I love when the seasons change!

I decided this past weekend I was going to go out on a limb and try a willow pattern stencil with fall colors. I love fall, enough sunshine to keep you happy, a brisk chill in the air and the colors of fall in West Virginia are simply amazing. The trees have just begun to change.

In just a few weeks the reds, oranges and yellows will be all over my front yard. It is a picture takers dream! No filters are needed during this time of year. The lighting and backdrops are perfect.

I have to tell you, as I begun this piece this weekend, I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out or if I even liked it before I pulled the stencil off. Using multiple colors makes it hard to not have colors bleed over into others, but I did fall in love with the end product.

The fabric paint I used has a sheen to it, almost like glitter, so the pictures don’t really do it justice. I got creative and used some colors over the others.

As I sit here and type, I begin to think about the change in the seasons and how life is really no different. I have been undergoing a great deal of change here recently. I work 2.5 hours from home, and my husband is a pilot, so he has a 7 on 7 off shift. I have a rental near where I work so I don’t have to commute so much. The weeks I can stay are the weeks he is home! Have I mentioned I have 3 dogs and 3 cats….. I feel a meme of some sort brewing here.

Anyhow, back to the topic. My son recently moved back to college and my daughter and son in law moved to Florida. It has been nothing but transition for the past 6 months. Move in, move out. Have evenings of riding 4 wheelers and weekends of kayaking to evenings of no one home and weekends of nothing. Life is constantly changing, sometimes for the good, sometimes, not so much.

I am beginning to see as I sit and watch the leaves fall from the trees, this too is a season in life. A season of change and loss but there will be better days of growth ahead, I just have to hang on. It is kind of ironic that tonight’s Lesson for Celebrate Recovery is the READY lesson. It talks largely about being ready to accept God and his will for your life and be willing to change. I tell you sometimes, we get so caught up in the moment, it makes it hard to be willing to change. We don’t even have time to understand the change much less process it.

I must say, I am glad I am not teaching this evening. Simply because I am not sure I could do so without buckets of tears. I am NOT ready for any more change in my life. I think I have had my fair share here recently. I am not at all in denial that there are areas I need to change, but I know I need some level of comfort too! Like my collecting, it brings me comfort.

I know deep down, this is a temporary season in my life and that things will again change, so making any dramatic choices would be the wrong thing to do…..

So instead, I will paint t-shirts until the cows come home or life feels better and more stable! I will let you know what else I come up with!!!

Do you collect only Blue Willow or Multicolored Willow Pattern?

If I think back, my first convention was around 1999 in Richmond Virginia. I would have to verify with someone that that was the corresponding year, but none the less, the first convention I went to, was breathtaking for me. I am from a small rural West Virginia town population of around 1,500 people. The city center was the college, where Ben and I had attended school. To be fair, the population without the college is probably way less.

The only fast food we had at the time was Dairy Queen, no hotels, two small gas stations and a dollar general store and a hardware store at the end of town. We now have 2 dollar stores (we are moving up in the world!) It is a quaint little town, but until recently, when a church took initiative to redecorate down town, it had become a dreary town, struggling with addiction, poverty and much of the town had burned at one point or another.

I have to give you background, because Richmond Virginia is a huge place, so not only was the trip there stressful, but navigating downtown was insane for us little town kids. We were fresh out of college and as I said in one of my other blogs, we literally attended with enough money to be able to eat and just attend. We were maybe 23 and 24 when we attended and our household income was maybe $16k combined! Yes, I am not missing a zero. We maybe made $5.75 and hour.

Ok, we were poor, you get the picture. I had purchased my first Mary Gaston willow book and it had truly become my willow bible. I was so enthused with the pictures inside of it. These were pieces I never ever thought I would see. We had a couple of antique stores around town, but most of the time, you could walk through and never see one piece of willow.

The bulk of what we had added to the collection came from my husbands birth city of Erie, PA. It was way more of an antique area than my sleepy little town. By the way, Helen’s Fads & Fashions was the only antique store that was in my hometown at the time and my mom owned it….so she kept her eye out for any willow she could find.

