwinkle Blue, Jonquil Yellow, Jade Green, and this Dove Grey.

At left is a Ballerina advertising brochure showing one of the 4 new colors introduced in 1949 – Burgundy – along with Forest Green, Chartreuse and Sierra Rust.

Then in 1955 the last 4 color sets were released, in Pink, Charcoal (which looks black), Turquoise Blue and Antique White.

In addition to the solid color pieces like mine, Ballerina pieces were also made with decorative decals. (Personally, I prefer the solid colors.)

The size & shape of this sugar bowl make it the perfect mini-garden planter: the bowl interior is about 4-1/2 inches wide and 2-3/4 inches tall. It's ideal for growing a larger crop of microgreens than a teacup, but it’s still counter top scale.

Here’s how it looks planted with organic arugula microgreens … sweet!

So far I’ve only found one of these – and I was especially lucky to find this one WITH its original lid, AND in pristine condition. Woot!

I’ve already made up the microgreens kit in my Etsy shop, and I also offer the organic arugula seeds separately. For the time being at least this planter kit is one of a kind … but I’ll keep looking …

--MaggieBelize
Designer, kNotes for kNitters
Creator, Happy Hands Hand Cream for Knitters
Grower, Maggie’s Microgreens
Sandia Park, New Mexico

Yard Sale 2-18-12! And You’re Invited!

We are hosting a one-day-only, everything-must-go, whole-house yard sale at 14 Digby Lane, Edgewood, New Mexico, this Saturday, February 18, from 10 AM to 4 PM.

And you're invited! Bring friends! ;) The current weather report says Saturday will be the prettiest sunny day of the week, and we believe it, ahahahaha.

This is a "whole house" yard sale, including items for every room. Here's just some of the stuff we've got for sale … click the linked items to see a full description on Craigslist Albuquerque:

· Oval dining room Table & 6 Windsor-back chairs Table $150, Chairs $40 each, or $300 for the whole set!

· 2 Kitchen Bar Stools Ready to paint or stain. $25 each or $40 for both.

· Upholstered Chairs

· Glider Rocker (needs repair) $30

· Full-size Futon couch

· Media Center & Cabinets Low media stand table $75, two cabinets $30 each, or $125 for all three

· Contemporary home office Desk, Chairs & File Credenza $100

· Dishes & Kitchen gear

· Men's & women's Jeans & Clothing

· Kids' stuff (clothes, toys, books, games & DVDs)

· Color TVs (not HD)

· Assorted Hand Tools,

· Universal Gym

· Large wooden Dog House

We hope you can stop by on Saturday to say "hello" ... and please feel free to forward this link to everyone you think might be interested!

--MaggieBelize
Designer, kNotes for kNitters
Creator, Happy Hands Hand Cream for Knitters
Sandia Park, NM

The Yellow Pages Project – Crafty Tips from Etsy Artists

I began my “Yellow Pages Project” last week after seeing a depressingly large bin of new phone books at our local post office.

As we live in a community with few or no recycling resources, I wanted to come up with creative ways to re-use last year’s phone books, to keep them out of the landfill and to tap into a massive source of free paper!

My first stop for inspirational input was the Etsy Community Forums. It’s a fabulous brain-trust of creative artists! I posted my quest in the Techniques & Materials forum, which Etsy members can follow here.

(If you’re not already an Etsy member, go join right now.
It’s free, of course.)

Here are some of the ideas submitted by Etsy artists, linked to their Etsy profiles by way of a “thank you”! (I’ve lightly edited some of the comments for clarity & brevity.)

