Archive for the ‘event’ Category

Manchester Vintage Home Show

Monday, October 29th, 2012

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stall at Manchester Vintage Home Show selling Midwinter Zambesi pottery and other vintage mid century modern homewares

There was no lie in for us today – no Sunday papers, no coffee & croissants in bed. We were up & out early to visit the Manchester Vintage Home Show at Victoria Baths.

view of 2 floors of stalls at Manchester Vintage Home Show, Victoria Baths

It was a cold & rainy day but the show still saw a huge turnout in punters. We saw a few of the lovely stall holders who were selling at the first show held back in June. Including PASH (Print Art Salvage Handmade), Planet Vintage Girl, RetroPattern, Smashing Time and Norwegian Wood. There were lots of first time sellers too – so much so that the show has expanded to include stalls upstairs. New stallholders we met & had a chat with included Levy Delights, All Mod Cons, Revival Furniture, snygg and 20thcenturycrox. Like last time round, the quality of the stuff on sale was of a really high standard. We made a couple of purchases – more about those on another blog post! In the meantime, have a look below at the ton of photos we took of some of the vintage loveliness that was on offer!

stall selling vintage Cathrineholm enamelware

stall selling vintage chairs painted & reupholstered in vintage fabric

rows of handmade cushions with figures of dogs for sale at Manchester Vintage Home Show

stall selling a selection of vintage mid century modern glass objects

selection of vintage items for sale on the Smashing Time stall

selection of vintage items on a stall including a small Gustavsberg pin dish

organiser of the Manchester Vintage Homeshow, Keeley Harris' stall

selection of vintage Lisa Larson pottery figures on a stall

mid century modern homewares on a stall at Manchester Vintage Home Show

stall selling a collection of vintage pottery mugs

vintage wooden nest of tables with Marian Mahler design tops

collection of orange vintage Cathrineholm Lotus enamel saucepans

vintage items for sale on the Norwegian Wood stall

range of industrial vintage items for sale on the PASH stall

vintage 1960s print of a girl by J H Lynch

stall with collection of vintage Washington pottery and Lord Nelson Pottery for sale

collection of vintage Parisienne and Red Domino pottery

collection of framed vintage fabric swatches

red plastic vintage Y Front advertising mannekin

large selection of vintage fabric for sale

items for sale on the Planet Vintage Girl stall

selection of mid century modern items for sale including a sunburst clock

The Flood!

Monday, June 25th, 2012

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A 1950s G Plan sideboard in our sitting room with flood water surrounding it

Have you noticed that we’ve been a little scarce on the blog and social media front since last week?

a flooded corner of our sitting room

Well the reason behind it is that we were one of the flood victims in the Calder River Valley on Friday night.

antique chest in our sitting room with flood water surrounding it

A metre of water lapped at our front & back door and it was soon apparent that we wouldn’t be able to stop it coming inside – it quickly came up through the floorboards to a height of about a foot and a half. We managed to save a lot of our things by putting them on our big kitchen table or taking them upstairs but alas, bigger items of furniture, kitchen cupboards and appliances have been ruined. And there’s now an awful lot of cleaning up to do – there’s a layer of mud on every horizontal surface!

Any further blog posts will be postponed until we get everything sorted out and back to normal. We’ll just leave you with a little clip of video we took on our mobile phone out of a top floor window after we’d retreated to higher ground:


The river and street become one!

Fair Finds

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

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selection of antique & vintage homewares bought at Lincoln Show

We made the trip to Lincoln Antiques and Home Fair on Monday. Our alarm was set for 5.30am, so it was quite an early start in the cold and the dark. Add in a few hours driving and you have to hope that the effort will be worthwhile.

selection of antique & vintage homewares bought at Lincoln Show including a bolt of vintage 1950s fabric, set of sky blue Czech enamel containers, circular Nymolle pottery plaques designed by Bjorn Wiinblad, trio, vintage Marks and Spencer blue and purple floral curtains of fat lava West German vases and antique 18th/19th century wooden pie/bread peel

Fortunately it was – and we picked up some very nice pieces – some favourites are shown here. It’s mainly vintage, mid 20th century stuff; but we couldn’t resist a couple of country antiques too, such as this beautiful 18th century bowl and bread/pie oven peel.

selection of antique & vintage homewares bought at Lincoln Show with antique 18th/19th century turned wooden bowl highlighted

We bought quite a few West German ‘fat lava’ pots, concentrating on bold reds & oranges. Their prices are certainly on the rise. Other ceramics included the wall plaques designed by Bjorn Wiinblad for Nymolle of Denmark. Each one represents a month of the year and features a loving couple’s story – from courtship to parenthood. We like the whimsical, folk art design and we’ve actually got a set on our kitchen wall.

selection of antique & vintage homewares bought at Lincoln Show highlighting a set of 1950s teak coasters in a matching lidded holder

A slightly more recent piece of wood was to be found in the shape of this 1950s/60s teak coaster set. We’re not sure who the maker is, but it’s got real quality to it – it’s very Scandinavian and has a gorgeous, warm colour.  There was no shortage of enamelware to be found – we plumped for this set of graduated blue kitchen pots – the largest has an impressive 18 litre capacity!

selection of antique & vintage homewares bought at Lincoln Show

The sewing box dates from the 1960s and is made of a plastic weave material. Some people call in Dandycord – which we think was a trade name or brand of PVC flooring. The same material was used in the manufacture of these sewing boxes. You also see chairs, plant pot holders, magazine racks etc from the same period made from it. We were given a real flash of flower power colour when we lifted the lid!  Equally bold & bright were the lovely little teatowel and this absolutely stunning roll of unused 1950s fabric, with it’s classic vase design & period colour combination of yellow, red, grey, black & blue.

