Orphanware™ - The Tutorial

Back in February, I posted about my glass and china project. More recently, I figured out a way to eliminate the scads of jewelry boxes I have and incorporating the sparkle of glass and the delicacy of china to both decorate and organize an awkward space in one of my closets. I can't claim that I came up with the idea on my own, I was inspired by something I saw at Martha Stewart online.

I suppose I've been putting way too much thought into it, as usual, but I've been trying to find the "just right" piece to go with the orphaned saucers and small plates. I really like my adaptation of using glass pieces with the saucers; it allows the beauty of the china to show (and is sparkly!). I've also been playing with stacking the pieces to make tiers, something I've seen on Etsy from quite a few sellers. Call it upcycling or repurposing, or whatever crafty buzzword you like, it's easy to do, inexpensive, and personal. If you do it yourself, you get exactly what you want, with pieces you found. I'm calling these sets Orphanware™* because I'm using single pieces from what was once a set (usually), even the glassware in many cases were single pieces. I don't like to take one piece from a pile, in case someone else comes along later, wanting to buy a set of the same pattern, but that's me.

There are probably tons of tutorials on the net for this, but I haven't seen them, so I'm doing my own since I have a bunch I'm about to start gluing anyway.

FIRST, gather your pieces. I don't recommend raiding your stash of family heirlooms, but hit the thrift stores - Goodwill, The Salvation Army, and Habitat for Humanity's ReStore are all excellent places for finding pieces, and you can also check The Thrift Shopper for other stores in your area. The nice thing is, many of these stores are charity organizations and by shopping there you're also doing some good in your neighborhood. Prices can vary widely, but plan on paying 50¢ to $1 for saucers and small plates, maybe $2-3 for glass particularly if it's lead crystal and the people pricing recognize it. If you're buying saucers, try to find glass pieces that fit inside the well for the cup (there may be a correct term for that, but I don't know it). Saucers are nice because you don't have to worry about centering anything like you might on a bread and butter plate. I also tried to find glassware that was compatible with the design on the plate. (Perhaps you're less obsessive than I...)

SECOND, soak 'em. Those price stickers are a pain in the butt. The best way to get them off, without leaving a bunch of glue behind, is to soak them in the sink in hot soapy water. Leave them in long enough and you'll probably find they slip off on their own. After they've soaked and you've gotten all the stickers off, wash your pieces carefully. Some of them may be antique or at least vintage, so scrubbing them isn't a good idea. They will need to be completely dry before you start gluing.

THIRD, assembly. I use E-6000 adhesive. It's industrial strength (literally) and stinky, but it works great. For some reason, the tube comes with warnings, but not directions, so save the cardboard that the tube was carded on. If you, like I, threw away the card, the link above has all the instructions you need. If you've never used it before, here's a word of caution, squeeze the tube veeeeerrrrry carefully. It keeps coming out of the metal tube even after you stop squeezing. Once glued, set the pieces aside, out of the way, where you won't be tempted to mess with them. Leave them be for at least 24 hours. If you're making tiered pieces, don't apply your second tier until the adhesive on the first one has cured.

So that's the basic process. Simple, eh? Here's the photos from this latest batch of Orphanware™

This saucer has light blue flowers, and the candle holder accents that.

Because the wire looped around the bottom, I had to use quite a bit of glue to make it enough to adhere to the plate. What's there in the photo wasn't enough - I had to add more. The glue in the center isn't functional, it's to scrape off the excess glue that kept coming out of the tube.

When you have something that's larger than the well in your saucer (or no well at all), you have to eyeball it, or get all anal and measure. It helps if there's a design to follow.

If what you're gluing is transparent, you can also look down inside to see if you're centered.

With no well, it can be tricky to get everything centered. This still needs adjusting.

This saucer has a design in the center of the well, and is too pretty to cover. The candlestick is the perfect way to use the dish, raise it up and make a small pedestalled dish.

The easiest way to do that, including making tiers, is to flip it over. Much easier to get it centered that way.

An example of both a well-fitting piece inside the saucer well, and the glassware complementing the china.

A saucer, a very small brass vase, and a butter plate, soon to be a tiered set.

I like to rotate the piece I'm gluing, to try and distribute the adhesive evenly. This will probably put glue where you don't want it, but once cured, the adhesive can be scraped away.

I did what I suggested you NOT do: I didn't wait for the first two pieces to cure before adding the third. (I'm impatient. Don't be me. Really.)

One reason not to be me, it's much harder to get things centered when you're craning your neck to see the bottom. Also, that brass vase wasn't completely level on top. I had to position the butter plate where I wanted it, tipping slightly forward. (Tipping to the side accents the fact that it's not a perfect vertical line.)

