Thursday, November 29, 2012

Thrifty Thursday #3 - Vintage Plates!

So obviously I like all things old school. ;) For this Thrifty Thursday I thought I'd share a new love, and a new project, vintage plates!

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The biggest kick I get out of op shopping is finding a use for whatever is in abundance at my local stores. I mean, I love maps, globes and gorgeous old frames, but I have never ever seen any at any of my local stores. But what I have seen loads of are plates!

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Can you see the plate above? A lovely lady in a yellow dress? I almost fell over when I saw it, and then again when I saw that it was $25!!! The plates from the cake stand at the very top were all $4 to $6. As much as I love it, I just can't justify $25 for a plate I'm going to drill through, and could actually break. I should mention - yes I tried to bargain. They were not in a bargaining mood.

One their own I think these plates are beautiful, (how lovely is the yellow cabbage leaf above?) but together they are really something else!! I made two cake stands for my most recent market stall and sold both early. For me, the key is finding plates that aren't to matchy matchy, but that have a bit of a theme; so colour (yellows, pinks, greens etc) or pattern (flowers, fruit etc).

I'm thinking you could also grab some more modern looking plates from the dollar store that would look just as good - spots, stripes and chevron in the same colour way  would look great together!

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I bought my kit on Craftumi, and bought a tile drill bit from Bunnings, though you can also get them from eBay. The most time consuming part is drilling the holes - it's a slow process, and while I have been lucky so far, everything I've read warns about how easy it is to crack or brake a plate.

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The drill bit works by slowly scrapping away the china, hence the slow pace. Speeding up the drill means the bit doesn't seem to grip (yes, I'm impatient and got sick of slow, but quickly realised going fast didn't get me anywhere!)

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So what about you - do you like vintage plates? Got a stash of your own? Do you have an amazing plate display on your wall?

Thanks for stopping by.






I'm sharing at
Scandi Coast Home
Simple Home Life
Sugar Bee Craft
Primitive & Proper 

6 comments:

  1. Cool idea!! I rarely see nice vintage plates at the op shops here, they're usually more 90's plates (maybe I could stock up for when that decade comes back in!) my mum has a thing for old dinnerware so if I ever see something I usually get it for her.

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  2. That is just lovely!! Thanks for sharing :)

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  3. I do like vintage plates very much Catherine and I have quite a collection too! I won't pay much for them either and I don't buy for the 'right' brand I only buy them if I love the colours/pattern. I have long wanted to make my own cake stands but never got round to searching for the 'stand' bit because I didn't know what they were called, lol! Thanks...I do now :)

    xx Karen

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  4. This really caught my eye because for a number of years I have wanted to construct small bird or butterfly feeders out of old teacup n' saucer screwed into the end of a substantial bamboo stake. The stakes would be of different lengths, so the effect would be to have old fancy teacups with their saucers floating about in the garden attracting birds and butterflies. Would a teacup be any more difficult to drill? Their would have to be drainage for rain - how would you propose to achieve this?

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  5. I have been making some of these to sell at the markets too. Yours look lovely, but I am finding it hard to get enough vintage plates, all my local op shops don't have any!

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  6. I have lots of old plates but I'm sure I would break them if I tried to drill them!

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