Bits and pieces

I am SOOOO frustrated to not be doing my staircase or anything miniature for that matter but I have to organise the house since retrieving so much stuff. I have sent more than 30 large boxes to our local charity and set aside a few more for a friend but that still leaves a lot to deal with. 

I was sad to find this large hand painted box in this condition. The story behind it is as follows. In 2003 we had what you can call a killer heatwave in europe and Paris was severely hit with  40° ( 104° F ) recorded even at night when usually the températures lower. Over 70,000 people died in europe and 15,000 in France alone. It was really terrible as there was no respite, impossible to sleep and ambulance sirens going all over the city all the time. I had an elderly neighbour called Monsieur D who loved to walk a lot despite being in his 80's! One day I realised that I hadn't seen him and found his walking stick propped up in the hall so against his family's wishes I called the firebrigade and they found him lying dead, his pacemaker had failed. When his daughter came to clear out his apartment she asked me to come look at what she had found and M. D was a hoarder but of fairly good things, not rubbish! He had brought home broken things and magasines and books and filled his home with them. One room was so full that it reached the ceiling and masked some amazing antique furniture long since buried. I evaluated the better things for his daughter and gave her documents to help her sell them and in return she gave me this dish/box along with a pair of mahogany shelves to thank me. The lid had a small crack but otherwise it was ok, now sadly it's gone.  

 As you can see the lid apart from the little crack is still ok.

 This I wanted to share as a pratical thing. In the supermarket I realised that the card spacer between the layers of milk bottles was made of the same material as egg cartons, so I helped myself. Maybe you can also find this in your supermarkets as it makes such great bricks and stones.

 It does have slight nobbles but on the whole it beats cutting up egg boxes!

 I wanted to share yet another collection, it never ends! I used to buy shoe buckles in the flea market for a few cents when no one was into that. It's something else I call my paupers collection but today is no longer possible. One day I decided to put them under glass and on display. Some are 18th century and in silver with good cut stones and others are from the victorian era. The buttons as 18th century and came from a friend whose grandmother had a chateau and she told him to take what he wanted so he sold all the jewellery he found and these buttons along with some other bits were to be thrown away! Yes ! Luckilly I was at his home that night. 

 Some are gorgeous and some are just bling.

 These two were to be part of the next display, they are in cut steel. This technique was invented in Victorian times to imitated paste and stones as when polished it glitters like Diamonds.  These are quite good as they are not rusted as many are although they can be cleaned up. A lot of jewellery was also made using this technique and worn in candle light it is very convincing. 

 This is a dress buckle from the 1920's. Enamel and paste stones.

 Another Victorian cut steel buckle but with a leather insert, probably to match the shoe.