One of the hazards of gluing clear glass on an edge - you're bound to make a bit of a mess with the glue, smearing it inside, where you won't be able to scrape it off once the top piece is glued on.

One more example of pieces fitting well. The top of that candlestick fit perfectly into the bottom of the bowl. Also, the finish of both is a warm white, almost a bone color. Together, it nearly looks like they were always that way.

Other than jewelry or makeup organizers, what else can you do with these? Candy dishes, desk organizers, saucers on pedestals make cute individual cupcake plates... you could even take one plate/bowl combo and put some Easter grass in it with a decorated egg and make individual place settings for Easter brunch. My mom uses the one I have her to organize sweetener packets, and it's way cuter than the things sold for that purpose. This is so very easy to do, and the cost is so small, there's no reason for you not to play with this idea on your own.

* Yes, I am being facetious with the ™ on Orphanware. Because I can. Because it's silly.

Closet Woes, Continued

I got the memo board put up. I used clear pushpins and glued rhinestone stickers (I didn't want to trust the adhesive) with E-6000 glue to the tops so they were more decorative and had a larger head to keep things from slipping off. I did way more pushpins than I needed -- it's a small memo board, after all, but I figured I might as well.

The original memo board had 4 hooks (though one was missing) and I couldn't find the exact right kind of hook to match, or even ones that were the right size at the hardware store. I did find what I thought would work at D. Lawless Hardware, and they worked great! I even added 5 more hooks, staggering them in a row above the original 4 to accommodate 9 necklaces.

I did hit a bit of a snag, though. Many of my necklaces are on longish chains, so there's not as much room at the bottom for bracelets as I'd hoped. I also discovered that my jewelry boxes contain a number of broken chains, one's I'd kept with the thought I'd repair them one day. (If I haven't by now, it seems unlikely I will.) So perhaps I'll replace them with shorter ones...

The other issue with the length is that the ones hanging below take up considerably more room than I'd budgeted for, for the shelves I want to put in below. I may go ahead and put in the shelves as planned, and put the longer necklaces elsewhere; I have a lot of organizing to do! But this was a good start, and I'm pleased with the results.

The coloring of the memo board (purple, pink and yellow-green) matches the colors in the bedroom. When you open the closet doors, when I'm all finished with my closet reno, it will look like a part of the room and not just something that go thrown up on the wall randomly.

Inexpensive Library Table

When we bought our house, we were excited about the formal living room. Not because we're formal people, but because the space was perfect for a home library. We're both bibliophiles, and have a ton of bookcases. We bought more...

Because the room was sizable, we decided to make a library table using six short bookcases (two rows of three set back-to-back) with a furniture-grade plywood top, and trimmed out to look like a single, sizable, piece of furniture. The whole thing sits on a rug that protects the hardwood floor and breaks up all the woodgrain, floor to (laminate) bookcases. We bought the bookcases (furniture-in-a-box; I think the manufacturer is Sauder) on sale at Meijer as part of their back to school sale, so if you're thinking of trying this, that's a good time to buy them. 

The top of the table is made from a sheet of plywood, cut to size and stacked. A single layer didn't give us the height we needed to add trim and have the trim be high enough to get books off the top shelf.

We used that grippy shelf/drawer liner stuff to keep the plywood from sliding on the tops of the bookcases. I used green wood stain on the plywood, a color close to one of the shades of green in the rug. (The room also has one green wall.)

Two coats of Minwax Express Color in Emerald, much prettier in person.

Once the top was finished, the trim was stained. I used Minwax PolyShades hoping to do it all in one shot -- don't be lazy; I hate that crap and won't ever use it again. Use stain, then seal it with polyurethane. PolyShades is nearly impossible to apply evenly. ANYway, we found trim that had a leaf motif, an excellent complement to both the green colors in the room, and the leaves in the rug. The trim was mitred to fit perfectly onto the table surface, and nailed into the plywood. (If we had to, the table surface can be lifted off of the bookcases, but it would take several people to do it -- it's heavy!)

First coat of poly/stain. We found the trim at Home Depot.

The finished table, exactly the right height for looking something up in the big unabridged dictionary, is my pride and joy. It's the first thing I see when I come downstairs in the morning, and it still gives me a bit of a rush.

Completed table, with the trim stained to closely match the color of the laminate bookcases.

I call it an "inexpensive library table" only in comparison to something that was made in a single piece and out of wood instead of particle board. I honestly don't remember exactly what we paid for each one, but it was probably around $20 each on sale (this was two years ago), so "inexpensive" is highly relative. If you're thinking of picking them up one at a time, as finances allow, remember that availability may change, styles may be discontinued, etc. 

Also, if you're a serious bibliophile and need to keep track of your collection, I highly recommend LibraryThing, an online book cataloging website. It's fantastic!