Anyhow, back to the topic at hand…collecting willow pattern in colors other than the traditional blue and white! I recall walking into the Marriott in downtown Virginia, simply in awe of how big the buildings were. I seriously had never seen anything like it. But man, when I walked down the hallway of the convention center and saw the International Willow Collectors check in table, the hallways were huge. The light fixtures were massive….

I simply was in shock of the size of everything and to be fair, was not sure what to expect when we entered just in time for show and tell. I believe the topic that year was bed and bath. As we walked into a ball room set up to seat 150 people, and tables all the way around the room for show and tell, I was immediately drawn to the front of the room, where the pitcher and bowl pictured at the top of this page adorned a sow and tell table by the hosts. Tim & Kim Allen and Tom & Barbara Allen.

The colors on the pieces simply amazed me and the raised pattern was simply gorgeous. But remember I told you, we had just enough money to eat, so scoring one of those sets was not going to happen. I was too excited to see the pieces to be disappointed that I was broke! I was living in the moment!!!!

Later on in my collecting I would purchase the book above as it had such amazing different colored willow and I wanted it all. The book was developed largely off of the Allen’s collections. I recall the front of the room having a pitcher and bowl set as well as a tooth brush holder, and various other pieces displayed in the Tams ware pattern above.

I honestly never thought I would get to a point that I would have pieces of that magnitude, but the thrill of the hunt kept me interested. I purchased the set in the first picture probably 10 years ago and was so excited to open it up. It was a quick buy it now on Ebay that I simply couldn’t live without. I have added various pieces to it as I have come across them. The pattern itself is just amazing.

This has to be one of the most colorful versions of the traditional willow pattern. I simply love it. It helps that it has by favorite shades of green in it and it offsets the blue so well.

I was able to get quite the deal on this set when I purchased the bulk of the pieces at $200. It was one of those finds, I never thought would happen and also one of those shipments I patiently awaited the delivery only to easily shake the box before opening…don’t shake your head, you know what I am talking about!

Tell me about your multicolored willow items you cherish……when did you get your first non “traditional” willow piece and do you still have it?

Have a great Sunday!

Christine

Do you purchase damaged Blue Willow?

Late 1800’s Blue Willow English Compote/Dish

I am like most people in that I don’t really like to purchase from outside of the US. Mostly because I always fear my piece getting broken in transit. I try my best to steer clear of out of country purchases, but it hinders my ability to purchase beautiful English pieces like this compote.

“FAIR WARNING” this may end up turning into a sappy blog post because of the horrendous week I have had. The highlight of my week was going to be opening up this package that was delivered while I was in Charleston working. I am sure there are other fellow collectors that watch the tracking on their new items to ensure they are around when it is delivered and to make sure no one steals it off of their front porch after it has arrived. Sad world we live in these days.

When I got home this evening, I had a list of things to get done, let out the dogs in the house (the coon dog and yorkie) and let the big coon dog out from his kennel, unpack my car, bring my computer in….find something for dinner and well try to relax (that is always at the bottom of my list!) As I fed the dogs, I noticed my package at the end of the table. I had almost forgotten as I checked things off my list.

I always do a minor shake test…no sounds….good sign. You know, I have to prepare myself for bad news. This piece wasn’t that costly and has a chip, so I already knew it was damaged, but what character it had and I simply loved it when I saw it online a few weeks ago.

Do you have a hard and fast “no purchase” for items that has slight damage? I can say when I first started collecting it was all about how much I could get a piece for versus the “collectable” value of the item and if the item was damaged, it was an immediate pass for me. But my collecting has truly evolved. I have fallen deeply in love with antique English pieces and the thought of their history makes me willing to purchase that “broken” piece.

Here is for the sappy part: On Monday’s I run a recovery meeting with my husband and this was no different than any other….One struggle after another. We meet every Monday at the same time but this week we had a testimony. A gentlemen shared about his addiction to cocaine, prison time, loss of a child and his father’s murder. Sheer brokenness. The testimony couldn’t have come at a better time for me.