Art Materials

• thecyclingartist: make envelopes with the pages
• urbanwoodswalker : Yellow pages are cool. But the color will fade; the inks and the paper itself are very poor quality. I have made sculptural baskets ... but I use adhesives and UV spray varnish coatings to make them permanent. Still, never leave any item made with this kind of paper out in strong prolonged light.
• Skinonskinbeautiful : I make paper out of the yellow pages, color bleeds into what mix you have and makes pretty pale yellow, looks ancient.
• dmriceart : papier mache is easy to make & use; paper pages are great for collage backgrounds, painted with an opaque paint so some of the lettering shows, but not all! If you glue pages together, you can actually make paper thick enough to form small boxes (see Internet Resources, below). Scrunch and use for 3-D artsy flowers, with a bit of bright paint, and a button middle. Roll, and flatten, then make cool little woven baskets. Sit on them, and feel tall? (That is what we used them for, growing up!)
• TheTinyFig : origami?
• crochetgal : I've been rolling yarn from paper lately … it’s a fun but messy process!

Cleaning Supplies & Studio Props

• Use as 'rags' for paint cleanup (thecyclingartist)
• Use them to clean mirrors or windows, with vinegar (dwhitecreations, crochetgal, laksaware)
• MadisonHouseDesigns : I was just reading in Best Friends magazine (from a large animal sanctuary in Utah, bestfriends.org) that they use old phone books for their rescued birds, who like to dig their beaks into them. There may be an animal shelter in your area that could put them to good use. :)
• akuadesigns : I use them to press leaves and flowers. It's so wonderful in the winter to find all these great dried flowers from the summer.
• WhiteDragonPaper : I use mine to drill into with my Dremel. It's good soft protection so I don't drill through my book covers and into my floor or the ground or anything. (I also use them for papier mache projects and recycled paper bowls.)

Internet Resources

Most of these resources on the net use newspapers, but yellow pages paper will work, too!

• How to Make a Box from Rolled Paper & Cardboard (YouTube Video)
• Similar Paper-Box-Making Videos
• The Recycled Newspaper photo group on Flickr, and several more Flickr photo groups including recycled newspaper works of art (suggested by urbanwoodswalker)
• How to Make a Recycled Yellow Pages Card Holder (suggested by wiggle)

  Project & photo from GreenUpgrader

• DIY Sofa from Yellow Pages, by way of CollegeHumor, of course!

Thanks to every Etsy-an who contributed to the Yellow Pages Project. Keep those bright ideas flowing! You can post your comments & links here, or share them on the Etsy Forum thread.

--MaggieBelize
Designer, kNotes for kNitters
Website,www.LocalGringos.com
Sandia Park, NM

The Yellow Pages Project - Free Paper, Going Fast!

Yesterday at my local post office I saw a huge bin of new phone books for distribution to our neighborhood. On the bin was a sign reading "Please Do Not Dump Old Books Here."  I guess that means all of last year's phone books are headed for the landfill.

The "Dex" yellow pages volume for the greater Albuquerque area has close to 2,000 pages, plus another 700 pages or so for the white pages volume. Multiply that by the 217,346 households in Albuquerque - yep, I looked it up - and you get a minimum of 586,834,200 pieces of paper dumped in the landfills every year. (Of course, that's assuming that every household has only one set of phone books, I'm sure many have two or more.)

That's at least 600 million pages of free paper going to waste, every year.

I came home with my new phone books, but took our old books - we have one set - to my craft room. This is the beginning of my "Yellow Pages Project": I want to make something with my nearly 3,000 pages of annual free paper!

Here's my first Yellow Pages Project: making paper beads.

I found basic instructions for making paper beads on WikiHow and Paper University. Over at A Storybook Life, she's making them from newspaper; Natasha Fialkov is using origami paper. There are loads more examples, just Google.

Here's a photo of today's Yellow Pages beads, drying now. I wrapped them on recycled cocktail straws, and used a strawberry box for a drying rack.

Tomorrow I'll play with inks & glaze to finish them.

Next up, I'm thinking about papier-mache masks - mADmen? - and maybe bracelets.

Please share your crafty ideas for the Yellow Pages Project by adding your comments & links below. 

Let's keep some of those 600 million pages in useful circulation!

--MaggieBelize

Designer, kNotes for kNitters

Website, www.LocalGringos.com

Sandia Park, NM