Saturday 14 November 2009

New vintage venture!

Yes, I'm still alive!!! I cannot believe just how long it's been since I've blogged ... life feels to have whizzed on apace recently and left me in its wake. Hopefully I'm getting back on an even keel now, fingers crossed...

And I am totally amazed and thrilled to find that in so many months I haven't lost any followers, you are all wonderful!!

Well, for better or for worse, I've gone mad and opened a second shop on Etsy:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LindenTreeVintage





The jewellery category on Etsy is very full and I figured it may be a good idea all round to open another shop in a less saturated category.

We have a ton of broken old books, relics of the days when Roger was bulk buying them to re-sell on FeeBay. They're not re-bindable as each one has some pages damaged beyond repair and some missing altogether. And obviously I check that none of them are at all rare, either.

So I've decided to de-construct them and offer them for sale in the Etsy vintage section for all the altered art/collage/decoupage artists and scrapbookers out there who I fondly imagine are waiting to snap them up.

De-constructing books is actually great fun! Even though, as a part time librarian, I should be considering it a crime... (Having tackled my oldest item, a very battered dictionary, I can confirm that 18th century bookbinding string was pretty tough stuff!)

At the moment I just have a few variety packs of whole pages listed, plus some cut outs from colour plates that came from an equally battered 1869 edition of Mrs Beeton.




The Mrs Beeton illustrations and recipes are amazing - lamb cutlets with green peas sounds very appetizing but I'm not at all sure about calf's ears a la financiere?! I've some more to list and they include some positively architectural desserts. The lengths people went to to make even simple food look elaborate in Victorian times were amazing.

If there's any of you out there who have a fancy for vintage and would like to offer any suggestions I'd be deeply grateful. I did post on the Etsy forums a few times and got some good hints but any further thoughts will be very welcome indeed - thanks!

8 comments:

  1. Good luck with the new venture!

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  2. Hi Ami and thanks, 'tis much appreciated! It feels good to be diversifiying just a bit, I think.

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  3. Glad to see your back, been wondering where you got too :) xx

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  4. Hi chiyo and thanks!

    Can't *quite* believe this but I'm down this week with the same swine flu symptoms I had back in July - gaaaah!! Lost a craft fair as a result, too.

    Linden x

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  5. Hello
    I've just noticed your post on Swirlys blog, I live near Huddersfield!! There's a scrapstore in Leeds if you want details do let me know.
    Twiggy x

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  6. Hi Twiggy, great to hear from someone else near Huddersfield!

    Would love to know the details, thanks, I'm planning a trip to Leeds in the New Year. (Have to admit I'd never heard of them before I read Swirly's blog!)

    Linden x

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  7. Hi there
    Thanks for dropping by my blog. Here's the link for Leeds scrapstore, the lady that runs it is really nice and very helpful.

    http://www.scrapstuff.co.uk/index.html

    Whereabouts in West Yorks, are you?
    Good luck with your new venture, I LOVE vintage.
    Twiggy x

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  8. Hi Twiggy, I know this was absolutely ages ago and you probably won't see my comment but thanks for the link, definitely going to take a trip there!

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