Sometimes, I too feel deeply broken, ineffective, not enough….like damaged goods. When I got home tonight after my shake test, I breathed a sigh of relief, I don’t hear anything…we should be good to go. As I opened the bubble wrap, I heard clanging……it was broken into 3 pieces. My past few weeks dealing with loved ones who struggle with addiction has left me raw, and emotional. At first when I saw the pieces, I wanted to well up with tears. It is over, another piece lost………You know, we are only as lost as we allow ourselves to be.

And I heard this still small voice say, it is still a beautiful piece, just put it back together. You know for the longest time, I really thought God didn’t speak to me because I am looking to hear a deep man’s voice….seriously, I am not crazy here. That still small voice said to me, Christy, some many things in life are broken, but they can be made new. Just because it is damaged doesn’t mean it doesn’t serve a purpose….ok God, where is the darn superglue…..

Yes, I glued this piece back together tonight, whipped out some acrylic paint, turned off the TV and focused on putting it back into one piece. Here is the thing, this piece isn’t much different than our lives. Sometimes, we feel broken, other times we have it all together, but deep down, repairs still need done to make us new.

I am in the middle of 2 separate step studies, which is largely why I am so emotional. Tonight, I wanted to encourage you to not judge a piece by the worth of what you see on the outside of it, but think about all that piece has been through. Sometimes damage gives a piece character, like older pieces with staples in them. They are one of my favorites. I still have no idea how staples were used to put china back together!

I don’t know how you feel about this piece, but I want to give it another chance at displaying beauty! And lastly, I don’t have any idea who made this piece, it is unmarked..but I love it just the same.

Fall Decorating with Willow Pattern China

There is just something about the cool chill in the air and the changing of the leaves that makes fall my favorite season. It helps that I love to decorate my home with fall colors too! I love to sit on the porch, cozy up with a cup of coffee and soft blanket and just be. I am never alone though! I have Bella, my coon dog, Sheldon, my yorkie (thinks he is a coon dog), Tigger my orange cat (the only one in the crew that can meow..so he does it loudly), Brutus (a stray that continues to grow on me) and Mittens the grey cat with white paws.

The highlight of this season is the decorating! I love mixing colors and textures to make a table look like it was dressed up for a cover of a magazine! I do have a few struggles these days. I have 3 pieces of “blue” willow that I cannot fit in a china cupboard to store. All three are a little too large to fit between shelves or simply are too wide/long to display anywhere else other than my 16 foot long dining room table. These would be 2 enormous cheese keepers and my 40 inch long warming platter.

The center of my table always has to be the biggest part of the display. Although, I don’t have any willow pattern vases to use that fit the bill for Fall colors….heck, I don’t even have a blue and white willow vase…So this year, as you can see I opted to use my Royal Doulton Spittoon. Yes it is clean! No spit was involved in this decorating.

I couldn’t just use it in the center of the table because of the size of the warming platter, so I decided to use the warming platter to elevate my spittoon to be a show stopper! I added a fall color table cloth underneath to pull it all together. And what fall decorating is complete without pumpkins?

I don’t know how you feel about using Blue and White willow in your fall decorating, but I think it is simply stunning, especially the older English pieces. You can see in these pictures I also used a multicolored willow pattern plate. I think it all compliments each other pretty well.

The bright oranges, yellows and greens make me want to sit by a camp fire and make smores! I simply love it. Many of my pumpkins boast a reminder to always Give Thanks. In a world that is so torn upside down as it is right now, we have to remember to be thankful for what we have and not wallow in what we don’t. It is so easy to be taken down a path of negativity.

I’d encourage you to play around with using various colors, textures and heights when you set your fall table. And seriously set it. It makes you feel so much better to see a stunning table, regardless of whether you have company coming over or distancing due to COVID. Just because you may be alone is no reason to not enjoy your willow finds!

Tiffany & Co. AND Blue Willow – A Match Made in Heaven!

Who doesn’t truly love the class and style of Tiffany & Co? Beginning several years ago when my husband and I were trying to determine if we continue to fight for our marriage or if we simply walk away, he decided for my birthday to take me to New York City. I had really never been to a big city like the Big Apple. I am just a little hometown girl from a very small town in rural West Virginia.

