vintage glass art slides = night lights

I'm back with the repurpose for the gorgeous vintage glass art slides.  My friend did not dumpster dive at her art school in vain.  Behold:  simple, but so elegant.  Nightlights!

Oh yes, that's a typewriter.

I could totally make those.

Last spring I was at a craft fair in Asheville, North Carolina, which is where the Northampton hipsters winter.  I bought myself the cutest pair of earrings, which I quickly realized were made out of button covers.  Yep, I could totally make those.  But I bought them because I loved them and I like supporting other crafters.

Two weeks ago, I went to an awesome reuse rally at the voc school in town, because we are all about reuse around here.  And I found these (imagine it with the actual buttons and button bottoms in the packaging):

  
Not only were they free, but they were from Bradlees, a defunct Northeast department store.  An early Target, if you will.

You see where I'm going with this.  Of course what I didn't realize at the time is that there is a whole button cover kit, which necessitated a trip to Jo-Ann Fabric, a store for which I feel much less nostalgia.  But off I went.  Then I dug up lots of little scraps from my growing pile of vintage fabrics, quilt pieces, and cute little leftover bags from Pine Cone Hill (if you haven't gone to the tent sale and you live anywhere near Pittsfield, MA, then shame on you.  I mean....go!)

In no time at all, I produced these cuties which are posing on my industrial bobbin that my mom scored from Brimfield Flea Market. Next time you see it, it will be a lazy susan.  The ones with the vintage fabric feel very Betty Draper.

slide and scopes and awesome friends

Much like anything else, it takes a village to populate a repurposing business (hobby, whatever).  After all, reclaimed crafts really started the day my friend and fellow crafter came to Craft Day with a bundle of balusters salvaged from the front of a farm house.  Today's scores fall into the two categories of friends: friends who have been stowing the goods they pulled out of a dumpster in grad school for years, just waiting for the right moment to drop them in your lap, and friends who are just having a tag sale, not even realizing that their $2 microscopes are making your heart all aflutter.

it even has a mirror!

bringing back junior high school
memories?

unitron!

buddies

glass art slides, I mean A LOT of
glass art slides
all gorgeous, all different

see?  lots of boxes of slides
plus a small boy, obscured by boxes of slides

even the boxes are pretty!

Ok, now stay tuned for the repurposing.  And if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Elephant's Trunk and tagging

So many scores, so little time.

what is it and what shall I do with it?

horseshoe = trivet?

final score of the day:
four shoes, $5

beautiful red paint

looking good, Mary Baldwin

you too, Doris Hart

racquets and racquet presses

giant berry baskets - $1 for the lot

2 old tins, $1

menagerie

folding yardstick = photo holder

rulers - like yardsticks but smaller!

Northampton Commercial College!

welcome, cozy candle season!

What a perfect day to be working on new candlesticks from vintage croquet mallets - rainy and cool, candle weather.  This is one of my favorite projects - clever, elegant and simple repurpose.  A few coats of poly really brings out the beauty of the paint and the years of dings and dents from vigorous croquet bouts.  Can you play croquet in a vigorous manner?  Will the guy I bought these from ever forgive me for repurposing them?