Saturday, July 14, 2012

Ought to have my head examined!

Got off to a good start this morning and cleared the dining room table so I'd have a place to work on and complete my ice cream stall. Pulled the box I'm using as the core of it from the supplies I had taken to Joanne's and remembered that it was full of items that had belonged to Joyce that I had said I would research.

There is a bag of 15 pots painted in southwestern themes:


They are signed:


Roughly 10 years ago, a teenage girl from Calgary did a couple of the Edmonton shows. She did the loveliest polymer clay figures and Leanne and I still treasure a Care Bear that I bought from her.

Joanne and I were sorting through more of Joyce's stuff yesterday and we found this piece I'm sure was done by her. The info on the box is: Royale Downes, 31 Gladeview Cres. SW, Calgary, AB 


Other items were a lovely pewter dish with Alberta's provincial crest and an incredibly beautiful miniature of Salisbury Cathedral, both in their original boxes and identified as the work of Philip Aitken.

Found this information on those:

Martin Aitken, then 17, had apprenticed with well-known pewterer Dr. Ivan Crowell and set up his own shop in the city. The following year, his father Philip joined him, and the Aitkens ‘touchmark’—the triple A in a circle—had its debut.

Phil Aitken (the father) has since passed away and the company only makes a limited number of miniatures

The final item was the mechanical workings for a barrel organ (sometimes known as a hurdy gurdy).

This is where my sanity comes into question! I looked at this and thought "Gosh, what a great addition that would be to The Little Fair on the Prairie!" Just when I can see the end in sight to my projects for this display, I'm thinking about adding another one?!?!?

I did some googling and can't find exactly what I want this to look like IF I tackle it. Didn't exactly help that there was one at the St. Albert Farmers' Market last week. So I'm thinking maybe I'll have to walk over there today and IF he's still there this week, maybe I can get some good pictures of it. Then I lucked out and found a picture of the one at the market on their FB page and it's not what I want anyway so at least saved myself a trip there.

What I want it to look like (IF I do it) is something like this (picture near the bottom). Bright red with scenes painted on it.

Hopefully, I'll convince myself that it would be too much of a PITA (especially since I don't have a doll to play it) and give up on the whole idea.

At least I should get the ice cream stall finished today - two days ahead of my self-imposed deadline! Oh, my, what's the world coming to when I'm actually AHEAD of schedule on something.

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