We were kind of at our breaking point. We didn’t know what else to do besides try and reconnect with one another. I remember that trip like it was yesterday. I also recall being in awe of the huge buildings, the crowds of people and how cold it was. We went in December! But I totally fell in love when he took me to Tiffany & Co. on 5th Avenue. I never dreamed I would be walking into this store, much less leave with a small Tiffany blue box wrapped with a red bow for Christmas.

The feeling you get when you walk into a Tiffany store is that of sheer elegance, class, sophistication. You feel “special” “princess like”. It is the one time, you can shop with the rich and you walk out with the same box they have and the people working there treat you with the same respect. This specific store has been open since 1837! Rarely do businesses keep their door open that long!

I believe my first piece of Blue Willow was a creamer I purchased from Copeland with the Tiffany mark on the bottom. It was so special to me. I do still have it by the way! To see the Willow Pattern with the Tiffany New York mark on the bottom made me realize how valued the Willow Pattern was and how it was probably a fairly prominent family who had purchased a tea set like the one pictured above.

The Tea set above has the Copeland and Tiffany New York mark impressed on the bottom of each piece. It includes a tray measuring just under 4 feet long (you can tell by my picture, it is almost as long as my 6 ft. round table). It has a beautiful teapot, creamer, sugar and 4 demitasse cups and saucers.

I often wonder, which floor of Tiffany’s this would have been found on and who was the wonderful family lucky enough to take it home?! I suspect from looking at these pieces, there is almost no damage, so they were prized possessions. The detailed gold gilding is amazing.

The tray has to be my most favorite piece. It is in mint condition. It is gorgeous! Seeing how they used the pattern over and over is very interesting to me!

I am curious why types of Tiffany Willow Pattern each of you may have.

In 1837 when Tiffany opened up in New York City, the first day of sales is $4.98! Man, I think it would have been nice to buy the tea set above for $4.98!!! That is definitely not what I paid for it!!!!! Oh and last not least is that Tiffany Blue colored table cloth made in Irish Linen…it makes my heart smile.

I can only pray at this stage, that this iconic building remains to be Tiffany & Co through this COVID mess. So many of NYC businesses are closing up shop and moving to other areas like Florida. It would break my heart to see these amazing buildings sit empty after hundreds of years of prominent business.

What better way to drink than with a Willow Pattern Flask?!

Doulton’s Willow Flask

As all of you know, I am not really a drinker, but if I were, this would be drinking in style! When I came across this piece, I immediately fell in love. The pattern was such a deep vibrant blue and the top of the flask was something I had never seen.

The top of the flask had a fish made for the handle and the top where the cork would have been has a beautiful anchor which made me think this piece was most likely made for a ship or sailor of sorts.

I have done some research on the date of this piece and it appears to be by Doulton & Co. Ltd and dates to 1881-1890 which means this piece is over 130 years old. What an amazing detailed piece.

I have never seen another piece like this one, but I would venture to say there is something else out there! I recall looking at the item, messaging the seller and making some arrangements to purchase it. I immediately took a look at my collection to try and determine what I could let go of to purchase this piece. I am sure I sold more than one willow prized possession but I don’t regret doing so. Usually if I can sell to buy, I feel ok about the purchase!

Anyhow, do you have any willow flasks in your collection? If so please comment and let me know!

Liquor in the Willow Pattern anyone?

Blue Willow Decanters

If you have read much about how I began to collect blue willow, and how I have hung onto every special piece because of brokenness in my life, you know I don’t have alcohol in my household! But it doesn’t mean I can’t collect amazing pieces of willow pattern! I would never do that when I have a loved one that struggles.

These are the only two I have but I believe there are 6 different ones. I have seen SW, IW, C, R, W and B. My thought was Scotch Whiskey, Irish Whiskey, Cognac, Rum Whiskey and Bourbon…but many of the decanters found with a C kind of look like a G….so maybe Gin? I honestly don’t know but I would love to have one of each…so be on the look out for me! I have seen these sets nestled in a 4 section wicker basket for easy transport to the table as well. I will share pics in a bit.

These were thought to be made by George Jones and Sons, Stroke on Trent in approximately 1877. My research says George began an apprentice ship at the age of 14 with Minton and after the apprenticeship completed 7 years later he became a salesman for Wedgwood. (The potteries.org). By 1856 he had opened his own pottery show room. I can’t imagine what amazing finds those items displayed would be for us today!!!