Closet Woes

I have a weirdly-shaped closet. It has a bulkhead containing ductwork that juts into what would be a typical 57 x 24" reach-in closet, eliminating more than 12 cubic feet of usable space. Bummer. Worse, it leaves such a narrow space that it seems suitable only for stacking shoeboxes up the bulkhead wall... except I don't have all the boxes for the shoes I do have, and not enough shoes to really utilize the space. SO! what to do?

See? What the heck is that stupid space good for?!

I got to thinking; what if I used the 4.75" return wall and made angled shelves that fit into that weird corner? I want to use the space to potentially eliminate a few small jewelry boxes and make it easier to find what I want, without digging in all of them. I already found a memo board that had hooks on it for keys, and thought I could add more hooks to hang necklaces from at the bottom, and pushpins to hold more.

Repainted memo board. It was missing one hook, so I'll replace them all and maybe add more (at the bottom). Above (the green) is a small shelf. The pink is corkboard.

I already figured what my maximum comfortable reach is, so I know where on the wall the memo board needs to hang so it's usable, and with hooks on the bottom, I know I need to leave plenty of clearance below for necklaces.

This is my not-quite-perfectly scaled "blueprint" for the space. (The side of the bulkhead wall is way off scale, but the rest is pretty good.)

Basically, I'll start 8 inches off the floor and put in an angled shelf, using quarter rounds on the wall for cleats. The cleats will be along three walls, and I'll nail the shelves in place, so they should be plenty secure for no more weight that will be on them. I'll make the second shelf 8 inches above that one, but one inch shorter on the bulkhead side, and the one above that another inch shorter, etc., so that they are stepped slightly and not completely concealing the lower shelves. Why? Because of how I plan to use the space in a decoratively AND functionally.

So imagine the white paper is my shelf, the lowest one. The pretty mismatched china and glass bowls (glued together for stability) will hold earrings, bracelets, rings, what-have-yous, in a pretty and functional way.

I've been staring at my plans, sketching and re-sketching, looking at the space, measuring... and I think this will be a good solution. It should let me put pieces I love on display so I can use them easily, plus make a pretty display in the closet in otherwise unusable space.

Current Obssession

I have a great affection for glass. Clear, colored, leaded, pressed, blown, cut... Some women go for glitter or diamonds, I like sparkly glass.

I had the nifty idea to use orphaned china saucers married with glass bowls to serve as whatnot dishes. I have a couple in my bathroom holding lipsticks and hairpins, but they could hold change, bracelets, sweetener packets, etc. I saw the idea for reducing clutter functionally in a magazine: You collect pretty cups and saucers, but have nowhere to display them, so put them in a dressing table drawer and use them to hold jewelry. That's all fine and good, but I don't collect teacups, and I don't have a dressing table. Also, the tiled-surface bathroom (where I put mine) seemed like a good way to shatter the pieces, so I used E6000 to glue them together, making it less likely that I'd tip the bowl off the saucer, making the assemblage more stable, reducing the risk that I'd end up with glass in my foot.

The center two are in the bathroom, holding hairpins and ponytail elastics, and lipsticks, respectively.

I was in Goodwill scrounging the pieces, and spent ridiculous amounts of time finding the right glass piece to go with the saucers I'd chosen. The base of the glass dish needed to fit in the depression that was for the teacup, and I wanted the look of the glass to compliment the saucer. For instance, the top right pair both have a swirled texture - hard to see from the picture, but the lip of the saucer has the same kind of texture as the little bowl.

So that's where my lunacy started. Then I looked at the piece of garden art my mom got me for my birthday: a "flower" of stacked glass (plate, bowl, vase, nested together and displayed on edge, perched on Rebar), and started looking online for other examples of repurposed glass. I found more flowers (most of them not as skillfully made as the one Mom got from a central Illinois artist), and I found "garden totems." Garden totems must be the official garden sculptures for the Royal Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things. Basically: vase, plate, vase, bowl, plate, vase. They can be perched on poles or set directly on the ground. (Here's a link for pics and how-tos.)

It seems simple enough, until you hit the thrift store and start trying the pieces together. It's a little tricky to get scale, color (if you're using colored glassware), shape and fit just right. Like my saucer/bowl pieces, I want the various pieces to fit together well, so that the fit will help the glue do its job - if the bowl on top of the vase is too small, it will be harder to get the pieces to glue perfectly vertically; if too large, it might make the overall piece tippy even on a stake, and might lead to breakage.

Since I wasn't sure what I wanted, exactly, I might have gotten a little carried away...

Goodwill haul after hitting three different locations.

