I found these little guys yesterday at one of my favorite Goodwills along the New Jersey Turnpike (this is why it always takes me five to six hours to drive between Baltimore and New York).
The design is pure 1960’s Danish Modern, in the style of Skjode Skjern of Denmark, but they are not signed. I’m guessing they’re Japanese copies.
As a child I had a putto, very similar to this but made of porcelain, on the wall over my bed, serving as my guardian angel.
Yesterday I found this extraordinary piece among the craptastic knickknacks at Goodwill. It is carved of wood and hand painted, probably Italian (though it could be Austrian). I’ll be hanging this over my bed in my Brooklyn cottage. I could use someone to watch over me a little.
I know it has some chips. That’s OK, we’re both a little worse for the wear.
I have always loved thrift shops, flea markets, and yard sales. Sure, high-end antique stores are great. But everything in them has already been curated, cleaned up, and marked up.
What intrigues me is finding a gem among the cast-offs and transforming it into something special and beautiful — changing its context by wanting it and appreciating it.
Over the years I have developed a pretty good eye, so that I can spot a color, a shape, a glaze; and know instantly that I’ve just found another treasure.
Usually I’ll buy it, sometimes I won’t. I’ve given many things away to family and friends. But I always take a picture.
And now I’d like to share these things with you, one day at a time.
photo: Small wooden bowls are plentiful and cheap. Most of them were originally snack bowls or part of a salad set, but they’re great for change, keys, bobby pins, jewelry on your dresser. The woods are beautiful and feel so nice to the touch. They’re mostly made of teak, walnut, or monkey pod wood.