He began manufacturing his own pottery around 1864 on land he purchased from Minton then the following year moved into a newly built factory – The Trent Potteries. How amazing would that have been at such a young age. I am amazed. The last factory stopped producing in 1956.

Below you will find pics of other finds from my willow friends in the IWC! I believe most of these are from Paul Kirves on his prized purchase.

The transferware collectors club also had this picture posted on their face book page and also notes George Jones as being the manufacturer.

I love the placement of the birds on these decanters. I also love the stoppers/corks on Paul’s set. Rarely do you see these with the corks or the stopper.

I have many other alcohol related willow items I will be sharing over the next several posts. If any of you have others in this set, please let me know!

Blue Willow Stenciled Kaftan

I have to tell you, this has been a very difficult week. We celebrated the 3 year anniversary of our recovery program and it brought a wealth of mixed emotions for me. I am learning to deal with these emotions through crafting and writing. So at the moment, this blog is my saving grace!

I will tell you, the reason I purchased the Willow Pattern stencil in the first place was seeing a Kaftan made by Helen Morris. Her white Kaftan had a much better shape than mine, but this one served its purpose. It has kept me busy each evening this week. It is hard at the moment getting used to the quiet in the house after all of our kids have moved out. Not sure how well I like this empty nest thing.

Anyhow, let me tell you how I tackled this. First off this item is linen so it needed to be ironed. I will be the first one to tell you, I DO NOT iron! I was never good at getting the right settings, but I had no choice, I could not stencil something wrinkled!

So after a good ironing, I laid it across my dining room table. I lightly sprayed sheets of paper with adhesive spray to put in between the front and back of the Kaftan so the paint would not bleed through if I got it on heavier than I wanted. Helen Morris gave me this advise and it worked well. It kept the paint from going clear though the thin fabric.

Next I stenciled the bottom of the Kaftan. I used two different colors to give it depth, but you really don’t have to. I only used one color for the pattern I chose for the chest of the Kaftan. I probably could have chosen a different part of the pattern, but I think it turned out ok.

I then waited until the following evening to do the back of the Kaftan. Then I followed the exact same process as I did with the front. Now, I could probably add something to the sleeves, but I really didn’t want it too busy. I think this little piece would look great as a beach cover up! Now to find a piece of furniture!!!!!!!

I am finding the more I deal with folks struggling with drug addiction, I need some form of outlet and this keeps my mind quiet and focused. Plus the end result makes me smile.

Because so many of you have asked, the stencil I purchased came from The Stencil Library.

I am providing the website address below. There are so many on this page I would love!

https://www.stencil-library.com/

If you do decide to make a stenciled draft, let me know how it goes! I would love to see it.

Blue Willow Pattern Crafts

Do any of you love the blue willow pattern so much that you use it in your crafting? I decided after seeing a Caftan on Instagram, I was going to give it a shot. Turns out, I was destressed for about 25 minutes while I focused solely on my project!

There are many necessary items to any stencil project. First and foremost, you need a stencil you would use for more than one project. They are too expensive to only use once, but I figured starting with a $2.50 white tee shirt would tell me where my skill set was. Next I went out onto Youtube and watched videos by Helen Morris from The Stencil Library in the UK.

I had always been one of those people who could never get the paint to stay inside of the respective lines…now I know why! I was doing it all wrong and didn’t have any of the correct supplies. Below you will find my supplies I used for my project.

Using stencil brushes is really important. It helps you get an even application of paint and these brushes are all round. You will need one brush for each color of paint. The goal is to work the paint up into the brush, not have so much on the bristles.

The next item I used was the beloved willow pattern stencil. I can’t wait to do furniture with this beauty! I have no room in my house, but maybe in my rental house I could squeeze in a piece!

You will need the 3M adhesive spray to put on the backside of your stencil to hold it in place on your project. You don’t need much. Hold it about a foot away from your stencil and spray it. Basically you want it as sticky as a sticky note…I may have applied a little much, but it worked out with no damage to the stencil.