Most of the pieces I picked up were 99¢ though some were more, some less; they average at about a buck a piece. Colored glass was much harder to find and some of the glass is painted not colored itself. The orange vase is painted, so it may not weather well, but it was so pretty I decided to take a chance.

Isn't that orange spectacular?!

I'll pair that orange vase with some amber glass, and a small ruby bowl, and get a warm little tower for my garden. The green pieces might seem crazy... green glass in a (hopefully!) green garden might be lost. But perennials are expensive, and I'm far too lazy a gardener to mess with annuals every year, so my garden art will serve as pretty little bits of color until the beds fill in.

Sparkly!

Making clear glass sculpture will be a cinch! Tons and tons of candle holders, vases, bowls, plates - some leaded glass piece, even. I'm looking forward to playing with this, and looking forward to spring, and making my flower beds look a little less sad...

Conversations with My Dad

Dad and I are a lot alike, much to my mother's chagrin. They were up for Christmas this past weekend, and Dad (being Dad) made a pretty snarky comment about my admittedly poor housekeeping. (I've been hearing it for years; he can say all he wants, but nothing is going to make me love doing dishes, running the vacuum or washing clothes. Since we are a lot alike, comments like that roll right off.) He said maybe if I painted a rainbow on the vacuum, or in the laundry room, I'd spend more time on those activities. (Not.) However, it did make me think... what if I DID paint a rainbow in there? It's in a rarely-seen corner -- you'd only witness my insanity if you used the powder room (or the washer/dryer), even coming in the back door, because of the way the door swings, you might not see it. Hmmmm...

My love of color and creative side comes from Mom. (Weird combo, huh? "Piss off" attitude in a Rainbow Brite package.) The other thing I've been contemplating recently is a large art piece using broken tempered glass, a technique I saw on Color Splash with David Bromstad. I had to scan through a full 3 seasons, and 2 episodes of season 4 before I found it to refresh my memory and learn what he used for adhesive. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my "canvas" (he often uses plywood, as he did with this piece), only that I wanted to do something incorporating broken safety glass that I was lucky enough to save from a dumpster (before it went in the trash). Then I knew what I wanted to do.

Incorporating both ideas, the rainbow in the laundry room, the art-with-glass... And now I'm so damn excited, I can hardly wait to get started. It's going to be Big -- taking up a large portion of the wall above the shelf over the washer/dryer. It's also going to be heavy, so I may need my husband to rout out "keyholes" on the back of my substrate to hang it on the wall, using heavy screws in the studs. Details, details... don't trouble me with those little things, I have a mess to make!

Wearable Audacity

Once upon a time, as a teenager shopping with my mom on a summer vacation trip in Mississippi, we happened upon a boutique that had a denim skirt and jacket. The pieces were sold separately, but were meant to be worn together. Both were elaborately embellished. Both were outrageous and funky. Both were fabulously expensive. I wanted them desperately, but even a self-centered teen is capable of understanding ZOMG-that's-expensive! Mom apologized, said she'd get it for me if she could, but it was just too expensive. And it was - the pieces were really the first time I remember seeing something that could be labelled "wearable art." They were not overpriced, just beyond what the budget could bear. She told me that we could make it ourselves - maybe not the same thing, but we could alter a jacket and skirt and make something similar. We gathered a few supplies, but quickly realized that just buying the embellishments added up fast. The project never made it off the ground.

Fast forward about 26 years. I'm coming into my own as an artist. I'm learning to sew and am good at reverse engineering. I have developed an adventurous spirit when it comes to trying something new. I can barely recall what that original skirt and jacket looked like - it's been more than half my life since I saw it! And I know now that the skirt wouldn't suit me now, and it would fit anyway. And as a teen, wearing it would have gotten more ridicule than admiration. Now, I simply don't give a damn what people think! (Back then I had chutzpah in the traditional sense: insolence, arrogance and audacity* - I brazened my way out of high school trying to survive. Now, it's more disdain.)

I know when I'm wearing something that suits me because I'm comfortable. I know when I look awkward, when something isn't "me" - my challenge for the new year will be to find the right jacket, the right jeans to alter into a skirt, and recreate that wearable art set that has percolated in the back of my head, O these many years. I have another jacket project I want to get back to, as well. And some purses I want to play with. Will I find what I want? Create the nebulous vision? WHO KNOWS! It's a whole new year and anything could happen.

Update: I also want to do a pair of Converse Chuck Taylors to go with them. I really need to start some design sketches....

* I've always loved the word audacity. Most people regard it as a pejorative. Not me. "Boldness or daring, especially with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions." I am arrogant. It's not one of my nicer qualities, but it's there. I am an audacious person. Maybe it's time to stop trying to be something I'm not, and embrace the core of who I am. Look out, world, this is your only warning!