It’s always tempting to stay in a warm bed, but we’re glad that we didn’t when we look back at this haul!

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair ’11

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

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Ken Eardley ceramic jugs and spoons on display

The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair 2011 is being held this weekend in Manchester city centre – we went to the preview night on Thursday.

a selection of Ken Eardley ceramics on display shelves

It was great to see designer-makers whose work we’ve long admired – there was also the thrill of seeing fresh, new exhibitors.

a selection of Ken Eardley ceramics on display shelves with a recent article about him in BBC Homes & Antiques magazine open on a table

We featured Ken Eardley, whose ceramics are shown above in last year’s GNCCF blog post – once again, his stand had real impact. Things are going really well for him with magazine features such as this recent one in BBC Homes & Antiques.

a display of Jane Blease's handcrafted wooden artworks, lampshades and jewellery

Another striking space belonged to Jane Blease who works primarily with bentwood & reclaimed plastic often with her characteristic hand worked thread detailing. A recent artist residency in India has clearly inspired some of Jane’s new pieces. It’s interesting charting artists’ new developments & influences.

a display of Jane Blease's handcrafted wooden jewellery

The Radiance stand belonging to Hannah Nunn always delivers the goods – her hand cut paper light shades look great when displayed en masse…

a display of Hannah Nunn's Radiance mini lamps

…and we loved her new seed pod window hangings.

detail of the display of Hannah Nunn's Radiance newly designed seedpod window/wall hanging a display of Hannah Nunn's Radiance newly designed seedpod window/wall hanging

Ruth Green, who we’ve seen at GNCCF in previous years, also had some lovely new works…

display of Ruth Green's limited edition framed prints

…and she’s also branched out into illustrated books, notebooks & note cards.

display of Ruth Green's limited edition prints, posters and illustrated books & notebooks

With autumn setting in, Andrea Lord’s &made display offered some warm seasonal comforts…

display of &Made's cream coloured hand knitted mug cosy with grey felt cushion in the background

…such as these gorgeous cushions & cosies.

display of &Made's yellow ochre hand knitted tea cosies

As we mentioned earlier, it’s really exciting to discover new makers and their work…

Gemma Truman's seagrass & glass works inspired by weaverbirds' nests

…we’ll highlight just a couple who made an impact on us.

The first was Gemma Truman, whose hand-blown glass & seagrass hangings and vases are absolutely exquisite – they’re inspired by South African weaverbird nests. We also thought they were very reminiscent of those old fashioned glass fishing net floats.

detail from Gemma Truman's seagrass & glass works inspired by weaverbirds' nests

Second was Louise Hibbert.

display of Louise Hibbert's wooden salt & pepper mills

Her pieces have a natural feel and use subtle, earthy, yet striking colours.

display of Louise Hibbert's wooden salt & pepper mills

As you can see from her salt & pepper mills, they’re organic, tactile and oh so beautiful – they just cry out to be picked up, handled and caressed.

display of Louise Hibbert's coloured wooden salt & pepper mills

The show runs till this Sunday, so visit if you can! We’ve only featured homewares in this post, but there’s also lots of jewellery and fashion on display… and all of it’s for sale… so go on, get your Christmas shopping done early!

Vintage Fair Fortnight

Monday, July 11th, 2011

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detail of H is for Home's table display at the Todmorden vintage fair

A couple of weeks ago we blogged about our preparations for taking part in our first ever vintage fair. We put together a vintage fair checklist to make sure that we didn’t forget any of those essential bits & bobs.

You can download it here (it’s a PDF document) if you’re thinking about getting into doing craft/vintage fairs.

exterior of Victoria Hall, Saltaire

Two weekends ago, on a gorgeous, sunny Saturday, we had a stall at the Vintage Home & Fashion Fair in Victoria Hall, Saltaire.

H is for Home stall at the Vintage Home and Fashion Fair, Victoria Hall, Saltaire

Our good friend Duncan came along for moral support and to lend a hand.

Vanroe stall at the Vintage Home and Fashion Fair, Victoria Hall, Saltaire

It was lovely having the opportunity to meet customers & other vintage sellers face to face… something missing when you mainly sell online like we do.

smaller room at the Vintage Home and Fashion Fair, Victoria Hall, Saltaire smaller room at the Vintage Home and Fashion Fair, Victoria Hall, Saltaire

Last Saturday, we set up shop again, in our home town of Todmorden  for the Treasure – Vintage Fair meets Handmade event.

exterior view of Todmorden Town Hall

Another gorgeous building hosted the event – this time it was Todmorden Town Hall.

vintage fair at Todmorden Town Hall

Beautiful inside too – look at that ceiling!

Justin setting up at the vintage fair at Todmorden Town Hall

Back to the setting up…

Adelle on the H is for Home stall at the vintage fair at Todmorden Town Hall

…there’s Adelle – ready to meet, greet and share in the vintage loveliness…

H is for Home stall at the vintage fair at Todmorden Town Hall

…and here’s a closer look at some of our wares!

We’ll be returning to the vintage fair scene in the autumn – hopefully see you there.