The paint I purchased was specifically for fabric as I knew I ultimately wanted to do a shirt or caftan like I saw on Instagram. I bought mine off of Amazon. I used two colors for my project. I couldn’t decide on which one I wanted, so I used some of each.

The ultimate goal is to work the paint up into the brush and have an almost dry brush when you begin your project. After each application of paint you will use a circular motion on the paper towel to work the paint up into the brush.

I sued the same circular motion and dabbing motion on my shirt as I applied the paint. I have to be honest, I really wasn’t sure how this would turn out, but I am fairly pleased. I did place paper inside of my shirt to keep any paint from passing through incase I applied it too hard. By the way, tee shirt material is tough! It stretches and moves easily.

I don’t know about you, but I think it turned out pretty cool. I am no longer afraid to do this on the linen caftan I bought for the project. And I didn’t end up wasting my $2.50 tee shirt either!

What crafts do you apply the willow pattern in? Would love to hear.

My Largest Willow Plate!

To the normal eye, you simply would think, why does she have a picture of a regular willow pattern plate? Looks can be very deceiving my friends. This plate weighs in at around 35 pounds and is 40 inches tall. No, this is not china….it is wood!

Last May, I was surfing the internet, for my next find and decided to switch over to Instagram. I often don’t look on Instagram for willow pattern items, but just by chance, I saw this piece. There was a front and back picture of this plate hanging in an art gallery in London at Sans Pretention. I immediately wanted to know more about this piece, so I sent a direct message to see what info I could get.

His response was this is a 19th century carved wooden plate, most likely a private commission piece used as a shop sign. He told me he purchased it in Italy at auction, however it was definitely English in Origin. I obviously wanted to know if this was something he would ship the the US and well, I will spare you the details of how much the plate itself cost.

The piece arrived while my husband was out of town. I always cringe when I purchase a large piece of willow and see that it is arriving when he is home and I am out of town. You know, the questions begin!!!! He knows I love willow as much as he loves Martin Guitars, so we don’t give each other much of a hard time at this point in our 25 years together.

Sorry for how bad this picture looks but I managed to get this box up two flights of stairs to the spare bedroom for unpacking. With the packing, boxes, foam etc. it weighed in excess of 50 pounds, not to mention the box was nearly as tall as me, so dragging it up stairs was no easy feat! It was also strapped to a pallet….ugh no hiding this one! You can see from the picture the basic size of the piece…..

The next question that arose was where will I put this, it must be out in the open to be seen. Otherwise, I was going to be shoving this under the bed, leaving my coon dog no place to sleep on stormy nights….so around the house I went.

I stopped in the kitchen where I had a beautiful oak sideboard my husband and I purchased in Ohio near Amish Country. Above it I had a framed hand painted picture I had received when I worked at a previous job and to be fair it probably had bad juju anyhow! I was like ok, how do I get that off the wall? I knew it had taken two men to get it up there….little old me (I like to think I am little…so please lie to me and tell me its true!)

I managed to get the picture down and took it down a flight of stairs to the basement. By the time I was done with that, my arms felt like they were on fire….yeah, not much muscle tone there! Next I began to figure out how to lift this 35 lb plate above my head on a step stool to snag the anchor hook in the wall. Recall my arms were still shaking.

After several times, the plate finally caught the hook and it was a success. I wondered how long it would take before anyone noticed the swapping of art pieces. I knew my hubby would notice it and say….hmmmm how much did that cost? But I was prepared, I had been selling all sorts of stuff on Ebay so I could make this purchase happen.

I want to share some pictures of the up close pattern, the back and you too can fall in love with this wooden plate that will forever hang in my kitchen until I die and my kids have to figure out what in the heck to do with all of the willow!

You can see how detailed this piece is. It is a shade of navy blue, I apologize for the pictures making it look weird against the yellow walls, but you get the gist. As you can see the plate is truly shaped like a plate would be. The detail is simply amazing. I would love to know the life this piece has lived.

I have to say, this is my most prized willow plate. I am simply in love with it and it makes my kitchen complete. No more bad juju picture!

I would love to hear from you what you most prized piece of willow is. So Please Share!!!!!

Talk soon!