Imagine my thrill when I was gifted with this fancy-schmancy sandblasted Fiestaware plate from a Homer Laughlin Fiesta Collector's Association!
It's perfect!
Is this not the cutest thing ever?
I had already been making my jewelry from broken plates and pottery for quite a few years when one day I was approached by a Fiesta collector to enter a contest in which artists create something from broken or damaged Fiesta. Of course, now I cannot find a photo of my winning piece, but it was a piece of jewelry, a heart pin brooch with fancy edges and so pretty! Here are a few photos of some other things I have created with broken Fiesta over the years.
Pin brooch (sold '02)
Mosaic teacup plaque. Doubles as the most awesome bird feeder ever. (sold '03)
Backstamp pendant (sold '04) (approx 1.25")
Bracelet
Love these earrings!
Another necklace pendant (approx 1.5")
Mosaic heart — perfect for the Fiesta kitchen! (approx 6")
Earrings with Swarovski crystals and Czech glass pearls (1/2" by 1 & 1/4")
Read on for some interesting history about Fiesta ware colors:
'At its introduction in 1936, Fiesta was produced in five colors: Red (orange red), Blue (cobalt), Green (light green), Yellow (deep golden), and Old Ivory (yellowish cream). By 1938, two years into production, a sixth color was added: Turquoise ( robin 's egg blue). With the exception of the Red, this color assortment remained in production until approximately 1950. The original Red had been discontinued before 1944 (see below).
The lack of this vibrant color, plus the general changes in society due to the United States' participation in World War II, had caused a slump in sales of the larger serving pieces from the early 1940s. Prior to this reduction in the number of shapes offered, only one or two very specialized shapes had been discontinued and those by 1938. Later items which were discontinued, such as covered onion soup bowls in turquoise glaze and mixing bowl covers in any color, are scarce and highly prized by collectors.
By 1950, home decorating styles and colors had changed. The Homer Laughlin Company discontinued some original glaze colors and replaced them with four new colors. The original Blue (cobalt), the original Green (light green), and the original Old Ivory (yellowish cream) were discontinued, replaced by Rose (pinkish-brown), Gray (medium), Forest (dark green), and Chartreuse (bright yellowish green). Two existing glaze colors, Yellow and Turquoise, continued in production, so the company continued to offer six colors through the 1950s.' Excerpt from the article 'Fiesta (dinnerware)', which can be found HERE in its entirity
One of my later designs, about 2006 (1/2" by 1")
I will have some new jewelry in these and similar designs up for the holidays so be sure to check back!
Vintage advertisement for monogrammed china I just LOVE vintage advertisements. I especially love vintage ads featuring china or flatware! I always find myself squinting at the ads I come across, trying to make out the china pattern or silver pattern, wondering if it's one I have in stock for my jewelry making. I think on two occasions I've found ads for patterns that were the same as or very similar to dishes that I had in stock'One was a Limoges U.S.A. ad for a set of monogrammed floral china. I love these old initial monogram patterns. Over the years I have found some orphaned pieces here and there but for the most part these patterns are hard to find! Here are a few pieces of jewelry that I created with damaged vintage monogrammed china:
Necklace pendant made from K monogram china (this is the china in the ad above!)
Heart pendant from vintage H monogrammed china
Bracelet made from a vintage monogrammed tea cup
Necklace pendant from vintage A monogrammed china Vintage and antique monogrammed china is hard to find, but once in a while I come across some that is cracked or chipped or damaged from age or use, and that is what I turn into jewelry. I think I currently have the letters M and K in stock, if you are interested in any pieces similar to those shown above, check out my Etsy shop! Here is the link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns What do you think of monogrammed china jewelry?
Jewelry made from antique broken calendar plates...
Antique calendar plate from 1909 with lots of damage I have a great love for these old advertising calendar plates....they seem to be one of those things that combine everything that I love in one package: it's a plate, it's old, it's got a beautiful floral transferware design on it....but most especially, it marks a certain point in time. In this case, 1909. Let's see....in 1909 a newspaper cost 1 cent, coffee was 20 cents a pound, (tea was $1 for 2 lbs, by the way), and a pair of children's shoes cost about $1.50! Hershey bars were 2 cents, but they were a lot smaller than today's 1.65 oz, weighing in at 9/16 oz! To put things a bit more into perspective, the average wage was 22 cents per hour, and the average worker made about $350 a year. We can only wonder what things will be like 100 years from now...
