What I did not buy at Goodwill today.

I do have a penchant for the odd and unusual.

But I do have a budget these days for purely silly things and it is a limited budget.

There is a recession going on, ya know…

I want this.  I am willing to wait the 6 weeks or so until it goes 1/2 price.

This is so grotesquely good.

The teeth on the bottom jaw are fabulous.

I got home and thought about this piece of clay work and realized that I almost have a collection of clay heads.

I have had tis one for ages.
Why someone painted it blue and green – I do not know.

Artistic license.

This one is made of plaster and is not aging quite so well.

I always thought she looked a little like Eleanor Roosevelt.

She looks like she would be a nice person to know.

Can you Feelie my Pain at Goodwill today?

I have decided that I need to get out and shop more often.

So today I headed to the next town over – as there are two thrift  stores there.

First stop.

Goodwill.

I wandered through the furniture  – then purses and shoes – then I methodically start on the last row and work my way row by row to the front.   At least that is my pattern.   Often there is someone blocking the narrow row with a cart or with a passel of kids – so I have to remember to backtrack.   It used to irritate me that people were so oblivious to anyone else trying to maneuver the same row.   Now I have changed my thought patterns and I mentally thank them for the extra exercise I am getting when I have to go back.

Such was the case today.

Did the painting/prints row – then the general tools – pets row – then the basket row – the wooden row – the metal row – the row with vases had a lady talking to each item -passed on that – then row by row up to the books.

Back I went to the vases and plastic flowers row and BING BING BING!  I spotted a lovely ceramic pot – I knew it was “good” pottery from 1/2 an aisle away.   I picked it up and looked at the bottom.

Cabat.   CABAT???  CABAT!!!!

Oh it is a lovely pot indeed!

I put on my reading glasses to look it over and…..

Argghhhh!   The top is busted off.

Recently, by the looks of the clean white clay break.

I looked on the shelf for the busted piece – I looked on the shelf above and below – I looked on the floor – and along the edge of the floor, (where I have to say it was quite grimy looking on the kick plate of the shelving units) and no little piece of pottery to be found.

Dang it all!

The price was $4.99  and I thought that was just too much for a broken vase, so I found a supervisor to ask if they could lower the price for a broken vase.

He was new.

He held the vase and looked at it and thought for a bit and told me that it had only been out on the floor one day….implying that $4.99 was a GOOD price for a broken vase.

I just kept looking at him and eventually he told me he could sell it to me for $2.99 – as-is and I could not return it.

We came to an agreement on that.

Rose Cabat “Feelie” vases are usually quite small…

This one is not.

This is a gorgeous big thickly glazed Feelie vase.

(with a broken top)

Can you Feelie my pain?

Exercising the Goodwill Way

This must be the time of year that people who bought all that exercise equipment for their New Year’s Resolution realize that these machines do not work well for hanging clothes on and they make horrific  ironing boards.

 

They probably are still paying interest on the credit cards for these things.

( says the person who has prepaid a gym membership and not been there for 3 months)

****************

Here is an interesting bunch of soap.

Did the disgruntled housekeeper take one, just one, for each lousy day that she cleaned strangers hairs out of sinks and tubs?

A weird sense of entitlement for a lowly job.

Perhaps the philandering spouse kept one bar of soap from each tryst at the same cheap motel – as a reminder of the forbidden times spent together.

 A LOT of forbidden, if I say so myself.

    **************

I like pottery and tonight I got a great Bennett Welsh Studio production piece that I have not seen before.

I am thinking this big bowl will be great this summer for potato salad or chips or for preparing some more of the seasonally fleeting

Hood Strawberries to make some MORE

strawberry shortcake!

Love – Love- LOVE this fir or is it a fern pattern?

No matter. 

It is loverly!

The unanswered questions at the Goodwill Store

I did not go to Goodwill today.

Shocker, I know.

Sometimes the stupidity of an item just catches me off guard.

Here is an odd one.

A hand made ceramic jar with a woman doing gymnastics around it.  This jar was on the shelf a LONG time.

I am assuming it got pulled and went to the outlet store.   

Why?

Oh, why?

But to tell you the truth is that as bad as these dueling banjo hamsters are, there is nothing, and I repeat NOTHING worse than…

Big Mouth Billy Bass and that danged song.

Take me to the River….

Every child in every Goodwill Store I have ever been in ( and that is a BIG number) will find this fish and push that blasted red button.

Someone should do a college thesis on the probability factors involved here.

 

The Art of Goodwill Hunting

I went to Goodwill after work last night (so what’s new?) and found this great piece of raku pottery.

I used to do some pottery and loved doing raku.

It is so wonderfully unpredictable.

You can get different colors and patterns depending on the medium that you burn. Newspapers – old leaves – whatever.

It is like looking at the Universe.

I knew it was a “good” piece of pottery.
I made so many lousy ones, that it taught me what “good” is…

I knew when I spotted the signature that this was even a little better than “good.”
I did not know the artist – but I know a good signature when I see one.

The artist is Jon Oakes.
His artwork is worth way more than the $2.99 that I paid!

At Goodwill, they do not know art.

They no longer put out many paintings – since there was one that they had on their website that went for over $150,000 a couple of years ago. So most of the art – goes to the internet.
But not pottery. Not so far….

Lucky me!

** Goodwill COLD Turkey – and I mean COLD! **

Hello, my name is ______, and I have not been to Goodwill for over 4 days.

I am a shopoholic.

At least that is how it FEELS.

I have been sorta ill and then the snow came and then the ice and then the COLD.

So, what to do whey you cannot go shopping?

I shop at home.

I go to a shelf, or closet and find something I no longer need – and sell it on ebay.

Today, it was this fab arts and crafts era design book from 1915.

I so like how they deconstructed bugs to make art.

So then I decided that I had a whole lot of “little” stuff to get rid of and packaged up lots of Wacky Packages from the 70’s and vintage travel stickers – old buttons- and whatevers into cellophane envelopes and ready to sell at the antique mall – where I have a small space.

It is supposed to snow the next couple of days.

School has been closed so far this week – and again tomorrow.

I am a LOUSY driver in the snow.  (Fabulous in the rain!)

And I am lucky that I have someone in town to keep the office open for me.

So tomorrow, I guess I know where I will be shopping once again…

Collecting Mystery #1 Campbell Ceramic Pieces

I think all my friends who are collectors have a few of those “mystery” pieces.

The ones that you “know” are good things – but cannot find enough detail about them.

I bought the taller piece years ago at a Goodwill store – and then years later – saw the smaller piece and immediately recognized it as another one by the same artist.

I did take note the the artist’s name is Campbell.

I googled and googled and no luck.

I am ready to send mystery #1 out into cyber-space and sit back and wait for a response.

Just LOOK at those creamy vibrant colors inside!

+++++ Art is a many splendored thing + + + + +

A friend gave me these years ago and they are so stunning in the quality of the workmanship.

The details are fabulous.

She put birthday greetings in the mouth of one -and there they still are!

Consider that each of these in probably no larger than a big marble.

That makes the artistry of these amazing, indeed.

I wish I knew the person who created these tiny fine works of art…

Collecting art does not have to be fancy or expensive.   It just has to be appreciated.

Sometimes at Goodwill, I see the most  gawd-awful amateur art – and I have to step back and tell myself that the maker must have had joy in the process.

And having joy is what it is all about.  I am sure that we are made to be joyous – – just look at how babies laugh and THERE is the joy that needs to be reclaimed  on a daily basis.

So get out there today and find yourself a little piece of joy.