What's Under the Cloche? (3)

A while ago I picked up a couple of spool knitters at my favorite thrift store for a quarter each. They reminded me of the ones I had as a kid and I liked how they were such opposites --one tall, thin and black, the other short, plump and ivory. They sat on my craft table with no purpose, but caught my eye when I was creating a panel, all in blacks and creams, for the Birds and Bonnets Swap. I thought the three would look good together under my cloche. Last night I recreated the swap panel. I began putting together the vignette this morning, knowing I wanted the display to be strictly black and all shades of vintage white. Some dried twigs called wintercress, found on clearance at Michael's for $1, made a tree background for the the bird and filled out the top of the cloche. As usual, I used a vintage pin-style flower frog as a base, anchoring the twigs in it and propping up the panel on it. I draped yellowed lace, another thrift store find, from the black spool and pinned a leftover scrap of coffee-died polka dot ribbon to the white one. I cut a circle from black and ivory damask scrapbook paper to ground the display and scattered vintage buttons over it. So tell me, what's under your cloche?

What's Under the Cloche? (2)

Now that June is racing toward July, I decided it was time to get a summer vignette under the cloche. I based this display around a little souvenir booklet I purchased on our recent trip to Minnesota. I am always drawn to personal papers that have fallen out of the family line, but I think this one really struck a chord with me because my oldest son had just graduated from high school the week before and were were traveling to register him for college. This little booklet celebrates the end of the school year with a number of poems with one comparing education to a ship and another that's just plain honest: "My pupils 'tis the close of school, Vacation days have come. And you're released from task and rule, And lessons' weary hum." The inner pages are all professionally printed, with one reading "with best wishes from your teacher 1908". Another lists the location as Elm Dale Township, Morrison County, Minnesota; the teacher as Nellie Sullivan (is that her picture pasted to the cover?); and a listing of students including five Nelsons, five Johnsons and eight Andersons--fifty-three students in all. To back the souvenir booklet, a 25 cent thrift store flag took a quick tea bath to knock down the new look a bit and then was anchored in a vintage pin frog. Some antique store stars cluster around it, repeating the stars and stripes theme and perhaps suggesting star pupils. A swirl of vintage rick rack adds a festive touch. To make the bottom of the cloche more interesting, I photocopied and cut a circle from a page in a beautiful old book I own that was copyrighted in the late 1800's and is titled Real Penwork Self Instructor in Penmanship. So, what's under your cloche this summer?

What's Under the Cloche? (1)

I had been admiring cloches (or bell jars as they're sometimes called) for quite some time. I was seeing them in decorating magazines and I liked the way they brought a sense of importance to whatever was placed under them. I was finally moved to buy a cloche after looking through Decorating Cottage Style, by Neva Scott, a Lark/Chapelle book. The vignettes presented in their books are so often my style and this title was no exception. Bell jars appeared throughout the book, but there was even a section called "Books, Buttons and Bell Jars." Stacks of blue and white china, a bird's nest, old books and even silverware looked lovely displayed under glass. Of course, it would have been wonderful to find an antique cloche with old bubbled glass, but I am not known for my patience. Mine came from a discount department store called Gordman's and I recently saw some very pretty tall ones with a bit of cut glass ornamentation at Tuesday Morning. What's under my cloche? This spring it was a dried pussy willow branch which echoes the ones in the vintage Raphael Tuck Easter postcard. The branches and postcard are supported by an old pin-style flower frog. Propped up against that is a little Whitman's candy tin, added for its pretty blue color. I know there's a trend in magazines lately to decorate with French chocolate boxes, but I'm fond of using Whitman's tins in my vignettes. I'll show you more of my decorating with Whitman's in a future post. So tell me, what's under your cloche?