I didn’t get around to going to estate sales on Saturday, so Sunday afternoon after church I made my way to Little Rock to try my luck at finding some good finds. Since it was the last day of the sales, both sales had 50% or 60% off. Neither sale had much left, but I still found a handful of goodies. Here are the highlights.
I found this little charmer at Estate Sale Professionals’ sale, who had everything 60% off. This is a Napco birthday girl. I believe the reason why she lasted so long is because she was hiding under the fake flowers in her planter. Check out the before and after:
After
This is another one of those that I may keep for myself. I was born in June so since this is a June figurine, I’ve got a great excuse to keep her! 🙂
Next, at Estate Sale by June, I found this wonderful Homer Laughlin platter. I know all of you mosaic buffs are drooling over it, and so was I, but I couldn’t find any chips or cracks in it! I really can’t bring myself to destroy a perfectly good piece of history without it already being damaged. So, for now, it will look gorgeous at my antique booth at Jenifer’s in Conway.
I haven’t tried doing mosaics yet, but every time Mom or I accidentally break something, rather than get upset we tell ourselves the breakage would be “great for doing a mosaic project” and save it for the day when we’ll miraculously have the free time to do it. I have perfect little antique tables for doing mosaic on and I’ve bought the grout, so maybe soon I’ll fix one up so I’ll have another fun topic to blog about!
Homer Laughlin platter…
Ashley Honey —
Take that old platter and make it glow!
Get yer sef a bottle of bleach (PUREX or CLOREX). Turn on the HOT water and fill the sink. (It doesn’t have to be so hot it will be boil’n, but hot enough you would not keep your hand in it for long!) Pour in a generous/serious/stink’n amount of bleach. Give that platter a swim. Stick in anything else that has those age-lines in the glaze / brown crackle . This probablycame about from the platter having been set back in the oven to keep food warm (NO MICROWAVES). Leave the pieces in thewater/bleach solution – FLUID COMPLETELY COVERING ITEMS OVER NIGHT. Come morn – rinse and don-your-sunglasses – ’cause these pieces are gonna SHINE AGAIN!
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve long used bleach and water to help brighten up old dishes, but sometimes it messes up the gold rim, so I only use it on desperate cases. My mom recently found out about a new solution – ammonia and peroxide — that works miracles! Next time I find a really stained piece of pottery, I will do a before and after post about this mixture! She’s working miracles with her old blue bird pottery! 🙂