Eight Norwegians and a Finn

There hasn't been much time for thrifting lately, and I haven't been very active on the blogging front. I hope some of you are still around... The process of taking over the company I work for has drained me, we also have an huge amount of projects, big and small. Which is good. I guess.....Still, being creative and innovative when there's so much on your plate is not always easy.

I finally managed to pop by a couple of thrift stores this Saturday and found some nice pieces. Apart from Figgjo and Stavangerflint, both brands from my home town, I love Egersund fajance, as I'm sure you've noticed:-) What I find particularly interesting is that the factory produced for such a long time and covered a broad spectre of periods. The pieces I found on saturday represent two of them, the 70s and the 30s.

I'm falling deeper and deeper in love with Unique, their eggyolk colored design from the early seventies. I adore the cheerful, shiny 70s vibe and the handpainted touches. I find both the colors and shapes to be so very typical for that decade of bright colors and great graphics. Unique was designed by Kaare Block Johansen in 1971 and was in production until 1976, just a few years before Egersund Fajance closed down in 1979.  I've found quite a lot of these by now, and use them daily, mixed with Korulen. You can see the amazing teapot and cups in my previous post and find more information about both Unique and it's "sibling" Korulen here and here. This time I found two large serving dishes and a lidded sugar bowl, all in mint condition.

The factory made some rather lovely art deco pieces, this latest one I've found has a pattern which is very typical for that era. I have a few more art deco pieces by Egersund fajance, but sadly have not been able to find out anything about the artists behind them. 

I found this large and lovely Cathrineholm casserole in a design which is not so common. It may be inspired by the Finel mushrooms, or the other way around, I don't know which came first. The pattern is in a deep, muted green and the greyish white background has a hint of green. It's in great shape and the best part-  I got it for next to nothing, 75 kroner (equivalent to 12 USD or 9 euros)!!

A while ago, I found some Stavangerflint "Mesterkokken" ("Chef") dishes in reddish brown, yellow and teal, designed, silkscreened and handcolored by Inger Waage. This Saturday, I found three plates in the blue version of the design. I don't have much blue in my home, but I couldn't resist these. The pattern and color of these blue ones makes me think of Delft, I wonder if she was inspired by their lovely designs? "Mesterkokken" was introduced around 1960, I haven't been able to pinpoint the exact year. One of the dishes I found the last time originally had a lid, but as is often the case with vintage lids, they've gone missing years ago. I've seen in old ads, though, that both color combos had brown lids. See my previous post on this design here.

I'll leave you with my most cheerful find this time, this gorgeous Arabia Finel enamel pot, designed by Kaj Franck. The pattern is by Esteri Tomula, a great graphic designer from Finland who is the woman behind numerous  amazing Arabia designs.

Sunshine on a grey day

It was such a treat to find this sunny teaset in these grey, wet and foggy times. Egersund Unique is handpainted and the pieces therefore have an individual look. On the olivegreenish/ brown edges you can clearly see the brushstrokes. Unique was designed by Kaare Block Johansen in 1971 and was in production until 1976, just a few years before Egersund Fajanse closed down in 1979.

Unique has the exact same design as Korulen, also by Kaare Block Johansen, but which has a lovely sunflower pattern by Unni Margrethe Johnsen. I have found quite a bit of both of these sunny designs. I so love the colors and those amazing early 70s lines. The teapot is simply amazing!

I've written quite a bit about these before, so I won't bore you by repeating myself. If you're interested, you can find quite a bit of information here and here. Wish you all a great week!

 

Fall finds

Fall is definitely here, no matter how much I try to cling to summer... I guess we can't complain though, the last weeks have been gorgeous, real indian summer with temperatures in the 20s. This weekend has been a bit wet, and fall colors have started appearing. Thrifting has been a bit slow lately, but yesterday I managed to squeeze in a couple of stores.