Cracked antique calendar plate from 1909 William Carlos Williams published his first book of poetry in 1909, and Pablo Picasso first began dabbling in cubism...
Necklace that I hand crafted from a broken 1909 calendar plate (sold)
Pin brooch I handcrafted from 1909 calendar plate (sold) Here are a few necklaces that I just made from the broken plate shown above:
September 1909 available here
September 1909 available here
November 1909 necklace available here
November 1909 necklace available here What do you think? Do you like these?
Silver or Black jewelry finish? Which do you prefer? I recently posted this question on my Facebook page. So far, silver is in the lead...
Shiny silver finish? When I first began making jewelry from broken china (and we're talking nearly 20 years now — yikes!) I would occasionally dabble with the black/vintage/antiqued finishes, but for some reason I always seemed to come back to silver. Silver is traditional, it's easy to wear, it's shiny....as for the darker, vintage finishes — I believe they tend to be more trendy, coming into style right along with the whole "new vintage" era that you see everywhere you turn — in clothes, home furnishings, fabrics....what's old is new again, and so it goes. I like the way a dark finish against a bright floral china pattern makes the colors pop, and how it lends to the "old" feeling of a piece of china. I equally like the feeling of luxury a shiny, silver finish affords. For me personally, I guess it all comes down to what kind of mood I'm in. Which do you prefer?
Silver that has been given a black finish What do you think?
I was thrilled to find my items included in five different Etsy treasuries last week, and even more thrilled to find that one of the treasuries was featured on Etsy's front page... ....of course I'm never home when these things happen, but got a capture of the screen shot: -)
So glad to be back to my little blog and working again — this winter I made like a bear and hibernated most of the season....but am back with lots of new pretty things and a refreshed Etsy store with tons of new stock! (Check it out below!) http://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns Note the new Etsy store name — missing the letter "a" in Dishfunctional — but alas, Etsy only allows so many character spaces for shop names....so I am without the a, but still dishfunctional if even now more so... I actually had one of the very first shops on Etsy way way back when they first began. At the time, I had been a steady eBay seller for many years (I started selling my broken china jewelry on eBay in 1999) Since then, I've amassed over 5,000 positive eBay feedback — the number they show is 3,788 give or take a few, as ebay no longer counts additional feedback from returning customers — a bummer for sellers, but what can you do? In any case, I closed my Etsy store after the first year, as I found I was spreading myself too thin, trying to supply both eBay and Etsy with new stock on a constant basis. Now times have changed. I've found the handcrafted market on eBay to be too....well, too complicated. Fees and rules are always changing, I get phone messages on my answering machine from eBay associates trying to sell me new features, etc etc... I figure it this way, life is hard enough, why complicate things? I'm still a registered eBay seller — I haven't cut the cord completely, but am definitely shying away from the eBay marketplace. My new items will now be listed on etsy on a regular basis!
If you are looking for a recycled or green gift, be sure to check out Great Green Goods. I was thrilled to recently have my broken china jewelry featured by them on their site, which features eco-friendly products that are made by creative minds with recycled materials. You can read their review of my jewelry here: Dishfunctional Designs — Makes you want to Break your Plates
From Pennsylvania artist, Laura Love, gorgeous pendants, bracelets, charms and earrings created from recycled broken dishware. The necklaces with the added accent of recycled vintage flatware are my favorite. If you're the type who can't bear to toss Great Aunt Mabel's cracked and chipped tea cup, you can send it to Laura since custom work is available. Priced around $50.00 for necklace and $60.00 for bracelet at Dishfunctional Designs.
Boy do I have lots of sweet new goodies for spring! This winter I took some time away from my regular line of broken china jewelry to create some exciting new designs with some fabulous vintage materials....I dove into my collection of vintage photos, reproduced some of them, then had a ball adding some fun text to them and incorporating them into some fresh new designs. (I knew I was collecting those vintage photos for a reason!)
