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!!

A few new ones

There hasn't been much time for thrifting lately, May is by far the busiest month of the year, both at home and at work. I have managed just a few small ones that I thought I'd share.
A little while ago, I found this beige and brown vase by Bay West Germany. Right after, I found this red one with the exact same shape at a local flea market.

 

Did you know Stavangerflint didn't just make souvenir cups and plates, there were even souvenir skillets? I didn't, until I got the latest addition to my Stavanger souvenir collection when my mom and dad visited for constitution day. And yes, I now have three and hereby declare it a collection:-)

Most of these were designed by Anne Lofthus, I guess that's also the case with the skillet. The motifs are from around town. On the handle is a statue of a boy feeding some ducks, which stands outside my old high school, which again, is next to the cathedral where I got married, showed to the right. This shows the gothic facade facing east, while on the plate I've shown in a previous post, the roman facade to the west is depicted.

In the bottom are the famous ducks that made the police stop the traffic to help them travel safely from the harbour to the city pond. The story made the front page of several newspapers, I think it was in the fifties or sixties.

 

Mom and dad also gave me this lovely Figgjo Bekkeblom (in latin: Caltha palustris) sugarbowl, designed in 79 by Rolf Frøyland,  they had found in an op shop. Sadly, the lid is missing, but I'll be on the lookout for one. I don't usually go for flower patterns, but this one is too beautiful to resist. What I especially like is the shapes of the stems, the lines have an art nouveau feel, I wonder if that was intentional? I've seen it very clearly on the plates in that pattern, where the stems frame the plate in a beautiful way. I also love that the flower is a very "humble" one, they're often the most lovely! It's found locally and has caught the eye of the artist. 

That same flower also inspired another artist to make a series for Egersund fayence some years earlier. Kitty Kielland (female landscape painter from Stavanger, sister of famous Norwegian author Alexander Kielland) designed their Bekkeblom pattern in 1901. 

 

The final pieces today are two Kosta Boda snowball candle holders, designed by Ann Wärff in 1973. They're not at all hard to find in thrift stores over here, and they're still in production, just like the finnish classics featured in my two previous posts. The votives sit deep into the center of the snowball and lets the textured glass break the light in all directions making the whole thing glow from inside. It's a very beautiful sight on a dark scandinavian fall or winter night...

I'm feeling rather good about myself, having also lightly sanded and oiled all the surfaces of my new teak kitchen this weekend. The new wood surfaces recieved one coat of oil before assembly, and the treatment should be repeated a few times. i was a bit worried that the oil would streak and go on unevenly, but the oil I got from the manufacturer was very lightweight and fluid, and a joy to work with. The surfaces look amazing now, the extra coat of oil did a lot of good. That's all for now, I wish you a great week:-)