I've seen the Arabia Ruska teapot around a few times, but have always thought that since I so rarely drink tea, and have several teapots already, I couldn't get another one... This time I gave in. It's just so beautiful. There's something special about pots. And cups. I have a teaset for 6 now, with extra coffecups which are small and great for espresso, as well as 12 dinner plates and serving dishes.

I didn't know that it had an infuser inside for "real" tea. The infuser is even ceramic, that's a great feature. Below are three more Stavangerflint egg cups in the Sera pattern, designed by Inger Waage. I have a few of these from an earlier hunting trip.

I found another one of these little "tweeters" from a line of glass ornaments by Hadeland. There's not much to be found about these on the web. I wouldn't have known anything if it weren't for the fact that I remember them from home. Mum had some of them and I therefore know for sure they're from the 70s! I've collected 7 of them until now. My favorite is the bird, I love the shape. I once found one in the original box, which is SOOO 70s Norway!

 

I found a serving plate and bowl from the Stavangerflint Finse line. I love these, the shape of the plate is so great, rounded but slightly rectangular. The design is by Kåre Berven Fjeldsaa. I love his work, it's always so subtle and refined. The light olive green and brown combo is gorgeous, and it combines really well with Ruska, it has that same surface and style. I now have a teaset for 12 and several with egg cups. You can see and read more here and here. There's a bit of information about Fjeldsaa in that first linked post.

I found this Wiinblad plate a couple of weeks ago but forgot to show it to you. It was a corporate gift in 1978 for employees in the danish firm Imerco and is handpainted and signed. It shows a scene from a livingroom, with Wiinblad's usual quirkiness and amazing attention to detail. I love those rice lamps!

Today I visited a farm not far from where I live to pick some corn. This is quite common here at this time of the year. You bring a bag, fill it and pay a few kroner. I love doing that, and they're SOOO sweet and delicious, much better than those you can get in the store. Today was a bit rainy, but not too bad. The sky was tealy grey, which always looks good in pictures. The teal sky and the yellowing fields looked so great together.  The farm has several workshops, and sell different crafts and produce. And what do you know- there was even some vintage today! 

I have fallen deeply in love with Egersund Fajanse and Graveren's art deco pieces. I found this low bowl at the farm market today. It's got this great abstract decor in brown and yellow and I'm pretty sure it was designed in the 20s. It has the simple stamp with text only,  "Egersund Norge".

 

I also found another herring jar from Figgjo's Folklore series. I have another one that I got from my mother in law with the exact same text, but a different shape. They are more or less the same size. You can see it here.

As always with Folklore, there's some flirting going on at that table...

A few pics from the market stalls inside the barn. Lots of crafts, produce, there was even a guy who sold old record players, I mean REALLY old ones and there was music from the 30s playing on one of them to add to the atmosphere. I love seeing constructions like these. See the rice lamp with the butterfly? There was a seller who made these lazer cut wooden things. They were really nice with the light wood and the dark edges. 

  

In the middle of the corn field...

 

 

Fall is inevitably here, I guess. Which I don't mind, only problem is- winter comes after!  Have a great week!

PS. Head on over to Max at Blackbird has spoken  for some gorgeous thrifted treats!

Planters, the latest thrifts...and a winner!!!

I'm addicted to green plants and vintage planters. I adore succulents and cacti, and wish we had the climate to have them in the garden too. Sometimes my living room turns into a greenhouse, it's kinda like that now.... I thought I'd show you the vintage planters I've picked up during the last couple of years and the plants that reside in them at the moment. If you've been around for a while, you've probably seen several of them before.

I have a thing for traditional, rustic pottery. I've bought a few of the old Sandnes pottery from Gann and Graveren. Those are the household storage jars and baking bowls they produced before they employed artists and started to make more colorful and "designed" pottery. These are obviously not mid- century, they're all probably around a 100 years old. Consequently, they are not water proof anymore. I've put dishes under the plastic pots inside the storage jars, but I wondered a long time what to do with the bowl. I ended up buy simply placing a terracotta pot and saucer into it. The colors match so why not. Sometimes it's a planter, sometimes a fruit bowl. Below is a new little bowl (a local pottery, Pottemaker Simonsen, still makes them) and the traditional Sandnes flute in the shape of a bird. I've written several times about these, so I won't bore you with repeating everything. If you like, you can check out my previous posts about this pottery, here, here and here.

