skip to main |
skip to sidebar
tuesdays and fridays are easily my favorite days of the week - why? you ask...well because tuesdays and fridays are the days when my local flea market gets into full swing. beginning at 7am (i'm usually there bright and early) various vendors start setting up and the old-timer's gather in the food hall to get warmed up with scrumptious amish-made sandwiches and pastries. i usually run into the food hall to get a large coffee and then start hunting for treasure. my first stop is almost always at clarence's booth (that's him above). i absolutely adore clarence!! he's always one of the first one's set up and clarence ALWAYS has a smile on his face and a hearty belly laugh to accompany any story. he regularly supplies me with wonderful old watches and odd knick-knacks. but even when clarence doesn't have any new stock, a smile from clarence is the best start to the flea market anyone could hope for.
the next few hours involve A LOT of walking and searching and moments of eureka and i treasure every last minute of it. but without fail - my last (and longest) stop of the day is when I visit my favoritest lady in all of Delaware - Miss Jessie (that's her on the left). Jessie is 84 years young and wise beyond her years. Jessie is simply put, a girlfriend of mine. We talk about anything and everything from politics to recipes to flea market gossip and every conversation I have with her is one to be remembered for years to come. When I first started visiting the flea market, I would go to Jessie's booth to browse her amazing collection of vintage jewelry - but now I visit the booth to see Jessie. the jewelry is just an added bonus.flea market visits have been interrupted the past few months with super frigid weather and time spent moving house...tomorrow it's supposed to rain. BOOOO! so fingers crossed tuesday will be warm and sunny!
nothing thrills me more than when fashion photography crosses the threshold of the editorial and enters the realm of fine art. melvin sokolsky shattered that boundary completely with his amazing bubble series of photos for harper's bazaar in 1963. to the left are two of my absolute favorites from that series.
one of the best things about moving is unearthing long-forgotten treasures and the inevitable ephemera oddity. the image at left came from a 1954 souvenir pamphlet for the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company that i found inside a long-forgotten book. the illustration is that of a large cone in which anthracite (coal) was cleaned before it was sent to homes and businesses for heating purposes. the colors in this pamphlet are incredibly rich and bright and the title page of the pamphlet even has some wonderful mid-century advertising copy extolling the virtues of coal:
"how nature baked the cake to keep you warm and comfortable with the heat and sunlight of millions of bygone years. "
as a native Pennsylvanian, it's somewhat heartbreaking to come across the pamphlet - the optimism in its pages nothing but a sad reminder of a burgeoning industry that is all but abandoned now.
with Valentine's Day just around the corner, I'm trying to "break out the hearts" so to speak and put some heartfelt and romantic pieces into the shop. I've also started taking photographs with props to add a bit of whimsy to each listing. It's hard not to get carried away though - so with my excitement about the new photos, I truly need to make sure I'm not devoting an inordinate amount of time to photography - and make sure every last minute available goes towards creating more jewelry. I can tell it's going to be a challenge!
this portrait is of my great cousin Pauline from when she was a little girl (around 1905 or so). Pauline never married (if memory serves, I believe her fiance was killed during World War I). She lived alone with her Siamese cat and taught Sunday school. She passed away when I was a young teenager. I remember with fondness how she always seemed slightly childlike to me - she was very tiny and gentle and quick to smile. What intrigues me most about this portrait is how the serenity of her countenance conveys a distinct maturity and slight sadness - an unexpected emotion for such a young girl. The dichotomy between the serious little girl and the lighthearted elderly cousin I came to love is puzzling and yet lovely - it's almost as though she had the good fortune to grow from adult to child over the course of her life. if only we could all be so lucky.
a super, deluxe thank you is in order for the lovely folks over at sprig.com (the green-minded, sister site to Newsweek magazine) who kindly requested some of my items for a story they were writing about eco-friendly jewelry.
the image at left is the end-result and I'm literally thrilled to have three pieces featured in this incredibly styled shot (photo by Youngna Park).
all three are available over at the shop - and please be sure to check out the websites of the other incredibly talented designers featured in the article: jill alberts, toby pomeroy, pyrrha, origami bijou, and reverie.
the next few hours involve A LOT of walking and searching and moments of eureka and i treasure every last minute of it. but without fail - my last (and longest) stop of the day is when I visit my favoritest lady in all of Delaware - Miss Jessie (that's her on the left). Jessie is 84 years young and wise beyond her years. Jessie is simply put, a girlfriend of mine. We talk about anything and everything from politics to recipes to flea market gossip and every conversation I have with her is one to be remembered for years to come. When I first started visiting the flea market, I would go to Jessie's booth to browse her amazing collection of vintage jewelry - but now I visit the booth to see Jessie. the jewelry is just an added bonus.