 

 

I have tons of terracotta pots, they look better and better with time. See what I mean by greenhouse? The Monstera (second from the left) is one of my favorites.

  

Then there's the germans.... Scheurich and Bay were obviously big on planters, and there's a lot of it around. I even spotted some new Scheurich in a garden center a while ago, so they're still around. It was nothing like the sixties stuff though, they were plain white... These two first ones are rather big and have THE greatest muted orangy red combined with dark brown. These cacti resided in them until recently, then I found this strange and wonderful orchid...

 

 

 

Below, you can see them "in situ" (hideous light dimmer alert). I don't think I've shown you this corner of my livingroom. I'm trying to gradually phase out my ikea, but this PS sideboard is still around. It's a short wall betwen the chimney and where the living room bends into an L. Hopefully one day I'll find some teak in the right width... I've combined the planters with a Scheurich Bowl and an Ekeby vase, both in the same color combo.

 

 

These next Scheurich fat lava planters I picked up in Stavanger, on the thrifting spree I had with my mum. There was a third one, I can't believe why on earth I didn't get that one too. I've paired them with a large Scheurich vase, which is really a floor vase, that picks up the caramel colored glaze. I have another very similar one too, with green glaze instead of the brown.

 

I love the glaze on these. To me, they look a bit more 70s than 60s, but I can't be sure. They "touch the ground" differently, the small ones with a base, the typical "german planter way", the largest one is straight all the way down. sadly the plant in the latter has died since this picture was taken.

 

More handsome germans, as we like to call them. these are among the first I got. Two of them are residing on my teak credenza. The third, the Bay that my little thrifter found for me, enjoys the companty of my newly thrifted Carstens in the kitchen window.

Finally, my wild child. It's ugly in a nice way. Or the other way around. Is it over the top or not? I can't decide...

This post is gonna be a long one, I can see where this is going... I thought I'd throw in the latest finds too, just to keep the winner of my giveaway in suspense:-) I stumbled upon a flea market yesterday in the driveway of a lovely lady. She told me she loved arranging flea markets, and had one every time her mum and aunt cleared out their cabinets. Her prices were ridiculously low, and I walked away, or drove off, rather, with this piece of danish studio pottery bowl marked "Ernst - handmade - Faxe - Denmark - 8-73" If you conoisseurs out there know more, I'd be interested! Sadly, it's a bit chipped, but hey, it was only a ten'er (that's a dollar and a half)!!

I got this one for about the same amount! Figgjo daisy skillet, by the amazing Turi Gramstad Oliver. 

I also picked up these Egersund cups. They're the same design as Korulen and Unique (by Kaare Block Johansen) but have a different pattern, also very 70s. I've seen this pattern before, but don't know the name of it, anyone?

I found this beautiful teapot in a charity store. You all probably know this pattern, but if you don't, it's Stavangerflint Sera, design by Kåre Berven Fjeldsaa, decor by Inger Waage. Love the colors and the 60s graphics!

Found another souvenir plate, handpainted by Inger Waage. I've decided to buy only the Stavanger ones, but couldn't resist one from Kristiansand. It's a city my kids love, it's on the southern tip of Norway, a great vacation spot for families. There's a zoo and a theme park baked into one great child paradise. Mine have outgrown it years ago, but the sound of this city's name obviously rings some great sounding bells. And my plates are up on the kitchen wall now!! These things don't happen overnight with me...

 

Finally, I'll announce who will be the next owner of a Stavangerflint plate, handpainted by Inger Waage. With the help of some WG pottery, I drew the winner today, who is.....drumwhirl.....

That's Kylie of Lucy Violet Vintage!!! It will arrive in the mail shortly, Kylie!!